For producing radionuclides which were mostly used in medical purposes, for instance, Positron Emission Tomography (PET), there were about 1,200 PET cyclotrons operated in 95 countries based upon IAEA database (2020). Besides, including PET cyclotrons, demands for particle accelerators are continuously increasing. In Korea, about 40 PET cyclotrons are in operating phases (2020). Considering design lifetime (about 30–40 years) of cyclotrons, there will be demands for decommissioning cyclotron facilities in the near future. PET cyclotron produces radionuclides by irradiating charged particles to the targets. During this phase, nuclear reactions (18O(p,n)18F, 14N(d,n)15O etc.) produce secondary neutrons which induce neutron activation of accelerator itself as well as surrounding infrastructures (the ancillary subsystems, peripheral equipment, concrete walls etc.). Most of the ancillary systems including peripheral equipment can be neutron activated, since, most of them were made of steels. Steels like stainless steel or carbon steel may contain some impurities, typically cobalt. Although, there were several researches evaluating activation of concrete walls and accelerator components, estimating the activation and influence on neutron interaction of the other surrounding infrastructures were insufficient. In this study, by using computational neutron transport code (MCNP 6.2), and source term calculation code (FISPACT- II), we estimated neutron distribution in cyclotron vault and activation of ancillary subsystems including some peripheral equipment. Also, using Au foil and Cd cover, we measured thermal neutron distribution at 16 points on the concrete wall, and compared it to calculated results (MCNP). Even though, the compared results matches well, there was a discrepancy of neutron distributions between presence and absence of those equipment. Additionally, in estimating activation distributions by calculating, most of the steel-based subsystems including peripheral equipment should be managed by radioactive wastes after 20 years of operation. Throughout this study, we could find that influence on neutron interaction of those equipment can affect neutron distribution in concrete walls. This results vary the activation depth as well as location of the hot contaminated spot in concrete wall. For estimating or evaluating activation distributions in cyclotron facilities, there was need to consider some equipment located in cyclotron vault.

When a radiation detector is applied to the measurement of the radioactivity of high-level of radioactive materials or the rapid response to the nuclear accident, several collimators with the different inner radii should be prepared according to the level of dose rate. This makes the in-situ measurement impractical, because of the heavy weight of the collimator. In this study, an IRIS collimator was developed so as to have a function of controlling the inner radius, with the same method used in optical camera, to vary the attenuation ratio of radiation. The shutter was made to have the double tungsten layers with different phase angles to prevent the radiation from penetrating owing to the mechanical tolerance. The performance evaluation through the MCNP code was conducted by calculating the attenuation ratio according to the inner radius of the collimator. The attenuation ratio was marked on the outer scale ring of the collimator. It is expected that when a radiation detector with the IRIS collimator is used for the in-situ measurement, it can change the attenuation ratio of the incident photon to the detector without replacing the collimator.

의료용 선형가속장치의 두부 구성요소 중 광자 발생의 원인이 되는 타깃에 대한 연구로써, 타깃의 재질 에 따른 광자를 분석하여 타깃 재질 별 발생하는 광자특성에 대한 기초자료를 제시하고자 한다. 본 연구에 서는 몬테카를로 방식을 바탕으로 한 MCNPX를 사용하여 타깃 재질에 따른 6, 15 MV의 광자 특성을 비교 분석하였다. 타깃 재질 별 평균에너지는 6 MV에서 1.69 ~ 1.84 MeV, 15 MV에서는 3.38 ~ 3.56 MeV로 분 석되었다. Flux는 6 MV에서 1.64 × 10-5 ∼ 1.80 × 10-5 ＃/cm2/e, 15 MV는 1.76 × 10-4 ∼ 1.85 × 10-4 ＃/cm2/e 로 계산되었다. 결과를 분석하면, 타깃 재질이 고원자번호일수록 평균에너지와 Flux가 증가하는 것으로 평 가다. 본 연구를 바탕으로 광자의 물리적 특성에 대한 기초적인 자료를 제시할 수 있었으며, 추후 타깃 선 정 시 경제성, 효율성은 물론 물리적 측면을 고려할 수 있어 적절한 선택을 할 수 있을 것으로 판단된다.