Nuclear Radiation Detection Using Low Cost
Wireless System: Protection of Environment against
Nuclear Leakage and Dump
M.V. Karthikeyan,
St. Josephs College of Engineering
Chennai 600119, India.
AbstractThis paper attempts to integrate RF technology into
Nuclear Radiation detector circuitry. In the proposed system, a
Nuclear Radiation sensor upon senses Radiation, activates its
alarm, sends a low voltage signal to all the other Radiation
detectors in the vicinity. This low voltage signal activates the
individual relays in the other Radiation detectors causing to emit
a tone that alerts residents, that one of the Radiation detectors
senses Radiation. In this system the transmitter and the receiver
are installed in a unit and the need for the base is eliminated. The
individual Radiation detectors are equipped with all the
electronics required to both send and receive signals. They are
battery operated and therefore they require no external
connections. They can be installed by a layman just on a watch
tower. The proposed design is aiming to have cost efficient
system, compact design, easily expandable, simple to install,
replaceable components. The system was tested indoor with a
normal test bench with the presence of artificial source.
Keywords-Radiation Detection; RF technology; FM;
I. INTRODUCTION
Nowadays we absolutely depend on energy. Nuclear energy
is the source that generates enormous amount of energy
compared to the other dirty energies, such as thermal energy.
The contamination produced by the nuclear source is
comparatively much lesser, when compared with other energy
like thermal energy there by the nuclear energy is regrettably
called as clean energy. The legislation on the safety of nuclear
power plant has become a necessity, due to extremely serious
recursion of nuclear accident. Throughout the world, the cons-
truction of nuclear power plant involves strict safety measures,
to prevent radiation leakages.[1] In this proposed system, the
radiation sensors (ionization counter) placed in the surrounding
towers, sense the emission or leakage and transceiver raise the
alarm in local surrounding to evacuate the near people. The
advantage is elimination of human interference in detecting the
leakage with the most cost effective, zero maintainer security
system. The focal point of this system is, the Elimination of
centralized base node operation.
II. RELATED WORK
The previous work carried out was to find a suitable
solution to avoid mankind and environment with the danger of
nuclear radiation. With their proposed model the radiation
monitoring system can monitor and measure the rate of dose
within a radius of 20Km around the plant, ring consist of 10 to
20 gamma probe can be built up, with this can measure the
978-1-4244-9182-7/10/$26.00 2010 IEEE
R. Manasa,
Velammal Engineering College,
Chennai, Tamilnadu, India.
dose rate at different location .where each probe is connected
with the control unit, which will manage the power supply and
will also transfer the measured value from the probe to central
station .where data transmission is done by radio system.
[2].This is being carried outside the power plant where cost and
power controlling of each gamma probe is very difficult .With
failure of any one probe it needs a more cost and time effective
procedure to replace it both in network and in physical posting
.with failure of central control station make useless of all
gamma sensor probe.
III. IMPLEMENTED WIRELESS NUCLEAR RADIATION
DETECTION
In environment monitoring of nuclear radiation leakage
outside the power plant. Wireless sensor nodes are deployed in
fixed position around the site .these nodes which are connected
with RF are placed in communicatible distance with each other
while the far end terminates with local livestock. On radiation
leakage ionization radiations are being emitted. while the
radiation sensor [3] placed beyond the active site region on
sensing a higher radioactivity value activates the alarm in that
particular region and in synchronous transmits a digital address
pulse with FM modulation to the next transceiver [4].where
that node perform the same function of alarming and
retransmission of its own digital address over RF [5] waves for
a considerable long range. Thus result in all time surveillance
of the nuclear radiation leakage with a low cost and simple
model.
IV. TRANSMISSION MEDIUM
In order to propagate waves or energy, transmission media
is required. For telecommunication purposes, it is classified as
guided and unguided transmission media. Waves are guided
along a solid medium such as a transmission line for guided
transmission media while for unguided, transmission and
reception are achieved by means of an antenna [7]. In this
project, unguided or wireless communication system is
adopted. Wireless is defined as broadcasting or telegraphy
using radio signals and something that is lacking or not
requiring wires. Wireless communication is an unbounded
network and unguided system. It was begun in 1873, when the
British physicist, James Clerk-Maxwell announced the theory
of electromagnetic waves. Then, Heinrich Hertz produced the
first electromagnetic waves by short-circuiting a charged
capacitor in 1888. According to Joseph J. Carr, This unique
means of transmission has evolved greatly since Guglielmo
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Marconi successfully initiated the first wireless telegraph
transmission in 1895, but the concept has not changed. Then,
it is followed by Jean Antoine de Nollet who was successfully
sending electric discharge without conducting wires [8]. Since
then, wireless communication has evolved and power of
wireless technology continues to increase. Wireless
communication has several advantages and disadvantages. This
communication system reduces installation time since it is easy
to relocate a communicating device.
It is similar to plug and play devices. Besides wiring
reduction, it is simple matter to add in a communication device
to the system or remove one from the system without any
disruption to the remainder of the system. No additional cost of
rewiring is needed and the cost of running and maintaining a
radio based communications solution is minimal. The vital
advantage is its speed. Although it only covered limited areas,
it is more reliable and cost effective one providing a ultimate
usage of RF technology in environmental protection against
nuclear leakage. Than the traditional wired.
V. RADIO FREQUENCY
RF is a frequency or rate of oscillation within the range of
about 3 Hz and 30 MHz. This range corresponds to frequency
of alternating current electrical signals used to produce and
detect radio waves. In addition, infrared or IR is another type of
communication that can be used instead of RF. It is an
electromagnetic radiation of a wavelength longer than that of
visible light but shorter than that of radio waves [10]. In
general, IR is utilized in line of sight applications while RF is
the common choice in certain long range communication
settings. For example, a TV remote control uses IR
communication because it is needed in one room only and
cannot pass through walls as well. In contrast , the present
walkey talkey unidirectional communication hand set uses RF
communication for long range data transfer with less noise and
interference values .this same distinct RF range is being
selected for the highly secured operation for a considerable
long range for transmitting the address.
VI. NOISE
Electrical noise may be defined as any undesired voltages
or currents that ultimately end up appearing in the receiver
output. It may cause the original signal to be distorted in shape,
increased or decreased in amplitude, delayed slightly in time or
corrupted and modified. There is an external noise such as
manmade, atmospheric and space noise.
The examples for an internal noise are thermal and
transistor noise. Besides, there is a frequency noise effect. It is
called excess noise and occurs at frequency below about 1 kHz.
Therefore, dedicated frequency is decided to be used in this
project. Where all these discrete components used are formed
as a single chip to avoid maximum nuclear radiation
interference in mere future as a further study.
VII. SYSTEM IMPLEMENTATION
The system consists of several stages. In this Section a brief
description for each stage will be presented. Figure 1 shows the
block diagram of wireless nuclear radiation detection system.
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A. Radiation Detector
Radiation detection is accomplished by using an ionization
counter. It is a high tension stretched wire placed inside a gas
filled cylinder. While raising the wire (anode) to a high positive
voltage and surrounding body is connected to cathode
(ground). The total charge produced by the passage of an
ionizing particle through the active volume can be collected
and measured .when there is a single alpha, gamma particle
Figure 1. Block Diagram of Wireless nuclear radiation
detection System
being incident. That single event can cause a voltage pulse
proportional to the energy loss of the primary particle .where
the number of pulse in a given second is counted for setting up
the threshold. Where each distinct radioactive element have
distinct threshold level .The number of detector depends on
two things, distance between the plant to livestock and the
wind direction .The detector are placed at particular distance
because some default radiation level exist in the working
power plant region. The transceiver with detector placed at
distance detect the source of traces of live radioactivity with
above the threshold level .It activates the transmitter to send a
unique pulse to next receiver at same instant .the alarm in the
detected system raise the siren as a indication mechanism to
evacuate local surrounding villages about radiation leakage or
improper dumping .While in same time the next transceiver at
the communicatible range will sense its RF signal
corresponding address. decodes the signal when matches
activates the alarm in that zone .while again indicates a RF
signal in that transmitter to continue the propagation for a
longer distance up to the far end termination. Thus the
radioactive leakage is detected by a non human surveillance
setup is made with RF wireless link and low cost model with
zero maintance system for a continuous protection of the
surroundings is being throughout the year. The HT12E is
build for remote control system application. It able to encode N
address bits and 12-N data bits information. The programmed
addresses are transmitted together with the header bits via an
RF transmission medium upon receipt of a trigger signal. It
requires low power and high noise immunity CMOS
technology. The minimum transmission word is for words. It is
pair with Holteks 212 series of encoders. For supply voltage, -
0.3V to 13V is required [21]. In this work, HT12D is selected
since it has same number of addresses and data format.
 This factor leads to proper operation. HT12D receives
serial addresses and data from a programmed 212 series of
decoder through FM modulation. It then compares the serial
input data with their local address for three times continuously.
If there is no error, the input data codes are decoded and
transferred to the output pins. The VT pin also goes high to
indicate a valid transmission. Similar to HT12E, HT12D
capable of decoding N address bits and 12-N data bits
information. It operating voltage is between 2.4V to 12V [20].
Figure 2. Nuclear radiation detector
In this work, RTFQ2 transmitter and RRFQ2 receiver been
used. These 433MHz transmitter and receiver use frequency
modulation (FM) as a transmission medium. The transmitter
transmit digital signal to the receiver. When the receiver
receives the signal from the transmitter, it sends to the decoder.
Its 5V output activates the relay and turn on the alarm. The
operating voltage for the transmitter and receiver are 3V to
12VDC and 3V to 6VDC accordingly. RTFQ2 is available at
433.92MHz. The maximum output current is typically 950A
and the discharge current is lower that 2A.
The transmitter and receiver pair enables the simple
implementation of a data link distance up to 250 meters on
open ground [15].In this design a high DC power operated
Ionization sensor is utilized in detecting a wide area
geographical monitoring and emergency response sensor is
used .it consist a conductive outer cathode shell held at ground
potential, while the anode is supplied with several hundred
volts provided by an internal high voltage supply .a pulse
output, retrieved off the anode, heralds a nuclear particle
detection,which is a real time and round the clock system.
Where sensor can detect gamma emission from nuclear fallout
nearby or at levels consistent with a reasonably well shielded
gamma source some distance away.
Is being continuously monitored and activates the relay .
The supply for the ionization sensor can be a 9 V battery. The
operating voltage range is between 6 to 12 V and average
supply current is 12 A [27]. The current consumption is 1A.
The maximum current is 2A and the LED blinking once per 22
sec during standby mode.
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B. Transmitter
Figure 3 shows the transmitter circuit. There are RTFQ2
transmitter, switch, reset button, two resistors, eight diodes, an
encoder and capacitor. The switch carries an address by which
I use 00000000 for this project. The relay will activates any
input pin AD8, AD9, AD10 and AD11 of HT12E. AD10 is
selected to be used in this project. Then the encoder encodes
the analog signal to digital signal. At the same time, transmit
enable (TE) is in standby mode. From output Pin of HT12E,
the digital signal is send to pin 5 of the transmitter. It then
transmitted through pin 2 using RF signal.
C. Receiver
The receiver circuit is shown in Figure 3. The digital signal
will be the input for pin 1 of the receiver. Then it sends a
digital signal from pin 18 to the digital input pin of the HT-12D
decoder. In this project, the output pin D10 is activated. The
encoder will compare the address bits between the signal
received and the previous stored data which is 00000000. Since
the address bits matched, D10 on. It triggers the transistor to on
the relay and LED. The alarm turns on as the relay is on. In
addition, two 9V batteries are used in this circuit in order to
have longer battery performance.
Figure 3. Transmitter & Receiver Circuit
VIII. DISCUSSION
The wireless nuclear radiation sensor system is tested at
indoor with an artificial uranium ball which held successfully.
When the artificial radioactive source is brought near the
sensor with in time both the alarm at that transceiver kept loud
and the low voltage signal is being transmitted. Where the
transmitter and receiver made a communication with 250mts
and failed to communicate beyond this distance. Well this
might be due to the reflection; diffraction and attenuation
dominate the propagation of radio waves between the
transmitter and receiver.
IX. FUTURE DEVELOPMENT
The radiation sensor with RF communication evolved
alongside the great development of modern technologies and
recent trends .The latest issue about radiation detection with
transmission system is about interconnection systems .In other
words if an Transceiver goes off in on zone all the transceiver
connected next to it will not able to communicate with a net
result of failure to alarm and to communicate. This network
functional defect with wireless nuclear sensor transceiver nodes [5] Carr, Joseph J. Microwave & Wireless Communication Technology
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electromagnetic_spectrum.
home and communicate with a nearby low weight LEO
[8] AM, Fm Waves and Sound retrieved from
satellite to have a online data transfer. http://www.cybercollege.com/frtv/frtv017.htm.
[9] Frequency modulation in Wikipedia. Retrieved
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