| NUKLEONIKA 2010, 55(4):459-462
RADON AND THORON PARALLEL MEASUREMENTS IN DWELLINGS NEARBY A CLOSED HUNGARIAN URANIUM MINECsaba Németh1, Viktor Jobbágy2, Norbert Kávási3, János Somlai3, Tibor Kovács3, Shinji Tokonami4 1 Department of Physics, University of Pannonia, 10 Egyetem Str., 8200 Veszprém, Hungary 2 Social Organization for Radio Ecological Cleanliness, 10 Egyetem Str., 8200 Veszprém, Hungary 3 Institute of Radiochemistry and Radioecology, University of Pannonia, 10 Egyetem Str., 8200 Veszprém, Hungary 4 National Institute of Radiological Sciences, 4-9-1 Anagawa, Inage-ku, Chiba 263-8555, Japan Integrated measurements of radon (222Rn) and thoron (220Rn) were executed in a Hungarian village, located in the vicinity of an abandoned uranium mine. The applied passive radon and thoron monitor was the RADUET which is based on a CR-39 track detector. The investigated 35 houses were one storey buildings made of bricks. The rock under the village is a gray-sandstone with an average of 136 and 77 Bq·kg–1 uranium and thorium, respectively. The detectors were mostly placed in the inhabited areas of the houses, such as bedrooms and living-rooms, at a height of 1–1.5 m close to the wall. The measurement periods were between December 2006 and May 2007 and between May 2007 and February 2008. Annual averages of radon concentrations were calculated applying seasonal correction factors to the results of the two measurement periods. The results show that the radon concentrations in the case of considerable part of the investigated dwellings seems to be significantly higher than the Hungarian averages for ground-floor houses (152 Bq·m–3). The thoron concentrations in some cases are also not negligible indicating that radon measurements which are sensitive to thoron can be misleading. Additionally, thoron can also be a contributor of extra dose. Close X |