The status and prospective of environmental radiation monitoring stations in Saudi Arabia
- National Center for Radiation Protection, King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology, 11442 Riyadh (Saudi Arabia)
- ENVINET GmbH, Environmental Radiation Detection, Hans-Pinsel-Straße 4, 85540 Haar (Munich) (Germany)
The use of nuclear technology requires an environmental monitoring program to ensure the safety of the environment, and to protect people from the hazards of radioactive materials, and nuclear accidents. Nuclear accidents are unique, for they incur effects that surpass international frontiers, and can even have a long lasting impact on Earth. Such was the case of the Chernobyl accident in the Ukraine on April 6, 1986. For that purpose, international and national efforts come together to observe for any nuclear or radioactive accident. Many states, including Saudi Arabia which oversees the operation of the National Radiation, Environmental and Early Monitoring Stations, The Radiation Monitoring Stations(RMS’s) are currently scattered across 35 cities in the country,. These locations are evaluated based on various technological criteria such as border cities, cities of high population density, wind direction, etc. For new nuclear power plants hovering around, it is strongly recommended to increase the number of radiation monitoring stations to warn against any threat that may arise from a nuclear leak or accident and to improve the performance of the existing RMS’s. SARA (Spectroscopic Monitoring Station for air) should be implemented due to the high sensitivity to artificial radiation, automatic isotope identification, free of maintenance, and fully independent due to solar power supply (incl. battery backup) and wireless communication (GPRS)
- OSTI ID:
- 22307859
- Journal Information:
- AIP Conference Proceedings, Vol. 1615, Issue 1; Conference: ICANSE 2013: 4. international conference on advances in nuclear science and engineering, Denpasar, Bali (Indonesia), 16-19 Sep 2013; Other Information: (c) 2014 AIP Publishing LLC; Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 0094-243X
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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