Consequences of Violating Conditions of Counting Statistics Are Not Severe when Measuring Radon Progeny Concentrations with the Thomas and Kusnetz Methods.

When analyzing samples of radon progeny using the Thomas or Kusnetz methods, we violate one of the conditions of counting statistics because we use counting times that are not short compared with the half-lives of the radionuclides. The result is that we overestimate the uncertainties of the counts if we use counting statistics without correction. In this work, I describe the method by which I adjusted the values of variance of the counts theoretically to values that are more accurate and calculated the amounts by which I overestimate the values of counting uncertainty by using counting statistics without correction.

Errors in measurements of 222Rn in methane and carbon dioxide using scintillation cells calibrated for 222Rn in air.

Scintillation cells are used typically for measuring the concentration of (222)Rn in air and are calibrated for that purpose. However, scintillation cells are sometimes used for measuring (222)Rn in natural gas or carbon dioxide. The counting efficiencies of scintillation cells for measurements of (222)Rn in these gases should be different from those for measuring (222)Rn in air because the ranges of alpha particles emitted by (222)Rn and its progeny are greater in methane and smaller in carbon dioxide than in air.

Equations for modeling of grab samples of radon decay products.

A mathematical model of the process of collecting and analyzing a grab sample of radon decay products in air can be useful for a number ofpurposes. Among them is predicting the observed counts of alpha particles and/or beta particles (1) under various conditions of radon decay product equilibrium; (2) for various sampling, delay and counting times; and (3) for various counting efficiencies for the particles emitted by the collected decay products.