METHOD OF SURFACE SURVEYING FOR RADIOACTIVE SOURCES

A method of surveying a surface to determine the existence of a radiation source, e.g., a radioactive source, providing a procedure for determining an optimum scan velocity for scanning past a source so as to provide the required degree of confidence to detect the presence of radiation sources while avoiding false source detection. A first scan velocity is selected based upon detector information and the nature of the survey surface, following which spreadsheet-type calculations are made based upon the expected maximum source count rate, background rate and the selected velocity. The spreadsheet calculations provide an indication of the confidence of distinguishing source activity from background radiation at the selected scan velocity. The indicated confidence is compared to the required confidence level, and when the indicated confidence is not optimally close to the required confidence, another scan velocity is selected and the spreadsheet calculations are repeated. These steps are repeated iteratively until an indicated confidence is found which is optimally close to the predetermined confidence, following which the last selected scanned velocity is used in actually carrying out the surface survey.