Waste inspection tomography and non-destructive assay

An apparatus for assaying a waste container comprising:

• means for forming a plurality of slices through a volume of the waste container;
• means for performing a relatively fast passive prescan to measure a level of gamma-ray radioactivity within each of the plurality of slices;
• means for identifying at least some slices of the plurality of slices having a relatively high level of radioactivity;
• means for determining a CT passive assay time for the identified slices based upon the measured radioactivity;
• and
• means for performing a relatively slow CT passive scan of the identified slices based upon the determined passive assay time to quantify a source of the measured gamma-ray radioactivity by weight.

An apparatus for assaying a waste container comprising:

• a radiation detector adapted to form a plurality of slices through a volume of the waste container;
• a first assay program adapted to perform a relatively fast passive prescan to measure a level of gamma-ray radioactivity of each of the plurality of slices;
• a spectrum processor adapted to identify at least some slices of the plurality of slices having a relatively high level of radioactivity;
• a passive assay time processor adapted to determine an passive assay time for the identified slices based upon the measured radioactivity;
• and
• a second assay program adapted to perform a relatively slow passive CT scan of the identified slices based upon the determined passive assay time to quantify a source of the measured radioactivity by weight.