Radon level and radon effective dose rate determination using SSNTDs in Sannur cave, Eastern desert of Egypt

For the assessment of inhalation doses due to radon and its progeny to cavern workers and visitors, it is necessary to have information on the time integrated gas concentrations and equilibrium factors. Passive single cup dosimeters using solid state nuclear track detectors (SSNTD) is the best suited for this purpose in wadi Sannur cave, Beni Suef, Egypt. The average radon concentration measurements for the cave are 836 +/- 150 Bq m(-3) by CR-39 detectors and for equilibrium factor an overall average of all measured values was used 0.687. The effective dose for cave workers is 3.65 mSv/year while for visitors is 23 muSv/year. Comparing these values to the Ionizing Radiation Regulations (IRR) values which indicate that the estimated effective doses for workers and visitors in this cave are less than the average overall radon dose.