Publisher's Synopsis
In the conduct of this research effort, neutron activated Sn sources and standard radioactive sources were used to simulate the gamma energy spectrum of a nuclear weapon pit. A converging hole collimator was designed, constructed, and mated with an HPGe Double Sided Strip Detector. A MATLAB image processing code was developed to produce a grayscale image of the sources. A variety of source configurations was examined to demonstrate the system's ability to obtain proper spatial distribution information for a multinuclide gamma emitting source. By replacing the converging hole collimator with a second detector array (as in a Compton camera) to improve detector efficiency, HPGe strip detectors may be used for the intended application of identifying the presence of a "spoof" weapon pit consisting of multiple nuclide sources meant to mimic a real weapon pit.
