Separately measuring radon and thoron concentrations exhaled from soil using AlphaGUARD and liquid scintillation counter methods

It was shown that radon and thoron concentrations exhaled from soil were separately measured using the AlphaGUARD and liquid scintillation counter (LSC) methods. The thoron concentrations from the RAD 7 were used to create the conversion equation to calculate thoron levels with the AlphaGUARD. However, the conversion factor was found to depend on the air flow rate. When air containing thoron of ∼60 kBq m-3 was fed to the scintillation cocktail, thoron and thoron progeny could not be measured with the LSC method. The radon concentration of about 10 kBq m-3 was measured with three methods, first with the LSC method and then with two AlphaGUARDs (one in the diffusion mode and the other in the flow mode (0.5 l min-1)). There were no significant differences between these results. Finally, it was shown that the radon and thoron concentrations in air could be measured with the AlphaGUARD and LSC methods. (authors)