Recently, the idea of generating radon map of Brazil has emerged. First attempts of coordinating radon surveys--carried out by different groups across the country--and initial discussions on how to proceed on a larger scale were made at the First Brazilian Radon Seminary, Natal, September 2012. Conventionally, it is believed that indoor radon is no major problem in Brazil, because the overall benign climate usually allows high ventilation rates. Nevertheless, scattered measurements have shown that moderately high indoor radon concentrations (up to a few hundred Bq m⁻³) do occur regionally. Brazilian geology is very diverse and there are regions where an elevated geogenic radon potential exists or is expected to exist. Therefore, a Brazilian Radon Survey is expected to be a challenge, although it appears an important issue, given the rising concern of the public about the quality of its environment.
Radionuclide metrology laboratories aim to provide radioactive standards for detector calibrations in nuclear safety areas with low uncertainties. Such standards are applied in nuclear industries, according to the requirements of monitoring programmes. The standard radionuclides of 133Ba, 152Eu and 166mHo are suitable to the determination of efficiency curves in HPGe detectors due to their multi-gamma emissions, which are intense and well separate in the spectrum. With efficiency curves it is possible to do the measurements without needing to use standards. In this work was made a verifying of the uncertainties obtained for the two relative methods: comparative (sample-standard) and efficiency curve. The total uncertainties obtained by sample-standard method varied from 0.4 to 1.2 % (k=1). The results using efficiency curve method are between 0.9 to 2.2 % (k=1).
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