CUSAM
Canberra Unattended Spectrometric Aerosol Monitor
The spectrometric monitor continuously measures air, sampled on a filter, and deduces nuclide activities, based on gamma radiation, and total alpha and beta activities. The results are communicated on-line or off-line to a remote computer system of the national monitor network.
AVAILABLE ONLY IN BENELUX
Features
- Continuos Air Monitoring
- Alpha, Beta and Gamma measurement unit
- Different alarm functions
- CANBERRA Genie software
- Quality Assurance features
- Transfer of data to a remote Communication Control Center via network or modem
- Synchronised measurements with variable measurement time.
- M.D.A.: typical 0.005 Bq/m³ (60Co) for a complete day. 0.03 Bq/m³ for a 4 hour measurement. The detection limits for the alpha and beta activities are respectively 0.01 and 0.03 Bq/m³
Description
The past decades the world has become very concerned with respect to environmental pollution. One of the main domains on this subject is the danger of radioactivity. Due to the Chernobyl accident several countries started programs to monitor the radioactivity in the air on their territory. Canberra Eurisys Benelux has developed an alpha/beta/gamma air monitor spectrometer system. Several countries have integrated such a system in their national environmental monitoring network.
The spectrometric monitor continuously measures air, sampled on a filter, and deduces nuclide activities, based on gamma radiation, and total alpha and beta activities. The results are communicated on-line or off-line to a remote computer system of the national monitor network.
The drawing shows the main components of the CUSAM. The cabinet contains the air sampling system, a CAM PIPS detector, possible NIM electronics and cabinet control electronics. The cabinet also holds the gamma measurement unit: Ge-detector with cooling unit and possible ICB NIM electronics or a DSA-2000 unit. A PC with screen, mouse, keyboard and printer is placed near the cabinet. Via an Ethernet network or modem it is possible to obtain on-line or off-line analysis results and measurement conditions from the system, for example for further processing in a spreadsheet application.
The main part of the sampling system is the filter unit, which accumulates the particles, present in the air. The filter band shifts each time a new measurement is started. A pump inside the cabinet circulates the air from the small chimney at the top, through the filter paper band, back to the top of the cabinet, where the air leaves the cabinet via a small hole.
The principle part of the alpha/beta measurement unit in the cabinet is the CAM PIPS detector, which allows a reasonable discrimination between beta and alpha activity. The energy proportional detector signals, induced by the impinging alpha/beta particles, originating from radio-active air particles, are processed by (ICB) NIM electronics or a MCA board (inside the PC) and finally the energy dependent events are stored in the MCA board or AIM NIM module, a networked blind MCA. Special algorithms deduce the natural and artificial alpha activity and the (artificial) beta activity from the registered alpha/beta spectrum (counts in specific energy windows).
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