Nuclear detection via a system of widely distributed low cost detectors having data including gamma intensities, time stamps and geo-positions

A radiation detection system includes many receivers to continuously receive radiation emission data from at least some of a sufficient density of dispersed detectors capable of communicating geo-positions and photon emission counts over a network; the data includes gamma intensities, time stamps, and geo-positions. A processor builds digital image data of the received radiation data for a geographic area by treating gamma-ray proton data from each dispersed detector as a pixel in a low-light image. The processor continuously executes a plurality of statistical computational analyses on the digital image data to separate detected radiation signals from random, undesired signal noise, and known signal noise or sources. The statistical computational analyses include match-filter and/or other convolution techniques. An interface reports to a user when the computational analyses result in detection of a radiation signal and reports a location of one or more of the dispersed detectors that contribute to the detection.