The influence of thoron on instruments measuring radon activity concentration

Thoron, the isotope 220 of radon, is a radionuclide whose concentration may influence the measurement of the activity concentration of (222)Rn in the air. If in the case of continuous and active sampling measuring instruments, using a pump for example, the influence of thoron on radon measurement is obvious and is taken into account in the apparatus, it is often assumed that in the case of a passive sampling, by diffusion through a filter for example, this thoron influence is negligible. This is due to the very short radioactive half-life of thoron, 55.6 s (3.82 d for (222)Rn), and the assumption that the diffusion time of thoron in the detection chamber is long enough beside that of the thoron half-life. The objective of this study is to check whether this assumption is true or not for different kinds of commercial electronic apparatus used to measure radon activity concentration from soil to dwellings. First of all, the devices were calibrated in activity concentration of radon, and then they were exposed to a controlled thoron atmosphere. The experiments concerning the thoron aimed to investigate the sensitivity to thoron in the radon measuring mode of the apparatus. Results of these experiments show that all devices have a very quick answer to thoron atmosphere, even though the sensitivities vary from one instrument to another. Results clearly show that this influence on radon measurement due to the thoron is observed also after the exposition because of the decay of (212)Pb and its progenies. In conclusion, the sensitivity to thoron in the radon measuring mode depends strongly on the type of instruments. The results of the present investigation show that for some apparatus, the influence of thoron cannot be disregarded especially when measuring radon in soil.