Radiation-monitoring system with correlated hodoscopes

摘要

At least one pair of hodoscope radiation monitors arranged to simultaneously monitor a target region that contains a source of radiation. The hodoscopes are preferably arranged so that their fields of view of the region are approximately orthogonal. The fields of view of the two detectors will overlap in a region that contains the source of radiation. Each of the two detectors will record radiation from the overlap region and, in addition, will record background radiation emanating from other regions within detector fields of view. The present invention provides statistical correlation techniques to estimate the extent to which unusually high radiation originates in the overlap region, irrespective of background in the field-of-view of individual hodoscope detectors. The source of radiation might be spontaneous, might be from an activation process, or might be scattered in from an external beam.

主权项

1. A radiation-monitoring diagnostic hodoscope system for monitoring or measuring a radiation source or radiation sources from a target location, said system comprising:
A) at least one pair of radiation-monitoring hodoscope units, each unit of each pair:
) being adapted to detect gamma or neutron or gamma and neutron radiation in a limited radiation beam of less than 50 degrees defming a field of view and2) being positioned so that their beams overlap in a region containing all or a part of the target location, and comprising:1) a collimating means adapted to identify said limited radiation beam and2) at least one radiation detector adapted to produce electrical signals corresponding to intensities of gamma and or neutron radiation in said limited radiation beam; B) a computer processor programmed with an algorithm adapted to examine the data recorded by the at least two hodoscope units so as to determine the correlation of the recorded data so as to estimate the extent to which the radiation source or sources originate in the overlap region.