Investigation of techniques to improve continuous air monitors under conditions of high dust loading in environmental setting
| Autor: | Suilou Huang, John C. Rodgers, Stephen D. Schery |
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| Rok vydání: | 2000 |
| Předmět: |
Environmental Setting
Radionuclide Engineering Waste management business.industry Operating procedures Dust particles Environmental engineering chemistry.chemical_element Radon Plutonium Aerosol respiratory tract diseases ALARM Deposition (aerosol physics) chemistry Dust loading Radon Progeny Environmental science Particle size Waste Isolation Pilot Plant National laboratory business |
| DOI: | 10.2172/828630 |
| Popis: | A number of DOE facilities, such as the Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) and the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP), use alpha-particle environmental continuous air monitors (ECAMs) to monitor air for unwanted releases of radioactive aerosols containing such materials as plutonium and uranium. High sensitivity, ease of operation, and lack of false alarms are all important for ECAMs. The object of the project was to conduct investigations to improve operation of ECAMs, particularly under conditions where a lot of nonradioactive dust may be deposited on the filters (conditions of high dust loading). The presence of such dust may increase the frequency with which filters must be changed and can lead to an increased incidence of false alarms due to deteriorated energy resolution and response specificity to the radionuclides of interest. A major finding of the investigation, not previously documented, was that under many conditions thick layers of underlying nonradioactive dust do not decrease energy resolution and specificity for target radionuclides if the radioactive aerosol arrives as a sudden thin burst deposit, as commonly occurs in the early-warning alarm mode. As a result, operators of ECAMs may not need to change filters as often as previously thought and have data upon which to base more reliable operating procedures. |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
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