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Dosimetric evaluation of thoron exposure in the three typical rural indoor environments of China

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Abstract

In order to evaluate thoron exposure in indoor environments, field measurements of both concentration and its size distribution were carried out in three typical rural residential houses in China, and exposure dose was evaluated using dosimetric method. Results show that the thoron progeny size distributions of rural indoor environments (AMAD: 76.5 nm; GSD: 2.7) are much smaller than those of urban (AMAD: 115 nm; GSD: 2.0), which makes the dose conversion factors of thoron in rural environments [307.4 nSv/(Bq m−3 h−1)] are much higher than those in urban [113.4 nSv/(Bq m−3 h−1)]. The highest thoron exposure (10.12 mSv a−1) was found in mud house of Yangjiang, the high radiation background area.

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Notes

  1. Fukuvi Chemical Industry Co., ltd, Sanjuhassha-cho, Fukuicity, 910-37, Japan.

  2. Advantec MFS, Inc, 6691 Owen Drive, Pleasanton, CA94588.

  3. Tracerlab Instruments, Horst Kelm, Kolner Str. 64-66, Postfach, P.O. Box 1922, Germany.

  4. Pylon Electronics, Inc., 147 Colonnade Road, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 11205241).

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Correspondence to Qiuju Guo.

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Zhang, L., Guo, Q. & Wang, S. Dosimetric evaluation of thoron exposure in the three typical rural indoor environments of China. J Radioanal Nucl Chem 303, 1565–1568 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10967-014-3798-2

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