Measurements of Radon Concentrations and Dose Assessments in Chemistry Department-Science College- Al-Mustansiriyah University, Baghdad, Iraq

Authors(2) :-Iman Tarik Al-Alawy, Haider Rayed Fadhil

Measurements of radon gas concentrations with their progeny and the annual effective dose indoor the building of Al-Mustansiriyah University College of Science-Chemistry Department have been carried out by using time-integrated passive radon dosimeters solid state nuclear track detector CR-39 technique. The detectors with 1cm x1cm have been distributed over 58 places and suspended for sitting (1m) and standing (1.75m) positions in each location under study. The dosimetric measurements are made over a period of 100 days from 30 January 2014 to 10 May 2014. The calibration process has been done using radium-226 source with known activity radiation. It has found that the indoor radon gas concentrations varying from 35.220±5.935Bg/m3 to 71.673±8.466Bg/m3 with an average value 49.129±6.969Bg/m3 at 1m, and varying from 31.794±5.639Bg/m3 to 68.246±8.261Bg/m3 with an average value 45.487±6.696Bg/m3 at 1.75m which are within the worldwide limits 148Bg/m3 (EPA, 2003) and 200-300Bg/m3 (ICRP, 2009). The annual effective dose of the inhalation exposure to radon gas has been estimated and this vary from 0.370mSv/y to 0.753mSv/y with an average value 0.516mSv/y at 1m, and varying from 0.334mSv/y to 0.717mSv/y with an average value 0.478mSv/y at 1.75m which are within the worldwide permissible limits 3-10mSv/y (ICRP, 1993). The potential alpha energy concentration found to vary from 3.808mWL to 7.748mWL with an average value 5.311mWL at 1m and vary from 3.437mWL to 7.378mWL with an average value 4.918mWL at 1.75m which are less than the recommended value 53.33mWL (UNSCEAR, 1993). The lung cancer cases per million person per year vary from 6.664 to 13.562per million person per year with an average value 9.296per million person per year at 1m and vary from 6.016 to 12.913per million person per year with an average value 8.607per million person per year which are less than the recommended range 170-230 per million person per year (ICRP, 1993). The number of decays per-minute using swabs measurements technique have been used for selected units within two swabs from building materials walls for each unite, with area of 100cm2 using Ludlum 3030, the average of three swabs measurements have been calculated. Hence, the effectiveness of emitted alpha particles from the walls has been calculated to be varied from 0.00556 to 0.02222Bq/cm2 with an average value 0.01154Bq/cm2 at 1m and 0.00000Bq/cm2 to 0.01667Bq/cm2 with an average value 0.00983Bq/cm2 at 1.75m respectively which is within the permissible limit 0.04Bq/cm2 (Danial, 2010).

Authors and Affiliations

Iman Tarik Al-Alawy
Physics Department, College of Science, Al-Mustansiriyah University/Baghdad, Iraq
Haider Rayed Fadhil
Ministry of Science and Technology, City, Baghdad, Iraq

Indoor Radon gas; Natural radioactivity; CR-39 detector; Annual effective dose; Ludlum 3030

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Publication Details

Published in : Volume 2 | Issue 4 | July-August 2016
Date of Publication : 2016-08-30
License:  This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Page(s) : 72-82
Manuscript Number : IJSRST162384
Publisher : Technoscience Academy

Print ISSN : 2395-6011, Online ISSN : 2395-602X

Cite This Article :

Iman Tarik Al-Alawy, Haider Rayed Fadhil, " Measurements of Radon Concentrations and Dose Assessments in Chemistry Department-Science College- Al-Mustansiriyah University, Baghdad, Iraq", International Journal of Scientific Research in Science and Technology(IJSRST), Print ISSN : 2395-6011, Online ISSN : 2395-602X, Volume 2, Issue 4, pp.72-82 , July-August-2016.
Journal URL : https://ijsrst.com/IJSRST162384
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