Progress towards boron neutron capture therapy at the High Flux Reactor Petten.

During 1988 the first positive steps were taken to proceed with the design and construction of a neutron capture therapy facility on the High Flux Reactor (HFR) at Petten. The immediate aim is to realise within a short time (summer 1989), an epithermal neutron beam for radiobiological and filter optimisation studies on one of the 10 small aperture horizontal beam tubes. The following summer, a much larger neutron beam, i.e., in cross section and neutron fluence rate, will be constructed on one of the two large beam tubes that replaced the old thermal column in 1984. This latter beam tube faces one whole side of the reactor vessel, extending from a 50 x 40 cm input aperture to a 35 x 35 cm exit hole. The radiotherapeutic facility will be housed here, with the intention to start clinical trials at the beginning of 1991. This paper describes the present status of the project and includes: a general description of the pertinent characteristics with respect to NCT of the HFR; results of the recently completed preliminary neutron metrology and computer modeling at the input end of the candidate beam tube; the structure and planning of the proposed Work Programme; and the respective direct and indirect participation and collaboration with the Netherlands Cancer Institute and the European Collaboration Group on BNCT.