SMALL ACCELERATORS FOR STUDIES IN THE APPLICATION OF NEUTRONS IN BIOMEDICINE

A small accelerator which produces high energy (14.7?leV) neutrons by the H3(H2,n)He4 reaction 'has been utilized for two basic bio-medical studies. First, fast neutron radiog-raphy has been explored as a technique for imaging biological objects. The primary ob-jective was to test the sensitivity of the technique by measuring the differential atten-uation coefficient necessary for object identification as a function of the sample thickness. Second, fast neutron radiotherapy experiments were undertaken. Animals with induced brain tumors were treated to observe the relationship between dose fractionation and cell repair. The results are encouraging and indicate the feasibility of further stu-dies with a small accelerator