title: Alarm criteria in radiation portal monitoring.
abstract: Gamma detectors at border crossings are intended to detect illicit nuclear material. These detectors collect counts that are used to determine whether to trigger an alarm. Several candidate alarm rules are evaluated, with attention to background suppression caused by the vehicle. Because the count criterion leads to many nuisance alarms and because background suppression by the vehicle is smaller for ratios of counts, analysis of a ratio criterion is included. Detection probability results that consider the effects of 5 factors are given for 2 signal-injection studies, 1 for counts, and 1 for count ratios.
authors.affiliation: Los Alamos National Laboratory, Statistical Sciences Group, Mail Stop F600, Los Alamos, NM 87545, USA. tburr@lanl.gov
authors.forename: Tom
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Burr
authors.forename: James R
authors.initials: JR
authors.lastname: Gattiker
authors.forename: Kary
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Myers
authors.forename: George
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Tompkins
mesh_terms: D004868:Equipment Failure; D005720:Gamma Rays; D011482:Protective Devices; D011834:Radiation Monitoring / Q000295:instrumentation*; D017751:Safety Management