Berkeley Nucleonics has announced that its Sam 940 is able to locate and identify special nuclear material (SNM) along with many other isotopes.
The Sam 940 utilises a transform that provides spectral enhancement on a second-by-second basis.
This algorithm is called Quadratic Compression Conversion (QCC) and allows real-time subtraction of background, which improves sensitivity.
Therefore, the Sam does not wait for the end of a long acquisition to subtract background but rather subtracts ambient background, Compton Effect and bremsstrahlung continuously, which aids in the search process as well as identification.
It is well known that statistical analysis of this type is never perfect but results show an improvement in real-time sensitivity of at least a factor of 10 to 20 depending upon the size of detector.
This gives the user the ability to move at a reasonable pace while searching and still be assured that radioactive sources will be found and identified.
Berkeley Nucleonics only deals with detectors of reasonable size when searching for SNM.
For sodium iodide 2 x 2in and 3 x 3in detectors are available.
Berkeley Nucleonics also offers a high resolution (3 per cent) 1.5 x 1.5in lanthanum bromide detector that has efficiency greater than the 3 x 3 inch sodium iodide detector.
These detector systems are suited for identifying and quantifying nuclear material such as NORM uranium, DU, LEU, HEU and transuranics with gamma emission.
Efficiency is important for analysing many of these nuclides with their high energy gamma lines.
Therefore, shielding does not present a problem when determining identification of the material mentioned above.
The use of CZT on the other hand does become a problem when needing to use high energy gamma lines.
The efficiency of CZT falls off dramatically when detecting energies of 1,000 to 2,600 keV - long acquisitions would still yield poor results and searching is out of the question.
All spectra are saved on a compact flash card and can be opened with a spectral viewer containing all pertinent data.
Quantum analysis is also available to identify and quantify nuclides.
