RAMSES: THE LHC RADIATION MO NITORING SYSTEM FOR THE ENVIRONMENT AND SAFETY

Abstract

A state-of-the-art radiation monitoring and alarming system is being implemented at CERN for the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). The RAdiation Monitoring System for the Environment and Safety (RAMSES) comprises about 350 monitors and provides ambient dose equivalent and ambient dose equivalent rates measurements in the LHC underground areas as well as on the surface inside and outside the CERN perimeter. In addition, it monitors air and water released from the LHC installations. Although originally conceived for radiation protection only, RAMSES also integrates the monitoring of conventional environmental measurements such as physico-chemical parameters of released. All data is acquired by a distributed set of data acquisition and control units that also generate local radiation warnings, local alarms and operational interlocks. Some monitoring stations have processing units for the control of some complex measurement processes. A centralised SCADA application allows remote supervision of all measured variables and remote alarms on monitored variables. Data logging and safe long-term archiving for off-line data analysis and reporting as well as configuration management is realised with an integrated database storage, data analysis and configuration management tools. This paper describes the implementation of the software infrastructure, highlighting the different architectural choices with their benefits.