A method for detecting intrinsic radioactivity of radioactive samples includes: providing a sample of material to be subjected to a measurement of emission of X photons from radioactive samples, the sample being stratiform and having two main sides; placing one or more semiconductor-type or bolometer-type detectors near one or two of the two main sides of the sample, the detectors having a surface covering the whole or most of the area of the main sides; measuring the emission of X photons, respectively in the presence and in the absence of the sample, for a predetermined time interval; determining the energetic spectrum of the emission of X photons, respectively in the presence and in the absence of the sample, by measuring the number of counts produced by the emission; subtracting the measurement of the number of counts in the absence of the sample from the measurement of the number of counts in the presence of the sample, thus obtaining a useful measurement of the number of counts; estimating the X-ray detection efficiency with reference to the one or more detectors, the sample, and the energetic spectrum; determining the branching ratio (BR) of each row of the emission of X photons; determining the intrinsic radioactivity as a weighted mean value of the number of counts with respect to the measured values of detection efficiency and branching ratio within the time interval taken into account.

Systems and methods for characterizing electromagnetic spectra are described. The techniques include identifying, using radiation spectroscopy information obtained over a measurement time period, one or more energies associated with electromagnetic radiation emitted by a material or region. The identification includes dividing the measurement time period into two or more subperiods, identifying, for each of the two or more subperiods, measured radiation energies in a subset of the radiation spectroscopy information associated with one of the two or more subperiods, and selecting, from the identified radiation energies for each of the two or more subperiods, radiation energies identified in at least two of the two or more subperiods. The techniques further include identifying, using the selected radiation energies, one or more radioisotopes characterized by the identified radiation energies.

The present disclosure provides a method and a system for inspecting goods. The method comprises steps of: obtaining a transmission image of inspected goods; processing the transmission image to obtain a suspicious region; extracting local texture features of the suspicious region and classifying the local texture features of the suspicious region based on a pre-created model to obtain a classification result; extracting a contour line shape feature of the suspicious region and comparing the contour line shape feature with a pre-created standard template to obtain a comparison result; and determining that the suspicious region contains a high atomic number matter based on the classification result and the comparison result.

A scintillation device can include a scintillator and a pliable moisture barrier encapsulating the scintillator. The moisture barrier can have a low vapor transmission rate and prevent significant water gain on or near the scintillator.

A compositional visualization system comprises a sensor to collect contextual information, a particle generator to generate a first stream of one or more types of particles, and a detector to receive a second stream of one or more detectable products. The second stream is generated by interaction of the first stream with the environment. The system further comprises computer-executable instructions to cause the system to transform the received second stream into compositional data, and merge the compositional data with the contextual information to generate a merged digital representation. The merged digital representation can be displayed at one or more devices and can also be used directly to drive autonomous robotic systems.