MoniRad is an acquisition system for measurement and control of radioactivity levels in locations exposed to irradiation and contamination risks, done to work autonomously without the operator supervision, which thanks to FPGA technology and to dedicated Real-Time processor guarantees the performance of the control software in finished time independently of the algorithmic complexity.
The acquisition takes place by dedicated cards which are selected depending on the nature of the input signals, each one is located on one chassis which has got one FPGA board where the algorithm of input and output signals are housed.
The measurement and the control are delegated to the Real-Time section, where the control software compares the obtained values with the limit ones and activates the emergency procedures in case of the limit values are passed over.
The system has been drawn up to give answers to the events (warnings) in few milliseconds, this is possible because the data are assimilated and moved away to the control software so fast.
The system is composed by an hardware part:
·MoniRad Control-Unit
·MoniRad Air-Sampling (up to 8 locations with only one pump)
·MoniRad Water-Sampling
·MoniRad PLC-Comunication
And a software one:
·MoniRad Real-Time
·MoniRad FPGA
·MoniRad Stand-Alone
This software part is the brain of the whole control system, in execution on the Real time target allows to check in every moment the radioactivity levels in the locations and to perform in the dedicated sections, the samples of the air and water as well as the communication with the other control systems.