Continuous environmental radiation monitoring network at Kalpakkam

The report highlights our experience in the design and installation of monitoring stations as part of continuous environmental radiation monitoring network around the periphery of the nuclear complex at Kalpakkam. Five monitoring stations, one each in south-west sector (Main Gate I) and south-south west (Main Gate II) and the others in North sector (HASL and ESG) and in north-west section (WIP) have been set up. Two independent detector systems, based on high pressure ionisation chamber (HPIC) and energy compensated GM have been installed at each of these locations and the data has been logged continuously using a data logger. The data so gathered at each monitoring station is retrieved every week by means of a hand held terminal (HHT) with a built-in non-volatile memory and transferred to an IBM PC-AT for data analysis and archival. The report discusses in depth the design and developmental efforts undertaken to set up the network, starting from the basic detectors. The work involved the design of suitable electrometer circuits for measuring the low levels of current from HPICs, and the subsequent study of the performance of the highly sensitive preamplifier under diurnal variations of ambient conditions. The report includes, in detail the design aspects and fabrication details of low current measuring electrometer circuits