NAUSICAA 2IC

The NAUSICAA 2IC system is designed to quantify the beta activity in air or gas streams, due to the presence of tritium or other noble gases, while compensating for the environmental gamma background.

NAUSICAA 2IC can be used in activities involving air sampling from rooms, stacks, hoods, or other effluent passages, process piping, glove boxes, and similar.

NAUSICAA 2IC is composed of:

• two identical, cylindrical, 10 litres, stainless-steel ion chambers
• a pneumatic sampling system
• an electrometer to amplify and manage the (typically very weak) ionisation current
• a local control unit with display and software

Ambient air is sampled in the upper chamber, while the lower one is sealed and filled with clean reference air. Ionizations occurring in the upper chamber are due to both environmental gamma background and beta contamination, whereas inside the lower chambers only gamma background interactions occur. The two chambers are provided with an opposite-polarity HV: the resulting output current is thus the difference of the two single outputs, i.e. the net beta contamination of the sampled air, expressed in activity concentration. An accessory equipment for filtering and drying the sampled air helps limiting as much as possible any spurious signals.

The NAUSICAA 2IC control unit manages data acquisition, processing and visualization. A touch-screen display allows parameters’ setting and data visualization. A built-in acoustic and luminous alarm column provides proper warnings in case of alarm or malfunctioning.

NAUSICAA 2IC can be connected to a host PC through RS485 or ETH connection for remote data visualization.

With a 600 V value each camera can generate currents up to 10^-8 A, with a saturation error < 20%.