Portable radiation monitor assures cleanup levels

Sevenson Environmental Services, Niagara Falls, NY, is a contractor at the EPA Superfund site at Montclair, NJ. Working with the Army Corps of Engineers, they are cleaning up radium waste left by a watch factory from the early 1900s. With the hazards of radium unknown at the time, radium in its many forms was spread throughout the region. As sand, it was used for concrete, as ash for packing material, and sometimes as landfill. When a hazardous site is found, Sevenson excavates the contaminated material and replaces it with clean fill. A Reuter-Stokes RSS-112 portable gamma monitoring system is used to ensure radiation is at sample background levels. Using a pressurized ionization chamber (PIC), the RSS-112 measures exposure rates from background to serious alarm levels over a wide energy range. Measurement takes place every five seconds. The portable system is 50% lighter than its predecessor and includes 300 point data storage, graphic display panel, 120-hour battery life between recharges, and RS-232 interface for downloading to a PC