Emergency Android-based Application for Radiation Evasion in Nuclear Facilities

An android-based system is developed for radiation evasion in nuclear facilities. The application is based on a navigation algorithm having general utility for occupational workers at nuclear facilities and places where radiation poses serious health hazards. This novel algorithm leverages the use of localized information for this task. Hence, this procedure will avoid the need for central processing power and any decision resources are avoided. In order to obtain the information needed for path planning for the purpose of radiation avoidance, a distributed wireless sensory infrastructure is needed, where a main server will be responsible for gathering all the readings from the distributed sensors in the facility, and accordingly distribute this information to all Android-based cell phones with workers in case of emergency evacuation alert. The algorithm is mainly based on a genetic-cultural algorithm scheme where the track is determined in a controlled genetic logic; the genetic component eliminates the huge number of computations necessary for the deterministic techniques while the control will reduce the random effects found in genetic algorithms. The cultural part of the algorithm enhances the functionality of this algorithm for serving various individuals in the same area with fewer computations. A Matlab code was built and run in order to test the logic of the algorithm. The developed code has been applied on an 18x18 m building with a certain hypothetical dynamic radiation distribution and considering various radiation leakage scenarios. The results were compared and validated against results from those existing codes that are used for the optimization of such a problem. The proposed algorithm showed an important improvement above those deterministic techniques, in the number of computations and in the computational time which is a very important parameter in the safety of a person who is exposed to radiation. The numerical results indicated an improvement in the performance of 20% over those nearest exist algorithms in use. In addition to that, the proposed algorithm bypassed the danger of stuck-in situation found in radiation evasion criteria codes. Moreover, the concept has been proved using the simulation by Arena. Moreover, an android application where built to illustrate the application of such a system using virtual radiation fields. The system provides real-time information on all safe paths at a certain time for evacuating to the “nearest and safest” exit possible. It can also provide information on the map on the nearest hospitals once the worker exits the facility and still within range for transmission. Actually, this is a very powerful tool that would attract the attention in the nuclear safety protection field and may be the base for a whole industry that would replace the reliance on the classical TLD and dose measuring techniques currently employed in nuclear facilities.