Numerical Simulations to Evaluate and Compare the Performances of Existing and Novel Degrader Materials for Proton Therapy

The performance of the energy degrader in terms of beam properties directly impacts the design and cost of cyclotron-based proton therapy centers. The aim of this study is to evaluate the performances of different existing and novel degrader materials. The quantitative estimate is based on detailed GEANT4 simulations that analyze the beam-matter interaction and provide a determination of the beam emittance increase and transmission. Comparisons between existing (aluminum, graphite, beryllium) and novel (boron carbide and diamond) degrader materials are provided and evaluated against semi-analytical models of multiple Coulomb scattering. The results showing a potential in emittance reduction for novel materials are presented and discussed in detail.Comment: Submitted for IPAC 2018 "light peer review

Ambient dose simulation of the ProtherWal proton therapy centre radioactive shielding decay using BDSIM and FISPACT-II

Next-generation proton therapy centres couple treatment and research programs, leading to higher beam currents and longer irradiation times than in clinical conditions. Large fluxes of energetic secondary particles are produced and long- and short-term radioactive nuclides are generated in the concrete shielding of the cyclotron vault. While the overall long-term activation of the centre is well known from the shielding design activation studies, the short-term activation peaks are still of importance when radiation protection studies are involved. The centre shielding design was validated using the BDSIM/FISPACT-II methodology combining particle tracking and Monte Carlo particle-matter interactions simulations using Beam Delivery Simulation (BDSIM) and the computation of the activation using FISPACT-II. We establish, as the next stage of our methodology, the simulation of the decay radiation of the activated concrete shielding and the accurate scoring of the related radiation protection quantities. A single BDSIM simulation per radioactive nuclide is performed based on the nuclide concentration obtained from the prior FISPACT-II activation computations at the start of a given cooling period. The evolution of the radiation protection quantities is obtained by scaling the results with the nuclides activity obtained at later times from fast FISPACT-II computations. We show the evolution of the ambient dose equivalent in the centre vault when considering regular concrete and Low Activation Concrete (LAC) as shielding material to demonstrate the efficiency of LAC mix in mitigating the shielding activation

Energy deposition simulations for a damage experiment with superconducting sample coils

An experiment to study damage caused by the impact of 440 GeV/c protons on sample superconducting racetrack coils made from NbTi and Nb3Sn strands was recently carried out at CERN\u27s HiRadMat facility. This paper reports on the detailed Monte Carlo simulations performed with FLUKA and Geant4 to evaluate the energy deposition of the 440 GeV/c proton beam on the sample coils positioned in the experimental setup. using the measured beam parameters during the experiment. The measured hotspot temperatures and temperature gradients reached in the sample coils are presented and compared with the simulations. In addition, comparisons between the simulation results from FLUKA and Geant4 are discussed in detail

Quantitative methods to evaluate the radioprotection and shielding activation impacts of industrial and medical applications using particle accelerators

Proton therapy facilities, as other industrial applications using ionizing radiations, are confronted to radioprotection problems and seek to mitigate the undesirable effects. The aim of this thesis is to study the IBA compact proton therapy center, the Proteus®One in this radioprotection context. The compactness of this system implies important radioprotection issues, mainly the concrete shielding activation where a model allowing to predict and characterize the impact of secondary radiations on the system is required. Numerical simulations using Monte Carlo methods are used and in particular, a benchmark between different existing software has been carried out to validate the use of the Geant4 software in this work. The first part of this thesis focuses on the design of the structural shielding taking into account neutron sources in the model. In particular, the concept of neutron-equivalent source is introduced. In this framework, the quantity and the localization of the generated nuclear waste in concrete are determined. The second part of the work investigates the beam properties and its interactions with matter along the transport beamline. After the analysis of the existing system, a new degrader, which is one of the critical elements for the emission of secondary radiations and for the performances of the device, is proposed. Comparisons between existing (aluminium, graphite, beryllium) and novel (boron carbide and diamond) degrader materials are provided and evaluated against semi-analytical models of multiple Coulomb scattering. The use of diamond with a geometry adaptation allows beam emittance reduction and beam transmission increase. The third part of this thesis considers a complete 3D model of the Proteus®One system. It contributes to acquire a detailed knowledge of the beam properties inside the beamline. This model is validated with experimental data and the assumption of neutron-equivalent source is verified. Finally, maps of proton and neutron interactions are generated to provide a complete mapping of the secondary radiations in the system. These maps can be used to determine dosimetric or radioprotection quantities.Doctorat en Sciences de l'ingénieur et technologieinfo:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublishe

Modeling and implementation of vertical excursion FFA in the Zgoubi ray-tracing code

0info:eu-repo/semantics/publishe

Modeling and implementation of vertical excursion FFA in the Zgoubi ray-tracing code

Vertical Fixed Field Accelerators (vFFAs) feature complex and highly non-linear magnetic fields, which require simulation codes allowing step-wise particle tracking. Methods to model the 3D magnetic field of scaling vFFAs have been developed in the ray-tracing code Zgoubi. The field modeling and particle tracking methods include the field non-linearities, the fringe fields, and the field superposition of neighboring magnets. The procedure implements the vFFA analytical field expressions, allowing design studies and parameter optimizations using the Zgoubi built-in fit method. The vFFA procedure has been applied to a ten-fold symmetry ring with a triplet focusing structure designed to accelerate protons from 3 MeV to 12 MeV and studied under the ISIS-II proton driver prototype project. Results from particle tracking in externally generated 3D semi-analytical field maps and the developed vFFA analytical model are shown to be in excellent agreement

GEANT4 benchmark with MCNPX and PHITS for activation of concrete

The activation of concrete is a real problem from the point of view of waste management. Because of the complexity of the issue, Monte Carlo (MC) codes have become an essential tool to its study. But various codes or even nuclear models exist in MC. MCNPX and PHITS have already been validated for shielding studies but GEANT4 is also a suitable solution. In these codes, different models can be considered for a concrete activation study. The Bertini model is not the best model for spallation while BIC and INCL model agrees well with previous results in literature.SCOPUS: ar.jinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishe

Upgrade of a Proton Therapy Eye Treatment Nozzle Using a Cylindrical Beam Stopping Device for Enhanced Dose Rate Performances

Proton therapy is a well established treatment method for ocular cancerous diseases. General-purpose multi-room systems which comprise eye-treatment beamlines must be thoroughly optimized to achieve the performances of fully dedicated systems in terms of depth-dose distal fall-off, lateral penumbra, and dose rate. For eye-treatment beamlines, the dose rate is one of the most critical clinical performances, as it directly defines the delivery time of a given treatment session. This delivery time must be kept as low as possible to reduce uncertainties due to undesired patient movement. We propose an alternative design of the Ion Beam Applications (IBA) Proteus Plus (P+) eye treatment beamline, which combines a beam-stopping device with the already existing scattering features of the beamline. The design is modelled with Beam Delivery SIMulation (BDSIM), a Geant4-based particle tracking and beam-matter interactions Monte-Carlo code, to demonstrate that it increases the maximum achievable dose rate by up to a factor §I{3} compared to the baseline configuration. An in-depth study of the system is performed and the resulting dosimetric properties are discussed in detail

The Zgoubidoo Python Framework for Ray-Tracing Simulations with Zgoubi: Applications to Fixed-Field Accelerators

The study of beam dynamics in accelerators featuring main magnets with complex geometries such as Fixed Field Accelerators (FFAs) requires simulation codes allowing step-by-step particle tracking in complex magnetic fields, such as the Zgoubi ray-tracing code. To facilitate the use of Zgoubi and to allow readily processing the resulting tracking data, we developed a modern Python 3 interface, Zgoubidoo, using Zgoubi in the backend. In this work, the key features of Zgoubidoo are illustrated by detailing the main steps to obtain a non-scaling FFA accelerator from a scaling design. The results obtained are in excellent agreement with prior results, including the tune computation and orbit shifts. These results are enhanced by Zgoubidoo beam dynamics analysis and visualization tools, including the placement of lattice elements in a global coordinate system and the computation of linear step-by-step optics. The validation of Zgoubidoo on conventional scaling and non-scaling FFA designs paves the way for future uses in innovative FFA design studies

Activation of the IBA Proteus One Proton Therapy Beamline Using BDSIM and FISPACT-II

Cyclotron-based proton therapy systems generate large fluxes of secondary particles due to the beam interactions with the beamline elements, with the energy degrader being the dominant source. Compact systems exacerbate these challenges for concrete shielding and beamline element activation. Our implementation of the Rigorous Two-Step method uses Beam Delivery Simulation (BDSIM), a Geant4-based particle tracking code, for primary and secondary particles transport and fluence scoring, and FISPACT-II for time-dependent nuclear inventory and solving the rate equations. This approach is applied to the Ion Beam Applications (IBA) Proteus®ONE (P1) system, for which a complete model has been built, validated, and used for shielding activation simulations. We detail the first simulations of the activation on quadrupole magnets in high-fluence locations downstream of the degrader. Results show the evolution of the long-lived nuclide concentrations for short and long timescales throughout the facility lifetime for a typical operation scenario