On the Detection of Rare, and Moderately Rare Nuclear Events

Published

October 16, 2008

Author(s)

Lloyd A. Currie

Abstract

Some of the more important developments in science and practical demands in commerce have been linked to attempts to detect rare events and rare contaminants, ranging from the early counting of solar neutrinos to the occurrence of dodder seeds in clover. For moderately rare events ( 5 to 50 counts) we consider limitations of the Poisson-normal approximation, together with the apparent problem of excessive false positives when a common expression is (mis-)used for detection decisions. For very rare events, rigorous approaches published more than half a century ago are applicable to such current problems as trace actinide contamination, and nuclear treaty monitoring.

Citation

Journal of Radioanalytical and Nuclear Chemistry

Pub Type

Journals

Keywords

a consistent approach, exact Poisson treatment, international defining expressions, low-level detection capabilities, nuclear treaty monitoring, Poisson-normal approximation, rare event detection, Sc as a random variable, spurious false positives

Citation

Currie, L. (2008), On the Detection of Rare, and Moderately Rare Nuclear Events, Journal of Radioanalytical and Nuclear Chemistry (Accessed January 15, 2025)