The Swedish facility for boron neutron capture therapy

A BNCT (Boron Neutron Capture Therapy) facility has been constructed at the R2-0 reactor at Studsvik, Sweden. R2-0 is a 1 MW, open core, pool reactor. The reactor core is suspended on a movable tower and can be positioned anywhere in the pool. The BNCT facility includes two adjacent, parallel filter/moderator configurations and the reactor core is positioned in front of any of them as appropriate. One of the resulting neutron beams has been optimized for clinical irradiations with a filter/moderator system that allows easy variation of the neutron spectrum from the thermal to the epithermal energy range and with an extended collimator for convenient patient positioning. The other beam has been designed for radiobiological research and is equipped with a heavy water moderator and a large irradiation cavity with a uniform field of thermal neutrons. (author)