A Radiation-Tolerant Wireless Monitoring System Using a Redundant Architecture and Diversified Commercial Off-the-Shelf Components

This paper presents a radiation-tolerant design of a wireless system which allows commercial off-the-shelf electronic components to be used in high-level radiation fields, such as those found in a nuclear power plant (NPP) after a severe accident. This paper starts with the analysis of the characteristics of the radiation environment after a severe accident, with the focus on radiation effects on electronics. Based on such analysis, two approaches have been taken to mitigate the impact of radiation and to prolong the life of the electronics system: radiation shielding and radiation-tolerant design. To assess the effectiveness of this design approach, an evaluation method for radiation protection and system reliability evaluation has been developed. Even though such an assessment technique cannot replace physical radiation tests, it provides an effective way to select suitable components and estimate the radiation-tolerance at the system design stage. The results of the assessment for the current design have concluded that under the radiation conditions similar to those in an NPP under a severe accident, the designed system can be comparable to those made of radiation-hardened components. The developed redundant wireless system can be deployed in environments with a radiation up to $1 ~\text {M}\cdot \text {Rad}$ (Si).