Development of an Environmental Dose Monitoring System

Environmental dose monitoring involves the continuous measurement of radiation dose rates to ensure compliance with radiation safety regulations and to detect abnormal releases. The goal is to ensure that the radiation level remains well below the regulatory dose limits and to provide real-time data to initiate protective measures during a radiological incident. In this context, countries build stations in different locations to routinely monitor environmental dose rates through a centralized system.In this study, a scintillator-based detector system for continuous dose rate monitoring is presented. Compared to conventional Geiger-Müller (GM)–based systems, the system offers spectral analysis in addition to environmental dose rate monitoring. In this context, a low-cost 1024 to 4096 channel micro-multichannel analyzer unit has been developed. In order to measure high dose rates in the system, GM detectors were preferred. With this configuration, the system can measure dose rates of 10 nSv/h to 1.0 Sv/h in accordance with the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) standard IEC 60846-1.One of the biggest advantages of the developed system is that it can provide uninterrupted operation using only solar energy due to optimized power consumption. The system also provides a wide range of communication options (Ethernet, 4G and 5G, satellite).