Drone-borne dosimetry in a radiological or nuclear scenario

Abstract

This paper describes the drone-borne dosimetry performed in two separate case studies. Two drone measurements were performed using a reference dose-rate detector measuring the ambient dose equivalent rate. A first flight was used to obtain reference measurements using a cesium-137 point source and flying at multiple speeds and different heights. A second flight was performed above the D1 radium storage of Umicore in Olen, Belgium. The main goal of this flight was to perform a scanning pattern over the area to create a dose-rate map. After the flights, we used historic measurements and a dose-rate model verified by Monte Carlo simulations using Penelope (2018) to verify the dose-rates measurements performed by the drone. Finally, we used the findings from both flights to provide recommendations regarding drone measurements using dose-rate detectors.