Development of gamma ray imaging cameras

In January 1990, the Department of Energy initiated this project with the objective to develop the technology for general purpose, portable gamma ray imaging cameras useful to the nuclear industry. The ultimate goal of this R D initiative is to develop the analog to the color television camera where the camera would respond to gamma rays instead of visible photons. The two-dimensional real-time image would be displayed would indicate the geometric location of the radiation relative to the camera's orientation, while the brightness and color'' would indicate the intensity and energy of the radiation (and hence identify the emitting isotope). There is a strong motivation for developing such a device for applications within the nuclear industry, for both high- and low-level waste repositories, for environmental restoration problems, and for space and fusion applications. At present, there are no general purpose radiation cameras capable of producing spectral images for such practical applications. At the time of this writing, work on this project has been underway for almost 18 months. Substantial progress has been made in the project's two primary areas: mechanically-collimated (MCC) and electronically-collimated camera (ECC) designs. We present developments covering the mechanically-collimated design, and then discuss the efforts on themore » electronically-collimated camera. The renewal proposal addresses the continuing R D efforts for the third year effort. 8 refs.« less