News and Press Releases

13 September 2005

Tracerco launches new range of intrinsically safe radiation monitors

TRACERCO, the world leading innovative specialist measurement solution provider, part of Johnson Matthey Plc., has launched its new range of intrinsically safe ATEX-compliant radiation monitors at the recent Offshore Europe Conference in Aberdeen.

The TRACERCO™ T201 Contamination Monitor and TRACERCO™ T202 Radiation Dose Rate Monitor combine novel design features with major advances in processor technology to enhance versatility, accuracy and ease of operation in the field.

The T202 Radiation Monitor has been specifically designed to combine intrinsic safety with a robust, but lightweight construction and provides important additional key operational safety features such as personal dose integration and peak doserate memory.  These latter features have significant safety benefits for the operator allowing the monitor to be placed in locations where personnel access is difficult or undesirable.  In these situations, the monitor will record the peak radiation doserate exposure and the time integrated radiation dose.  The monitor is effectively two instruments in one, providing accurate and real time doserate readings using a traditional analogue meter display and supported by a comparable auto-ranging digital readout with the additional functional options selectable by means of the digital display screen.

The T201 Contamination Monitor has been designed to meet the challenge of combining operational reliability under adverse conditions with excellent sensitivity, intrinsic safety, robust construction and provides a number of additional functions, which simply make life easier for the operator in the field.  A major feature of the new monitor is the installed calibrations for up to 8 radionuclides.  The operator can simply select any one of these radionuclide options and obtain a ‘real-time’ readout in Becquerels per sq cm, thus saving the need to refer to calibration tables or carry out calculations in the field.  Automatic background radiation subtraction will also be performed.  A traditional analogue meter display will at all times, provide comparable information in counts per second. 

The contamination monitor has been designed to provide maximum versatility in use.  A sectional intrinsically safe extension arm is available as an optional extra and allows the detector probe to be used remotely for monitoring floors, walls, ceilings and inaccessible locations such as pipe internals and drainage systems.  The detector probe can be orientated at various angles to the arm to scan internal surfaces and a ‘peak’ activity function will automatically record the highest level of measured contamination for the chosen radionuclide.

Both monitors are particularly suited to operation in harsh environmental conditions such as those found during oil and gas exploration.

Said Andy Hurst of Tracerco, “The TRACERCO™ T201 Contamination Monitor and TRACERCO™ T202 Radiation Monitor are the latest addition to a range of value-adding specialist measurement solutions developed by Tracerco to meet industry needs. Designed to exacting safety and environmental standards, a particular feature of both monitors is their ergonomic design, dual display functions, sturdy impact-resistant body and high tolerance to damp and humidity for reliable, all-weather operation”.