The influence of thoron on instruments measuring radon activity concentration

International audienceThoron, the isotope 220 of radon, is a radionuclide whose concentration may influence the measurement of the activity concentration of 222Rn in the air. If in the case of continuous and active sampling measuring instruments, using a pump for example, the influence of thoron on radon measurement is obvious and is taken into account in the apparatus, it is often assumed that in the case of a passive sampling, by diffusion through a filter for example, this thoron influence is negligible. This is due to the very short radioactive half-life of thoron, 55.6 s (3.82 d for 222Rn), and the assumption that the diffusion time of thoron in the detection chamber is long enough beside that of the thoron half-life. The objective of this study is to check whether this assumption is true or not for different kinds of commercial electronic apparatus used to measure radon activity concentration from soil to dwellings. First of all, the devices were calibrated in activity concentration of radon, and then they were exposed to a controlled thoron atmosphere. The experiments concerning the thoron aimed to investigate the sensitivity to thoron in the radon measuring mode of the apparatus. Results of these experiments show that all devices have a very quick answer to thoron atmosphere, even though the sensitivities vary from one instrument to another. Results clearly show that this influence on radon measurement due to the thoron is observed also after the exposition because of the decay of 212Pb and its progenies. In conclusion, the sensitivity to thoron in the radon measuring mode depends strongly on the type of instruments. The results of the present investigation show that for some apparatus, the influence of thoron cannot be disregarded especially when measuring radon in soil. © The Author 2015. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved

Development of a primary thoron activity standard for the calibration of thoron measurement instruments

Proceeding of the 9th International Symposium on the Natural Radiation Environment (NRE), 22-24 September 2014, Hirosaki, Japan.International audienceThe LNHB and IRSN are working on a reference atmosphere for thoron (Rn-220) instrument calibration. The LNHB, as the national metrology institute for activity measurement in France, has to create a new thoron reference standard in order to estimate with accuracy the thoron concentration of a reference atmosphere. The measurement system presented in this paper is based on a reference volume using an alpha detector, which is able to measure thoron and its decay products to define the thoron concentration of a thoron reference atmosphere. This paper presents the first results with this new system using a well-known radon (Rn-222) atmosphere and a thoron (Rn-220) atmosphere

Filtration of nanoparticles: Presentation of FANA test bench

A test bench for the analysis of air filter penetration has been developed at IRSN. The paper introduces this nano-aerosol filtration test bench (FANA) and the methodology used to measure filter penetration as accurately as possible for nanoparticles. Two configurations are compared by measuring the penetration through a metallic grid. The results obtained are identical. In addition, penetration results using two filtration velocities and a particle size range of 2.5 to 400 nm are presented for different types of filtration media (F6, F9, HEPA)

A new thoron atmosphere reference measurement system

International audienceA new thoron reference ((220)Rn) in air measurement system is developed at the LNE-LNHB with the collaboration of the IRSN. This measurement system is based on a reference volume with an alpha detector which is able to directly measure thoron and its decay products at atmospheric pressure. In order to improve the spectrum quality of the thoron progenies, we have applied an electric field to catch the decay products on the detector surface. The developed system is a portative device which can be used to measure reference thoron atmosphere such as the BACCARA chamber at IRSN (Picolo et al., 1999). As this system also allows the measurement of radon ((222)Rn) in air, it was validated using the radon primary standards made at the LNE-LNHB. This thoron measurement system will be used, at IRSN, as a reference instrument in order to calibrate the thoron activity concentration in the BACCARA facility

Characterization and monitoring of the excavation damaged zone in fractured gneisses of the Roselend tunnel, French Alps

The Roselend dead-end tunnel was excavated in the last fifties by blasting in the Méraillet crystalline rock mass located on the shore of an artificial reservoir lake in the French Alps. Successive emptying and filling of the reservoir lake induce mechanical deformation of the rock mass. Thus, this tunnel is an exceptional place to study the evolution of the damaged zone (due to the excavation, and named EDZ) under a periodic mechanical or hydraulic loading. From the perspective of radioactive waste isolation in deep geological strata, the EDZ transport properties, and their evolution with time, are of major importance. The purpose of this study is, on the one hand, to quantify the transport properties of the EDZ of the Roselend tunnel through permeability measurements and drill core observations; on the other hand, to monitor the response of the EDZ to external solicitations via borehole pressure measurements. The air permeability has been deduced from pneumatic tests performed along several boreholes. The permeability profiles and the observation of drill cores lead to an estimation of the extent of the EDZ, of about 1. m around the tunnel. The response of the EDZ to barometric pumping has been observed through borehole pressure monitoring. Time-lag and attenuation of the barometric signal that propagates into the EDZ have been measured at a metric scale. The identification of potential time-lag and attenuation variations needs further investigations, the long time series of borehole pressure monitoring shows pressure increase probably due to percolating water during successive snow cover and thawing periods as observed in the Roselend area during winter. © 2010 Elsevier B.V

Influence of the type of CD case on the track density distribution in CDs exposed to thoron

Proceedings of the 20th International Conference on Radionuclide Metrology and its Applications (ICRM), 8-11 June 2015, Vienna, Austria. Organizer TU Wien. Editors Franz-Josef Maringer, Dirk Arnold, Uwe Wätjen.International audienceA novel approach for retrospective thoron (Rn-220) measurements in buildings was recently proposed. It employs CDs/DVDs as detectors, in which the alpha-tracks formed by thoron's progeny Po-212 are analyzed. Compact disks and DVDs that had been stored in their cases are suitable, because the case provides a fixed and reproducible geometry of the Po-212 source. Since the measurement and calibration procedures involve analysis of different pieces of the disk, it is important to test the homogeneity of the track density over the disk area. This report presents results of such a study, in which disks in different containers were exposed to thoron. In almost all disks, the track density was inhomogeneous, increasing significantly near the holes in the container through which thoron could enter. However, as demonstrated, in disks regularly used and randomly rotated in their containers, the track density is expected to homogenize. It is concluded that the homogeneity of the tracks should be tested in disks exposed to thoron in homes and should be estimated or compensated in calibration exposures

Size characterization of airborne SiO2 nanoparticles with on-line and off-line measurement techniques: Results of an interlaboratory comparison

Day after day, new applications using manufactured nanoparticles appear in industry. To evaluate the occupational risk associated with airborne nanoparticles, it is important to have reliable, accurate, and standardized measurement methods. It is therefore necessary to work on pre- standardization projects to develop reference methods to characterize different parameters such as the number and the size distribution of airborne nanoparticles

Size characterization of airborne SiO2 nanoparticles with on-line and off-line measurement techniques: an interlaboratory comparison study

Results of an interlaboratory comparison on size characterization of SiO2 airborne nanoparticles using on-line and off-line measurement techniques are discussed. This study was performed in the framework of Technical Working Area (TWA) 34\u2014\u2018\u2018Properties of Nanoparticle Populations\u2019\u2019 of the Versailles Project on Advanced Materials and Standards (VAMAS) in the project no. 3 \u2018\u2018Techniques for characterizing size distribution of airborne nanoparticles\u2019\u2019. Two types of nano-aerosols, consisting of (1) one population of nanoparticles with a mean diameter between 30.3 and 39.0 nm and (2) two populations of non-agglomerated nanoparticles with mean diameters between, respectively, 36.2\u201346.6 nm and 80.2\u201389.8 nm, were generated for characterization measurements. Scanning mobility particle size spectrometers (SMPS) were used for on-line measurements of size distributions of the produced nano-aerosols. Transmission electron microscopy, scanning electron microscopy, and atomic force microscopy were used as off-line measurement techniques for nanoparticles characterization. Samples were deposited on appropriate supports such as grids, filters, andmica plates by electrostatic precipitation and a filtration technique using SMPS controlled generation upstream. The results of the main size distribution parameters (mean and mode diameters), obtained from several laboratories, were compared based on metrological approaches including metrological traceability, calibration, and evaluation of the measurement uncertainty. Internationally harmonized measurement procedures for airborne SiO2 nanoparticles characterization are proposed