Calculated electrons energy levels in gadolinium atoms and utilization of the Gd157(n,γ)Gd158 reaction as a source of Auger electrons for tumor cells killing

It was found that the energy deposited in the cell from each ¹⁰B(n,α) reaction is 2.3 MeV. This represents the total kinetic energy of the alpha particle and the Li ion. The energy deposited in the cell from each ¹⁵⁷Gd(n,γ)¹⁵⁸Gd reaction is 0.045 MeV, due to the Auger electrons. It was found that ~6 ¹⁰B(n,α) ⁷Li reactions were needed at dose of 3.3 MW × Minutes to damage the cells to the 10% level of survival. (The dose is expressed in MW-Min units, i.e. reactor power multiplied by irradiation time in minutes, to avoid using various unknown values of RBE.) Because of the high Gd(n,γ) cross section, this same level of survival was obtained at 1.8 MW-Min, with 68 ¹⁵⁷Gd(n,γ)¹⁵⁸Gd reactions