A portable analyzer comprises a detector of ionizing radiation that is configured to detect radiation from spontaneous radioactive decay within an environment of the portable analyzer and or ionizing radiation that propagates past a front end of the portable analyzer towards its user.

A system and method for monitoring one or more radioactive nuclides present in a stack flow consist of a first detector having a predetermined first sensitivity to gamma radiation and a second detector having a predetermined second sensitivity to gamma radiation and also a predetermined sensitivity to beta radiation. An enclosure proximal to the second detector defines a detection volume and enables the use of calibration factors which are independent of the geometry and material composition of a stack duct. A signal processor with energy window discrimination analyzes the signals from the two detectors. The use of two or more energy windows enables the identification of the nuclide species present in the stack flow and an accurate background-corrected measurement of the released radiation activity concentration for each of the identified nuclide species.

A method for assessing the mass concentration of uranium in a sample of uranium-bearing material by gamma spectrometry, includes a) acquiring (200) an energy spectrum of gamma radiation from the sample using a scintillator detector, the energy spectrum (100) comprising at least a first energy band (110) between 87 keV and 110 keV, and a second energy band (120) between 560 keV and 660 keV, the second energy band comprising at least one energy line (130) at 609 keV from .sup.214Bi, b) calculating (210) an initial mass concentration of uranium (Cm.sub.U0) using the energy spectrum, c) measuring (220) a parameter representative of the height of the sample and a parameter representative of the density of the sample, d) calculating (230) a corrective coefficient (K), and e) calculating (240) a corrected mass concentration of uranium (Cm.sub.U) using the initial mass concentration of uranium (Cm.sub.U0) and the corrective coefficient (K).

A method for assessing the mass concentration of uranium in a sample of uranium-bearing material by gamma spectrometry, includes a) acquiring (200) an energy spectrum of gamma radiation from the sample using a scintillator detector, the energy spectrum (100) comprising at least a first energy band (110) between 87 keV and 110 keV, and a second energy band (120) between 560 keV and 660 keV, the second energy band comprising at least one energy line (130) at 609 keV from .sup.214Bi, b) calculating (210) an initial mass concentration of uranium (Cm.sub.U0) using the energy spectrum, c) measuring (220) a parameter representative of the height of the sample and a parameter representative of the density of the sample, d) calculating (230) a corrective coefficient (K), and e) calculating (240) a corrected mass concentration of uranium (Cm.sub.U) using the initial mass concentration of uranium (Cm.sub.U0) and the corrective coefficient (K).

A system for analyzing radiochemical purity of an eluate produced from a generator is provided. The system has an elution detector made of a shielding metal. The elution detector houses a flow path template for flow of an eluate solution and an elutable isotope contained in the generator, and a monitoring device for simultaneously monitoring the generator and the eluate exiting the generator. The generator is a Technetium-99m (Tc-99m) generator, and the elutable isotope may be contained in a packed bed of a column in the Tc-99m generator. A method for analyzing radiochemical purity of eluate produced from a Technetium-99m (Tc-99m) generator or column is also provided.

Systems, devices and methods for inspecting and imaging of contents of a volume is disclosed. One implementation of the disclosed systems, devices and methods includes an apparatus for inspecting and imaging of contents of a volume of interest which includes a first particle tracking unit of detectors to receive incoming charged particles that transit through an object and to measure position and direction of the charged particles that transit through the object while allowing the charged particles to pass through, and a second particle tracking unit of detectors installed relative to the first particle tracking unit of detectors and to the volume of interest containing the object of inspection so that it is positioned to receive the outgoing charged particles that transit through the first particle tracking unit and transit through the object of inspection and to measure a position and a direction of the outgoing charged particles. The apparatus also includes a processor that processes information from the first and second particle tracking units of detectors to yield an estimate of a spatial map of atomic number and a density of the object. The methods disclosed here include triggering algorithms for signal selection, positional calibration algorithms for locating particle tracking units in absolute three dimensional coordinate space, and three-dimensional tomographic image reconstruction algorithms combining the tracking information from multiple pairs of particle tracking units.

A portable neutron generating system for SNM inspection that includes charge storage device configured to store a high voltage electrical charge and a controller to selectively electrically connect the charge to a plasma generator. The plasma generator is configured to generate a plasma, which in turn generates neutrons, in response to the electrical charge being provided to the plasma generator. A high voltage switch is located between the charge storage device and the plasma generator and is configured to electrically discharge the high voltage charge on the charge storage device to the plasma generator. The plasma generator is removably attachable to the portable neutron generating system such that it may be easily removed from the portable neutron generating system when the gas inside the plasma generator is at end of life and a refreshed plasma generator easily connected to the portable neutron generating system.

Systems, devices and methods for inspecting and imaging of contents of a volume is disclosed. One implementation of the disclosed systems, devices and methods includes an apparatus for inspecting and imaging of contents of a volume of interest which includes a first particle tracking unit of detectors to receive incoming charged particles that transit through an object and to measure position and direction of the charged particles that transit through the object while allowing the charged particles to pass through, and a second particle tracking unit of detectors installed relative to the first particle tracking unit of detectors and to the volume of interest containing the object of inspection so that it is positioned to receive the outgoing charged particles that transit through the first particle tracking unit and transit through the object of inspection and to measure a position and a direction of the outgoing charged particles. The apparatus also includes a processor that processes information from the first and second particle tracking units of detectors to yield an estimate of a spatial map of atomic number and a density of the object. The methods disclosed here include triggering algorithms for signal selection, positional calibration algorithms for locating particle tracking units in absolute three dimensional coordinate space, and three-dimensional tomographic image reconstruction algorithms combining the tracking information from multiple pairs of particle tracking units.

A system for analyzing radiochemical purity of an eluate produced from a generator is provided. The system has an elution detector made of a shielding metal. The elution detector houses a flow path template for flow of an eluate solution and an elutable isotope contained in the generator, and a monitoring device for simultaneously monitoring the generator and the eluate exiting the generator. The generator is a Technetium-99m (Tc-99m) generator, and the elutable isotope may be contained in a packed bed of a column in the Tc-99m generator. A method for analyzing radiochemical purity of eluate produced from a Technetium-99m (Tc-99m) generator or column is also provided.

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.