Radon Collector and Ionization Chamber
Posted: Mon Sep 15, 2014 12:44 pm
I was wondering what exactly the ionization chamber is measuring? Is it pCi/L or something else? Thank you!
Hi,
Radon is a radioactive gas and when it decays it releases an alpha particle and I'm assuming that is what you are counting with your ionization chamber. If you simply count events you get decompositions per unit time, usually per minute (dpm). One picocurie is equivalent to 2.2 dpm. The difficulty to my mind is how to measure how many liters of air are passing through the detector per minute. Have you worked this out for your instrument? If so, then you can count the decays over a certain time interval and divide that number by the number of liters sampled times 2.2 and this should give you pCi/L.
I don't know if I've answered your question, so please post again if you still need help.
Sybee