TY - JOUR
T1 - Lightweight aerial vehicles for monitoring, assessment and mapping of radiation anomalies
AU - MacFarlane, J. W.
AU - Payton, O. D.
AU - Keatley, A. C.
AU - Scott, G. P T
AU - Pullin, H.
AU - Crane, R. A.
AU - Smilion, M.
AU - Popescu, I.
AU - Curlea, V.
AU - Scott, T. B.
PY - 2014/1/1
Y1 - 2014/1/1
N2 - The Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant (FDNPP) incident released a significant mass of radioactive material into the atmosphere. An estimated 22% of this material fell out over land following the incident. Immediately following the disaster, there was a severe lack of information not only pertaining to the identity of the radioactive material released, but also its distribution as fallout in the surrounding regions. Indeed, emergency aid groups including the UN did not have sufficient location specific radiation data to accurately assign exclusion and evacuation zones surrounding the plant in the days and weeks following the incident. A newly developed instrument to provide rapid and high spatial resolution assessment of radionuclide contamination in the environment is presented. The device consists of a low cost, lightweight, unmanned aerial platform with a microcontroller and integrated gamma spectrometer, GPS and LIDAR. We demonstrate that with this instrument it is possible to rapidly and remotely detect ground-based radiation anomalies with a high spatial resolution (<1m). Critically, as the device is remotely operated, the user is removed from any unnecessary or unforeseen exposure to elevated levels of radiation.
AB - The Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant (FDNPP) incident released a significant mass of radioactive material into the atmosphere. An estimated 22% of this material fell out over land following the incident. Immediately following the disaster, there was a severe lack of information not only pertaining to the identity of the radioactive material released, but also its distribution as fallout in the surrounding regions. Indeed, emergency aid groups including the UN did not have sufficient location specific radiation data to accurately assign exclusion and evacuation zones surrounding the plant in the days and weeks following the incident. A newly developed instrument to provide rapid and high spatial resolution assessment of radionuclide contamination in the environment is presented. The device consists of a low cost, lightweight, unmanned aerial platform with a microcontroller and integrated gamma spectrometer, GPS and LIDAR. We demonstrate that with this instrument it is possible to rapidly and remotely detect ground-based radiation anomalies with a high spatial resolution (<1m). Critically, as the device is remotely operated, the user is removed from any unnecessary or unforeseen exposure to elevated levels of radiation.
KW - Characterisation
KW - Gamma spectrometry
KW - Radiation monitoring
KW - Unmanned aerial system
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84902470293&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.jenvrad.2014.05.008
DO - 10.1016/j.jenvrad.2014.05.008
M3 - Article (Academic Journal)
C2 - 24949582
AN - SCOPUS:84902470293
VL - 136
SP - 127
EP - 130
JO - Journal of Environmental Radioactivity
JF - Journal of Environmental Radioactivity
SN - 0265-931X
ER -