Tracking of moving radioactive sources

Abstract

A system for detecting unsecured nuclear materials. Whereas current portal monitors rely in part on physical prominence to deter materials from entering the country, their application at intra-modal transport points may actually serve to divert the movement of nuclear materials rather than aid in interception. A flexible and low-profile system has been developed for unobtrusive detection and tracking of radioactive sources in transit suited for deployment at traffic choke points such as rest stops, toll collection plazas, truck stops, and bridges. The system includes gamma radiation detectors, networking for linking these detectors, signal processing algorithms, and a central processing and control unit.

Description

GOVERNMENT INTEREST[0001]The United States Government has rights in this invention pursuant to Contract No. W-31-109-ENG-38 between the United States Government and Argonne National Laboratory.BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION[0002]This invention relates to a portable monitor for tracking a source of radiation. More specifically this invention relates to a portable highly-sensitive radioactive source tracking system.[0003]Current devices for radioactive source detection exist but their capabilities do not include a precise identification of the position of the source nor its movement. Data collection is independent, not correlated, and not stored. There are currently no systems which integrate signals from multiple sensors or which provide directional information or discrete source location information. In addition, prior systems allow a target to know that they are being tracked.[0004]These prior art devices tend to be limited with respect to the range of geometrical configurations in wh...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0007]The present invention relates to systems and methods for 1) detecting the introduction of a source into the monitored area, 2) tracking its position in the monitored area, and 3) identifying the type of radioisotope and the source strength. The present invention provides these capabilities while minimizing the probability of false positives and the probability of a missed positive (false negative) even in environments where the signal-to-noise ratio may be lower than previously achievable by prior systems.

[0012]The present invention allows for: 1) alarm on source presence (by detector), 2) source location, 3) source tracking, 4) source identification, 5) source strength determination. In one embodiment, the present invention offers the advantage of locating and tracking a source without having a person in close proximity to the source. In addition, the present invention is applicable to moving detectors when the detector and position data can be transmitted in near real-time.

Problems solved by technology

These uncertainties ultimately limit the precision with which the source location can be identified.

Images