A NEW APPROACH TO MONITORING RADON AND RADON PROGENY USING A GLASS SCINTILLATOR IN A FIBER BUNDLE STRUCTURE

A Ce3+-doped OXIDE glass possessing good thermal characteristics for f iber drawing was developed and drawn into 50 pm fibers. These fibers w ere close-packed to form a fiber bundle with channels between them. Ra don gas was allowed to flow through these channels. The strategy was t o hold radon atoms (Rn-222) in the sensor for an extended time period and to give the alphas an immediate access to scintillators. Scintilla tions were converted into electrical pulses through the use of a PM-tu be (photomultiplier tube). A prototype radon gas sensor using fiber bu ndles with a pore volume of 0.865 cm(3) was built and tested with rado n gas. The results and modeling showed that steady state count rates c ould be obtained after similar to 25 h and those values were proportio nal to the radon concentrations. The mean residence time of radon atom s at the sensor was found to be 113.2 s.