New rapid method to determine radon and thoron from a single counting sequence using a field portable alpha particle scintillometer |
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Authors: | M L Lahti L K Killoran R F Holub G M Reimer |
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Institution: | (1) Colorado School of Mines, 1500 Illinois Street, 80401 Golden, CO, USA |
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Abstract: | Measurement of soil-gas radon (Rn) concentration is an important parameter in estimating soil Rn potential for a building
site. Typically, field methods for grab samples (as contrasted with continuous flow systems) using a protable alpha-scintillometer
only considered222Rn (T
1/2= 3.8 d) and ignored220Rn (T
1/2=55 s). Now the calculation permits the determination of the concentrations of both isotopes with a single series of readings.
A sample is collected and within 1 minute is introduced into the counting system. A series of 1 minute counts begins immediately
and continues for 10 minutes. If high220Rn concentrations are present, there will be a rapid decay followed by a steady ingrowth of222Rn progeny. If very little220Rn is present, the ingrowth will be seen immediately. In either case, a non-linear least square fitting program from Statgraphics
is used to obtain both concentrations at time zero. When inexact timings ranging from 1 to 30 seconds were imposed on the
measured data, the method proved to be very robust; the biases did not exceed 15 percent. |
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Keywords: | |
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