"But will a container of bananas set it off and make it useless?"
The point of a multi-channel anylizer is to view a spectrum of energy patterns in the radiation. Each type of radiation has a unique energy signature that can be identified. NaI detectors don't have the best resolution and may not be able to differentiate between some similar signatures so the detector would most likely only alert the crew to further investigate with higher resolution equipment. They would know what could be confused with potassium with thier equipment. Those operating the equipment are usually very well trained and would anticipate such occurances.
I am suspicious as to how far they can actually detect radiation since distance is one of the largest factors in preventing exposure.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Ken @ Aug 24th 2006 1:46PM
"But will a container of bananas set it off and make it useless?"
The point of a multi-channel anylizer is to view a spectrum of energy patterns in the radiation. Each type of radiation has a unique energy signature that can be identified. NaI detectors don't have the best resolution and may not be able to differentiate between some similar signatures so the detector would most likely only alert the crew to further investigate with higher resolution equipment. They would know what could be confused with potassium with thier equipment. Those operating the equipment are usually very well trained and would anticipate such occurances.
I am suspicious as to how far they can actually detect radiation since distance is one of the largest factors in preventing exposure.