Distributed Radiation Monitoring Via a Secure Wireless Sensor Platform

Sensors have long been used to monitor radiation emanating from nuclear materials throughout their life cycles. However, many of these systems have relied on area monitoring techniques, which are designed to detect background changes, or hard-wired installations focused on item monitoring, which can be costly to install [1]. Current innovations in low-power wireless devices could be used to improve the feasibility of using radiation monitoring for nuclear safeguards that require item monitoring. Wireless sensors are easier to set up, have lower installation costs, and provide more flexibility in dynamically changing environments. The requirements of a wireless sensor platform for use in distributed radiation monitoring applications to meet the requirements of nuclear safeguards were investigated. This paper discusses the proposed platform, including estimates of the power consumption and battery life of this device. The work described here extends previous work on developing a similar Ethernetconnected platform [2]. At the time of this paper, final design and testing of the platform had not been completed but was planned as future work.