Design and development of enhanced criticality alarm system for nuclear applications

Criticality alarm systems (CASs) are mandatory in nuclear plants for prompt alarm in the event of any criticality incident. False criticality alarms are not desirable as they create a panic environment for radiation workers. The present article describes the design enhancement of the CAS at each stage and provides maximum availability, preventing false criticality alarms. The failure mode and effect analysis are carried out on each element of a CAS. Based on the analysis, additional hardware circuits are developed for early fault detection. Two different methods are developed, one method for channel loop functionality test and another method for dose alarm test using electronic transient pulse. The design enhancement made for the external systems that are integrated with a CAS includes the power supply, criticality evacuation hooter circuit, radiation data acquisition system along with selection of different soft alarm set points, and centralized electronic test facility. The CAS incorporating all improvements are assembled, installed, tested, and validated along with rigorous surveillance procedures in a nuclear plant for a period of 18,000 h. Keywords: Alarm Announcement, Criticality Alarm System, Failure Mode and Effect Analysis, False Criticality Alarm, Ionization Chamber, Radiation Data Acquisition Syste

SARS-CoV-2 seroprevalence among the general population and healthcare workers in India, December 2020–January 2021

Background: Earlier serosurveys in India revealed seroprevalence of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) of 0.73% in May–June 2020 and 7.1% in August–September 2020. A third serosurvey was conducted between December 2020 and January 2021 to estimate the seroprevalence of SARS-CoV-2 infection among the general population and healthcare workers (HCWs) in India. Methods: The third serosurvey was conducted in the same 70 districts as the first and second serosurveys. For each district, at least 400 individuals aged ≥10 years from the general population and 100 HCWs from subdistrict-level health facilities were enrolled. Serum samples from the general population were tested for the presence of immunoglobulin G (IgG) antibodies against the nucleocapsid (N) and spike (S1-RBD) proteins of SARS-CoV-2, whereas serum samples from HCWs were tested for anti-S1-RBD. Weighted seroprevalence adjusted for assay characteristics was estimated. Results: Of the 28,598 serum samples from the general population, 4585 (16%) had IgG antibodies against the N protein, 6647 (23.2%) had IgG antibodies against the S1-RBD protein, and 7436 (26%) had IgG antibodies against either the N protein or the S1-RBD protein. Weighted and assay-characteristic-adjusted seroprevalence against either of the antibodies was 24.1% [95% confidence interval (CI) 23.0–25.3%]. Among 7385 HCWs, the seroprevalence of anti-S1-RBD IgG antibodies was 25.6% (95% CI 23.5–27.8%). Conclusions: Nearly one in four individuals aged ≥10 years from the general population as well as HCWs in India had been exposed to SARS-CoV-2 by December 2020