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Abstract. In recent years a large number of radon intercomparison exercises has been organized; most of them took place in radon chambers, in reference atmosphere of the parameter to control (i.e. radon gas) under temperature, humidity and atmospheric pressure stable conditions. In 2014, in the tunnel belonging to the Lurisia spas complex (Lurisia, Piedmont, Italy), with natural high concentrations of uranium and radon gas, an intercomparison exercise has been held to give to radon measurement services and laboratories the possibility to test their passive systems under fi eld conditions, which are less controlled and much more challenging. The response of laboratories was very positive: 46 participants from 10 European countries and 3 non-European countries. Generally about 80% of results of participants were considered acceptable even if it was observed a global trend of a substantial underestimation of the actual radon concentration.

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Abstract. In 2014, an intercomparison exercise of passive radon detectors under fi eld conditions in the Marie Curie's tunnel belonging to the Lurisia spas complex (Lurisia, Piedmont, Italy) has been held. Radon activity concentration in the tunnel was measured with six radon active monitors, previously calibrated at ENEA-INMRI facilities. In the present paper, a synthesis of the metrological aspects of the intercomparison is given. Indeed particular attention was paid to metrological characterization of radon monitors and their response upon ambient conditions. Correction factors have been defi ned to be applied when measurements are performed in severe environmental conditions. In particular, it has been found that monitors are particularly sensitive to the effect of air density: the AlphaGUARD (AG-SAPHYMO, GmbH) effi ciency decreases with the air density, while for the MR1 PLUS (Tesys, Italy), the opposite applies. When the reference monitors were placed into the Marie Curie's tunnel, to the recorded average radon concentrations correction factors were applied. After the correction the difference between data coming from AG and MR1 PLUS is within the 1.7%.

Background: In this work a radon mapping method implemented in Piedmont, an Italian Region in the Northern part of the country, is presented and discussed. Methods: The method is based on a “mixed approach”, combining together an experimental approach, based on a large set of experimental radon measurements performed with nuclear track detectors, and an empirical model, based on the geo-lithological characteristics of soils and rocks. This approach was named as “radio-geo-lithological” because the identification of geo-lithological units was defined considering not only the usual geological classification of the territory but also the radioactivity content of the most widespread rocks and soils of Piedmont. Results and Conclusion: This method allowed to classification of all municipalities of Piedmont (1181), thus permitting the identification of the Radon Priority Areas, a provision required by the new Italian law (Legislative Decree 101/2020), implementing the European Basic Safety Standards (Euratom Directive 59/2013).

In this paper an analysis of the first diffusion of the Covid-19 outbreak occurred in late February 2020 in Northern Italy is presented. In order to study the time evolution of the epidemic it was decided to analyze in particular as the most relevant variable the number of hospitalized people, considered as the less biased proxy of the real number of infected people. An approximate solution of the infected equation was found from a simplified version of the SIR model. This solution was used as a tool for the calculation of the basic reproduction number R 0 in the early phase of the epidemic for the most affected Northern Italian regions (Piedmont, Lombardy, Veneto and Emilia), giving values of R 0 ranging from 2.2 to 3.1. Finally, a theoretical formulation of the infection rate is proposed, introducing a new parameter, the infection length, characteristic of the disease.