Radioactive anomaly detector
AssigneeRaytheon Company
InventorsEric J. Griffin, Kalin Spariosu, Erik D. Johnson
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A detector apparatus is provided and includes a collector having access to a sample of a gaseous fluid and a tester coupled to and disposed remotely from the collector. The tester includes a test chamber into which a sample is directed from the collector, an excitation element to excite the sample in the test chamber and a spectrum analyzing device coupled to the test chamber to analyze the excited sample for evidence of a concentration of particles of interest in the gaseous fluid exceeding a threshold concentration. The threshold concentration is defined in accordance with a type of the particles of interest and a residence time of the sample.
Claims18
A detector apparatus, comprising:
- a collector having access to a sample of a gaseous fluid in a storage container;
- and
- a tester coupled to and disposed remotely from the collector, the tester comprising:
- a test chamber into which the sample is directed from the collector;
- an excitation element to excite the sample in the test chamber;
- and
- a spectrum analyzing device coupled to the test chamber to analyze the excited sample for evidence of a concentration of particles of interest in the gaseous fluid exceeding a threshold concentration,
- the threshold concentration being defined in accordance with a type of the particles of interest and a residence time of the sample in the storage container prior to an accessing of the sample by the collector, and
- wherein the spectrum analyzing device analyzes the excited sample for evidence of a concentration of isotopic molecules in the gaseous fluid exceeding a threshold concentration defined for the isotopic molecules based on the residence time of the sample which is defined as a total amount of time the sample is resident in the storage container prior to the accessing of the sample by the collector.
A detector apparatus, comprising:
- a collector having access to an interior of a storage container;
- and
- a tester coupled to the collector and disposed on a frame element configured to manipulate the storage container, the tester comprising:
- a test chamber into which a sample of a gaseous fluid drawn from the interior of the storage container by the collector is directed;
- an excitation element to excite the sample in the test chamber;
- and
- a spectrum analyzing device coupled to the test chamber to analyze the excited sample for evidence of a concentration of particles of interest in the gaseous fluid exceeding a threshold concentration,
- the threshold concentration being defined in accordance with a type of the particles of interest and a residence time of the sample in the interior of the storage container prior to the sample being drawn out from the interior by the collector, and
- wherein the spectrum analyzing device analyzes the excited sample for evidence of a concentration of isotopic molecules in the gaseous fluid exceeding a threshold concentration defined for the isotopic molecules based on the residence time of the sample which is defined as a total amount of time the sample is resident in the storage container prior to the accessing of the sample by the collector.
A method of operating a detector apparatus, the method comprising:
- directing a sample of a gaseous fluid drawn from an interior of a storage container into a test chamber;
- lasing the sample in the test chamber to excite the sample;
- performing spectroscopy on the excited sample;
- analyzing results of the spectroscopy for evidence of a concentration of particles of interest in the gaseous fluid exceeding a threshold concentration;
- and
- defining the threshold concentration in accordance with a type of the particles of interest and a residence time of the sample in the interior of the storage container prior to the sample being drawn out from the interior by the collector,
- wherein the analyzing comprises analyzing the results for evidence of a concentration of isotopic molecules in the gaseous fluid exceeding a threshold concentration defined for the isotopic molecules based on the residence time of the sample in the interior of the storage container which is defined as a total amount of time the sample is resident in the storage container prior to the accessing of the sample by the collector.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.