Measurements of radon daughter concentrations in structures built on or near uranium mine tailings
A technique is discussed that has been used to measure air concentrations of short-lived daughters of /sup 222/Rn in residential and commercial structures built on or near uranium mill tailings in the western part of the United States. In this technique, the concentrations of RaA, RaB, and RaC are calculated from one integral count of the RaA and two integral counts of the RaC' alpha-particle activity collected on a filter with an air sampling device. A computer program is available to calculate the concentrations of RaA, RaB, and RaC in air and to estimate the accuracy in these calculated concentrations. This program is written in the BASIC language. Also discussed in this paper are the alpha-particle spectrometer used to count activity on the air filters and the results of our radon daughter measurements in Colorado, Utah, and New Mexico. These results and results of other measurements discussed in a companion paper are now being used in a comprehensive study of potential radiation exposures to the public from uranium mill tailing piles.
- Research Organization:
- Oak Ridge National Lab., TN (USA)
- DOE Contract Number:
- W-7405-ENG-26
- OSTI ID:
- 7307414
- Report Number(s):
- CONF-761071-1
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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Related Subjects
11 NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS
500300 -- Environment
Atmospheric-- Radioactive Materials Monitoring & Transport-- (-1989)
54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
AIR
AIR FILTERS
ALPHA DECAY RADIOISOTOPES
ALPHA SOURCES
B CODES
BUILDINGS
CHEMICAL ANALYSIS
COMPUTER CALCULATIONS
COMPUTER CODES
DAUGHTER PRODUCTS
DAYS LIVING RADIOISOTOPES
DOSES
ENVIRONMENTAL TRANSPORT
EQUIPMENT
EVEN-EVEN NUCLEI
FILTERS
FLUIDS
GASES
HEAVY NUCLEI
ION SOURCES
ISOTOPES
MASS TRANSFER
MILL TAILINGS
MONITORING
NUCLEI
ORE PROCESSING
ORES
PARTICLE SOURCES
POLLUTION CONTROL EQUIPMENT
PROCESSING
QUANTITATIVE CHEMICAL ANALYSIS
RADIATION DOSES
RADIATION MONITORING
RADIATION SOURCES
RADIOACTIVE MATERIALS
RADIOACTIVE WASTES
RADIOACTIVITY
RADIOISOTOPES
RADIOMETRIC ANALYSIS
RADON 222
RADON ISOTOPES
SOLID WASTES
SURFACE AIR
URANIUM ORES
WASTES