Passive Measurements of Thoron and its Progeny in some Dwellings in Ireland

Journal Article · Thu Aug 07 04:00:00 EDT 2008 · AIP Conference Proceedings

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/1.2991200· OSTI ID:21152433

Choncubhair, Orlaith Ni; Laughlin, James Mc ^[1]; Tokonami, Shinji ^[2]

---

1. School of Physics, University College Dublin (Ireland)
2. National Institute of Radiological Sciences, Chiba (Japan)

In this paper, an account is given of the development, calibration and field use of a passive alpha track detector sensitive to thoron as well as to radon. No database of thoron and thoron progeny concentrations in dwellings in Ireland exists and, as a result, the level of exposure of the Irish population to thoron and its progeny is unknown. As an initial or pilot stage in establishing such a data base measurements of thoron and thoron progeny concentrations (the latter expressed in Equilibrium Equivalent Thoron Concentration (EETC)) were made in 40 randomly chosen Irish dwellings. The EETC measurements were made using a passive thoron progeny deposition rate monitor designed and supplied by NIRS (Japan). In addition standard unmodified SSI passive radon detectors were used to measure radon in these dwellings. The measured thoron concentrations ranged from below the level of detection to 154 Bq/m{sup 3} while the radon gas ranged from 15 to 179 Bq/m{sup 3}. The thoron progeny EETC values for these dwellings ranged from 0.03 to 7.7 Bq/m{sup 3}. An account is also given of the dosimetric implications of these measurements.

• OSTI ID: 21152433
• Journal Information: AIP Conference Proceedings, Journal Name: AIP Conference Proceedings Journal Issue: 1 Vol. 1034; ISSN APCPCS; ISSN 0094-243X
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
ALPHA DETECTION
CALIBRATION
CHEMICAL ANALYSIS
DAUGHTER PRODUCTS
DIELECTRIC TRACK DETECTORS
IRELAND
NATURAL RADIOACTIVITY
PARTICLE TRACKS
RADON
RADON 220
RESIDENTIAL BUILDINGS