Studies Manufacturing an Automatic Monitoring System for Quickly Detecting Radiation Incidents in the Marine Environment

Vietnam is a country located on the coast of the East Sea with an exclusive economic zone of about one million km2. Due to the geographical location of Vietnam, which has a long coastline, radiation issues in the marine environment always need to be a concern. In addition, three nuclear power plants in southern China have recently been put into commercial operation, including Fangchenggang (Guangxi) with a capacity of 1,000 MW, Yangjiang (Guangdong) 600 MW, and the 650 MW unit of Xiangjiang (Hainan Island). Although they are new and safe technology generations, the construction of many nuclear power plants in China requires our attention to the cross-border pollution propagation of radiation in the marine environment. We researched and fabricated magnetic equipment for monitoring and warning marine radiation to contribute to its monitoring in the marine environment. The system operates on the following principle: isotopes 134Cs and 137Cs in the seawater sample are selectively absorbed onto Cu2[Fe(CN)6 bound to acrylic fibers contained in a well-shaped Cartridge by an automatic water pump according to a predetermined time; at the end of the sample pumping time, the Cartridge is automatically transferred to the RAD5 gamma measuring system with a NaI(Tl) scintillation detector, while the system automatically pumps another sample into a waiting Cartridge for the next measurement; at the end of the measurement time, the system automatically removes the Cartridge from the detector and transfers it to another Cartridge that has been pumped with seawater for continued measurement. At the end of the measurement cycle, the system automatically sends an email of the measurement results to the host computer. The pumping and measurement cycle of the system is within 5 days, then it replaces the Cartridges and repeats the process. The system has the function of quickly alerting the release of radioactive material into the marine environment through two isotopes Cs-134 and Cs-137, which are the main isotopes generated from nuclear incidents. (author)