Abstract
Recently, some commercially available active-type radon–thoron monitors were developed; however, their performance has not been characterized. This article presents the characteristics of three commercially available active-type radon–thoron monitors (RAD7, Radon Mapper, and AlphaGUARD) at different sampling flow rates. The thoron concentration measured by the monitors was compared with the reference value measured by a grab sampling method. As a result, the ratio of the measured concentration to the reference increased with flow rate for the RAD7 and the Radon Mapper although that of the AlphaGUARD decreased. The difference may be attributed to the coefficients used in the calculation and the measurement time scheme. The results indicate the importance of the sampling flow rate in thoron measurement. Monitoring of flow rate at the measurement and periodic calibration at multiple sampling flow rates should be conducted for quality assurance and quality control of the measurand.
Highlights
Lung cancer is one of the most common cancers in the world and there were more than 700,000 deaths due to lung cancer in Japan [1]
The RAD7 provides the radon and thoron concentrations calculated from the count rates of two regions of interest considering the spillover of the alpha particles from the other progenies [21]
In order to investigate the influence of the sampling flow rate on the measurement result, performance tests were carried out using a thoron exposure system at Hirosaki University [23]
Summary
Lung cancer is one of the most common cancers in the world and there were more than 700,000 deaths due to lung cancer in Japan [1]. Thoron was ignored due to its short half-life (56 s). Some researchers have reported that the measured radon concentration would have been influenced by the existence of thoron [12,13,14]. An electrostatic collection radon–thoron monitor, namely RAD7, has been used by many researchers [15,16,17]. Some active-type radon–thoron monitors using a scintillation cell and an ionization chamber were developed and available for real-time radon and thoron measurements. Due to the short half-life of thoron, the sampling flow rate likely influences the measurement values. In the present study, a performance test related to the sampling flow rate was carried out to reveal the characteristics of the active-type radon and thoron monitors
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
