Quantification of an alpha flux based radiological dose from seasonal exposure to 222Rn, 220Rn and their different EEC species

Abstract

This study summarizes the seasonal experimental data on the activity concentrations of indoor 222 Rn (Radon), 220 Rn (Thoron) and their progeny in Mansa and Muktsar districts of Punjab (India) using LR-115 solid state nuclear track detector based time integrated pin-hole cup dosimeters and deposition based progeny sensors for the assessment of radiological dose. The indoor 222 Rn concentration was observed higher in the rainy and winter seasons while 220 Rn concentration was observed higher in the winter season. However, Equilibrium Equivalent Concentrations (EECs) of 222 Rn and 220 Rn exhibited distinct seasonal behaviour unlike their parent nuclides. The average equilibrium factors for 222 Rn (F Rn ) and 220 Rn (F Tn ) were found 0.47 ± 0.1 and 0.05 ± 0.01, respectively. The annual arithmetic means of unattached fractions of 222 Rn ( ) and 220 Rn ( ) were found to be 0.09 ± 0.02 and 0.10 ± 0.02, respectively. The attachment rate ( X Rn ) and attachment rate coefficients ( β ) of 222 Rn progeny were also calculated to understand the proper behaviour of progeny species in the region. A new alpha flux based technique has been proposed and used for the assessment of absorbed dose rate and annual effective dose rate for radiation protection purpose.

Monitoring of radon concentration for different building types in Covenant University, Nigeria

“…The office space at the center of the basement structure has the same crest and trough pattern but with radon concentration far higher than the average world recommended limit of 40 Bqm −3 as shown in Figure 8. The result of the mean concentration obtained in this study is comparable with other studies conducted within and outside Nigeria (Bangotra et al, 2019;Nsiah-Akoto et al, 2019;Usikalu, Olatinwo et al, 2017;Usikalu, Onumejor et al, 2018). The radon concentration measured was used to estimate the annual effective dose, the mean annual effective dose calculated are 0.377, 0.271 and 3.644 for glass, brick and basement houses, respectively.…”

“…The implementation of energy saving measures in buildings has been observed to reduce air exchange in homes and consequently increasing indoor radon build up (Meyer, 2019). Winter and rainy seasons have also been marked with elevated indoor radon compared to summer (Bangotra et al, 2019;International Atomic Energy Agency (2013, 2019). The authors attributed the indoor radon increase to reduced air exchange due to prolonged closure of windows during winter.…”

3D assessment of a coral reef at Lalo Atoll reveals varying responses of habitat metrics following a catastrophic hurricane

“…Rather, with the presence of pre-hurricane 3D reconstruction from a long-term monitoring project, it utilized the unique opportunity to determine how the complete destruction of the living coral community and entire loss of aggregate carbonate reef structure affected metrics of 3D structural complexity. The entire loss of aggregate carbonate habitat presents a novel scenario as other studies examining changes in 3D habitat structure following large-scale coral mortality studied habitats that retained the carbonate reef structure from the coral skeletons 8 , 30 , 31 . The use of the DEMs rendered from the planar (overhead) angle in the present study meant that the habitat created under the tabulate Acropora at the reef site (mostly A. cytherea ) would not be effectively captured in the DEMs.…”

Development of measures to protect the population and prevent pollution based on the study of the radiation background of the object

“…Dose rates can be estimated in different ways [19][20]. To summarize the results of the measurements in this study, we used the distribution laws of random variables of the measured values of dose rate.…”