Summary
With the topics Weakened and Segmentation we now know everything we need to answer the question we posed at the beginning of this introductory tour, “What is segmented gamma scanning?”:
Segmented gamma scanning is a measurement and evaluation method to identify and quantify radioactive materials in containers.
The last part of this sentence “... and to quantify” may seem a bit surprising now, as we have not yet addressed the topic of quantification.
But it is very simple (and can also be extremely difficult in practice):
If we recognize through the spatial distributions that the radionuclides are homogeneously distributed in the container, and if we know that the container is filled homogeneously and completely with a material (such as cement), then we can use a formula and a few additional data - which we are not concerned with at this point (if you are, you can find more detailed information here) - to calculate its activity from the peak areas of the characteristic lines of a radionuclide.
To also learn some mathematical notation, here is the summary of the previous sentence:
\[A \sim Z\]
This expression states that the Activity A of a radionuclide is proportional to the Counting Rate Z. The counting rate Z is the number of impulses of a characteristic line divided by the measurement time.
Not so difficult, right? Now you know how to evaluate a segmented gamma scan measurement.
Or is it a bit more complicated?
