Environmental radioactivity

Main features

PMS are continuous and automatic stations for the surveillance of large areas and workplaces with emphasis on real-time monitoring of radioactive pollution. Each PMS provides:

a “real time” evaluation of radioactive contamination on aero-dispersed particulate, due to alpha and beta emitters;
gamma background measurement;
sampling of particulate matter for laboratory analyses;
measurement of atmospheric conditions (temperature, barometric pressure, humidity, wind speed, wind direction, and precipitation amount).

The heart of the PMS is the RAM-31 , a monitoring system for alpha/beta emitting long-lived radio-nuclides that may be released by nuclear activities or due to the presence of NORM and TENORM. This instrument uses spectrometric techniques to carry out the continuous monitoring of radioactive aerosols collected on a 47mm filter.

It performs on-line measurements using a 5 Regions Of Interest (ROI) analysis to evaluate the presence of long- lived alpha and beta emitters, thus providing their corresponding concentrations in air (in Bq/m³).

Counts from these ROIs are then processed through a complex proprietary algorithm to identify the contributing components of alpha and beta emitters, and determine whether they are artificial or naturally occurring (radon and thoron daughters).

After on-site measurement of alpha/beta emitters, particulate matter collected on filters is used for other analyses, including some key metals (As, Co, Cr, Cu, Fe, Ni, Pb, and W) and the ²³⁵U/²³⁸U isotope ratio, and for the characterization of metallic nanoparticles.

Field of application

safety and health protection of workers;
“real time” evaluation of radioactive contamination in air due to alpha, beta and gamma emitters, evaluation of radioactive contamination in air, sampling of particulate matter for laboratory analyses.
dirty bombs early warning;

Final users

oil and energy industries;
civil protection agencies;
environmental protection agencies;
military;
nuclear plants;