Characterization of a boron neutron capture therapy beam line at the University of Missouri Research Reactor.

A new research effort aimed at increasing the catalog of boron delivery agents for boron neutron capture therapy (BNCT) has been undertaken by the International Institute of Nano and Molecular Medicine (IINMM) at the University of Missouri. The MU Research Reactor (MURR) and Idaho National Laboratory (INL) have constructed a facility for small animal BNCT experiments. The facility incorporates silicon and bismuth single crystal filters to produce a thermal neutron beam. The thermal beam has a measured thermal flux of 8.8 × 10⁸ n cm⁻² s⁻¹ and a gold cadmium ratio of 130. The neutron and photon dose rates were measured using paired ion chambers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]