Automatic Real Time Air Monitoring of 85Kr Utilizing the 4096 Memory of a Multiparameter Analyzer

Abstract

A noble gas atmospheric monitoring field grid system in which ⁸⁵Kr is used as a tracer has been designed, constructed and implemented for studying atmospheric transport and diffusion. This system has demonstrated its usefulness in the quantitative measurement of the transport and diffusion of both continuous and true puff‐type radioactive gas releases on a real‐time basis. Small fluctuations in the air concentrations of the tracer are determined by using integrating times of as little as 1 sec. The system consists of a large group of field detectors which relay their information to a 4096 address memory. The memory is presently programmed to accept information from 64 detectors. Information is accumulated in groups of 64 time channels and these groups are automatically stepped by the programmer. A time interval selector allows automatic advance of the stepping process at a slow or fast rate allowing the desired differential data accumulation. The memory is read out on magnetic tape and the equipment is ready for the next field test 35 sec after completion of a tracer field test.