Development of the technique embedded into a Monte Carlo transport system for calculation of photonuclear isotope yield

The paper describes two methods that use Monte Carlo transport code for computing the photonuclear isotope yield for arbitrary target activation conditions. One of them is based on a direct simulation of new nuclei generation events (DSE method). The other one involves a step-by-step calculation of isotope microyield along the photon trajectories (SBSM method). The techniques have been realized in the computer codes using the PENELOPE package of 2001, 2006 and 2008 versions. The program benchmarking was performed using experimental data on the activity distributions of 67Cu isotope produced in the 68Zn(gamma,p)67Cu reaction in thick zinc targets. Both approaches have shown to give similar results at an appreciably greater speed of the SBSM method. The results of simulation based on the PENELOPE 2006 and 2008 codes are in excellent agreement with all experimental data. At the same time, the PENELOPE 2001 computations give good agreement with the experimental results for target activation by the electron beam, but in the case of target exposed to bremsstrahlung systematic underestimation of about 15% has been observed.