Pilot Study of the Application of Plastic Scintillation Microspheres to Rn-222 Detection and Measurement

This work demonstrates that when plastic scintillation microspheres (PSms) synthesized from polystyrene are exposed to 222 Rn in air or water, they concentrate 222 Rn in their volume. A theoretical model, based on the solution of the diffusion equation is developed, in order to describe the 222 Rn s...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:IEEE transactions on nuclear science 2016-04, Vol.63 (2), p.1209-1217
Main Authors: Mitev, Krasimir, Dimitrova, Ivelina, Tarancon, Alex, Pressyanov, Dobromir, Tsankov, Ludmil, Boshkova, Tatiana, Georgiev, Strahil, Sekalova, Rositsa, Garcia, Jose F.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Absorption
Atmospheric measurements
Efficiency
Liquids
Mathematical model
Particle measurements
Polymers
Radon
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Summary:This work demonstrates that when plastic scintillation microspheres (PSms) synthesized from polystyrene are exposed to 222 Rn in air or water, they concentrate 222 Rn in their volume. A theoretical model, based on the solution of the diffusion equation is developed, in order to describe the 222 Rn sorption and desorption processes in PSms. A macroscopic quantity termed "sampling efficiency" is used to quantify the absorption properties of the PSms. The sampling efficiency is estimated by exposure of PSms to 222 Rn in air and water. Estimates of the counting efficiency for measurement of the exposed PSms by commercial scintillation counters are presented. The results show that polystyrene PSms are simultaneously good samplers and detectors of 222 Rn. These properties indicate that sensitive approaches for the measurement of 222 Rn based on absorption and scintillation counting of PSms can be developed.
ISSN:0018-9499
1558-1578
DOI:10.1109/TNS.2016.2530857