Radon and thoron parallel measurements in dwellings nearby a closed Hungarian uranium mine

As it is known, the radon (222Rn) gas and its progenies are considered to be the major contributors to human exposure from natural radiation sources [1]. Several surveys seem to have concluded that the radon in the living environment implies an increased health risk [3, 9, 18]. This is the reason why national authorities and international organizations issues guidelines concerning radon levels in homes. Although radon has the main concern among the health physicists, thoron also needs attention. Previous studies have shown that thoron (220Rn) was find in a not negligible extent in traditional Japanese houses [5, 10, 15], in dwellings of Mexico City [11] and it has gained an important part in surveys in India [12] and China [7, 13]. The presence of thoron can have an effect on accurate radon measurement [14] and thoron itself might result in radiation exposures comparable to those due to radon [2]. The measurement of thoron is usually more complicated than radon measurement. Thoron concentration is highly inhomogeneous with a strong dependence on the distance from the source [6]. In this paper a radon survey executed in a Hungarian village, located in the vicinity of an abandoned uranium Radon and thoron parallel measurements in dwellings nearby a closed Hungarian uranium mine Csaba Németh, Viktor Jobbágy, Norbert Kávási, János Somlai, Tibor Kovács, Shinji Tokonami