Interface Analysis Centre, University of Bristol, Tyndall Avenue, Bristol BS8 1TL, United Kingdom.
J Radiol Prot. 2023 Jan 13;43(1). doi: 10.1088/1361-6498/acab0b.
Technologies utilizing radiological materials across power generation, defence, industry, research and medicine have increased the global inventory of highly active and hazardous materials. Consequently, an amplified threat exists of illicitly obtained materials being used as part of hostile acts. The potential for intentional releases occurs alongside risks from natural disasters or facility accidents. In any such event, it is crucial to rapidly assess the release composition and extent of response and remediation activities. Therefore, the deployment of an effective, resilient and autonomous radiation monitoring network is pivotal both during and after an incident. Underpinning this assessment is a detailed understanding of the pre-event or background, radiation levels, the knowledge of which is also essential in assessing a population's dosimetric exposure to, and impact from anthropogenic and naturally occurring/varying sources of ionizing radiation. Presented here is a fully operational cloud-based spectroscopic radiation mapping platform comprising IoT modules compatible with cellular networks, without modification, in over 180 countries. Combined with locally roaming vehicles, a continuous multi-pass radiological characterization of an urban environment was performed. Such IoT devices are deployable as either individual sensors for specific localized temporal events or integrated over a greater time period (and area) to represent a larger static sensor. Over several months of continued operation, more than 1000 000 individual location-referenced gamma-ray spectra were collected and securely uploaded, in real-time, to an online cloud database and automatically characterized via a custom multi-step workflow. Fine-scale local variations in the radiological fingerprint of a 1 km × 1 km urban area were subsequently rendered in near-real-time to an interactive secure online graphical dashboard for temporal, spatial and spectral interrogation by the user. Considerations for the automated 'elastic' handling of ever-expanding volumes of input data have been carried out, facilitating propagation and expansion of the system's database without human input.
利用放射性材料的技术在发电、国防、工业、研究和医学领域的应用增加了全球高活性和危险材料的库存。因此，非法获取的材料被用作敌对行为的一部分的威胁大大增加。除了自然灾害或设施事故的风险外，还存在故意释放的可能性。在任何此类事件中，迅速评估释放物的组成以及应对和补救活动的范围至关重要。因此，在事件发生期间和之后，部署一个有效、有弹性和自主的辐射监测网络至关重要。这一评估的基础是对事件前或背景辐射水平的详细了解，这也是评估人口剂量学暴露于人为和自然发生/变化的电离辐射源的影响所必需的。这里介绍的是一个完全可操作的基于云的光谱辐射测绘平台，包括与蜂窝网络兼容的物联网模块，无需修改，在 180 多个国家/地区都可以使用。与本地漫游车辆相结合，对城市环境进行了连续的多通道放射性特征描述。这些物联网设备可以作为特定局部时间事件的单个传感器进行部署，也可以在更长的时间（和区域）内进行集成，以代表更大的静态传感器。在持续运行了几个月后，超过 100 万条带有地理位置参考的伽马射线光谱被实时安全地上传到在线云数据库，并通过自定义多步骤工作流程自动进行特征描述。随后，在近实时的情况下，将 1 公里×1 公里城市区域的放射性指纹的精细局部变化渲染到一个交互式安全在线图形仪表板上，以供用户进行时间、空间和光谱查询。还考虑了自动“弹性”处理不断扩展的输入数据量的问题，从而无需人工输入即可促进系统数据库的传播和扩展。
