Author(s)

Tom Burr, Avigdor Gavron

Neutron Science Center, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, USA.
Statistical Sciences, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, USA.

One of the simplest tests of a radiation portal monitor (RPM) is a series of n repeats (a vehicle drive-through) in which the ith repeat records a total number of counts Xi and alarms if Xi ≥ T where T is an alarm threshold. The RPM performance tests we consider use n repeats to estimate the probability p = P(Xi ≥ T). This paper addresses criterion A for testing RPMs, where criterion A is: for specified source strength, we must be at least 95% confident that p ≥ 0.5. To assess criterion A, we consider a distribution-free test and a test relying on assuming the counts Xi have approximately a Poisson distribution. Both test options require tolerance interval construction.

Poisson Distribution; Radiation Portal Monitor; Tolerance Interval

T. Burr and A. Gavron, "Pass/Fail Criterion for a Simple Radiation," Modern Instrumentation, Vol. 1 No. 3, 2012, pp. 27-33. doi: 10.4236/mi.2012.13004.