Airborne Particulate Radioactivity Monitoring
Continuous particulate air monitors (CPAMs) have been used for years in nuclear facilities to assess airborne particulate radioactivity (APR). In more recent times they may also be used to monitor people in their homes for the presence of manmade radioactivity. These monitors can be used to trigger alarms, indicating to personnel that they should evacuate an area. This article will focus on CPAM use in nuclear power plants, as opposed to other nuclear fuel-cycle facilities, or laboratories, or public-safety applications.
In nuclear power plants, CPAMs are used for measuring releases of APR from the facility, monitoring levels of APR for protection of plant personnel, monitoring the air in the reactor containment structure to detect leakage from the reactor systems, and to control ventilation fans, when the APR level has exceeded a defined threshold in the ventilation system.
Read more about Airborne Particulate Radioactivity Monitoring: Introduction, Dynamic Response of CPAMs, Selected CPAM Response Models: Constant Concentration, Example CPAM Response Plots, The Inverse Problem: Estimating A Concentration From The Observed Response