Patent ID: 9417342
Filing Date: 2016-08-16
CPC Classification: G01T

Claim Text:
1. A nuclide decay discriminator system comprising: (a) radiation detection device (RDD); (b) analog-to-digital converter (ADC); (c) digital computing device (DCD); (d) operator interface console (OIC); (e) real-time display (RTD); (f) nuclide state database (NSD); (g) transition probability database (TPD); and (h) state permutation engine (SPE); wherein said RDD is configured to detect radiation and produce an analog electrical signal corresponding to the detection of a radiation event; said RDD is configured to electrically couple said analog electrical signal to said ADC; said ADC is configured to convert said analog signal to digital radiation data (DRD) representing the presence of detected radiation in said RDD; said DCD is configured to count occurrences of said DRD that are above a predetermined energy detection threshold (EDT) to produce a radiation detection count (RDC); said DCD is configured to accept via said OIC a nuclide inspection list (NIL); said DCD is configured to retrieve nuclide state information (NSI) from said NSD that defines the possible states of nuclides within said NIL; said DCD is configured to use said NSI to define nuclide state branches (NSB) that define transitions between states listed in said NSI; said DCD is configured to associate a state transition probability (STP) for each of said NSB by retrieving a probability associated with said NSB from said TPD; said DCD is configured to recursively permute said NSB using said SPE to form a nuclide state chain (NSC) list associated with each of said nuclides within said NIL; said DCD is configured to compute an overall nuclide chain probability (NCP) for each said NSC; said DCD is configured to generate a nuclide probable decay chain (PDC) list from said NSC by including in said PDC only chains in said NSC having a NCP above a predetermined threshold; said DCD is configured to associate a detected energy level in said DRD with entries in said PDC to produce a detected nuclide decay (DND) list; said DCD is configured to display said DND list to said RTD for review by an operator in real-time; and said DCD is configured to display said RDC associated with entries in said RTD for review by said operator in real-time.