Coarse-scaling adjustment of fine-group neutron spectra for epithermal neutron beams in BNCT using multiple activation detectors

In order to provide an improved and reliable neutron source description for treatment planning in boron neutron capture therapy (BNCT), a spectrum adjustment procedure named coarse-scaling adjustment has been developed and applied to the neutron spectrum measurements of both the Tsing Hua Open-pool Reactor (THOR) epithermal neutron beam in Taiwan and the High Flux Reactor (HFR) in The Netherlands, using multiple activation detectors. The coarse-scaling adjustment utilizes a similar idea as the well-known two-foil method, which adjusts the thermal and epithermal neutron fluxes according to the Maxwellian distribution for thermal neutrons and 1/E distribution over the epithermal neutron energy region. The coarse-scaling adjustment can effectively suppress the number of oscillations appearing in the adjusted spectrum and provide better smoothness. This paper also presents a sophisticated 9-step process utilizing twice the coarse-scaling adjustment which can adjust a given coarse-group spectrum into a fine-group structure, i.e. 640 groups, with satisfactory continuity and excellently matched reaction rates between measurements and calculation. The spectrum adjustment algorithm applied in this study is the same as the well-known SAND-II.