University of Novi Sad Faculty of Technical Sciences, Department of Fundamentals Sciences, Novi Sad, Serbia.
University of Novi Sad Faculty of Sciences, Department of Physics, Novi Sad, Serbia.
Arh Hig Rada Toksikol. 2021 Sep 28;72(3):205-215. doi: 10.2478/aiht-2021-72-3480.
Assessment of radiation exposure to drinking, surface, and groundwater and of the associated health risks calls for accurate and precise Ra and Rn measurements. One method that fits the bill is liquid scintillation counting (LSC), which allows measurements in one-phase (homogenous) or two-phase samples. The aim of our study was to compare the measurement efficiency with both variations in Niška Banja spa water, known for its elevated Rn content to get a better insight into the stability and behaviour of the samples and Ra interference in samples spiked with Ra with Rn measurement. Ra interference was more evident in homogenous, one-phase and much lower in two-phase samples. However, one-phase samples offer more accurate indirect Ra measurements. Water-immiscible cocktails (in two-phase samples) have shown a limited capacity for receiving Rn generated by Ra decay from the aqueous to organic phase when Rn/Ra equilibrium is reached. We have also learned that samples with naturally high Rn content should not be spiked with Ra activities higher than the ones found in native samples and that calibration of two-phase samples can be rather challenging if measurements span over longer time. Further research would require much lower Ra activities for spiking to provide more practical answers to questions arising from the demonstrated phenomena.
评估饮用水、地表水和地下水的辐射暴露水平以及相关的健康风险需要进行准确和精确的 Ra 和 Rn 测量。符合要求的一种方法是液体闪烁计数（LSC），它允许在单相（均匀）或两相样品中进行测量。我们研究的目的是比较 Niška Banja 矿泉水中两种变化的测量效率，该矿泉水以其较高的 Rn 含量而闻名，以便更好地了解样品的稳定性和行为以及 Ra 对 Rn 测量的干扰。Ra 干扰在单相、均匀相样品中更为明显，而在两相样品中则低得多。然而，单相样品可以提供更准确的间接 Ra 测量。当达到 Rn/Ra 平衡时，水不混溶性鸡尾酒（在两相样品中）显示出从水相向有机相接收 Ra 衰变产生的 Rn 的能力有限。我们还了解到，对于自然 Rn 含量较高的样品，不应添加比天然样品中发现的 Ra 活度更高的 Ra 活度，并且如果测量时间较长，则对两相样品进行校准可能具有挑战性。进一步的研究需要添加更低的 Ra 活度，以提供对所展示现象引发的问题的更实际的答案。
