Caribbean radiation early warning system (CREWS)

CREWS is a regional network of five high volume air samplers located around the Gulf of Mexico designed to detect extremely low level releases of airborne radioactivity from the nuclear power plants being constructed in Cuba. Four of the stations are currently operational. The CREWS stations use a high efficiency particulate filter to sample aerosols larger than about 10 nm. Aerosols are collected continuously for a week at a flow rate of 515 cubic meters per hour and then counted on a high purity germanium (HPGe) spectroscopy system. The first station began operation in October, 1998. This paper reports the concentration ranges and seasonal trends of the natural radionuclides 7Be and 210Pb detected by the CREWS system. Anthropogenic measurements are also provided and possible sources are discussed. Finally, the paper examines the average minimum detectable concentrations achieved by the systems and predicts the level of release that this system can detect from the Cuban reactors.