CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research, is home to the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), a particle accelerator used by physicists to study the fundamental building blocks of all things. LHC is the result of collaboration between 10,000+ scientists and engineers representing 500 academic institutes, laboratories, educational institutions and industrial companies worldwide.
　　Accelerator operation involves nuclear interactions between high-energy particlesCONTROL ENGINEERING China版权所有, which create ionizing-radiat

ion fields, so constant reporting on radiation levels as well as on air and water quality is required. In addition, the system must adhere to IEC 61508 safety standards. CERN invested in a state-of-the-art radiation monitoring and alarming system for the LHC, known as The Radiation Monitoring System for the Environment and Safety (RAMSES).

　　RAMSES integrates monitoring and control functions for CERN's Large Hadron Collider experiment.
　　RAMSES’ functional requirements include:
　　Monitoring radiation levels (on-linewww.cechina.cn, local and remote displays) — Monitoring of ambient dose equivalent rates in the working environment from stray radiation or induced activity, and measurement of radioactivity in released air and water;
　　Alarm functions (local and remote) — radiation-level alarms based on ambient dose equivalent rateswww.cechina.cn, technical alarmswww.cechina.cn, and interlocks;
　　Long-term permanent and reliable data logging — measured values, events (radiation alarmswww.cechina.cn, interlocks, system fault alarmswww.cechina.cn, technical alarms), and system configuration and modifications.
　　CERN has designed its industrial automation project to do away with any silos of automation in order to create a completely integrated data environment that will result in a central communications center. This center also manages the conventional monitoring of water (pH, temperature, conductivity控制工程网版权所有, and turbidity), air quality, wind speed and direction, and provides ambient dose equivalent and ambient dose equivalent rate measurements in the LHC un