Invention Grant
- Patent Title: Gamma ray detector with two-dimensional directionality
-
Application No.: US16024833Application Date: 2018-06-30
-
Publication No.: US10401510B2Publication Date: 2019-09-03
- Inventor: David Edward Newman
- Applicant: David Edward Newman
- Main IPC: G01T1/29
- IPC: G01T1/29 ; G01V5/00 ; G01T1/167 ; G01T3/06 ; G01T1/20 ; G01N23/04

Abstract:
The invention is a gamma ray detector that locates a source, both horizontally and vertically. The detector comprises a tubular shield surrounded by scintillator panels. Gammas incident from one side can fully strike the scintillator facing the source, but are blocked from reaching the scintillators on the opposite side of the shield. The scintillator counting rates thus indicate the lateral direction of the source. By iteratively rotating toward the highest-counting scintillator, the detector converges to the source. An additional, central detector can be mounted within the tubular shield. When analyzed with the outer scintillators, the central detector determines the overall angular separation between the source and the detector axis, thereby locating the source in two dimensions automatically. The invention enables rapid detection and precise localization of clandestine nuclear and radiological weapons, despite shielding and clutter obfuscation, while quickly passing clean loads.
Public/Granted literature
- US20180321399A1 Gamma Ray Detector with Two-Dimensional Directionality Public/Granted day:2018-11-08
Information query