title: Determining soil contamination profiles from intensities of capture-gamma rays using above-surface neutron sources.
abstract: Four methods are presented to estimate contaminant concentration profiles in soil from the intensities of neutron-induced capture-gamma photon intensities measured at the soil surface. In particular, the method of linear regularization with and without an iterative positivity constraint, the Backus-Gilbert method, and the maximum entropy method are applied to the soil contamination problem. Example results obtained with the four methods are given for photon intensities calculated for idealized test contaminant profiles in soil irradiated by neutron sources above the surface.
authors.affiliation: Department of Mechanical and Nuclear Engineering, Kansas State University, Manhattan 66506-2503, USA.
authors.forename: J K
authors.initials: JK
authors.lastname: Shultis
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Khan
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Letellier
authors.forename: R E
authors.initials: RE
authors.lastname: Faw
mesh_terms: D005720:Gamma Rays; D008962:Models, Theoretical; D009501:Neutron Activation Analysis / Q000379:methods* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D009502:Neutrons; D017785:Photons; D012990:Soil Pollutants, Radioactive / Q000032:analysis*
chemical_list: D012990:Soil Pollutants, Radioactive