Radioactive Incident Monitoring Network at a central computer based in a DEFRA building in central London. For security reasons, a backup computer is also in operation at a secret location in the UK. The network was set up in 1988 as a response to the Chernobyl disaster in 1986. As well as being of use in an emergency, the stations also serve to record historical data on radiation levels. Radioactive Incident Monitoring Network The Radioactive Incident Monitoring Network (RIMNET) is a network of 91 monitoring stations, used by the Government of the United Kingdom, which records and analyses the level of radioactivity across the
Radioactive tracer atomic nucleus of an isotope is unstable, compounds containing this isotope are radioactive. Tritium is an example of a radioactive isotope. The principle behind the use of radioactive tracers is that an atom in a chemical compound is replaced by another atom, of the same chemical element. The substituting atom, however, is a radioactive isotope. This process is often called radioactive labeling. The power of the technique is due to the fact that radioactive decay is much more energetic than chemical reactions. Therefore, the radioactive isotope can be present in low concentration and its presence detected by sensitive radiation detectors