title: Lightweight aerial vehicles for monitoring, assessment and mapping of radiation anomalies.
abstract: The Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant (FDNPP) incident released a significant mass of radioactive material into the atmosphere. An estimated 22% of this material fell out over land following the incident. Immediately following the disaster, there was a severe lack of information not only pertaining to the identity of the radioactive material released, but also its distribution as fallout in the surrounding regions. Indeed, emergency aid groups including the UN did not have sufficient location specific radiation data to accurately assign exclusion and evacuation zones surrounding the plant in the days and weeks following the incident. A newly developed instrument to provide rapid and high spatial resolution assessment of radionuclide contamination in the environment is presented. The device consists of a low cost, lightweight, unmanned aerial platform with a microcontroller and integrated gamma spectrometer, GPS and LIDAR. We demonstrate that with this instrument it is possible to rapidly and remotely detect ground-based radiation anomalies with a high spatial resolution (<1 m). Critically, as the device is remotely operated, the user is removed from any unnecessary or unforeseen exposure to elevated levels of radiation.
authors.affiliation: Interface Analysis Centre, HH Wills Physics University of Bristol, UK. Electronic address: james.macfarlane@bristol.ac.uk.
authors.forename: J W
authors.initials: JW
authors.lastname: MacFarlane
authors.affiliation: Interface Analysis Centre, HH Wills Physics University of Bristol, UK.
authors.forename: O D
authors.initials: OD
authors.lastname: Payton
authors.affiliation: Interface Analysis Centre, HH Wills Physics University of Bristol, UK.
authors.forename: A C
authors.initials: AC
authors.lastname: Keatley
authors.affiliation: Imperial College London, UK.
authors.forename: G P T
authors.initials: GP
authors.lastname: Scott
authors.affiliation: Interface Analysis Centre, HH Wills Physics University of Bristol, UK.
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Pullin
authors.affiliation: Water Research Laboratory, University of New South Wales, Australia.
authors.forename: R A
authors.initials: RA
authors.lastname: Crane
authors.affiliation: National Institute For Metals and Radioactive Resources Bucharest, Romania.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Smilion
authors.affiliation: National Institute For Metals and Radioactive Resources Bucharest, Romania.
authors.forename: I
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Popescu
authors.affiliation: National Company of Uranium, Romania.
authors.forename: V
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Curlea
authors.affiliation: Interface Analysis Centre, HH Wills Physics University of Bristol, UK.
authors.forename: T B
authors.initials: TB
authors.lastname: Scott
mesh_terms: D000401:Aircraft; D040362:Geographic Information Systems / Q000295:instrumentation; D011825:Radar / Q000295:instrumentation; D011834:Radiation Monitoring / Q000295:instrumentation*; D011847:Radioactive Fallout / Q000032:analysis*; D011868:Radioisotopes / Q000032:analysis*; D058998:Remote Sensing Technology / Q000295:instrumentation*; D012990:Soil Pollutants, Radioactive / Q000032:analysis*; D013051:Spectrometry, Gamma / Q000295:instrumentation
chemical_list: D011847:Radioactive Fallout; D011868:Radioisotopes; D012990:Soil Pollutants, Radioactive
keywords: Characterisation; Gamma spectrometry; Radiation monitoring; Unmanned aerial system