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Dose assessment from exposure to radon, thoron and their progeny concentrations in the dwellings of sub-mountainous region of Jammu & Kashmir, India

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Abstract

The present work deals with the assessment of annual inhalation dose due to exposure of indoor radon, thoron and their progeny concentrations in the villages situated in sub-mountainous region of Jammu & Kashmir, India. The distribution of the data and the homogeneity of medians among different seasons and dwellings were assessed with the Shapiro–Wilk test and the Mann–Whitney test. The estimated total annual inhalation dose in these villages varied from 0.5 to 1.9 mSv year−1 which is less than the prescribed limit by ICRP (2008). Thus, the investigated area is safe from irradiation of radon, thoron and their progeny.

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Acknowledgements

The authors are profoundly grateful to the residents of Jammu district, Jammu & Kashmir India, for their cooperation and help for placing dosimeters and DRPS/DTPS in their respective dwellings. Our special thanks to D.A.V. College, Amritsar and National Institute of Technology, Jalandhar for their support in carrying out the experimental work.

Funding

The authors are thankful to the Board of Research in Nuclear Sciences (BRNS), Department of Atomic Energy (DAE), Government of India, for providing financial assistance under a major research project (Project No. 2013/36/60-BRNS) for this study.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Physics, DAV College, Katra Sher Singh, Amritsar, Punjab, 143001, India

    M. Kaur & A. Kumar

  2. Department of Physics, Dr. B. R. Ambedkar National Institute of Technology, Jalandhar, Punjab, 144011, India

    M. Kaur & R. Mehra

  3. Radiological Physics & Advisory Division, Bhabha Atomic Research Centre, Mumbai, 400085, India

    R. Mishra

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  1. M. Kaur
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Correspondence to A. Kumar.

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Kaur, M., Kumar, A., Mehra, R. et al. Dose assessment from exposure to radon, thoron and their progeny concentrations in the dwellings of sub-mountainous region of Jammu & Kashmir, India. J Radioanal Nucl Chem 315, 75–88 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10967-017-5632-0

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