Recoil-deposited Po-210 in radon dwellings

Conference · Mon Dec 31 04:00:00 EST 1990

OSTI ID:10156324

Samuelsson, C

Short-lived decay products of Rn-222 plate out on all surfaces in a house containing radon gas. Following the subsequent alpha decays of the mother nuclei, the daughter products Pb-214 and Pb-210 are superficially and permanently absorbed. Due to its long half-life (22 y) the activity of absorbed Pb-210 accumulates in the surface. The activity of Pb-210, or its decay products, can thus reflect the past randon daughter and plate-out history of a house over several decades. Our results and experience from measurements of Po-210 and Rn-222 in 22 dwellings will be presented. In these studies the Po-210 surface activity of one plane glass sheet per dwelling (window panes were not used) has been determined and compared with the period of exposure times the mean radon concentration measured over a two-month period. Considering the large uncertainty in the integrated radon exposure estimate the surface {sup 210}Po correlates well (r=0.73) with the accumulated radon exposure. The {sup 210}Po activity of the glass samples has been measured non-destructively using an open-flow pulse ionization chamber and this detector has also been successfully applied in field exercises.

• Research Organization: Lund Univ. (Sweden). Dept. of Radiation Physics
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE, Washington, DC (United States)
• DOE Contract Number: FG02-89ER60911
• OSTI ID: 10156324
• Report Number(s): DOE/ER/60911--2; CONF-901010--10; ON: DE92015307
• Country of Publication: Sweden
• Language: English

Related Subjects

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATION
320107
54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
540130
560101
61 RADIATION PROTECTION AND DOSIMETRY
ALPHA PARTICLES
BETA PARTICLES
BUILDING SYSTEMS
BUILDINGS
DAUGHTER PRODUCTS
DOSIMETRY AND MONITORING
FIELD TESTS
IONIZATION
LEAD 210
NATURAL RADIOACTIVITY
RADIATION DETECTORS
RADIATION DOSES
RADIOACTIVE MATERIALS MONITORING AND TRANSPORT
RADON