Automated measurement of radon daughters Bi-214 and Pb-214 in rainwater

• Autorzy: Cortés G. , Sempau J. , Ortega X.
• Konferencja: Proceedings of the Third International Meeting on Low-Level Air Radioactivity Monitoring, 25-29 September, 2000, Dabrowno near Nidzica, Poland
• Języki publikacji: EN

Abstrakty

EN

Since March 1994, the Institut de Tecniques Energetiques (INTE) of the Universitat Politecnica de Catalunya (UPC), has been measuring environmental gamma dose rate and the airborne radon concentration levels outdoors, at the ESCRA Station, which is located in Barcelona. ESCRA simultaneously measures several meteorological parameters as well. As it is well known, the gamma dose rate suffers noticeable increments during rain intervals, which in our case range from 10% up to 40%, mainly caused by the deposition of the radon daughters 214Bi and 214Pb. These increments do not seem to be correlated with rainrate, rain interval duration, precipitation volume, or other meteorological parameters. In order to develop models that explain the observed dose enhancement, it is interesting to determine the concentration of the gamma emitters in rainwater and, due to the relative short half life of the two nuclides mentioned above, this must be done as it rains. To this end, we have developed an on-line gamma spectroscopy system for rainwater. The operation of this device, which has been automated by means of a LabView program, consists of the following steps: first, 250 cm3 of water is collected and, if the rainrate is high enough, is transferred to the measurement tank, a Marinelly-like container located underneath a HPGe solid state detector. All the system is surrounded by a lead shield. Preliminary measurements carried out with this device yielded radon daughter concentrations ranging from 50 Bq/l up to 1600 Bq/l.

Słowa kluczowe

EN

Bi-214; Pb-214; radon; rainwater

• Wydawca: Institute of Nuclear Chemistry and Technology
• Czasopismo: Nukleonika
• Rocznik: 2001
• Tom: Vol. 46, nr 4
• Strony: 161--164
• Opis fizyczny: Bibliogr. 8 poz., rys.

Twórcy

autor

Cortés G.

• Institut de Tecniques Energetiques, Universitat Politecnica de Catalunya, 647, Diagonal Av., 08028 Barcelona, Spain, Tel.: [phone], Fax: [phone]

autor

Sempau J.

• Institut de Tecniques Energetiques, Universitat Politecnica de Catalunya, 647, Diagonal Av., 08028 Barcelona, Spain, Tel.: [phone], Fax: [phone]

autor

Ortega X.

• Institut de Tecniques Energetiques, Universitat Politecnica de Catalunya, 647, Diagonal Av., 08028 Barcelona, Spain, Tel.: [phone], Fax: [phone]

Bibliografia

• 1. Aoki M, Nishikawa T, Okabe S (1988) Seasonal variation of radon daughters concentrations in the atmosphere and in precipitation at the Japanese coast of the Sea of Japan. Radiat Prot Dosim 24:93–95
• 2. Beck HL (1972) The physics of environmental gamma radiation fields. In: Adams JAS, Lowder WM, Gesell TF (eds) The natural radiation environment II. Rice Univ., Houston, pp 101–133
• 3. Cort¯s G, Sempau J, Ortega X (1996) Correlaciones radiometeorológicas atmosféricas en Barcelona. In: VI Congress of the Spanish Radiological Protection Society, Córdoba, pp 138–139
• 4. Damon PE, Kuroda PK (1954) On the natural radioactivity of rainfall. Transactions, American Geophysical Union 35:209–216
• 5. Minato S (1980) Some observations of the variations in natural gamma radiation due to the rainfall. In: Lowder WM, Gesell TF (eds) The natural radiation environment III. Vol. 1. Technical Information Center, Oak Ridge, pp 370–382
• 6. Okabe S, Nishikawa T, Aoki M (1986) Automatic measuring instrument for radon daughters concentration of precipitation. J Nucl Sci Technol 23:1001–1007
• 7. Ortega X, Sempau J, Vargas A (1993) Instalación de una estación de control radiológico ambiental y meteorológico. In: XIX Annual Meeting of the Spanish Nuclear Society, Cáceres, 17;05:218–219
• 8. Paatero J (2000) Wet deposition of radon-222 progeny in Northern Finland measured with an automatic precipitation gamma analyser. Radiat Prot Dosim 87:273–280