A Mobile Complex System for Fast Internal Contamination Monitoring in Nuclear and Radiological Terrorism Scenarios

In order to properly respond to an emergency of nuclear and radiological terrorism, we realized a mobile complex system (MCS) for conducting on field a large-scale individual monitoring of internal contamination by gamma emitters. The proposed MCS consists of a collective protection apparatus and a HPGe portable spectrometer for whole-body and thyroid measurements. The MCS performance was evaluated and showed, assuming, for instance, an acute inhalation of 137Cs and 131I occurred 5 days before measurement, detection limit values resulting in a committed effective dose equal to 0.07 mSv, and a maximum committed equivalent dose to thyroid equal to 1.3 mSv, respectively. Considering the annual limit of effective dose for public exposure and the lowest reference level to plan stable iodine prophylaxis, the proposed MCS has a significant sensitivity to be used for fast internal monitoring in nuclear and radiological emergencies from malicious acts. This MCS allows to operate in contaminated environment and to monitor daily a large amount of individuals.