Communications: electrical – Condition responsive indicating system – Specific condition
Reexamination Certificate
2001-12-26
2003-09-30
Pham, Taon Ngoc (Department: 2632)
Communications: electrical
Condition responsive indicating system
Specific condition
C340S539290, C250S336100, C250S484500
Reexamination Certificate
active
06628201
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a radiation measurement alarm system having a combination of a master machine and a plurality of slave machines which communicate wirelessly to each other. The present invention provides a social system that enables, in case of a radiation leak accident, multitudes of inhabitants or workers dealing with the accident carry the slave machines. The slave machines measure the amount of radiation exposure in real time, and send this measured result automatically to the master machine by wireless communication. The master machine recognizes the accurate radiation dose of the exposure, determines the degree of danger, and notifies the determined result in real time individually, to people carrying the slave machine who are the exposed victims, or people that are feared of being exposed, according to the danger degree.
2. Background Art
In recent years, there have been accidents of radiation leaks in nuclear facilities all over the world, such as nuclear power plants, related nuclear fuel manufacturing facilities, and radioactive waste disposal facilities. Local inhabitants have been exposed to radiation because of these accidents. Countermeasures have been taken, such as evacuation to minimize exposure, and working or getting medical treatment while being measured of the amount of exposure. The existence of these nuclear energy utilization facilities can be accepted, essentially only when safety is mortgaged. Therefore, it is often explained by the facility administering side that it is absolutely safe, because the most thoroughgoing radiation leak countermeasure thinkable has been taken at all times. But, in reality, there have often been radiation leak accidents, and exposure damages have occurred among the inhabitants and concerned people. In other words, the safety myth has crumbled, and there is feeling that human ability has a limit. Furthermore, since absolute safety is an assumption, there have been almost no radiation measurement alarm system presented that is effective for inhabitants dealing with the unlikely event of an accident.
There have been numerous radiation measuring instruments and radiation measurement systems developed or presented, such as Japanese Patent Laid Open Publication No. Hei. 10 197645, Japanese Patent Laid Open Publication No. Hei. 08 82681, Japanese Patent Laid Open Publication No. Hei. 10 10234, Japanese Patent Laid Open Publication No. Hei. 08 334563, and so on. All of these systems, however, are either a method to accurately measure the radiation used by concerned people within a specified facility, or a system that provides a specified observation point, and acquiring and visualizing automatically the radiation distributed circumstances.
In the above-mentioned Japanese Patent Laid Open Publication No. Hei. 10 197645 there is provided a radiation measuring instrument in which the changing of the probe is easy and simple, thereby minimizing fear of mis configuration. This radiation measuring instrument is used by selecting a probe from among pluralities of probes, and by connecting it to a common measurement part through a connection part. The shape of this connection part that connects the probe and the measurement part is common, and there is also probe type notifying means that automatically notifies the measurement part, which probe type was connected to the connection part.
Those systems disclosed in the above-mentioned Japanese Patent Laid Open Publication No. Hei. 08 82681 are aimed at reducing only the effects of the surge noise, without changing the monitor function caused by the surge noise. In the case of measuring radiation by counting pulses after a wave height discrimination has been conducted for the signal pulses generated in the radiation measuring instrument, a wave height discrimination is conducted on the positive pole side and the negative pole side of the signal coming from the radiation measuring instrument. When a negative pole side signal is detected in this wave height discrimination, a dead time is set for prohibiting detection of signals from the radiation detector, for a prescribed duration of time succeeding the detection.
Those systems disclosed in the above-mentioned Japanese Patent Laid Open Publication No. Hei. 08 334563 enables, in an emergency, the automatic acquisition of the distributed circumstances of radiation that changes every minute, in real time as is possible, and as visualized information. This acquisition system is aimed at reducing time, improving efficiency, increasing the accuracy of the information, and reducing the radiation exposure to the person in charge of the measurement.
As means for achieving the above-mentioned object, the system is composed of multitudes of mobile slave stations, measuring the radiation dose at the measuring site, and a master station, processing data at a location far and remote from the slave stations. Preferably, at least twenty to thirty slave stations are installed. Each of these slave stations has a GPS location measurement instrument that detects the installed location, a radiation measuring instrument that measures the radiation dose at prescribed intervals, and a data transmitting apparatus that transmits the detected location data and the radiation dose data to the master station with wireless communication. The master station has a data receiving apparatus that receives the location data and the radiation dose data from each of the slave stations. The master station also has a data processing apparatus that immediately makes a database out of the reception data. The master station also has a contour map of the radiation dose rate drawn in real time, making a monitor image of the radiation dose rate map of the measured area, by overlaying the contour map on the geographic information system.
In the above-mentioned Japanese Patent Laid Open Publication No. Hei. 10 10234, a spatial radiation dose equivalent rate and a concentration of surface contamination are measured for workplaces where radioactive material exist, such as a nuclear power plant. Location information is also acquired with signals from plural wireless transmitters.
As means for achieving the above-mentioned object, wireless transmitters are placed at plural locations inside a radiation operation area where radiation is handled. A transportable radioactivity measuring instrument, carried by the radiation operators, receives the radio waves transmitted from these plural wireless transmitters. Information of the location inside the area is acquired by data processing, and radiation measurement is also conducted.
As mentioned above, conventional radiation measuring instruments and radiation measurement systems merely are methods to measure radiation within a specified facility, or merely visualize the distributed circumstances of radiation with the provision of specified observation points. There has been no system or technical philosophy whatsoever, that measured, in real time, the amount of radiation exposure to inhabitants, who consist of an unspecified number of the general public, scattered around a broad area, freely moving about. Furthermore, there has been no system or technical philosophy whatsoever that determined immediately the danger degree of the radiation exposure, giving alarms of the danger degree of the radiation exposure to those inhabitants in real time.
Taking the accident that really occurred at Tokai mura (village), for instance, there were only evacuation recommendations and curfew warnings issued to inhabitants within a specified area. As to how much radiation each of the inhabitants were exposed to, there were only countermeasures later on, with measurements and notification of whether or not the result was within the tolerance range of safety. Hence, anxiety and dissatisfaction of the inhabitants hse not been wiped off. In the unlikely event of a radiation leak accident happening, it is wished that the inhabitants who have fear of having been exposed to the radiation could at least measure the
Cho Chung Nam
Shikano Shinobu
Chung Nam Cho
Darby & Darby
Pham Taon Ngoc
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