Lightweight aerial vehicles for monitoring, assessment and mapping of radiation anomalies

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 pertain...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:	Journal of environmental radioactivity Vol. 136; pp. 127 - 130
Main Authors:	MacFarlane, J.W., Payton, O.D., Keatley, A.C., Scott, G.P.T., Pullin, H., Crane, R.A., Smilion, M., Popescu, I., Curlea, V., Scott, T.B.
Format:	Journal Article
Language:	English
Published:	Kidlington Elsevier Ltd 01-10-2014 Elsevier
Subjects:	Aerials Aircraft Anomalies Applied sciences Assessments Characterisation Devices Earth sciences Earth, ocean, space Engineering and environment geology. Geothermics Exact sciences and technology Gamma spectrometry Geographic Information Systems - instrumentation Global environmental pollution Lightweight Pollution Pollution, environment geology Radar - instrumentation Radiation monitoring Radiation Monitoring - instrumentation Radioactive Fallout - analysis Radioactive materials Radioisotopes - analysis Remote Sensing Technology - instrumentation Soil Pollutants, Radioactive - analysis Spatial resolution Spectrometry, Gamma - instrumentation Unmanned aerial system Weight reduction Radiation monitoring Characterisation Unmanned aerial system Gamma spectrometry Cartography Radioactive pollution Unmanned aerial vehicle Surveillance Risk management Aerial survey Radioactivity measurement Remote sensing
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Summary:	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 (<1 m). Critically, as the device is remotely operated, the user is removed from any unnecessary or unforeseen exposure to elevated levels of radiation. •We present a new instrument for the remote detection of radiation in the environment.•The integration of sensors payload and UAV vehicle is shown.•The device is demonstrated to detect a single radiation anomalies remotely.•The device is demonstrated to map two radiation anomalies remotely and with a high spatial resolution.
Bibliography:	ObjectType-Article-1 SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1 ObjectType-Feature-2 content type line 23
ISSN:	0265-931X 1879-1700
DOI:	10.1016/j.jenvrad.2014.05.008