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| Titel |
Unexpected Daily Peaks in a Laboratory Simulation Experiment of Radon
Signals |
| VerfasserIn |
Orr Rose Bezaly, Gideon Steinitz, Peter Israelevich, Peter Kotlarsky, Oksana Piatibratova, Uri Malik, Tal Asperil, Shmuel Marco |
| Konferenz |
EGU General Assembly 2017
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| Medientyp |
Artikel
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| Sprache |
en
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| Digitales Dokument |
PDF |
| Erschienen |
In: GRA - Volume 19 (2017) |
| Datensatznummer |
250146454
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| Publikation (Nr.) |
 EGU/EGU2017-10481.pdf |
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| Zusammenfassung |
| Radon is a noble radioactive gas of special interest in earth sciences due to both its unique
chemical and physical properties and its natural abundance. The most stable isotope of radon,
222Rn, has a half-life of 3.823 days and is the only gas-phase atom in the 238U decay
series.
Radon could be considered as a possible tracer for tectonic and volcanic processes, yet
the physical mechanisms that influence radon emanation from rock and transport
are unclear. Our team strives to observe and analyse radon signals in monitored
environments.
Simulation of radon signals and investigation of their characteristics in laboratory
experiments are conducted using radon in an enclosed chamber, termed “Enhanced Confined
Mode” (ECM).
An ECM experiment will be described; its arrangement comprises of two 222Rn sources
of activity ∼105Bq each. The sources are connected in parallel via tube to a horizontal
stainless steel cylinder (∼570cm3) that contains air at atmospheric pressure. Direct count
rate measurements were performed using a NaI (2x2”) gamma-ray scintillation
detector aligned along the cylinder’s axis, at one minute resolution, for over 60
days.
Radon is supplied into the ECM chamber by diffusion and it disintegrates as it undergoes
radioactive decay. A priori, a steady state of diffusion and radioactive decay rates is expected.
However, our results show evident deviations from this expected steady state, namely
fluctuations that are significant relative to the uncertainty in measurements. Predominant
daily peaks characterise the data. Signal processing and analysis of these daily peaks will be
presented. |
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