This standard applies to installed exposure r?te meters, warning assemblies and monitors, defined in Section One, and intended to measure the exposure r?te due to X or gamma radiation of energy between 80 keV and 3 MeV for the purposes of radiation protection.
Nore. — Assemblies of this type are coiamonly defined as area radiation monitors. They are normally employed to determine continu-ously the i adiological situation in working areas in which the radiation field may change with time, for example nuclear reactors, particle accelerators, hot laboratories, fuel reprocessing plants, etc, and to provide alarms when the radiation field goes outside predetermined limits.
This standard does not apply to assemblies used for reactor control. As regards r?te meters used both for radio-logical safety purposes and as part of the protective system of a reactor, such instruments should in the first instance fulfil the requirements for the reactor protection system (see IEC Publication 231, General Principles of Nuclear Reactor Instrumentation, and IEC Publication 231 A, First supplement to Publication 231 [1967]).
The assemblies considered in this standard comprise at least:
— a detector sub-assembly (e.g. ionization chamber, Geiger-Miiller counter tube , etc);
— a measuring sub-assembly, which may be fitted into a centralized panel, with signal outputs and contacts capable of activating alarm or other trip circuits for the purposes of radiation protection.
This standard is also applicable to installed exposure r?te measuring assemblies designed for special application (e.g. very high exposure r?tes). However, some of the requirements may need to be amended or supplemented according to the particular characteristics of such assemblies.
This standard is not applicable to criticality monitors or to assemblies intended to give information about oper-ational parameters of nuclear plants for control purposes.
Assemblies designed to perform combined functions shall comply with the requirements pertaining to each of these functions. Assemblies intended for, and designed to perform, only one function but which are also capable of executing other functions need only comply with the requirements for their intended function but compliance with the requirements for the other functions is desirable.
This standard is not applicable to the operating characteristics of indicating or recording instruments as such (e.g. indicating meters, recorders, alarms, etc). The characteristics of such instruments shall be in conformity with the general requirements appropriate to them.