US Government as Represented by the Secretary of the Army

Raymond M Castellane

Bartley P Durst

Falih H Ahmad

A portable nuclear material detector generally includes a scintillating fiber radiation sensor, a light detector, a conditioning circuit, a frequency shift keying (FSK) circuit, a fast Fourier transform (FFT) circuit, an electronic controller, an amplitude spectral addition circuit, and an output device. A high voltage direct current (HVDC) source is provided to excite the light detector, while a separate power supply may be provided to power the remaining components. Portability is facilitated by locating the components of the detector within a handheld-sized housing. When bombarded by gamma particles, the radiation sensor emits light, which is detected by the light detector and converted into electrical signals. These electrical signals are then conditioned and converted to spectral lines. The frequency of a give spectral line is associated with a particular radioactive isotope, while the cumulative amplitude of all spectral lines having a common frequency is indicative of the strength and location of the isotope. All or part of this information (identity, strength, direction, and distance) may be provided on the output device.

Portable nuclear detector

Minute amounts of material, such as a contaminant, are detected, classified and located using a single procedure that eliminates the need for using complex and sometimes redundant instrumentation setups, multiple (and sometimes overlapping) analytic processes, or both. In one embodiment, a series of processing steps enables one to detect, classify, and localize minute amounts of particular elements, e.g., contaminants, in material being tested. Data sets, suitable for characterizing components of samples at least spectrally and spatially, are collected from at least one uncontaminated sample of material (the 'baseline' or 'control') and a sample of material under test (MUT) that may contain contaminants. Comparison of these data sets, using the procedures of the present invention, enables ready classification of minute amounts of material in any sample. The present invention may be used for liquids, solids, and gases, with specific application to gels, pastes, hard powders, soft powders, films, inorganics, and pharmaceuticals.

Detecting, classifying and localizing minor amounts of an element within a sample of material

Minute amounts of material, such as a contaminant, are detected, identified and located using a single procedure that eliminates the need for using complex and sometimes redundant instrumentation setups, multiple (and sometimes overlapping) analytic processes, or both. In a preferred embodiment, a series of processing steps enables one to detect, identify, and localize minute amounts of particular elements, e.g., contaminants, in material being tested. Data sets, suitable for characterizing components of samples at least spectrally and spatially, are collected from at least one uncontaminated sample of material (the 'baseline' or 'control') and a sample of material under test (MUT) that may contain contaminants. Comparison of these data sets, using the procedures of the present invention, enables ready identification of minute amounts of material in any sample. The use of existing conventional procedures may require that multiple sets of data be taken or multiple processes be applied.

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Vicksburg, MS, United States of America

Raymond M Castellane