Nuclear fiber sensor remote detection system

Claim 1

A fiber sensor nuclear line detector system for monitoring movement of nuclear material about a remote perimeter, said system comprising: at least two nuclear fiber sensors portioned at two monitoring points a precise distance apart and individually located in close proximity to where a nuclear source will travel in an area to be monitored, each of said fiber sensors comprised of an organic scintillator inner core material embedded in a nuclear radiation transmitting polymer cladding outer material of a smaller index of refraction than said inner core material and which is fabricated into a nuclear radiation sensitive fiber sensor; at least two ultraviolet transmitting optical fibers, each of said sensitive fiber sensors connected to one of said at least two ultraviolet transmitting optical fibers for transmission of optical signals generated in said fiber sensors by movement of a nuclear radiation source emitting radiation which impinges on said organic scintillator core material when in close proximity thereto; a self contained sealed battery operated electronic system comprised of an optical detector and amplifier means for detecting said optical signals at the input thereto from said transmitting optical fibers and converting said optical signals into output electrical signal pulses according to the intensity and durations of said optical signals wherein said electrical signal pulses are passed through a preamplifier and signal thresholding device into a counter, said electronic system further comprised of microprocessor which serves as a data acquisition and verification device and which controls signal processing and data storage and has an event verification algorithm which discriminates between background noise and valid nuclear radiation events as indicated when the sum of the thresholded counts recorded by said counter exceeds a threshold signal in the microprocessor memory and a data key means for storing and retrieving event data along with exact time of said events; and an event read-out and data display system remote to said electronic system wherein said data key means is a data key insertable into said mircorprocessor for recording event data thereon and is removable from said microprocessor and dumped into said event read-out and data display system at another location.