Radon and thoron exposures for cave residents in Shanxi and Shaanxi provinces.

Abstract Tokonami, S., Sun, Q., Akiba, S., Zhuo, W., Furukawa, M., Ishikawa, T., Hou, C., Zhang, S., Narazaki, Y., Ohji, B., Yonehara, H. and Yamada, Y. Radon and Thoron Exposures for Cave Residents in Shanxi and Shaanxi Provinces. Radiat. Res. 162, 390–396 (2004). Measurements of natural radiation were carried out in cave dwellings distributed in the Chinese loess plateau. Those dwellings are located in Shanxi and Shaanxi provinces. Radon and thoron gas concentrations were measured using a passive integrating radon-thoron discriminative detector. Concentrations of thoron decay products were estimated from measurements of their deposition rates. A detector was placed at the center of each dwelling for 6 months and replaced with a fresh one for another 6 months. Measurements were conducted in 202 dwellings from August 2001 through August 2002. A short-term measurement was conducted during the observation period. In addition, γ-ray dose rates were measured both indoors and outdoors with an electronic pocket...