Radon progeny exposure measurement using lead-210

Book · Mon Dec 31 23:00:00 EST 1973

OSTI ID:7270480

Rodgers, J C

This technical information report describes investigations leading to a technique for monitoring the average alpha-exposure due to airborne decay products of radon-222 in a uranium mine atmosphere, laying stress on theoretical considerations. The basis of the method is to collect a long-term, high-volume sample, let the short-lived radon daughters decay to lead-210, and count the lead-210 using liquid scintillation techniques. Only a fraction of the lead-210 activity counted was attributed to the direct collection of short-lived daughters, however, the remainder being due to a variety of indeterminate background sources. Thus any continuous monitoring technique based on measuring accumulated lead-210 levels on an air filter or in a miner's blood comes up against serious problems. Appendices give details of Fairman's ion exchange procedure and (in summary) the dithizone separation technique.

• OSTI ID: 7270480
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

500300* -- Environment
Atmospheric-- Radioactive Materials Monitoring & Transport-- (-1989)
54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
ALPHA DECAY RADIOISOTOPES
ATMOSPHERES
BETA DECAY RADIOISOTOPES
BETA-MINUS DECAY RADIOISOTOPES
DAUGHTER PRODUCTS
DAYS LIVING RADIOISOTOPES
ERRORS
EVEN-EVEN NUCLEI
HEAVY NUCLEI
ISOTOPES
LEAD 210
LEAD ISOTOPES
LIQUID SCINTILLATION DETECTORS
MEASURING INSTRUMENTS
MINES
MONITORING
NUCLEI
RADIATION DETECTORS
RADIATION MONITORING
RADIOISOTOPES
RADON 222
RADON ISOTOPES
SCINTILLATION COUNTERS
URANIUM MINES
YEARS LIVING RADIOISOTOPES