Continuous monitoring of radiation background in Moscow
In this article I want to briefly describe the project of the Nerdov-enthusiast team on continuous monitoring of radiation background in Moscow, based on a Geiger and Arduino counter, as well as the statistics obtained.
Household appliances are usually equipped with one or two Geiger-Muller SBM-20 counters.
As a sensor, we selected the SBM-19 counter, which is more sensitive. For example, with the natural background, the SBM-20 produces 0.10–0.11 μSv / h in the region of 20 pulses per second, and the SBM-19 gives about 80.
Calibration was performed using a bag of granite chips and a household dosimeter Radex 1706.
The binding of the Geiger-Muller counter was based on this scheme , which was not immediately started due to interference from the generator, and was modified. Interference had to be carefully removed. Each time a Geiger counter is triggered, a short square pulse appears at the output.
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As a controller, one of the Arduino clones with the installed Ethernet Shield was chosen.
Pulses are counted using an interrupt handler for 15 minutes, then the arithmetic average number of pulses per minute is multiplied by the coefficient obtained during calibration.
The controller is connected to the home network, and thus can add data to the Pachube service, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
The interval of 15 minutes is due to the fact that the measurements are more accurate, since random bursts are smoothed out.
The module together with the Geiger counter is brought out into the street in a hermetic casing consisting of 50 mm
PVC pipes, couplings adapter and two plugs. The most common sanitary building materials.
Hard gamma radiation penetrates freely through the walls of the pipe. Outdoor installation has the advantage that precipitations fall on the instrument case, dust accumulates from the atmosphere.
All equipment is powered by a powerful uninterruptible power supply.
To date, since April 2011, quite interesting statistics have been compiled.
The background mainly fluctuates within the normal range, around the value of 0.10 - 0.11 μSv / h (10-11 μR / h) around the clock, anomalies occur during rain, but do not directly correlate with it. It is logical that when it rains, radioactive substances are washed out of the atmosphere, but the increase in the background is not fixed at every shower.
There were three major anomalies (however, within the normal range):
There are other devices in the plans, for example, a device that sucks in dust from the atmosphere and precipitates it.
on the filter, the beta activity on which will be measured by a Geiger SBT-9 counter with a mica window.
Current readings are available around the clock here .
Household appliances are usually equipped with one or two Geiger-Muller SBM-20 counters.
As a sensor, we selected the SBM-19 counter, which is more sensitive. For example, with the natural background, the SBM-20 produces 0.10–0.11 μSv / h in the region of 20 pulses per second, and the SBM-19 gives about 80.
Calibration was performed using a bag of granite chips and a household dosimeter Radex 1706.
The binding of the Geiger-Muller counter was based on this scheme , which was not immediately started due to interference from the generator, and was modified. Interference had to be carefully removed. Each time a Geiger counter is triggered, a short square pulse appears at the output.
')
As a controller, one of the Arduino clones with the installed Ethernet Shield was chosen.
Pulses are counted using an interrupt handler for 15 minutes, then the arithmetic average number of pulses per minute is multiplied by the coefficient obtained during calibration.
The controller is connected to the home network, and thus can add data to the Pachube service, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
The interval of 15 minutes is due to the fact that the measurements are more accurate, since random bursts are smoothed out.
The module together with the Geiger counter is brought out into the street in a hermetic casing consisting of 50 mm
PVC pipes, couplings adapter and two plugs. The most common sanitary building materials.
Hard gamma radiation penetrates freely through the walls of the pipe. Outdoor installation has the advantage that precipitations fall on the instrument case, dust accumulates from the atmosphere.
All equipment is powered by a powerful uninterruptible power supply.
To date, since April 2011, quite interesting statistics have been compiled.
The background mainly fluctuates within the normal range, around the value of 0.10 - 0.11 μSv / h (10-11 μR / h) around the clock, anomalies occur during rain, but do not directly correlate with it. It is logical that when it rains, radioactive substances are washed out of the atmosphere, but the increase in the background is not fixed at every shower.
There were three major anomalies (however, within the normal range):
- During the fire in the general house panel board (it is not yet technically possible to determine which substances were in the smoke)
- A short but clear burst that lasted no more than 15 minutes. No smoke and no rain
- Strong surge in recent hurricane
There are other devices in the plans, for example, a device that sucks in dust from the atmosphere and precipitates it.
on the filter, the beta activity on which will be measured by a Geiger SBT-9 counter with a mica window.
Current readings are available around the clock here .
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/125869/
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