Microdosimetric studies using a Filtered Fast Neutron Irradiation System of research reactor to application in radiation biology

In this work, microdosimetric measurements were performed using a Wall-less Tissue Equivalent Proportional Counter - TEPC with spherical cavity with an inner diameter of 1.27 cm. The TEPC was tilled with pure propane gas, C3H8 at 5.6 kPa (42 Torr) pressure, which is equivalent to 1.3 μm in diameter of unit density tissue. The microdosimetric measurement device was irradiated with fast neutron radiation from Texas A and M University Nuclear Science Center research reactor, in College Station, Texas. The fast neutron beams were emitted with three different power values, 0.5, 1.0 and 2.0 kW. during 1h for both high gain and low gain, totalizing two hours for each power with 0.0083 Gy/min of dose rate. The neutron was filtered using the heavily filtered fast neutron irradiation system (FNIS). from Nuclear Science Center, to obtain a decrease of neutron radiation contamination by gamma ray and so, to gain the neutron microdosimetric spectra as. frequency distribution of lineal energy, dose distribution of lineal energy with good precision, and another quantities as frequency-mean of lineal energy, dose- mean of lineal energy, absorbed dose, equivalent dose and average quality factor of fast neutron. The obtained results were satisfactory, with the neutron microdosimetric spectra showing a gamma ray contamination under 5 %, especially to dose distribution of lineal energy. The results obtained in this work were in agreement when compared with another results from scientific literature, which used another procedure to reduce the neutron contamination by gamma ray. (author)