Patent ID: 7285784

Claim:
A real-time method in a computer system for identifying radioactive materials, the method comprising: providing a data library of nuclear material definitions (“library definitions”) each uniquely defining a known nuclide, isotope, or material based on a set of at least one logic condition associated with a corresponding spectral parameter of a gamma-ray energy spectrum and which set of logic condition(s) is unique to the known nuclide, isotope, or material; collecting gamma count rates from a HPGe gamma-radiation detector to produce a high-resolution gamma-ray energy spectrum; automatically calibrating the detected gamma-ray energies based on a current temperature of the HPGe detector at the time of detection, by utilizing an energy calibration coefficient table having predetermined calibrations coefficients associated with predetermined temperatures of the HPGe detector; determining whether the spectral parameters of said high-resolution gamma-ray energy spectrum satisfy all the logic conditions in a set of any one of said library definitions; uniquely identifying the material type as that nuclide, isotope, or material having all of its set of logic conditions satisfied by the spectral parameters of said high-resolution gamma-ray energy spectrum; and reporting the identified nuclide or isotope type to an operator.