The main purpose of a Radiation Management Plan (RMP) of a uranium mine is to monitor radiation fields and to estimate personal radiation exposures. The radiation field monitoring needs to address the monitoring of external gamma radiation dose rates, radon activity concentrations in air, potential alpha energy concentrations of radon daughters in air and long lived radioactive dust concentrations in air. The radiation field monitoring above is used for personal radiation exposure assessment. The time trends of radiation fields may also be used for an early detection of defects of mining and/or milling operations.
Traditionally, the Radiation Safety Officer (RSO) and the RSO Office technical staff would place radiation monitors in fixed locations for a given period of time. The radiation monitors are collected and logged radiation monitoring data are downloaded from the radiation monitor into a computer and evaluated.
The RDS E-Monitoring Service has been designed to significantly decrease the need for 'physical' involvement of the RSO staff in the management of radiation field monitors. The RDS E-Monitoring Service is less labour intensive with monitored data being 'instantly' available to the RSO. Consequently, the RMP that uses the RDS E-Monitoring Service becomes more cost effective.
Any RDS radiation monitor listed below can be coupled with either a 'Mobile Internet' router or the 'Wireless' router that is connected to the client's internet. The measured radiation monitoring data are sent every 10 minutes to the RDS Monitoring Platform where data is stored and evaluated by proprietary graphical software. The client can download radiation data series in 'csv' format and graphs are downloaded in 'pdf' format.
The following RDS radiation monitors are a part of the E-Monitoring Service: