Indoor risk assessment of radon gas in the science college buildings-University of Mustansiriyah using RAD-7 detector

Abstract

In the present work, a set of indoor Radon concentration measurements was carried out in a number of rooms and buildings of Science College in the University of Mustansiriyah for the first time in Iraq using RAD-7 detector which is an active method for short time measuring compared with the passive method in solid state nuclear track detectors (SSNTD's). The results show that, the Radon concentrations values vary from 9.85±1.7 Bq.m-3 to 94.21±34.7 Bq.m-3 with an average value 53.64±26 Bq.m-3 which is lower than the recommended action level 200-300 Bq/m3 [ICRP, 2009].The values of the annual effective dose (A.E.D) vary from 0.25 mSv/y to 2.38 mSv/y, with an average value 1.46±0.67 mSv/y which is lower than the recommended the range 3-10 mSv/y [ICRP, 1993]. While the values of lung cancer cases per year per million person vary from 4.50 per million person to 42.84 per million person with an average value 24.35±12 per million person which is lower than the recommended range 170-230 per million person [ICRP, 1993].The values of the potential alpha energy concentration were found to vary from 10.18 mWL to 1.06 mWL, with an average value 5.79±2.8 mWL which is lower than the recommended value of 53.33 mWL given by [UNSCEAR, 1993].