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Technology
Radosys specific questions
What is radon? Why is it interesting?
Radon is a naturally occuring radioactive noble gas. There are many natural radioactive materials, but all of them are solid, except for radon. Therefore it is the only one that can diffuse through materials, come out from rocks and enter into the atmosphere or buildings. Because of this the majority of our radiation exposure comes from the decay process of radon and its daughter elements. If this exposure is too high (e.g. too much radon in the air), the risk for getting diseases like lung cancer is higher.How can we measure the radon level?
Since radon is colorless, odorless and even noble gas, and its concentration is extremely low even at "high" levels, it's virtually impossible to detect it directly. Instead we can detect the alpha particles coming from its decay process. There are different methods to do this; for surveys, the most suitable ones are the so-called "passive" techniques. This means that there is no active element in the system, only components that can register the alpha particles. We use the "track-etch" method. Its main component is a piece of a special plastic that is invisibly damaged by each alpha particle. These invisible tracks can be develeped by an etching process. As a result, the tracks will be visible under microscope. If we count the track density, and we know the neccessary conversion factor and the length of the exposure, we can calculate the radon level where the exposure was made.Why is it better than any other method?
- possibility to measure hundreds or thousands of different places in parallel
- cheap, disposable detectors
- integrating type measurement: shows an average exposure value over long period of time (1 month - 1 year)
- no active component, virtually no sources of failure, reliable result
- standard technique that has evolved to be a state-of-the-art method in this area