HIGH SPEED GAMMA IMAGING DEVICE

Abstract

This invention presents a new device to produce images of the gamma field, specially designed for circumstances requiring high efficiency and fast response imaging, by applying the concept of image extraction within a given field of view, through the combination of efficient gamma radiation detectors. Each detector is located inside a shielding, with an area of the detector with no shielding to enter the incident gamma radiation detector with a plurality of angles in relation to the normal outgoing central axis to the surface of the detector through the unshielded area, where that central axis is divergent in relation to the outgoing central axes of neighboring detectors.

Claims

1. A device for gamma imaging of radiation fields, designed to operate in open spaces and enclosures without special shielding conditions from gamma radiation, wherein said device uses a plurality of gamma detectors, where each gamma detector is covered by an exterior shielding close to the detector, with the exception of part of a surface of the detector which has no shielding, where radiation can enter with a plurality of angles of incidence in relation to the normal outside direction located in the center of the unshielded surface of the detector, where the orientation of the outside norm is divergent as compared to the normal outside direction of the unshielded surfaces of neighboring detectors.

2. A device for gamma imaging of radiation fields, according to claim 1, wherein on a lateral surface of a projection of the unshielded outer face of each detector said device has side screens with gamma radiation shielding material.

3. A device for gamma imaging of radiation fields, according to claim 2, wherein within the volume generated by the projection of the exterior unshielded face of each detector said device has internal side screens with gamma radiation shielding, with a small tilt angle in relation to the next side screens.

4. A device for gamma imaging of radiation fields, according to claim 1, wherein the gamma radiation detectors are scintillators optically coupled to photo diodes of high sensitivity and low noise for the wavelength of the light emitted by the scintillator when interacting with a gamma photon.

5. A device for gamma imaging of radiation fields, according to claim 2, wherein the gamma radiation detectors are scintillators optically coupled to photo diodes of high sensitivity and low noise for the wavelength of the light emitted by the scintillator when interacting with a gamma photon.

6. A device for gamma imaging of radiation fields, according to claim 3, wherein the gamma radiation detectors are scintillators optically coupled to photo diodes of high sensitivity and low noise for the wavelength of the light emitted by the scintillator when interacting with a gamma photon.

7. A device for gamma imaging of radiation fields, according to claim 1, wherein the gamma radiation detectors are large scintillators arranged side by side, in such a way that each neighboring detector shields the second from that radiation which, due to its direction, would have an incidence on the first, while also going through to the second detector.

8. A device for gamma imaging of radiation fields, according to claim 7, wherein the detectors have a side shielding between adjacent detectors to act as a shield from that radiation which, due to its course, would have an incidence on one of the detectors coming from the area where the other detector is, and which due to its shape and size, does not have shielding capacity.

9. A device for gamma imaging of radiation fields, according to claim 4, wherein the scintillators are parallel-sides cylindrical volumes coupled to the photodiodes by one parallel side, and where the radiation has an incidence with a plurality of angles by a non-shielded angular section of the cylindrical side surface.

10. A device for gamma imaging of radiation fields, according to claim 5, wherein the scintillators are parallel-sided cylindrical volumes and are coupled to the scintillator photodiodes by one parallel side, and where the radiation has an incidence with a plurality of angles by a non-shielded angular section of the cylindrical side surface.

11. A device for gamma imaging of radiation fields, according to claim 6, wherein the scintillators are parallel-sided cylindrical volumes and are coupled to the scintillator photodiodes by one parallel side, and where the radiation has an incidence with a plurality of angles by a non-shielded angular section of the cylindrical side surface.

12. A device for gamma imaging of radiation fields, according to claim 1, wherein the image obtained from the gamma detectors overlaps with the image produced by an optical camera with the same field of view of the set of gamma detectors.

13. A device for gamma imaging of radiation fields, according to claim 2, wherein the image obtained from the gamma detectors overlaps with the image produced by an optical camera with the same field of view of the set of gamma detectors.

14. A device for gamma imaging of radiation fields, according to claim 3, wherein the image obtained from the gamma detectors overlaps with the image produced by an optical camera with the same field of view of the set of gamma detectors.

15. A device for gamma imaging of radiation fields, according to claim 4, wherein the image obtained from the gamma detectors overlaps with the image produced by an optical camera with the same field of view of the set of gamma detectors.

16. A device for gamma imaging of radiation fields, according to claim 5, wherein the image obtained from the gamma detectors overlaps with the image produced by an optical camera with the same field of view of the set of gamma detectors.

17. A device for gamma imaging of radiation fields, according to claim 6, wherein the image obtained from the gamma detectors overlaps with the image produced by an optical camera with the same field of view of the set of gamma detectors.

18. A device for gamma imaging of radiation fields, according to claim 7, wherein the image obtained from the gamma detectors overlaps with the image produced by an optical camera with the same field of view of the set of gamma detectors.

19. A device for gamma imaging of radiation fields, according to claim 8, wherein the image obtained from the gamma detectors overlaps with the image produced by an optical camera with the same field of view of the set of gamma detectors.

20. A device for gamma imaging of radiation fields, according to claim 9, wherein the image obtained from the gamma detectors overlaps with the image produced by an optical camera with the same field of view of the set of gamma detectors.

21. A device for gamma imaging of radiation fields, according to claim 10, wherein the image obtained from the gamma detectors overlaps with the image produced by an optical camera with the same field of view of the set of gamma detectors.

Description

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS

[0038] In order to have a better understanding of this invention, below is a detailed description, based on the following figures, included for the sole purpose of illustrating the preferred way to implement this invention, without limiting the invention.

[0039] FIG. 1 is a simplified diagram of the two classical gamma camera options, on the left a gamma camera with telescope collimator, and on the right a gamma camera with pin-hole collimator.

[0040] FIG. 2 is a simplified diagram of an eye similar to the human eye, where a lens of the eye is responsible for generating the image on the retina.

[0041] FIG. 3 is a typical diagram of a detector for geophysical measurements, composed by the union of four detectors with their scintillators and photomultipliers.

[0042] FIG. 4 is a simplified diagram of a section of three detectors located inside a single shielding for each sensor, in such a way that each detector receives the incident radiation with a direction included within a given angular sector or detection lobe.

[0043] FIG. 5 is a simplified diagram of a section of three detectors located inside a single shielding as in FIG. 4, which includes divergent external and internal displays to decrease the response to gamma from areas of view from neighboring detectors.

[0044] FIG. 6 is a section of an alternative for a shape of gamma sensor as those of FIG. 5, using a cylindrical scintillator, in which the detector face exposed to radiation is one of the flat faces of the detector cylinder, which has a symmetrical lobe response in relation to the axial axis of detector crystal.

[0045] FIG. 7 is an exterior view of a device composed of an array of sensors such as those in FIG. 6, forming a gamma camera consisting of 5 horizontal and 3 vertical sensors.

[0046] FIG. 8 is an exterior view of a device composed of an array of sensors which allows to replace the type of detector in FIG. 3, but which creates an image using sensors such as those in FIG. 4, eliminating the shielding close to each detector since, due to its large size, each detector is shielded by the neighboring detector.

[0047] FIG. 9 is an exterior view of an alternative to the device in FIG. 8, using square section detectors combined with intermediate screens acting as a side shielding for each detector.

[0048] FIG. 10 is a view of a section of an example of practical application for commercial use as an area monitor, where gamma detectors are extended prisms, and the radiation enters through each of the extended faces.

[0049] FIG. 11 is a top view of the section in FIG. 10, which schematically shows how the different directions of the incident gamma radiation affect, or not, the detector, based on the position of internal and side screens as those in FIG. 5.

[0050] FIG. 12 is an exterior view of the gamma detectors used in FIGS. 10 and 11, where we can see the position of the photodiode and electronic amplification and preamp.

[0051] FIG. 13 is a complete exterior view of a detector as that in FIG. 10, with a field of view of approximately 180 degrees.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0052] Before proceeding to a detailed description, we can see that the creation described is not limited to the use as a detector type for a specific use, and that although the present description is shown and described as applied as a radiation monitor for fixed positions, it can be implemented in a variety of applications and sizes in different geometries and mechanical solutions, using different types of gamma detectors, for fixed or mobile applications, in order to create images of the gamma field.

[0053] The present invention presents a device capable of obtaining gamma images with high efficiency and within short periods of time, with a concept for the creation of the gamma image that can adapted to the sensitivity, speed and resolution needs of various uses. It applies a concept that is compatible with the intrinsic physical properties of the fields of gamma photons and the need to create an image at very high speed.

[0054] FIG. 1 is a simplified diagram of the two classical gamma camera options, on the left a gamma camera with telescope collimator (10), formed by a plurality of parallel collimators (11) which select the direction of gamma incident on the gamma sensor (12), position-sensitive, from the sources (14) schematically displayed in the figure as a thick line (16), while the photons schematically shown in the figure as lines (17), (18) and (19) cannot reach the gamma sensor (12). In this type of detectors, the image of the gamma field generated by the gamma sensor (12) can never have a higher spatial resolution than the resolution that can be obtained on the collimation degree that can be achieved with a telescope collimator.

[0055] On the right side of the same figure, we see a gamma camera with a pin-hole collimator (20), composed of the position-sensitive gamma detector (22), which detects the incident gamma originating from the source (23), these photons are shown schematically as line (24), while the photons schematically shown in FIG. 1, such as lines (25), (26) and (27) cannot reach the gamma sensor (22), and therefore do not contribute to the image of the gamma field.

[0056] The two types of gamma cameras displayed in FIG. 1 generate the image from the collimation of outgoing gamma (16) (17) (18) and (19), and (24) (25) (26) and (27) from sources (14) and (23), which is why they generate the image by rejecting the gamma which do not go through collimators (17) (18) (19) (25) (26) and (27), and not those which can go through (16) and (24). That is to say that the higher resolution will always take a higher collimation, and therefore lower efficiency in the measurement process, which is why the measurement time will be higher depending on the desired spatial resolution for the image.

[0057] The imaging concept of gamma cameras is, in some aspects, similar to the type of systems used by optical cameras and the view of the human eye and the eyes of other animals, as outlined in FIG. 2. In that system, rays from the focus (50) (52), when going through the lens of the eye (60) are deflected by the refraction index and curvature radius of the lens of the eye (60), and so they change paths (62) and (64), to be finally measured by the retina located on the back of the eye (70). In the concept of human eye and optical cameras, when the object is fully in focus, the image has its maximum definition. But current gamma cameras cannot use the same concept of the lens, since the gamma radiation does not have a behavior similar to that of light when it goes through a medium with a different refraction index, but rather makes Compton, photoelectric and pair creation interactions (the latter for energies above the minimum energy required to create an electron-positron pair). The gamma field penetrates the medium continuously, depending on the cross section, generating a spatial distribution, which is also continuous, of outgoing secondary photons, with a plurality of output angles for the Compton interaction, and 2 opposite gamma photons from pairs creation. That is to say, it interacts with a plurality of positions, with a plurality of output angles, which is why it is not possible to achieve an effect similar to the lens of the eye (60) or optical cameras, because in the latter, the lens allows (when in focus) all light coming from a single external point to the view device incident on the lens to project towards the retina of the eye, also on one same spot.

[0058] Therefore, to build an image, gamma camera devices, with their collimator concepts, generate the image so that each position of gamma sensors (12) and (22), receives one only incoming radiation path. This concept is essentially slow, since the photons' count rate under real, everyday conditions will be very low, except in places with a very high rate of radiation, since the image has been generated by collimating directions, i.e., rejecting a significant fraction of the photons available in the gamma field. This is why these cameras are slow, and for many applications they require a very long time to acquire an image.

[0059] Another way to acquire an image, or in this case to make a map, since the image is obtained to be overlapped with a map or image of the land, is to use gamma detectors for geophysical studies, which are also used to locate lost gamma sources or to know the distribution of gamma radiation after an accident. These detectors are formed by a single non-collimated sensor, which in the most common commercial forms are similar to those outlined in FIG. 3. The diagram example of FIG. 3 displays a gamma detector for geophysical surveys consisting of four prismatic scintillators (110) (112) (114) (116), as a typical example, a sodium iodide activated with Thallium, 16 inches by 4 inches by 4 inches, with an approximate volume of detection of 4 liters. That crystal issues its light through the bottom face of the figure, to a photomultiplier (120) (122) (124) (126) for each detector. The signals are processed with the electronics, which acquires the signals from the four detectors and combines them to obtain a single spectrum on pulses height corresponding to the full detector, i.e., acquired by the four detectors which are part of the detector assembly. These detectors have fields of view oriented towards the direction (130) of FIG. 3, with a lobe response with a side aperture of about 50 degrees approximately in relation to the regular direction of the detector, generated because at greater angles, the geometric detection efficiency is significantly lower. These detectors are used to acquire an image or map of the radiation by placing them on an aerial vehicle with the detection face looking downwards, flying in a trajectory with a regular pattern of equidistant air lines, in order to cover the entire area to be measured. The time of acquisition of an image is very long because although the detector is very sensitive, the resulting spatial resolution is low. Then, in order to measure with a higher resolution, it has to fly at low heights, but as the lateral area covered during the flight decreases, more flights have to be carried out to cover the same area, which increases the measurement time even more.

[0060] Considering the limitations of the various types of gamma cameras and geophysical gamma detectors, another concept is proposed to obtain the image of a gamma field, which makes use of the property that gamma fields are inherently diffuse, since when you move a gamma detector for small distances, the rate count and energy spectrum does not change significantly in open places. Measurements in laboratory and confined spaces, with samples close to the detector or a shielding are very sensitive to position, but outside of this specific situation, gamma fields, both in its angular and energy dependence, vary very slightly with position.

[0061] The proposed device uses this property of gamma in relatively open spaces to carry apply another method to capture the image of the gamma field.

[0062] Taking a plurality of detectors for one same device, as outlined in FIG. 4, for illustration purposes only, with three schematic gamma detectors (200) (202) (204), each detector is located inside a shielding close to the sensor (210) (212) (214), or in contact with it, which does not cover the face of the sensor (220) (222) (224). Each detector assembly—shielding, like units (200) and (210), (202) and (212), (204) and (214), form a complete unit of measurement, or gamma sensor, with its own electronics and processing. Each gamma sensor presents a response to the path of the incident gamma radiation with lobar form (230) (232) (234) in relation to the central axis of each sensor (240) (242) (244), since when the radiation separates from the central axis, the shielding and the decrease of the geometric efficiency reduce the response of the gamma sensor in the proposed device. The axes of view (240) (242) (244) of each lobe diverge in relation to the center (250)

[0063] The image of the radiation is obtained from the fact that each gamma sensor, as well as its central axes (240) (242) (244) have an angle, (252) and (254), in relation to the axis of view of the neighboring lobe, each gamma sensor then sustains a certain area of view (260) (262) and (264) with respect to the center (250).

[0064] As in most practical cases, the gamma field in a point has a slight angle variation, and is similar to the gamma field by moving the point to a short distance; for such cases the plurality of angles measured by a detector is similar to the same plurality of angles measured by another detector if the position of the second detector is close to the first detector.

[0065] For these cases, the proposed device then measures the angular response of the gamma field at one point by measuring different pluralities of angles facing different directions simultaneously at nearby positions.

[0066] It is clear that if we place a small shielding as that in FIG. 4, lobes (230) (232) and (234) of each detector may overlap, as shown schematically in FIG. 4, so that there may be gamma rays coming from an area of view that can be detected in the neighboring detector. Since the measurement lobes of each gamma sensor can be completely characterized, and as precisely as desired, the overlapping between neighboring lobes can be considered fully known, which is why it can be mathematically calculated, based on the counts rate of each detector (200) (202) and (204), the counts rate which incident on each detector from its area of view (260) (262) (264) only, subtracting the contribution of gamma from neighboring areas.

[0067] Unlike gamma cameras, each sensor receives a plurality of incoming paths of incident gamma radiation, and as the gamma sensor can be sufficiently large and efficient for many practical applications, the measurement statistics is high and there can be a very short time from one gamma image to the next.

[0068] In FIG. 4, a divergence has been considered in relation to a center (250), but different three-dimensional arrangements of gamma sensors and detection lobes may diverge in relation to a center, or several centers, or an axis, or several axes, or combinations thereof, depending on the suitability for the different uses.

[0069] In an alternative of the device, as that schematically shown in FIG. 5, each shielding (270) (272) (274) has additional side divergent screens (275) (277) (279) of shielding material for gamma radiation, outside the face exposed to the detection lobe (280) (282) and (284), so as to reduce the overlapping between neighboring lobes and simplifying the treatment of signals to the detector output. This side screens are quite lightweight, because the thicknesses may be relatively small, because the gamma have oblique incidence on its surface, the paths have to penetrate a shield length significantly greater than the thickness of the screen to reach the detector.

[0070] The alternative for the device in FIG. 5 also includes, with respect to FIG. 4, internal divergent screens (285) (287) and (289) to external side divergent screens (275) (277) and (279), also composed of shielding material for gamma radiation, and divergent with respect to the central axes (290) (292) and (294), but with an equal or smaller angle of divergence as compared to the angle of the external divergent screen (275) (277) and (279), to not significantly decrease the response to the gamma from the same area of view, and strongly reduce detection form areas of view from neighboring sensors. This other alternative reduces the overlapping of lobes (295) (297) (299) among neighbors and simplifies the treatment of signals of each detector.

[0071] If the use, weight, size of the device and the count rate allow this type of external and internal screens to reduce the contribution of detection from areas of view of neighboring sensors, the contribution of neighbors in terms of count rates becomes statistically irrelevant, and the counts rate of each gamma sensor correlates directly to the area of view only, without mathematical corrections of neighboring contributions.

[0072] FIG. 6 shows the section of an alternative shape for a gamma sensor proposed to be used in the device mentioned, composed of half cylindrical scintillator (300), and a photodiode (310), with preamp electronics (320) next to the photodiode (310). The half scintillator is surrounded by a shielding (330), and preceded, on the direction of the incoming radiation, by a side screen (340) composed of shielding material. Since the detector is a cylindrical section detector, it is convenient for this side screen to have a conic section, while to achieve a decrease in the influence of neighboring lobes, it has two internal screens, (350) and (360), also made of shielding material, which, like with cylindrical screens, shall preferably have conic section.

[0073] FIG. 7 shows an alternative to a small device, consisting of an arrangement of gamma sensors as those in FIG. 6, forming a gamma view camera consisting of 5 horizontal and 3 vertical elements, with a side aperture of about 25 degrees and a vertical aperture about 15 degrees in relation to the central axis.

[0074] It is clear then that various mechanical dispositions, on a sphere, on a plane or on different surfaces spatially arranged, various mechanical solutions of gamma sensors that use the concept of the sensors in FIGS. 4 and 5, will produce images of the gamma field, provided that the detection lobes are divergent in relation to a center, axis or combination of one or more of these.

[0075] When due to the desired sensitivity large gamma detectors are used, such as scintillator crystals for geophysical prospection or search for radioactive sources, as the detectors in FIG. 3, the crystals are as efficient to the energies of gamma of greatest interest, which can be considered to almost completely absorb the incident radiation, that is to say, only a small fraction of the incoming radiation comes out to a detector, and then for outgoing radiation, the detector complies with conditions similar to a shielding. Then in this case, on the proposed device, each neighboring detector can be considered as the side shielding of the other detectors, provided the detectors are placed at the lower distance from one another. Then, for this application we can leave aside the shielding surrounding the detector and build the proposed device without side shielding. Likewise, we can leave aside the front shielding and internal and side screens to reduce the overlapping between the neighboring detection lobes and maximize sensitivity, using the naturally cosine detection lobe as the detection lobe, which is generated when the direction of the incident gamma deviates from the norm to the center of a flat face detector.

[0076] An alternative to the design of the proposed device is displayed in FIG. 8, which consists of four prismatic scintillators with trapezoidal section (370) (272) (374) and (378), together, joined by their oblique sides and optically coupled with photomultipliers (380) (382) (384) and (386). It is suitable for geophysical measurements or aerial search for radioactive sources, with the advantage that it allows acquisition of a gamma image by subdividing the measurement or image in about four different angles of view covering about 180 degrees, which allows to quadruple resolution, with an even greater aperture, since it increases efficiency in relation to classical detectors, by separating for large angles with respect to the norm to the detector.

[0077] The use of large sodium iodide crystal can be very expensive, and even more so if the crystal section is not square or rectangular or cylindrical, and a trapezoidal section is required. This is why a construction alternative for the device in FIG. 8 may be specifically appropriate to be used with plastic scintillators, low-cost for large sizes. In this case, it is not possible to perform a spectrometry by pulse height of the photopeak, but it is possible to perform a spectrometry through deconvolution of Compton spectra, and in this case regain the capacity to analyze the incident photon energy spectrum, or analyze only the count rate within a certain region of the spectrum of pulse height.

[0078] An alternative to the concept in FIG. 8 can be seen in FIG. 9, with a slight decrease in efficiency but with a cost reduction, is obtained by using square section detectors, as shown by detectors (390) and (392) joining them through the side of the internal vertex (394). Since part of the side shielding is lost, it is convenient to add a thin plate of shielding between the detectors in the space between two neighboring detectors, as seen in plate (396), for a lightweight and efficient design also using divergent internal side panels, as we can see in plates (397) and (398).

[0079] An example of practical application for commercial use of the proposed device used as an area monitor can be seen in FIG. 10, where we can see a half-height section of a set of 4 gamma detectors (400) (402) (404) and (406), inside a shielding (410) which includes external and internal side deflectors (420) (422), (430) (432), applied, for instance, as those for the detector (400), so that each single sensor only significantly receives incident radiation from the southern lobe of its own angular sector.

[0080] The section in FIG. 8 can be seen in FIG. 11, which contains a diagram showing that for this type of device, when it is in front of the area of view, the screens design allows the radiation from a gamma source (500) to be detected only by the detector that is within its area of view, such as paths (510) (512) and (514), and not for paths (520) (522) and (524).

[0081] In this practical example, as shown in FIG. 12, the gamma detectors in FIGS. 10 and 11 are small scintillators (600), typically sized 10 mm×10 mm×40 mm, clear type, such as sodium iodide or cesium iodide, or plastic, or liquid scintillators, which have a photodiode (610) on one side, which is highly sensitive to visible radiation in light emission wavelengths of the scintillator, with the signal processed by a preamplifier and amplifier schematically contained inside the electronic box (620) of the same detector. In this case, the gamma sensor is used receiving the incident radiation through the side face (630), with an efficiency superior to that of a Geiger counter of similar size, but at comparatively similar costs, taking into consideration the low costs of this type of components, both crystal and plastic.

[0082] In this practical example, the full sensor can be seen in FIG. 13, where we can see the shielding (700), the face of the gamma sensor (710) facing the person looking at the figure, and the lower electronics box (720). In this example, the total length of the device (730) is about 12 cm, and the total width (740) is about 10 centimeters, weighing approximately 1 to 2 kg, including the lead shielding and even less for tungsten.

[0083] In the case of FIG. 13, the detector measures the gamma field with a field of view of 180 degrees, and is suitable to be placed on a wall, under a roof, or in aerial or ground vehicles.

[0084] This type of example of application of the proposed device is very useful, since as gamma fields are naturally diffuse and have little dependence with height, it is of great practical interest to make a very quick measurement of the incident radiation, only measuring its angular dependence, since as it is a device generating a high-speed gamma image it can operate in real time within 1 second or less. When using sodium iodide or cesium iodide crystals, this example of application can be also used to make a spectrometry of the signal coming from each detector.

[0085] Due to the low cost and size of this example of application, the benefits of the device proposed as an example of application can be improved with a low additional investment, overlapping the gamma count rates of southern lobes of measurement with an image obtained with an optical camera with the same field of view that the device proposed, so as to correlate the variations of the rate of radiation of each southern lobe with the objects moving in front of the sensor, taking advantage of the fact that the proposed device, because it is highly efficient, allows to produce the gamma image within 1 second or less.

[0086] In this application example, one-dimensional and in real-time, and within the same cost range as Geiger monitors, the presented device offers features that are superior to all current area monitors.

REFERENCES CITED

U.S. Patent Documents

[0087] Harrison H. Barrett, “Imaging system utilizing spatial coding”. U.S. Pat. No. 3,748,470. July, 1973. [0088] C. L. Larsson et al., “Directional Gamma Ray Probe”. U.S. Pat. No. 7,470,909 B2. December, 2008. [0089] Christophe Le Goaller, “Gamma Imagery Device”. U.S. Pat. No. 7,772,563 B2. August 2010. [0090] W. Enghard et al., “Detector Assembly for Detecting Radiation with Angular Resolution and Method for Operating Said Assembly”. U.S. Pat. No. 8,030,617 B2. October 2011.

Other Publications

[0091] F. Kharfi: “Chapter 1—Principles and Applications of Nuclear Medical Imaging: A Survey on Recent Developments”, from the book “Imaging and Radioanalytical Techniques in Interdisciplinary Research—Fundamentals and Cutting Edge”, Edited by F. Kharfi. InTeach, 2013. [0092] O. P. Ivanov, B. V. Artemiev, V. E. Stepanov, A. S. Danilovich. “Gamma-Imaging System for Ecological and Nuclear Environment Measurements”. 10th European Conference on Non-Destructive Testing 2010. Moscow, Russia, Jun. 7-11, 2010. [0093] U.S. Department of Energy “GammaCam™ Radiation Imaging System”. US DoE. OST Reference #1840. Innovative Technology Summary Report. Office of Environmental Management. Office of Science and Technology. February 1998. [0094] V. Schönfelder, A. Himer, and K. Schneider: “A telescope for soft gamma ray astronomy”, Nuclear Instruments and Methods, Vol. 107, No. 2, 1973. [0095] V. Lj. Ljubenov, P. M. Marinkovic. “Applicability of Compton Imaging in Nuclear Decommissioning Activities”. International Yugoslav Nuclear Society Conference (YUNSC-2002), Belgrado, Yugoslavia, 2002.

[0096] Wonho Lee, Taewoong Lee: “A compact Compton camera using scintillators for the investigation of nuclear materials”, Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research Section A: Accelerators, Spectrometers, Detectors and Associated Equipment, Vol 624, No. 1, 2010. [0097] J. Kataoka, A. Kishimoto, T. Nishiyama, T. Fujita, K. Takeuchi, T. Kato, T. Nakamori, S. Ohsuka, S. Nakamura, M. Hirayanagi, S. Adachi, T. Uchiyama, K. Yamamoto: “Handy Compton camera using 3D position sensitive scintillators coupled with large area monolithic MPCC arrays”, Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research A. Vol 732, 2013. [0098] J. Paasche, M. Bates. “Project Report Aeromagnetic/Spectrometer Survey USGS Texas 2002”. For the United States Geological Survey. May 2003. [0099] H. Itadzu, T. Iguchi, A. Uritani, J. Kawarabayashi. “Evaluation of Response Functions of 16″×16″×4” Large-sized NaI Scintillation Detector for Environmental Gamma-ray Survey“. Proceedings of the Second International Workshop on EGS”, August 8-10, Tsukuba, Japan, 2000. [0100] International Atomic Energy Agency “Guidelines for radioelement mapping using gamma ray spectrometry data”. IAEA TECDOC 1363. July, 2003. [0101] I. Halevy, P. Wasiolek. “Aerial Measuring System (AMS)/Israel Atomic Energy Commission (IAEC) Joint Comparison Study”. Conference of the Nuclear Societies in Israel. Dead Sea, Feb. 11-13, 2014. [0102] T. Torii, Y. Sanada. “Radiation measurement by unmanned aircraft after Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant accident”. Remotely Piloted Aircraft System Symposium. ICAO Headquarters, Montreal, Canada. Mar. 23-25, 2015.