3RD INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS ON TECHNOLOGY - ENGINEERING & SCIENCE - Kuala Lumpur - Malaysia (2017-02-09)

Development Of Low-end Radon Counter For Indoor Radon Detecting And Monitoring

Radon is an invisible, odorless, and chemically inactive radioactive gas produced by the decay of uranium ore. Because it is inert and does not chemically bond to elements, it is released from soil into the atmosphere. Radon is emitted almost everywhere on earth, but some geographical regions have a higher concentration than others do. When radon decays, it releases alpha particles with energy of 5.5 Mega-electrovolts (MeV). Because inhaling radon and its radioactive-decay products causes irradiation of lung tissue, prolonged exposure to a high concentration of radon significantly increases the risk of developing cancer. It has been reported that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency estimates that exposure to naturally occurring radon leads to 21,000 lung cancer deaths nationwide each year, making radon the nation's primary environmental health threat, second only to cigarette smoking, as a cause of fatal lung cancer. Various types of equipment and components have been proposed for use in effective radon detection [1, 2, 3, 4]. In this paper, a radon counter using a PIN photodiode radon-sensor module was discussed. Using a linear regression analysis technique, the measured radon counts per hour of the implemented PIN photodiode radon counters could be calibrated to pCi/L which is a unit of radon concentration by comparing with the measured radon concentration data of RAD7. This radon counter can be used to measure radon concentration of the indoor air in houses and workplaces. A radon monitoring and alarm system was also discussed [5]. The data collected by the radon counters in houses and workplaces was transferred using Wi-Fi and the Internet to a radon-monitoring database created on a server, which stored client data, specifically, names, addresses, phone numbers, email addresses, and radon-counter serial numbers. If the measured radon concentration was over 4 pCi/L for seven consecutive days, it sent a warning message to the client. If this radon remote-sensing Wi-Fi-based monitoring system is used in army barracks, classrooms, and country houses where there is a risk of high levels of radon exposure, soldiers, students, and residents could be protected from the dangers of radon exposure.
Gyu-Sik Kim, Jae-Hak Kim,m Tae-Gue Oh