L.A. SATHISH
Department of Physics, Government Science College, Bangalore – 560 001, Karnataka, Nrupathunga Road, India
Radon (Rn) mitigation techniques and radioactivity control in house are well-established. Majority of these techniques apply to detached and semi-detached houses, where the earth beneath the structures serves as the primary source of Rn. For the place of Bangalore city, indoor Rn and Tn (thoron) concentrations have been measured using solid state nuclear track detector-based dosimeters. Observations were recorded with and without formica laminated material (a composite material) on the room walls. After a month, the measured concentrations of Rn (222Rn) and Tn (220Rn) were 43.5 and 28.6 Bq m–3 without any coatings and 12.9 and 9.7 Bq m–3 with a thin sheet of formica laminated material. For the same measurements the dose rates of Rn and Tn were 0.5 and 0.2 mSv y–1, respectively. According to the preliminary study, formica laminated material on the walls caused a concentration drop more than 50 %.
Key words: Exhalation, radon, thoron, concentrations, reduction, dose rate.
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