Abstract

Elevated levels of radon and thoron in the indoor atmosphere may cause the deleterious effects on the mankind. Mining sites and their environs attract a special interest in radon studies as higher levels are frequently reported in the habitats. In the present study, radon and thoron levels were measured in the dwellings of Buddonithanda, a village in the environs of proposed uranium mining site, with pin-hole (SSNTDs) dosimeters for the period of a year. The measured radon and thoron levels were found to vary widely from 14 to 675 Bq m−3 (geometric mean = 94 Bq m−3) and from 21 to 704 Bq m−3 (geometric mean = 121 Bq m−3), respectively. An attempt was made to understand the large spatial variation of these levels. The seasonal and diurnal variation studies were used in unraveling the behavior of the radioactive isotopes in indoor environment and the same was explained with the help of a simplified mathematical model. Quantification of inhalation dose due to radon and thoron was done with suitable occupancy factors.

Details

Title
Radon and thoron levels in the dwellings of Buddonithanda: a village in the environs of proposed uranium mining site, Nalgonda district, Telangana state, India
Author
Suman, G 1 ; Reddy K, Vinay Kumar 2 ; Sreenath, Reddy M 1 ; Gopal Reddy Ch 1 ; Yadagiri, Reddy P 1 

 Osmania University, Department of Physics, Hyderabad, India (GRID:grid.412419.b) (ISNI:0000 0001 1456 3750) 
 Chaitanya Bharathi Institute of Technology, Department of Physics, Hyderabad, India (GRID:grid.454281.e) (ISNI:0000 0004 1772 4312) 
Publication year
2021
Publication date
2021
Publisher
Nature Publishing Group
e-ISSN
20452322
Source type
Scholarly Journal
Language of publication
English
ProQuest document ID
2502556142
Copyright
© The Author(s) 2021. This work is published under http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (the “License”). Notwithstanding the ProQuest Terms and Conditions, you may use this content in accordance with the terms of the License.