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One of the main issues in the analysis of the performances of radiation detectors via Monte Carlo methods is their sensitivity with respect to the various irradiation parameters: source intensity and position, detector effectiveness and sensitivity, etc. In the present work, the capability of a quite new Trueinvivo© micro-silica beads TLD has been analyzed from the point of view of the Monte Carlo modeling of the irradiation process and the possibility of a speed up of the calculations using accurate bias techniques based on the adjoint solution of the transport process. The source considered is a Plasma Focus device explicitly designed for cell cultures or “in vivo” tests. The experimental data and the pure analogic Monte Carlo simulation previously obtained results coming from dosimeters at different depth and positions in a PMMA phantom composed by slabs and built for hosting the TLDs, have been benchmarked with respect to the adjoint bias approach. The results obtained through different biasing techniques, backward particle transport analysis, Weight Windows and a discrete ordinate model solution, show how it is possible to optimize the Monte Carlo calculations with great effectiveness.

Looking at possible clinical applications of the Plasma Focus (PF) technology as medium-low energy extremely fast radiation source, aiming at the treatment of skin cancer pathologies, in vivo experiments on mice are a due step. To properly design the experiments, a dosimetric analysis on a PMMA mouse phantom has been devised and carried out. The dose delivered to the phantom has been evaluated in experiments using Gafchromic films, standard TLD chips and TL glass beads to be able to optimally reconstruct the radiation field produced by the PF at various depths in the phantom. The whole setup has also been analysed with a Monte Carlo model using the MCNP6 code to produce a correlation between the results obtained from the various dosimetric technologies.

none 9 no In a Plasma Focus device the plasma collapses into the pinch where it reaches thermonuclear conditions for a few tens of nanoseconds, becoming a multi-radiation source. The nature of the radiation generated depends on the gas filling the chamber and the device working parameters. The self-collimated electron beam generated in the backward direction with respect to the plasma motion is one of the main radiation sources of interest also for medical applications. The electron beam may be guided against a high Z material target to produce an X-ray beam. This technique offers an ultra-high dose rate source of X-rays, able to deliver during the pinch a massive dose (up to 1 Gy per discharge for the PFMA-3 test device), as measured with EBT3 GafchromicⒸfilm tissue equivalent dosimeters. Given the stochastic behavior of the discharge process, a reliable on-line estimate of the dose-delivered is a very challenging task, in some way preventing a systematic application as a potentially interesting therapy device. This work presents an approach to linking the dose registered by the EBT3 GafchromicⒸfilms with the information contained in the signal recorded during the current discharge process. Processing the signal with the Wigner-Ville distribution, a spectrogram was obtained, displaying the information on intensity at various frequency scales, identifying the band of frequencies representative of the pinch events and define some patterns correlated with the dose. Sumini, M.; Mostacci, D.; Tartari, A.; Mazza, A.; Cucchi, G.; Isolan, L.; Buontempo, F.; Zironi, I.; Castellani, G. Sumini, M.; Mostacci, D.; Tartari, A.; Mazza, A.; Cucchi, G.; Isolan, L.; Buontempo, F.; Zironi, I.; Castellani, G.

For an optimal tuning of the radiation protection planning, a Monte Carlo model using the MCNPX code has been built, allowing an accurate estimate of the spectrometric and geometrical characteristics of photoneutrons generated by a Varian TrueBeam Stx© medical linear accelerator. We considered in our study a device working at the reference energy for clinical applications of 15 MV, stemmed from a Varian Clinac©2100 modeled starting from data collected thanks to several papers available in the literature. The model results were compared with neutron and photon dose measurements inside and outside the bunker hosting the accelerator obtaining a complete dose map. Normalized neutron fluences were tallied in different positions at the patient plane and at different depths. A sensitivity analysis with respect to the flattening filter material were performed to enlighten aspects that could influence the photoneutron production.

A Plasma Focus (PF) device allows for production of electron beams that, through a suitable target interaction, can be converted in X-ray pulses that have been considered for radiobiology or medical applications such as imaging or radiotherapy, in dependence from the working parameters and setup. The Plasma Focus Device for Medical Applications #3 (PFMA-3), hosted at the Montecuccolino Laboratory of the University of Bologna, has been designed for these purposes. In the device, electron pulses are generated during the pinch phase in the order of 1.0 E+15 particles in few tens of ns. One of the main advantages in dealing with the beams emitted by a PF is their self-collimated behavior at the emission time. Unfortunately, during the traveling distance from pinch to target, that collimation can be partially lost due to the repulsive interactions. One solution is to implement a magnetic device based on a quadrupoles triplet able to confine the beam in spots with a few mm diameter. This kind of focusing allows for using the PF as a source for generating extremely short X-ray pulses that could be more easily further managed for specific applications. A computational model of the PFMA-3 has been set using COMSOL© Multiphysics and the Monte Carlo MCNP6 code. The electron spectra used as source for simulations were acquired experimentally using a magnetic spectrometer, while the beam shape entering the magnetic system to be designed has been detected using Gafchromic© HDV2 film dosimeters and used as a benchmark for the numerical models. The magnetic field generated by the quadrupoles has been carefully designed through a parametric study with COMSOL© Multiphysics and the focusing effectiveness verified. The designed geometry has been then modeled in MCNP6 to perform coupled electron-photon transport simulations for estimating electron fluxes, spectra and X-ray doses as modified by the quadrupoles triplet application.

Nuclear data improvement, validation and completion are one of the major concerns for ensuring safety-by-design standards and economic optimization for modern nuclear facilities. Uncertainty and sensitivity analyses must be carried out to estimate the nuclear data influence on integral reactor parameters, highlighting margins of improvement needed to get full benefit from modern advanced modeling. The quality of any uncertainty quantification analysis strongly depends on the covariance matrices made available in the evaluated nuclear data libraries. In modern nuclear data libraries (e.g. JEFF, ENDF/B or JENDL) no correlations for fission yields (FY) are provided, so in the present work we propose a covariance generation methodology which yielded reasonable results for application-relevant thermal and fast neutron-induced fission product yields. The main goal was not to perform a new evaluation but to reproduce coherently the JEFF-3.1.1 fission yield library and add covariance information. We did so using the Generalized Least Square Method (GLSM) and the Marginalization techniques implemented in the CONRAD code, developed at CEA-Cadarache. Results on the thermal neutron-induced fission of 235 U , 239 Pu , 241 Pu and on the fast-neutron induced fission of 238 U , 239 Pu and 240 Pu are presented and tested on elementary fission decay heat uncertainty quantifications.

Fission product yields (FY) are fundamental nuclear data for several applications, including decay heat, shielding, dosimetry, burn-up calculations. To be safe and sustainable, modern and future nuclear systems require accurate knowledge on reactor parameters, with reduced margins of uncertainty. Present nuclear data libraries for FY do not provide consistent and complete uncertainty information which are limited, in many cases, to only variances. In the present work we propose a methodology to evaluate covariance matrices for thermal and fast neutron induced fission yields. The semi-empirical models adopted to evaluate the JEFF-3.1.1 FY library have been used in the Generalized Least Square Method available in CONRAD (COde for Nuclear Reaction Analysis and Data assimilation) to generate covariance matrices for several fissioning systems such as the thermal fission of U235, Pu239 and Pu241 and the fast fission of U238, Pu239 and Pu240. The impact of such covariances on nuclear applications has been estimated using deterministic and Monte Carlo uncertainty propagation techniques. We studied the effects on decay heat and reactivity loss uncertainty estimation for simplified test case geometries, such as PWR and SFR pin-cells. The impact on existing nuclear reactors, such as the Jules Horowitz Reactor under construction at CEA-Cadarache, has also been considered.

A pulsed plasma device “Mather type” Plasma Focus (PFMA-3) has been recently put into operation for a possible application to radiotherapy treatment of malignant cells. Some preliminary data about the better efficiency of PFMA-3 to induce cell damage compared to conventional X-ray devices (XRT) have already been obtained in breast adenocarcinoma cell line MCF-7. To better assess the advantage of the very high dose rate delivered by PFMA-3, we explored its biological effectiveness on a human melanoma cell line SK-Mel28, well known for its radioresistance, in comparison with conventional sources.

Recent safety and economical concerns for modern nuclear reactor applica- tions have fed an outstanding interest in basic nuclear data evaluation improvement and completion. It has been immediately clear that the accuracy of our predictive simulation models was strongly affected by our knowledge on input data. Therefore strong efforts have been made to improve nuclear data and to generate complete and reliable uncertainty information able to yield proper uncertainty propagation on integral reactor parameters. Since in modern nuclear data banks (such as JEFF-3.1.1 and ENDF/BVII.1) no correla- tions for fission yields are given, in the present work we propose a covariance generation methodology for fission product yields. The main goal is to reproduce the existing Euro- pean library and to add covariance information to allow proper uncertainty propagation in depletion and decay heat calculations. To do so, we adopted the Generalized Least Square Method (GLSM) implemented in CONRAD (COde for Nuclear Reaction Analysis and Data assimilation), developed at CEA-Cadarache. Theoretical values employed in the Bayesian parameter adjustment are delivered thanks to a convolution of different models, representing several quantities in fission yield calculations: the Brosa fission modes for pre-neutron mass distribution, a simplified Gaussian model for prompt neutron emission probability, the Wahl systematics for charge distribution and the Madland-England model for the isomeric ratio. Some results will be presented for the thermal fission of U-235, Pu-239 and Pu-241.