A new active method for the measurement of slow-neutron fluence in modern radiotherapy treatment rooms.

This work focuses on neutron monitoring at clinical linac facilities during high-energy modality radiotherapy treatments. Active in-room measurement of neutron fluence is a complex problem due to the pulsed nature of the fluence and the presence of high photon background, and only passive methods have been considered reliable until now. In this paper we present a new active method to perform real-time measurement of neutron production around a medical linac. The device readout is being investigated as an estimate of patient neutron dose exposure on each radiotherapy session. The new instrument was developed based on neutron interaction effects in microelectronic memory devices, in particular using neutron-sensitive SRAM devices. This paper is devoted to the description of the instrument and measurement techniques, presenting the results obtained together with their comparison and discussion. Measurements were performed in several standard clinical linac facilities, showing high reliability, being insensitive to the photon fluence and EM pulse present inside the radiotherapy room, and having detector readout statistical relative uncertainties of about 2% on measurement of neutron fluence produced by 1000 monitor units irradiation runs.