Surrogate Distributed Radiological Sources—Part II: Aerial Measurement Campaign

Journal Article · Tue Jan 09 00:00:00 UTC 2024 · IEEE Transactions on Nuclear Science

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1109/tns.2024.3351611 · OSTI ID:2335450

Vavrek, Jayson R.  ^[1]; Hines, C. Corey  ^[2]; Bandstra, Mark S.  ^[1]; Hellfeld, Daniel  ^[1]; Heine, Maddison A. ^[3]; Heiden, Zachariah M.  ^[3]; Mann, Nick R. ^[4]; Quiter, Brian J.  ^[1]; Joshi, Tenzing H. Y.  ^[1]

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1. Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)
2. Washington State Univ., Pullman, WA (United States)
3. Washington State Univ., Pullman, WA (United States). Nuclear Science Center
4. Idaho National Laboratory (INL), Idaho Falls, ID (United States)

In this second part of a multipaper series, we present results from outdoor aerial measurements of surrogate distributed gamma-ray sources. Here we detail the design, manufacture, and testing of 300 individual ~7 mCi Cu-64 sealed sources at the Washington State University (WSU) research reactor and their deployment in various source patterns (each comprising up to 100 point sources) during the aerial measurement campaign. We show the results of two such measurements, in which approximate source shapes and qualitative source intensities can be seen from the count rate versus position plots, even without performing reconstructions. We also detail our efforts in ground-truthing the deployed sources and comparing measured gamma-ray data to model predictions. In particular, we compare measured versus expected count data using the Poisson deviance formalism of Part I to evaluate whether the fielded surrogate point-source arrays “look like” their truly continuous distributed source analogs. More generally, we find that the point-source array technique provides high source placement accuracy, relative ease of quantifying the true source configuration, scalability to source dimensions of ≲100 m, ease of reconfiguration and removal, and relatively low dose to personnel. Finally, we consider potential improvements and generalizations of the point-source array technique for future measurement campaigns.

• Research Organization: Idaho National Laboratory (INL), Idaho Falls, ID (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA); USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES)
• Grant/Contract Number: AC02-05CH11231; AC07-05ID14517
• OSTI ID: 2335450
• Report Number(s): INL/JOU--24-77116-Rev000
• Journal Information: IEEE Transactions on Nuclear Science, Journal Name: IEEE Transactions on Nuclear Science Journal Issue: 2 Vol. 71; ISSN 0018-9499
• Publisher: IEEECopyright Statement
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English