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Comparative Study
. 2013 Jul 1;54(4):597-610.
doi: 10.1093/jrr/rrs129. Epub 2013 Jan 7.

Comparative analysis of radon, thoron and thoron progeny concentration measurements

Miroslaw Janik  1 , Shinji Tokonami, Chutima Kranrod, Atsuyuki Sorimachi, Tetsuo Ishikawa, Masahiro Hosoda, James McLaughlin, Byung-Uck Chang, Yong Jae Kim
Affiliations
Comparative Study

Comparative analysis of radon, thoron and thoron progeny concentration measurements

Miroslaw Janik et al. J Radiat Res. .

Abstract

This study examined correlations between radon, thoron and thoron progeny concentrations based on surveys conducted in several different countries. For this purpose, passive detectors developed or modified by the National Institute of Radiological Sciences (NIRS) were used. Radon and thoron concentrations were measured using passive discriminative radon-thoron detectors. Thoron progeny measurements were conducted using the NIRS-modified detector, originally developed by Zhuo and Iida. Weak correlations were found between radon and thoron as well as between thoron and thoron progeny. The statistical evaluation showed that attention should be paid to the thoron equilibrium factor for calculation of thoron progeny concentrations based on thoron measurements. In addition, this evaluation indicated that radon, thoron and thoron progeny were independent parameters, so it would be difficult to estimate the concentration of one from those of the others.

Keywords: radon; thoron; thoron equilibrium factor; thoron progeny.

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Figures

Fig 1.
Fig 1.
Thoron progeny monitors: (a) developed by Zhuo and Iida [41] and (b) modified by NIRS and used in surveys.
Fig 2.
Fig 2.
Box plot of radon concentration results: (a) original data (b) outlier evaluated data.
Fig 3.
Fig 3.
Box plot of thoron concentration results: (a) original data and (b) outlier evaluated data.
Fig 4.
Fig 4.
Box plot of thoron progeny concentration results: (a) original data and (b) outlier evaluated data.
Fig 5.
Fig 5.
Histograms and Q-Q plot of radon concentration for S5 survey: (a) original data with indication of possible outliers by ovals and (b) outlier evaluated data (histogram with log-normal distribution).
Fig 6.
Fig 6.
Histograms and Q-Q plot of thoron concentration for S5 survey: (a) original data with indication of possible outliers by ovals and (b) outlier evaluated data (histogram with log-normal distribution).
Fig 7.
Fig 7.
Histograms and Q-Q Plots of thoron progeny concentration for S6 survey: (a) original data with indication of possible outliers by ovals and (b) outlier evaluated data (histogram with log-normal distribution).
Fig 8.
Fig 8.
Correlation relationship between thoron and thoron progeny concentrations for S5 survey: (a) original data, (b) outlier evaluated data.
Fig 9.
Fig 9.
Histograms for FTn and Tn/Rn ratio for outlier evaluated data compiled from all six surveys.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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