System and Method for Aerial Surveying or Mapping of Radioactive Deposits
AssigneesFission 3.0 Corporation, Special Projects Incorporated
InventorsKaj Eston Hedin, Curtis Michael Zaiss
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A method for aerially surveying a geographic area for any surface or subterranean radioactive geological deposits using an aircraft having at least one radiation detector element comprises: a) flying the aircraft over the geographic area to be surveyed at a ground speed of between 30 and 60 m/s and at a flight height of between 10 and 20 m above ground level; b) acquiring a series of radiation signal data using at least one radiation detector element while flying the aircraft over at least a portion of the geographic area; and c) storing the series of acquired radiation signal data. A system for conducting the method is also provided.
Claims24
A method for aerially surveying a geographic area for subterranean radioactive geological deposits using an aircraft having a plurality of gamma radiation detector elements, the plurality of gamma radiation detector elements being arranged in an array and comprising at least one center detector element and a plurality of outer detector elements, the plurality of outer detector elements surrounding the at least one center detector element and operable to block at least some incoming radiation from being detected by the at least one center detector element, the method comprising:
- flying the aircraft over the geographic area to be surveyed at a ground speed of between 30 and 60 m/s and at a flight height of between 10 and 20 m above ground level;
- and,
- acquiring a series of gamma radiation signal data using the plurality of gamma radiation detector elements.
A method for processing and mapping a series of radiation signal data acquired by aerially surveying a geographic area for any surface or subterranean radioactive geological deposits using an aircraft having at least one radiation detector element, the method comprising:
- a) identifying data points in the series of radiation signal data with total counts greater than a threshold total counts, and with at least one of the element counts greater than a corresponding threshold element count;
- b) flagging the data points identified in step a) as “high priority” points;
- c) identifying data points in the series of radiation signal data with total counts greater than the threshold total counts, and with none of the element counts greater than the corresponding threshold element counts;
- d) identifying data points in the series of radiation signal data with total counts less than or equal to the threshold total counts, and with at least one of the element counts greater than the corresponding threshold element counts;
- e) flagging any data points identified in steps c) or d) as “low priority” points;
- and,
- f) mapping geographical coordinates corresponding to the “high priority” data points using a first marker and mapping geographical coordinates corresponding to the “low priority” data points using a second marker.
A system for aerially surveying a geographic area for surface or subterranean radioactive geological deposits, the system comprising:
- an aircraft adapted to fly over the geographic area to be surveyed at a ground speed of between 30 and 60 m/s and at a flight height of between 10 and 20 m above ground level;
- and,
- a plurality of gamma radiation detector elements adapted to acquire a series of gamma radiation signal data, the plurality of gamma radiation detector elements being arranged in an array and comprising at least one center detector element and a plurality of outer detector elements, the plurality of outer detector elements surrounding the at least one center detector element and operable to block at least some incoming radiation from being detected by the at least one center detector element.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.