Measurements of photoneutrons produced by a 15 MeV electron linac for radiography applications

Electrons (15 MeV) bombard a bremsstrahlung target to generate X-rays, which produces photoneutrons leading to radiation hazards and image blurring in radiography accelerators. Neutron measurements are very difficult in this type of accelerator system, due to the photon activation of high energy X-rays, the narrow pulse width of neutrons and the wide neutron spectrum. In order to study photoneutron problems, a series of experiments were conducted in our lab. At points 1 m away from the target in different directions, CR39s and BDPNDs were used to measure the neutron doses, the results of which showed that the ratios of the neutron dose to the photon dose were (0.062 ± 0.016) mSv/Gy X-ray and (0.082 ± 0.008) mSv/Gy X-ray respectively in the main X-ray beam, which agreed with Monte-Carlo simulation results within 20% and 10%. When the accelerator was equipped with shielding, activation foils were placed at a point 1 m away from the target in a 30° direction to the main beam to evaluate the activities induced by either photons or neutrons. The In foils indicated that the ratio of the fast neutron flux at this point to the photon dose at the isocenter was about (4.6 ± 0.05) × 104 n cm−2 Gy−1 X-ray, which agreed very well with the MCNP5 simulation.