A passive individual dosemeter for integrating measurements of the radon daughter product contents in air

Abstract

A simple passive long-term dosemeter for area and individual dosimetry has been developed, calibrated and tested as a prototype for direct determination of the dose-relevant potential alpha energy concentration of any mixture of short-lived radon daughter products in air. The dosemeter is based on a double-chamber method. In this way, the main factor of uncertainty in exposure estimations, the assumption of mean equilibrium factors, can be eliminated. The matchbox sized dosemeters are not expensive, simple to handle and have sufficient detection sensitivity. CR 39 equivalent PATRAS material is applied as detectors. Investigations so far have shown that the dosemeters are very attractive for routine monitoring in order to assess the radon daughter product exposures of miners and selected persons during their stay in elevated and strongly varying radon/radon daughter product atmospheres. The optinum exposure time of the dosemeter is about three months.