RadWatch Near-Realtime Air Monitoring
(Natural Radioactive Backgrounds
and Outreach)
Ryan Pavlovsky
Abstract Radioactive backgrounds establish the limit of sensitivity in detection
systems for the general search scenario, and set the reasonably unavoidable
dose limits for members of the public. Measurement of NORM isotopes in the air
provides a unique opportunity to serve the dual goals of capturing temporal/
meteorological NORM variations as well as coordinate public outreach/education
of NORM exposure. The RadWatch Near-Realtime Air Monitor (RAM) stores
meteorological and high resolution spectroscopy data as a function of time from six
stories above UC Berkeley Campus. This data is served hourly to the public via
radwatch.berkeley.edu/airsampling to demonstrate, not only the existence of
NORM, but also the large variations observed in radioisotope air concentration.
Clarity and transparency in this education effort are paramount, and complement the
urgency of a ‘realtime’ system. In the future RadWatch will expand to interactive,
networked devices to broaden the scope and engage the public.
Keywords NORM Á Background radiation Á Radon Á Low dose Á Outreach
1 Introduction
Currently there exists a major deficit in public knowledge about nuclear technologies and nuclear science. A resilient society will include the education of the
public and will be crucial to the success of nuclear technologies. The RadWatch
program seeks to fill those gaps by providing data in context for background
radiation measurements around the Bay Area. Here transparency and clarity
R. Pavlovsky (&)
Etcheverry Hall, University of California, Berkeley, USA
e-mail: rp@berkeley.edu
© The Author(s) 2017
J. Ahn et al. (eds.), Resilience: A New Paradigm of Nuclear Safety,
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-58768-4_28
317
(Natural Radioactive Backgrounds
and Outreach)
Ryan Pavlovsky
Abstract Radioactive backgrounds establish the limit of sensitivity in detection
systems for the general search scenario, and set the reasonably unavoidable
dose limits for members of the public. Measurement of NORM isotopes in the air
provides a unique opportunity to serve the dual goals of capturing temporal/
meteorological NORM variations as well as coordinate public outreach/education
of NORM exposure. The RadWatch Near-Realtime Air Monitor (RAM) stores
meteorological and high resolution spectroscopy data as a function of time from six
stories above UC Berkeley Campus. This data is served hourly to the public via
radwatch.berkeley.edu/airsampling to demonstrate, not only the existence of
NORM, but also the large variations observed in radioisotope air concentration.
Clarity and transparency in this education effort are paramount, and complement the
urgency of a ‘realtime’ system. In the future RadWatch will expand to interactive,
networked devices to broaden the scope and engage the public.
Keywords NORM Á Background radiation Á Radon Á Low dose Á Outreach
1 Introduction
Currently there exists a major deficit in public knowledge about nuclear technologies and nuclear science. A resilient society will include the education of the
public and will be crucial to the success of nuclear technologies. The RadWatch
program seeks to fill those gaps by providing data in context for background
radiation measurements around the Bay Area. Here transparency and clarity
R. Pavlovsky (&)
Etcheverry Hall, University of California, Berkeley, USA
e-mail: rp@berkeley.edu
© The Author(s) 2017
J. Ahn et al. (eds.), Resilience: A New Paradigm of Nuclear Safety,
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-58768-4_28
317