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Radon mapping in groundwater and indoor environs of Budgam, Jammu and Kashmir

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Abstract

Radiation exposure, an inescapable share of our everyday life, primarily arises from terrestrial or cosmic sources. A small fragment of the total dose is also contributed by our own bodies. Humans receive an average radiation of 2.4 mSv y−1 as natural background radiation. In the present study, an attempt to quantify groundwater radon-222 and indoor radon, thoron and their progeny was made using both active as well as passive techniques. Solid state nuclear track detectors (LR-115 type-II films) were employed for long-term passive measurements while as scintillation based radon monitor was used for active short-term measurements.

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Acknowledgements

We appreciate the residents of Budgam for their kind cooperation and trust. The authors express gratitude to the editor and the reviewers for their comments on the earlier version of the manuscript that greatly improved the structure and content of this manuscript. A sincere thank you to Rumisa Amin for her diligent proofreading of this manuscript.

Funding

This work was partially supported by the Department of Atomic Energy (DAE), Board of Research in Nuclear Sciences (BRNS), Trombay, Mumbai, India [grant number: 36(4)/14/48/2015-BRNS].

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Radiation Lab, Department of Physics, University of Kashmir, Hazratbal, Srinagar, Jammu and Kashmir, 190006, India

    Salik Nazir, Sajad Masood, Nissar Ahmad & Shakeel Simnani

  2. Radiation Safety Systems Division, Health Physics Division, Bhabha Atomic Research Centre, Trombay, Mumbai, 400085, India

    B. K. Sahoo & Rosaline Mishra

  3. Department of Physics, Maharaja Ranjit Singh Punjab Technical University, Bathinda, Punjab, 151001, India

    Supriya Rani

  4. Geoinformatic Program, Department of Earth Sciences, University of Kashmir, Hazratbal, Srinagar, Jammu and Kashmir, 190006, India

    Irfan Rashid

  5. Department of Surgical Oncology, Sher-i-Kashmir Institute of Medical Sciences, Soura, Srinagar, Jammu and Kashmir, 190011, India

    Sheikh Zahoor Ahmad

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  1. Salik Nazir
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Correspondence to Shakeel Simnani.

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Nazir, S., Sahoo, B.K., Rani, S. et al. Radon mapping in groundwater and indoor environs of Budgam, Jammu and Kashmir. J Radioanal Nucl Chem 329, 923–934 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10967-021-07856-z

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