Continuous, real time monitor for airborne depleted uranium particles in the respiratory range and corresponding method of use

A continuous alpha monitor, comprising:

• an air intake, comprising:
• an air mover,
• an air intake prefilter that limits particulates in the air intake to an aerodynamic diameter of 10 microns or less, and
• a particle detector mounted downstream of the air intake prefilter, the air particle detector configured to provide a first airborne dust concentration and a first distribution of aerodynamic diameters of particulates in air passing the prefilter, the particulates including depleted uranium particulates;
• a movable sample filter web configured to collect the particulates;
• a solid state detector configured to detect alpha radiation emitted by the collected particulates;
• a processor configured to execute machine instructions embodied on a non-transient computer-readable storage medium to compute a dust loading;
• and
• the processor configured to compute an indication of alpha concentration detected by the solid state detector.

A continuous, real time monitor for sampling and counting alpha particles emitted from decay of depleted uranium, comprising:

• a processor-controlled air mover that is configured to pull an air sample into the monitor at a desired airflow rate to deposit particles in the air sample on a filter media;
• a prefilter sized to pass only respirable range particles in the air sample, wherein the respirable range comprises particles having a maximum aerodynamic diameter of 10 microns;
• a first particle detector configured to provide a first airborne dust concentration and a first size distribution of the particles contained in the air sample, the first airborne dust concentration provided as an input to a processor to enable computation of dust loading on the filter media accumulated during a sampling operation;
• a processor-controlled movable filter web through which the air sample is pulled, the movable filter web supporting a plurality of the filter media upon which the particles in the air sample are deposited;
• and
• a processor-controlled solid state detector configured to measure alpha activity emitted from DU particles in the air sample and deposited on the filter media.