Reconstruction of the activity of point sources for the accurate characterization of nuclear waste drums by segmented gamma scanning

This work improves the reliability and accuracy in the reconstruction of the total isotope activity content in heterogeneous nuclear waste drums containing point sources. The method is based on χ2‐fits of the angular dependent count rate distribution measured during a drum rotation in segmented gamma scanning. A new description of the analytical calculation of the angular count rate distribution is introduced based on a more precise model of the collimated detector. The new description is validated and compared to the old description using MCNP5 simulations of angular dependent count rate distributions of Co-60 and Cs-137 point sources. It is shown that the new model describes the angular dependent count rate distribution significantly more accurate compared to the old model. Hence, the reconstruction of the activity is more accurate and the errors are considerably reduced that lead to more reliable results. Furthermore, the results are compared to the conventional reconstruction method assuming a homogeneous matrix and activity distribution.