Abstract: An apparatus for visualizing a movable radiation source, the apparatus comprising: a radiation angular position sensor arranged for generating an angular position, with respect to a sensor axis, of a radiation source emitting radiations in front of said radiation angular position sensor; a camera having a camera axis distinct from the sensor axis; a light diverter arranged in front of said radiation angular position sensor for diverting toward the camera, light originally emitted in front of said radiation angular position sensor toward the radiation angular position sensor, the light diverter being arranged to not change the direction of radiations emitted in front of said radiation angular position sensor; and a composite image generator arranged for adding to a camera image captured by the camera a radiation source marker at a position derived from said angular position and automatically scaled to the camera image size and resolution.

Abstract: A radiation probe system and method incorporating adaptive gamma radiation background subtraction for enhanced radiation detection capability is disclosed. The system and method are generally applicable to radiation “frisking” applications in which the contamination area may have high gamma radiation background levels that normally would result in loss of contamination radiation detection accuracy. Readings from a background radiation detector (BRD) are subtracted from a contamination radiation detector (CRD) to determine a count rate solely associated with contamination. A background subtraction factor (BSF) is used to scale the BRD subtraction and is automatically adjusted based on environmental conditions. A smoothing algorithm is used to increase/decrease the BRD and/or CRD acquisition times to account for signal variations in BRD/CRD measurement readings. The system and method provide for lower limit of detection (LLD) radiation levels that are below that of conventional radiation detectors.