Patent ID: 8294114

Claim:
A method for monitoring a container or the contents in a volume ( 39 , 47 ), comprising the steps of: allowing at least one of a beta, gamma, neutron, and proton radiation emerging from said container or volume ( 39 , 47 ), and/or secondary particles or radiation brought forth by said radiation, to pass through a measuring volume ( 12 , 12 ′) of at least one radiation detector ( 10 , 10 ′, 10 ″), said measuring volume ( 12 , 12 ′) containing a noble gas and/or a noble gas isotope, or a mixture of noble gases and/or noble gas isotopes; detecting scintillation photons generated within said measuring volume ( 12 , 12 ′) by an interaction ( 18 , W 1 , . . , W 4 ) of the radiation with the noble gas or noble gases and/or their isotopes of the measuring volume ( 12 , 12 ′) by means of a photon detecting means comprising photon counters or avalanche photodiodes, ( 15 , 16 , 53 ); and deriving from the output of said photon detecting means ( 15 , 16 , 53 ) information to discriminate protons, neutrons, beta and gamma rays, respectively, exclusively on the basis of scintillation pulse shapes, thereby deriving information about the container or the contents in the volume.