The Real-time IoT-based Monitoring Radiation Level, the Case of Mkuju River Uranium Mining

Real-time monitoring of radiation levels at uranium mining sites is mandatory to ensure environmental and human safety. Ionizing radiation like Gamma rays, Alpha particles, Beta particles are likely to be produced during uranium decay have major threats to human health such as lung cancer, tumor, and eventually death. Thus there have been several different means of monitoring uranium mining using radiation survey meters and other radiation detectors. However, frequent traveling to the uranium mining site to measure the radiation level is time-consuming and cost full to the regulatory bodies. Thus this study aims to present a system for real-time monitoring the radiation level at uranium mining sites using internet of things (IoT) technology. The system was programmed by using ESP 32 microcontroller board, through the inbuilt Wi-Fi it was able to send radiation data to the Message Queuing Telemetry Transport (MQTT) broker for cloud data storage. The MQTT protocol facilitated remote visualization of radiation levels from the cloud storage and mobile application. The end-users monitored radiation data in real-time and received the notification message and alarm in case of excess radiation through the mobile application. The ESP 32 microcontroller board and internet of things technology facilitated the system to send the data to the cloud allowing the end-users to visualize and monitor radiation levels anytime and anywhere via the internet.