Development and operativity of a real-time radiological monitoring network centered on the nuclear power plant of Almaraz, Spain

The hardware and software characteristics of the environmental surveillance radiological network that has been installed around the nuclear power station of Almaraz, Spain are presented. A description is given of the program RADLINE, which allows radiological data to be logged in real time. A study is made of the operativity of the network and the methodology followed in establishing the radiological prealert and alert levels. It is found that, for the levels of radiological prealert to be sufficiently sensitive, they have to be different for each dosimetry station and vary with time. To discriminate between statistically significant increments in the dose rate and spurious maxima, these levels are fixed at x¯+15×σ, where x¯ is the mean dose rate and σ the standard deviation for the last 30 d recorded