Induction of micronuclei by irradiation with neutrons produced from 600 MeV protons

The induction of micronuclei is an easy, rapid and sensitive test that allows the evaluation of chromosome damage over a wide range of doses. For this reason it was chosen to determine the radiation damage caused by neutrons produced by 600 MeV protons. The neutrons had a wide energy spectrum, ranging from a few MeV up to 600 MeV. Because of this, a large variety of interactions can take place and a mixture of particles with high and low linear energy transfer (LET) is produced. The major part of the energy deposited at small depths comes from slow particles, while with increasing depth the contribution from high-energy particles increases rapidly.