Abstract

In order to assess the exposure of individuals to the presence of indoor radioactivity arising from the decay of radon, an automated, semicontinuous graded screen array system was developed to permit the measurement of the activity-weighted size distributions of the radon progeny in homes. The system has been modified so that the electronics and sampling heads can be separated from the pump by approximately 15 m. The system was placed in the living room of a one-storey house with basement in Princeton, NJ and operated for 2 weeks while the house was occupied by the home owners in their normal manner. One of the house occupants was a cigarette smoker. Radon and potential alpha energy concentration (PAEC) measurements were also made, but condensation nuclei counts were not performed. PAEC values ranged from 23.4 to 46.1 mWL. In the measured activity size distributions, the amount of activity in the 0.5–1.5 nm size range can be considered to be the unattached fraction. The mean value for the 218Po unattached fraction is 0.217 with a range of 0.054–0.549. The median value for the unattached fraction of PAEC is 0.077 with a range of 0.022–0.178.

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