Reconstruction of radial fission product distributions in reactor fuels from a small number of projections

Four mathematical techniques for reconstruction of the radial two-dimensional distribution of fission products using projections obtained by nondestructive gamma scanning were evaluated. Reconstruction of a picture from a finite set of projections is mathematically indeterminate; therefore, reconstruction techniques are heuristic, particularly when only a small number of projections are available. Of the techniques evaluated, the filtered backprojection algorithm provided the best reconstruction for simulated gamma-ray sources, as well as for actual irradiated fuel material. (orig.)