Fast determination of indoor radon (222Rn) concentration using liquid scintillation counting

Abstract

The indoor 222Rn radionuclide was directly absorbed in typical 20 ml glass scintillation vials by passing −3 dm3 of ambient air through 16 ml of water-immiscible non-volataile scintillation cocktail Ultima-Gold F for 10 min. The activity of radon and its two α-emitting daughters: 218Po and 214Po, was determined with the BetaScout low-background liquid scintillation counter. The limit of 222Rn detection is 9 Bq/m3, and the quantification limit with 20% relative accuracy is 28 Bq/m3. The results of the indoor Rn measurement in different houses showed good consistency with results obtained from a Sarad EQF 3220 device.

Survey of indoor radon (Rn-222) entry and concentrations in different types of building in Kalisz, Poland

“…The soil gas was removed on days without rain, usually at noon, by a typical hollow tube probe from 100 cm below ground level by 10 min sucking of about 3 dm 3 gas and passed directly through 16 ml of water-immiscible liquid scintillator placed in standard 20 ml scintillation vials. The activity of absorbed radon nuclides was measured by the TRIATHLER device, and the 222 Rn concentration in the soil gas was calculated on the basis of the previously described procedure [21].…”

Occurrence of 222Rn and 226,228Ra in underground water and 222Rn in soil and their mutual correlations for underground water supplies in southern Greater Poland

“…The radon in soil gas concentration, C Rn , in Bq m −3 , can be calculated from an empirical formula given by Eq. ( 10 ) (Bem et al 2017 ): where K e is the calibration coefficient of the method, in Bq dm −3 cps −1 , I SC is a measured radon counting rate, in cps, and Δt is the delay time between the end of radon in soil absorption and the end of activity measurements, in hours. The K e calibration coefficient can be calculated from Eq.…”

“…The 222 Rn nuclide concentration in soil gas was determined at four points around each water supply stations by the method described elsewhere (Bem et al 2017(Bem et al , 2020. The soil was sampled on days when there was no rain, usually at noon, using a typical hollow tube probe from 100 cm below ground level by 10 min of sucking about 3 dm 3 of gas, and passing it directly through 16 cm 3 of water-immiscible liquid scintillator in standard 20 cm 3 scintillation vials.…”

“…The radon in soil gas concentration, C Rn , in Bq m -3 , can be calculated from an empirical formula given by Eq. (10) (Bem et al 2017):…”

Distribution of uranium and thorium chains radionuclides in different fractions of phosphogypsum grains

“…So far, many attempts have been made to evaluate and facilitate wider use of phosphogypsum: as building material, soil amendment agent or fertilizer, backfilling and lining materials, and also in chemical industry (Chang 1987;EPA 1992;Rutherford et al 1994;Guo et al 2001;Stoulos et al 2004;Papastefanou et al 2005Papastefanou et al , 2006Değirmenci 2008;Ikhu-Omoregbe 2012;Yang et al 2012;Hassen et al 2012;Biegańska et al 2013;Piątkowska and Pala 2013;Liu et al 2019). Large-scale application of phosphogypsum as building material is limited mainly because of elevated indoor radiation exposure: both gamma radiation and 222 Rn inhalation (Papastefanou et al 2005;Lysandrou et al 2007;Abril et al 2009;Bem et al 2017Bem et al , 2020Szajerski and Zimny 2019). However, currently new type of materials are elaborated able to trap efficiently 222 Rn in a closed pore structures (Gijbels et al 2018).…”