Abstract
Indoor and outdoor (atmospheric) radon activity concentrations need to be measured as accurate as possible for radiation protection and for climate applications. Particularly radon concentrations below 100 Bq m −3, useful for the retrieval of radon prone areas and for atmospheric studies, still need a robust metrological chain to ensure their quality. Ones of the most common used commercial continuous radon monitors were compared here under slightly different environmental conditions. The measured data set were divided into two groups (< 100 Bq m −3 and ≥ 100 Bq m −3) to assess the monitors responses and their associated uncertainties. Nevertheless, these results should also to point out if commercial monitors are suitable for monitoring low atmospheric radon concentrations with an associated uncertainty of 10% (k=1). This work, carried out within the EMPIR 19ENV01 traceRadon project, aims to offer a starting point for the development of a future radon monitor as transfer standard to increase the metrological capabilities of atmospheric radon monitoring.
Highlights
Radon (222Rn) is a colorless, odorless and chemically inert radioactive gas which occurs at various concentrations almost everywhere. 222Rn is an α-daughter product of long-lived 226Ra (T1∕2 = 1600 y), ubiquitous in most rock, waters and soil types [1,2]
The aim of this study was to observe and compare data of the most common used commercial radon monitors, under different laboratory conditions to analyze their response for radon concentration in air higher or lower than 100 Bq m−3
The interest was in evaluating the uncertainty related with the measurements of radon concentration below hundred Bq m−3 for possible environmental applications of these monitors
Summary
It is known that in some buildings, radon gas and its daughter products can reach concentrations high enough to be a serious health risk. Exposure to radon in housing is responsible for approximately 20000 lung cancer deaths each year in the European Union alone [6]. It has been more and more the subject of regulation aimed to reduce radon exposure. For Europe, the key document is the EURATOM Basic Safety Standards (BSS) [7] Related with this, it has been a number of international research projects, such as RADPAR [8,9], SMART RAD EN [10] and MetroRADON (MetroRadon, 2021 [11]). The European Atlas of Natural Radiation [13] plays a key role, as well as the EURAMET MetroRADON project, which was devoted to improve the quality assurance chain from indoor 222Rn measurement to aggregated products such as 222Rn maps, which serve as decision tools in 222Rn policy [14]
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