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Abstract

A high-energy radiation detector includes a collimator, coupled to one end of a scintillator and the other end of the scintillator optically coupled to an optical window. The optical window is composed of a material having a predetermined amount of heavy metal therein. The optical window is further coupled to a photomultiplier which generates an electrical signal based upon the amount of light directed thereon. A radiation shield extends only around the scintillator and around limited portions of the optical window to minimize the weight of the radiation detector. A method for detecting high-energy radiation includes the steps of collimating the radiation, transforming the collimated radiation into light, optically channeling the light, converting the channeled light into an electrical signal, and shielding the non-collimated radiation which would have been transformed due to the directional orientation of that non-collimated radiation by excluding said non-collimated radiation during the optical channeling of the light and by further excluding the non-collimated radiation from the immediate vicinity of the transformation of the collimated radiation.

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First Claim