Environmental Monitoring and Sampling Overview

An overview is presented of current requirements and techniques for monitoring and sampling of radioactivity in the environment of nuclear facilities. Although monitoring is required for both normal and emergency releases of activities, the emphasis of the overview is on monitoring after nuclear accidents. Operating characteristics are summarized for some available radiation monitoring systems and for iodine adsorbing sampling media. The accuracies, limitations and operating difficulties in various techniques are discussed for the conditions in emergency responses.