A Directional Gamma Auto Spectrometer

The Government is deploying a growing number of radiation detectors at U.S. borders, ports of entry and other key locations, intended to assist in the detection of a potential terrorist`s nuclear explosive device or radiological dispersal device. The most widely deployed radiation detector products today are radiation "pagers". Such products are unable to differentiate between natural radiation, legitimate and clandestine radioactive materials, resulting in a disturbingly high incidence of false positives. There is a need for a device that can provide radionuclide identification and spatial differentiation in portable unit. This proposal will develop a low-cost, battery-operated handheld radiation sensor with these features. The proposed sensor will allow trained personnel in the field to locate and identify potentially threatening radionuclides. It will differentiate radioactive sources as potentially dangerous or likely benign and provide radioemitter source direction, distance and size information. It is based on pixel array CdZnTe detectors, new multichannel detector readout ASICS, directionally-sensitive elements, state-of-the art high density packaging and novel software and firmware that can deconvolve nuclear spectra to identify myriad combinations of gamma radiation sources.