Unmanned Radiation Monitoring System

Institute of Nuclear and Physical Engineering Slovak University of Technology in Bratislava, Bratislava, Slovakia
B&J NUCLEAR ltd, Miloslavov, Slovakia

jakub.luley@stuba.sk
branislav.vrban@bjnuclear.eu
stefan.cerba@bjnuclear.eu
filip.osusky@stuba.sk
vladimir.necas@stuba.sk

Published online: 20 January 2020

Abstract

The absence of online radiation monitoring systems has been observed in the case of Fukushima nuclear accident. As the tsunami destroyed 23 of the 24 status monitoring points, almost no relevant radiation dose measurements data were available. A rapid deployment of a mobile radiological unit that can quickly determine the activity and direction of the radioactive cloud spread on the ground or in the air can prevent unnecessary deaths and related financial losses. Although the design of the current generation of NPPs incorporates features that minimize the risk of large radioactive releases outside the reactor, it is still important to focus on the development of systems that can mitigate the consequences of such events. In situations when the level of radiation does not permit the personal to perform the required measurements, online unmanned radiation monitoring systems may come to the play. For such a purpose the RMS-00x radiation monitoring system could be used, which is a modular system covering the functionality of dose rate measurement, air sampling and radiation map creation without requiring the human personnel to be present at the measurement site. The main purpose of the RMS-00x radiation monitoring system is the rapid deployment of unmanned monitoring devices to reduce the radiation burden on workers and on public. The system can be applied in the vicinity of a nuclear power plant (NPP) or at any location, where source of ionizing radiation could be present. Before this system is used in real conditions, its components must be thoroughly calibrated, based on certified measurement equipment and state-of-art simulation tools. This paper deals with the description of the RMS-00X sensor modules and demonstrates their functionality in combination with UAV. In addition, demonstration of the use of the developed technology was carried out as part of the regular emergency planning and preparedness of EBO NPP on 26th October 2017.