Advances in alpha air monitoring instrumentation

Conference · Thu Jan 01 00:00:00 EST 1987 · Transactions of the American Nuclear Society; (USA)

OSTI ID:5334185

Bethel, E; Geiger, E; Little, J

Facilities handling unsealed, alpha-emitting radionuclides, like {sup 239}Pu, {sup 238}Pu, or {sup 241}Am, must be able to rapidly detect these radionuclides in air for effective worker protection. The last major advance in alpha air monitoring was made in the early 1970s when solid-state silicon-diffused junction detectors made it possible to measure alpha particles from long-life alpha emitters and partially reject those from short-life radon daughters. Availability of fast analog-to-digital converters and microcomputers now make it possible to do an even better job in minimizing the interference from radon daughters. Further improvement has been made by adding a mass-flow measuring system to provide an accurate measurement of the airflow rate. An alpha air monitor, model ALPHA-6, was designed based on work done over the last few years at the Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL). The instrument used microcomputer technology, which greatly enhances the ability to strip out most of the interference from radon daughters. At the time this paper was prepared, no testing had been performed on the ALPHA-6. Based on the work done at LANL, interference from radon daughters is expected to be reduced so that the detectability of present alpha air monitors is improved by a factor of {approximately}4.

• OSTI ID: 5334185
• Report Number(s): CONF-871101-; CODEN: TANSA; TRN: 90-002520
• Journal Information: Transactions of the American Nuclear Society; (USA), Vol. 55:3; Conference: Joint meeting of the American Nuclear Society and the Atomic Industrial Forum, Los Angeles, CA (USA), 15-19 Nov 1987; ISSN 0003-018X
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

11 NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS
22 GENERAL STUDIES OF NUCLEAR REACTORS
ALPHA PARTICLES
RADIATION DOSES
NUCLEAR FACILITIES
AIR SAMPLERS
LASL
RADIATION PROTECTION
RADON
RELIABILITY
CHARGED PARTICLES
DOSES
ELEMENTS
EQUIPMENT
FLUIDS
GASES
NATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS
NONMETALS
RARE GASES
SAMPLERS
US AEC
US DOE
US ERDA
US ORGANIZATIONS
054000* - Nuclear Fuels- Health & Safety
220900 - Nuclear Reactor Technology- Reactor Safety