A radon monitor with statistical discrimination. Functional model

The main condition to be fulfilled by the components of a nuclear radiation field in order to be measured by the statistical discrimination method is to have essentially differing statistical factors. This could be the case for the radon volume activity measurements in the presence of a gamma-ray or a natural background radiation field, because the alpha particles emitted by radon isotopes and by their progeny loose in the sensitive volume of an ionization chamber much larger quantities of energy than the gamma ray induced Compton electrons or even the cosmic ray components of the natural radiation background. (authors)