Exposure to elevated levels of radiation can be fatal to your health. Radiation is usually invisible and odorless, making hard to detect its presence without the use of a specialized equipment. Therefore, people who are working with radioactive materials or in radioactive areas need to use radiation detection equipment to ensure their safety. Nuclear facilities engineers, fire responders, fire responders and hospital workers need to use the equipment to stay safe from the harmful effects of radiation exposure. Here are four types of radiation detection and measurement equipment to use.

1. Survey Meters
These systems use sensors to detect and measure the levels of radiation in a particular area. Survey meters have been used for many years and feature a probe that is held in one hand and a meter box on the other hand. Probes are designed to measure specific types of radiation, including alpha, neutron, beta, and gamma. The cost of a radiation survey meter depends on the type of the probe that comes with the meter box.

2. Identifiers
This radiation detection equipment uses the difference in emission energies to determine the present radioisotope. Each radioisotope usually has a unique signature of energies and emission types that allow the equipment to detect it. Identifiers are commonly used to identify unknown sources of radioactive elements. They come in options with different technologies such as scintillation crystals and semiconductors.

3. Personal Radiation Detectors
These radiation detection devices are ideal for individual users and work by alerting the wearing about the presence of radiation in an area. They have very fast response times and feature an LCD screen to display the level of radiation. Some options can be used in water or areas with large amounts of dust. Most detectors use scintillation crystals and are designed to sense gamma. A few options can sense other high-energy particles such as alpha and beta.

4. Dosimeters
The main use of a dosimeter is to measure the amount of radiation a wearer has received and are is usually energy compensated to ensure accurate dose measurement. Dosimeters can measure gamma, beta, neutron and alpha doses, but you can find electronic personal dosimeters that only measure gamma because it is the most common radiation exposure. These wearable radiation detection devices come in several forms, from film badges to electronic pagers.

In today’s environment with the growing nuclear energy use, it is increasingly important to use radiation detection equipment whenever necessary to stay safe from harmful exposures.