Methods and apparatus for investigating emissions
AssigneeBritish Nuclear Fuels plc
InventorsJohn Adrian Lightfoot, Karl Anthony Hughes
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Abstract
The invention provides improved methods and apparatus for investigating emissions from radioactive sources within an environment. In particular, the method deploys a collimated detector to scan the environment and obtain approximate position information on sources within that environment together with further investigations using a moveable shielding component which is moved relative to the field of view of the collimator. In an alternative technique, the collimator is moved in two different directions to achieve positional information using scanning.
Claims36
A method of investigating a emissions from radioactive sources in an environment, the method comprising:
- providing an instrument, the instrument having a detector assembly, the detector assembly including a detector which generates a signal in response to a detected emission, the detector being provided with a greater level of shielding against emissions in one or more directions than in one or more other directions to define the field of view of the environment for the detector;
- introducing the detector assembly of the instrument into the environment;
- characterised in that the method further comprises:
- providing the instrument with a moveable shielding component which is moveable relative to the field of view;
- obtaining a signal count and/or count rate from the detector with at least a part of the environment within the field of view, the moveable shielding component being out of the field of view, the result forming the reference count and/or reference count rate for that given field of view;
- obtaining a signal count and/or count rate from the detector for the given field of view, with a part of the given field of view occluded by the moveable shielding component, the result forming the partially occluded view's count and/or count rate for that given field of view with that given part occluded;
- for a given occluded part of a given field of view, the reference count and partially occluded view count and/or reference count rate and partially occluded view count rate being considered against one another to provide information about the emissions arising from the given field of view.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.