Soil ripper with gamma detector and method of use to detect contaminated soils

A contamination detection method, comprising:

• attaching a front-facing side of a detector enclosure to a ripper of a ripper machine, the detector enclosure including a rear-facing side having a rear-facing window, two lateral-facing sides, and a bottom-facing side;
• placing a detector inside the detector enclosure;
• inserting the ripper into a soil to position the rear-facing window, the two lateral-facing sides, and the bottom-facing side of the detector enclosure below a soil surface of the soil;
• and
• moving the ripper horizontally through the soil leading with the front-facing side of the detector enclosure to detect subsurface contamination via the rear-facing window using the detector.

A contamination detection apparatus for subsurface contamination detection, the contamination detection apparatus comprising:

• a ripper of a ripper machine;
• and
• a detector enclosure including a front-facing side to be attached to the ripper of the ripper machine and a rear-facing side having a rear-facing window, two lateral-facing sides, and a bottom-facing side;
• the rear-facing side of the detector enclosure including a rear-facing window to facilitate detection, by a detector disposed inside the detector enclosure, for subsurface contamination via the rear-facing window.