The IAEA’s work in this area crosses a number of disciplines and involves a range of nuclear techniques.
The principle mobile instrument used to identify radiation in the environment is the gamma radiation detector. While gamma radiation is part of the environment’s normal background radiation, some places have higher levels of gamma radiation, either for natural reasons or due to human activities. Such activities may influence the normal environmental radiation through the concentration of natural materials or as a result of an accident, during which radiation is released from a nuclear facility.
In any of these cases, instruments such as Geiger-Muller detectors, scintillation detectors or semi-conductor detectors, equipped with global navigation sensors, can map and monitor environmental radiation. Measuring and quantifying gamma rays in the environment not only yields information on the amount of radioactive materials in the environment, but also on where the radioactive isotopes come from, their physical source, and how or if the radiation is moving around.
The IAEA maintains the ENVIRONET network, through which it supports its Member States in characterizing radiologically impacted areas on-site. It also provides Member States assistance through its technical cooperation programme. The Agency, together with international experts, has surveyed and characterized a number of sites in Africa, Latin America, Europe and Asia, using various mobile instrumentation technologies.
