A portable swipe monitor for alpha contamination

Author

Whitley, C.R. ; Bounds, J.A. ; Steadman, P.A.

Author_Institution

Los Alamos Nat. Lab., NM, USA

Volume

45

Issue

3

fYear

1998

fDate

6/1/1998 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

533

Lastpage

535

Abstract

A portable swipe monitor has been developed at Los Alamos National Laboratory for the state of New Mexico. The monitor is intended for use at New Mexico ports of entry to detect removable alpha contamination on shipments bound for the proposed Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP). This detector uses Long-Range Alpha Detection (LRAD) technology, which monitors ionization created by alpha interactions with ambient air, and includes built-in background subtraction of external radiation fields and radon. Its sensitivity to alpha contamination is on the order of a few tens of dpm, and it has excellent linearity throughout its entire range of over 200,000 counts per minute of alpha activity. Designed to be used primarily in the field, the monitor is battery-powered and can operate continuously for up to five hours

Keywords

alpha-particle detection; nuclear materials transportation; portable instruments; radiation monitoring; radiation protection; radioactive waste; 5 h; LRAD technology; Long-Range Alpha Detection technology; Los Alamos National Laboratory; WIPP; Waste Isolation Pilot Plant; alpha contamination; background subtraction; battery-powered monitor; linearity; portable swipe monitor; waste shipments; Contamination; Ionization; Ionizing radiation; Isolation technology; Laboratories; Linearity; Object detection; Pollution measurement; Radiation detectors; Radiation monitoring;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Nuclear Science, IEEE Transactions on

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0018-9499

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/23.682443

Filename

682443