Optical Fiber and Cable Reliability for High Radiation Environments

摘要

Optical fiber cables deployed within nuclear power plants and other high radiation environments such as space environments, high energy physics environments, and military applications must be able to maintain their functionality even with high levels of cumulative radiation exposure. During exposure to radiation standard optical fibers can undergo physical changes that can result in substantial radiation induced attenuation (RIA) even at modest radiation doses. To ensure a reliable fiber optic network in high radiation environments, testing must be conducted to ensure that changes in optical fibers or cable materials do not increase optical fiber cable radiation induced attenuation to the level that network functionality is compromised. In this study optical fibers with two types of radiation resistant core constructions are examined with respect to radiation induced attenuation in bare optical fibers as well as in cables to doses as high as 2MGy. A new fiber type is introduced that shows greatly reduced radiation induced attenuation at extremely high radiation doses.