Radiation protection Aspects Using the Thermal Waters from the Felix-1 Mai-Oradea Geothermal Deposit

Full text: The geothermal 'Felix-1 Mai-Oradea' deposit is situated in the western part of Romania and it is well known long years ago. The waters of this deposit are used in the medical treatments in the two resorts (Felix and 1 Mai) and for heating and swimming pools in Oradea town. The deposit depth (2500-3000 m) determines a high temperature (66-900 deg. C) of these waters also a mineral content of 200-1400 mg/l, the main components being Ca and Mg. First time, during some years, the thermal water was directly used in the central heating radiators from 'Nufarul' residential district. At present a heating switch installation is utilised. The high radium content of these thermal waters comparatively with Italian or Japanese thermal waters suggested us a study of radium deposition on the inner walls of the pipes also in the inner central heating radiators. Analysing these depositions using a high resolution Ge-Li detector, the radium-226 and small quantities of radium-224 and 223 isotopes were registered. Average radium-226 deposition was 1200 Bq/kg. (author)