End-user experience with the SCoTSS Compton imager and directional survey spectrometer

Abstract

The Silicon photomultiplier-based Compton Telescope for Safety and Security (SCoTSS) has been developed incorporating end-user requirements into the design process. The end-user group includes those responsible for mobile survey in the event of a radiological or nuclear accident, those responsible for radiation survey support to security operations at major events and at Canadian borders, as well as some of those responsible for Canadian defense applications. The SCoTSS development program has reached a technology readiness level of eight, and we are proceeding with field trials of the instrument in high-fidelity operational environments. Prospective end users have been involved in trial set up and execution, assuring applicability in their mission spaces. SCoTSS has been subject to trials involving hidden sources, heavily shielded sources, imager moving with respect to source, and complicated man-made surroundings. Our operators value high sensitivity for anomaly geolocation and mapping. End users also require an instrument which is capable of direction reconstruction in motion, as well as rapid imaging of a field of view. We have developed a "time to image" measure which allows for quantitative comparison of imagers of fundamentally different technology, where one design may have an advantage in terms of energy resolution and compactness and another design may have an advantage in terms of efficiency and cost effectiveness. We present here the performance of the SCoTSS imager in rapid direction finding. As well, we compare the time to image quantity for the SCoTSS imager and the H3D Polaris-H Quad imager where the data were taken under equivalent conditions. This quantitative measure of imaging performance can allow operators to make an informed choice of the design that meets their needs taking into consideration also weight and size as well as budgetary constraints.