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Salaymeh, S

Publications and source records attributed to Salaymeh, S.

6 records
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2010

A COMPARISON OF GADRAS SIMULATED AND MEASURED GAMMA RAY SPECTRA

Gamma-ray radiation detection systems are continuously being developed and improved for detecting the presence of radioactive material and for identifying isotopes present. Gamma-ray spectra, from many different isotopes and in different types and thicknesses of attenuation material and matrixes, are needed to evaluate the performance of these devices. Recently, a test and evaluation exercise was performed by the Savannah River National Laboratory that required a large number of gamma-ray spectra. Simulated spectra were used for a major portion of the testing in order to provide a pool of data large enough for the results to be statistically significant. The test data set was comprised of two types of data, measured and simulated. The measured data were acquired with a hand-held Radioisotope Identification Device (RIID) and simulated spectra were created using Gamma Detector Response and Analysis Software (GADRAS, Mitchell and Mattingly, Sandia National Laboratory). GADRAS uses a one-dimensional discrete ordinate calculation to simulate gamma-ray spectra. The measured and simulated spectra have been analyzed and compared. This paper will discuss the results of the comparison and offer explanations for spectral differences.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗
DOE OSTI2010

SPECTRAL RELATIVE ABSORPTION DIFFERENCE METHOD

When analyzing field data, the uncertainty in the background continuum emission produces the majority of error in the final gamma-source analysis. The background emission typically dominates an observed spectrum in terms of counts and is highly variable spatially and temporally. The majority of the spectral shape of the background continuum is produced by combinations of cosmic rays, {sup 40}K, {sup 235}U, and {sup 220}Rn, and the continuum is similar in shape to the 15%-20% level for most field observations. However, the goal of spectroscopy analysis is to pick up subtle peaks (<%5) upon this large background. Because the continuum is falling off as energy increases, peak detection algorithms must first define the background surrounding the peak. This definition is difficult when the range of background shapes is considered. The full spectral template matching algorithms are heavily weighted to solving for the background continuum as it produces significant counts over much of the energy range. The most appropriate background mitigation technique is to take a separate background observation without the source of interest. But, it is frequently not possible to record a background observation in the exact location before (or after) a source has been detected. Thus, one uses approximate backgrounds that rely on spatially nearby locations or similar environments. Since the error in many field observations is dominated by the background, a technique that is less sensitive to the background would be quite beneficial. We report the result of an initial investigation into a novel observation scheme for gamma-emission detection in high background environments. Employing low resolution, NaI, detectors, we examine the different between the direct emission and the 'spectral-shadow' that the gamma emission produces when passed through a thin absorber. For this detection scheme to be competitive, it is required to count and analyze individual gamma-events. We describe the unique instrumental setup which we assembled to make these measurements.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗
DOE OSTI2010

NEW DIRECTIONS IN RADIOISOTOPE SPECTRUM IDENTIFICATION

Recent studies have found the performance of commercial handheld detectors with automatic RIID software to be less than acceptable. Previously, we have explored approaches rooted in speech processing such as cepstral features and information-theoretic measures. Scientific advances are often made when researchers identify mathematical or physical commonalities between different fields and are able to apply mature techniques or algorithms developed in one field to another field which shares some of the same challenges. The authors of this paper have identified similarities between the unsolved problems faced in gamma-spectroscopy for automated radioisotope identification and the challenges of the much larger body of research in speech processing. Our research has led to a probabilistic framework for describing and solving radioisotope identification problems. Many heuristic approaches to classification in current use, including for radioisotope classification, make implicit probabilistic assumptions which are not clear to the users and, if stated explicitly, might not be considered desirable. Our framework leads to a classification approach with demonstrable improvements using standard feature sets on proof-of-concept simulated and field-collected data.

38 RADIATION CHEMISTRY, RADIOCHEMISTRY, AND NUCLEA↗
DOE OSTI2010

RADIOISOTOPE IDENTIFICATION OF SHIELDED AND MASKED SNM RDD MATERIALS

Sonar and speech techniques have been investigated to improve functionality and enable handheld and other man-portable, mobile, and portal systems to positively detect and identify illicit nuclear materials, with minimal data and with minimal false positives and false negatives. RadSonar isotope detection and identification is an algorithm development project funded by NA-22 and employing the resources of Savannah River National Laboratory and three University Laboratories (JHU-APL, UT-ARL, and UW-APL). Algorithms have been developed that improve the probability of detection and decrease the number of false positives and negatives. Two algorithms have been developed and tested. The first algorithm uses support vector machine (SVM) classifiers to determine the most prevalent nuclide(s) in a spectrum. It then uses a constrained weighted least squares fit to estimate and remove the contribution of these nuclide(s) to the spectrum, iterating classification and fitting until there is nothing of significance left. If any Special Nuclear Materials (SNMs) were detected in this process, a second tier of more stringent classifiers are used to make the final SNM alert decision. The second algorithm is looking at identifying existing feature sets that would be relevant in the radioisotope identification context. The underlying philosophy here is to identify parallels between the physics and/or the structures present in the data for the two applications (speech analysis and gamma spectroscopy). The expectation is that similar approaches may work in both cases. The mel-frequency cepstral representation of spectra is widely used in speech, particularly for two reasons: approximation of the response of the human ear, and simplicity of channel effect separation (in this context, a 'channel' is a method of signal transport that affects the signal, examples being vocal tract shape, room echoes, and microphone response). Measured and simulated gamma-ray spectra from a hand-held Radioisotope Identification Device were used to evaluate the algorithms. This paper will present and discuss results of the Test and Evaluation performed on two algorithms produced from the project.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗
DOE OSTI2010

Holdup Measures on an SRNL Mossbauer Spectroscopy Instrument

Gamma-ray holdup measurements of a Mossbauer spectroscopy instrument are described and modeled. In the qualitative acquisitions obtained in a low background area of Savannah River National Laboratory, only Am-241 and Np-237 activity were observed. The Am-241 was known to be the instrumental activation source, while the Np-237 is clearly observed as a source of contamination internal to the instrument. The two sources of activity are modeled separately in two acquisition configurations using two separate modeling tools. The results agree well, demonstrating a content of (1980 {+-} 150) {mu}Ci Am-241 and (110 {+-} 50) {mu}Ci of Np-237.

38 RADIATION CHEMISTRY, RADIOCHEMISTRY, AND NUCLEA↗