ANS is committed to advancing, fostering, and promoting the development and application of nuclear sciences and technologies to benefit society.
Explore the many uses for nuclear science and its impact on energy, the environment, healthcare, food, and more.
Explore membership for yourself or for your organization.
Conference Spotlight
2026 ANS Annual Conference
May 31–June 3, 2026
Denver, CO|Sheraton Denver
Latest Magazine Issues
Apr 2026
Jan 2026
Latest Journal Issues
Nuclear Science and Engineering
May 2026
Nuclear Technology
February 2026
Fusion Science and Technology
Latest News
DTRA’s advancements in nuclear and radiological detection
A new, more complex nuclear age has begun. Echoing the tensions of the Cold War amid rapidly evolving nuclear and radiological threats, preparedness in the modern age is a contest of scientific innovation. The Research and Development Directorate (RD) at the Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA) is charged with winning this contest.
Alessandro Dodaro, Franco Vittorio Frazzoli, Romolo Remetti
Nuclear Technology | Volume 144 | Number 1 | October 2003 | Pages 130-140
Technical Paper | Radiation Measurements and Instrumentation | doi.org/10.13182/NT03-A3433
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The "angular scanning" method allows both localization of hot spot(s) and the evaluation of the corresponding activity. Taking into account the experimental setup parameters (e.g., drum geometry, drum-detector distance, collimator geometry, etc.), the peak count rate versus the angular displacement is modeled as a theoretical analytical function of three independent variables (unknowns) for each hot spot: the two coordinates of the hot-spot center of mass and the corresponding activity value. Solutions for unknowns are obtained from equating, for each angular displacement, the experimental count rate to the corresponding theoretical one. Such a procedure has been applied to the SRWGA gamma scanner of the Casaccia Research Center utilizing a set of Waste Packages Reference Standards (with different matrices) where the gamma sources in different radial-azimuthal positions can be located.