Study of Photoneutron Production for the 18 MV Photon Beam of the Siemens Medical linac by Monte Carlo Simulation

BACKGROUND: Considering the importance of photoneutron production in linear accelerators, it is necessary to describe and measure the photoneutrons produced around modern linear accelerators. OBJECTIVE: The aim of the present research is to study photoneutron production for the 18 MV photon beam of a Siemens Primus Plus medical linear accelerator. MATERIAL AND METHODS: This study is an experimental study. The main components of the head of Siemens Primus Plus linac were simulated using MCNPX 2.7.0 code. The contribution of different components of the linac in photoneutron production, neutron source strength, neutron source strength and photon and electron spectra were calculated for the flattening filter and flattening filter free cases for the 18 MV photon beam, and was scored for three fields of 5 × 5 cm(2), 10 × 10 cm(2) and 20 × 20 cm(2) in size. RESULTS: The results show that the primary collimator has the largest contribution to production of neutrons. Moreover, the photon fluence for the flattening filter free case is 8.62, 6.51 and 4.62 times higher than the flattening filter case for the three fields, respectively. The electron fluences for the flattening filter free case are 4.62, 2.93 and 2.79 times higher than with flattening filter case for the three fields under study, respectively. In addition to these cases, by increasing the field size, the contribution of neutron production related to the jaws is reduced, so that when the field size increases from 5 × 5 cm(2) to 20 × 20 cm(2), a 17.93% decrease in photoneutron production was observed. CONCLUSION: In all of the accelerators, the neutron strength also increases with increasing energy. The calculated neutron strength was equal to 0.83×10(12) neutron Gy (−1) at the isocenter.