Chalupnik S, Skubacz K, Urban P, Wysocka M
Silesian Centre for Environmental Radioactivity, Central Mining Institute, Pl. Gwarkow 1, 40-166 Katowice, Poland.
Radiat Prot Dosimetry. 2017 Nov 1;177(1-2):45-48. doi: 10.1093/rpd/ncx164.
Liquid scintillation counting (LSC) is a measuring technique, broadly applied in environmental monitoring of radionuclides. One of the possible applications of LSC is the measurement of radon and thoron decay products. But this method is suitable only for grab sampling. For long-term measurements a different technique can be applied-monitors of potential alpha energy concentration (PAEC) with thermoluminescent detectors (TLD). In these devices, called Alfa-2000 sampling probe, TL detectors (CaSO4:Dy) are applied for alpha particles counting. Three independent heads are placed over the membrane filter in a dust sampler's microcyclone. Such solution enables simultaneous measurements of PAEC and dust content. Moreover, the information which is stored in TLD chips is the energy of alpha particles, not the number of counted particles. Therefore, the readout of TL detector shows directly potential alpha energy, with no dependence on equilibrium factor, etc. This technique, which had been used only for radon decay products measurements, was modified by author to allow simultaneous measurements of radon and thoron PAEC. The LSC method can be used for calibration of portable radon decay products monitors. The LSC method has the advantage to be an absolute one, the TLD method to measure directly the (dose relevant) deposited energy.
液体闪烁计数（LSC）是一种测量技术，广泛应用于放射性核素的环境监测。LSC的一种可能应用是测量氡和钍射气的衰变产物。但这种方法仅适用于采集式采样。对于长期测量，可以应用另一种技术——使用热释光探测器（TLD）的潜在α能量浓度（PAEC）监测仪。在这些称为Alfa - 2000采样探头的设备中，TL探测器（CaSO4:Dy）用于α粒子计数。三个独立的探头放置在粉尘采样器微旋风分离器中的膜过滤器上方。这种解决方案能够同时测量PAEC和粉尘含量。此外，存储在TLD芯片中的信息是α粒子的能量，而不是计数粒子的数量。因此，TL探测器的读数直接显示潜在α能量，不依赖于平衡因子等。这种原本仅用于测量氡衰变产物的技术，经作者改进后可同时测量氡和钍的PAEC。LSC方法可用于便携式氡衰变产物监测仪的校准。LSC方法的优点是它是一种绝对测量方法，而TLD方法可直接测量（与剂量相关的）沉积能量。
