The Institute develops and fabricates a wide range of dosimetry, spectrometry and radiometry equipment both for monitoring & control of pulsed sources of ionizing radiation produced at VNIIA, and for application in the nuclear material physical protection, control & accounting system of Rosatom facilities.
Stationary radiation monitors Hand-held (portable) radiation monitors
Rosatom’s decree declared VNIIA the leading facility for the equipment support of this system. One of the major objectives of the system is to prevent theft or diversion of nuclear and radioactive materials (NRM) attractive for terrorists, nuclear weapons production or capable of contaminating the environment.
To accomplish this objective, equipment developed at VNIIA is applied: radiation monitors with high sensitivity to uranium and plutonium, equipment for detection and identification of isotopic composition and mass of fissile material using neutron and gamma radiation. There are two types of such equipment:
- stationary (portal) meant for detection of radiation that is higher than the natural background in different objects (pedestrians, transport, luggage, mail, household and industrial waste and materials, etc.);
- hand-held monitors meant for inspection of suspicious items, detected by the portal radiation monitors, and for inspection of the buildings and the environment to detect radioactive contamination and nuclear material identification.
Information and control system
The hand-held radiation monitors are capable of detecting 0.03 g of 239Pu and 0.3 g of 235U.
Equipment serially produced at VNIIA is remarkable for the following features:
- unified metrological support, enhancing reliability of nuclear and radioactive material detection and simplifying maintenance in operation;
- universality of applications due to structural flexibility and small overall dimensions of the units, This allows easily and quickly equipping any types of checkpoints, even being in operation without significant refurbishment, as well as equipping doors and conveyors with monitors;
- capability to operate in a wide range of temperatures, humidity and mechanic load;
- small weight and overall dimensions;
- operation safety due to the low-voltage (5 – 12 V) of the external detection units;
- low cost.
Installation of radiation monitors at transport facilities
Passive monitors of radioactive and nuclear materials and systems developed by VNIIA are part of a series of inspection complexes at checkpoints of nuclear and other hazardous sites of Rosatom and the Ministry of Defense, public places (metro, train terminals, etc.), at such sites as landfills and waste processing plants.
Inspection using hand-held radiation monitor
Our systems are widely used at the sports sites of the Sochi Olympics and Universiade in Kazan, during the Soccer World Cup in 2018. It is planned to use them during the Universiade in Krasnoyarsk in 2019/