Search for lost or orphan radioactive sources based on NaI gamma spectrometry

Within recent decades many radioactive sources have been lost, stolen, or abandoned, and some have caused contamination or irradiation of people. Therefore reliable methods for source recovery are needed. The use of car borne NaI(Tl) detectors is discussed. Standard processing of spectra in general can disclose strong and medium level signals from manmade nuclides. But methods for detecting low level signals from weak, distant or shielded sources can be improved. New methods for source detection and identification based on noise adjusted singular value decomposition and on area specific stripping of spectra are presented.