US Government as Represented by the Secretary of the Army

Deborah R Van Wyck

Garry B Spector

Tom McCollum

William K Krug

Walter Koechner

Gary P Stevenson

A nuclear radiation detection system for remote monitoring of movement of nuclear material over a road or highway. Nuclear fiber sensors, which may be several meters long, are covertly positioned in at least two monitoring points, such as buried shallowly under the roadway or hung from a tunnel wall, along the path which a nuclear source may be clandestinely moved. These fiber sensors are individually connected, by an epoxy glue, to individual transmitting optical fibers. Movement of a nuclear radiation source in close proximity to the fiber sensors at the two or more monitoring points produces an optical signal which exceeds a preestablished threshold. These optical signals travel through the transmitting optical fibers, which may be about 1 kilometers long, to a electronic system comprised of a microprocessor controlled signal detecting, signal processing and even data storage means. The optical fibers and electronic system are also selectively hidden from view for security reasons. Any movement of a nuclear source is detected by strength and duration radiation signal data which is stored in the microprocessor memory. This data may be removed from the processor and read out by a data key means.

Nuclear fiber sensor remote detection system

A multichannel coincidence nuclear detector system for spectral charactertion of nuclear radiation sources at a remote location. The system is designed to detect and classify the radiation source in unfriendly territory and to provide a radio link back to a friendly receiver user station. The sensing elements are comprised of a plurality of plastic scintillator fiber sensors which may be several meters long and with each fiber having a different spectral sensitivity to gamma and neutron sources. Each of the scintillator fibers is connected to a transmitting optical fiber which may be 1 kilometer or more in length. The plurality of optical fibers transmit the optical signal generated by the radiation from a nuclear source impinging on the scintillator fibers to an electronic system. The electronic system is a sealed self contained battery operated device which is comprised of a photomuliplier detector and microprocessor based signal processing and data storage. The microprocessor compares the input signals from each scintillator fiber and determines the energy source. The data is stored in the microprocessor and may be interrogated by a radio frequency link to at a receiver station many kilometers away. The fiber sensors, optical fibers, and the electronics system including a transmitting antenna are all covertly positioned to prevent being observed by an unauthorized person.

Growing community of inventors

Lake Ridge, VA, United States of America

Deborah R Van Wyck