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#8D
`
#4D
`
. (1)
Only the absolutely necessary elements are calculated and the others are just identical
by point symmetry, and that is why this program is so fast. Of course, integration over
wall depth is performed, and some other `speeding-up tricksa are used. The emission
rate of photons N is given by
dN"dm A, (2)
where A is the activity concentration in Bq/kg, is the emission probability, dm is the
mass of the in"nitesimal volume element d< of the wall material in kg.
The #uence rate of primary photons unattenuated at distance r from the source is
given by
d
T
(1/r`)eIJ d< (4)
It is worth noting that the integral over volume is in fact a triple integral in cartesian
space (x, y, z).
The #uence rate of primary photons, over the range of radionuclides and their
gamma lines, is given by
"(/4)
G
A
G
H
[
GH
T
(1/r`)eIGHJ d<]. (5)
256 R. H. Higgy et al. / J. Environ. Radioactivity 50 (2000) 253}261
Fig. 2. Wall plane showing the subdivisions considered.
The summation in the last equation extends over the contribution to the #uence rate
fromall gamma lines of the radionuclides of interest (i is the radionuclide index and j is
the energy line index).
To calculate the dose equivalent rate, two additional functions of energy are
applied. One of them, the build-up factor, accounts for scattered radiation in the wall
material. The other is the exposition-to-dose conversion factor. The dose equivalent
rate, H is expressed by the following formula:
H"(/4)
G
A
G
H
[
GH
C
GH
B
GH
T
(1/r`)eIGHJ d<], (6)
where B is the exposition build-up factor, B"B(E, l) and C is the exposition-to-dose
conversion factor, C"C(E).
In our geometrical modeling, we assumed that the room is rectangular, the thick-
ness of the wall is the same for the three pairs of opposite sides, the walls are
homogeneous, there are no windows or doors, and the point of detection may be
speci"ed arbitrarily. In the calculation of the exposure dose rate, the values of mass
energy absorption coe$cients in air, dose build-up factors and photon mass attenu-
ation coe$cients for concrete obtained by Trubey (1991) were used. The attenuation
coe$cients for materials other than concrete may be written as
"(
"
)/(
"
), (7)
where ,
"
, ,
"
are the attenuation coe$cient and density for the material and
concrete, respectively (Mustonen, 1984). Since the densities of the building materials
are very nearly the same as for concrete, we assume in our case that
/
"
"1. (8)
Thus we have used the attenuation coe$cients of concrete. A nuclide library contain-
ing the relevant energies and emission probabilities is also used (IAEA, 1989) and this
R. H. Higgy et al. / J. Environ. Radioactivity 50 (2000) 253}261 257
Table 1
Activity concentrations, radium equivalent activities and representative level index values
Sample description ``"Ra (Bq/kg) ```Th (Bq/kg) ""K (Bq/kg) Ra
(Bq/kg) I
A'
Clay brick 31.5$2.9 25.5$4.0 298$25 90.8$3.3 0.664
Sand brick 15.1$1.9 5.0$1.7 48.9$10.1 26.0$2.1 0.184
Light-weight brick 26.3$1.4 8.0$1.2 26.9$3.9 39.8$1.5 0.273
Cement brick 11.0$1.2 2.8$0.6 19.6$2.7 16.5$1.2 0.114
Cement tile 19.2$2.2 7.5$2.1 45.8$9.9 33.4$2.2 0.234
Mozaic tile 15.2$1.1 6.3$0.7 46.7$3.7 27.8$1.4 0.196
Marble tile 11.8$1.0 4.5$0.6 18.8$2.6 19.7$1.2 0.136
Natural marble 4.4$0.7 * * * *
Ceramic (wall) 81.6$5.0 55.0$3.4 254$14 180$3 1.263
Ceramic (#oor) 77.3$4.5 64.3$3.3 569$19 213$3 1.538
nuclide library can be varied for any purpose. The input data we have to enter to our
program are the wall dimensions (length, breadth, height, thickness, density) and the
wall material activity concentrations (``"Ra, ```Th and ""K) in Bq/kg. The program
can run for each wall alone, or to calculate the maximum dose for the three walls (big
wall, small wall and #oor/ceiling).
3. Results and discussion
The activity concentrations (C
"
, C
'"
and C
'
) of ``"Ra, ```Th and ""K in the
studied building materials are given in Table 1. The activity concentrations of
C
"
range from 4.4 to 81.6 Bq/kg dry weight. The activity concentrations of C
'"
range
from 2.8 to 64.3 Bq/kg dry weight. The activity concentrations of C
'
range from
18.8 to 569 Bq/kg dry weight. All the values of the activity per unit mass are in the
ranges of the corresponding typical world values (NEA-OECD, 1979; UNSCEAR,
1993) which are 50, 50 and 500 Bq/kg for C
"
, C
'"
and C
'
, respectively; except for
the wall ceramic tiles (C
"
"81.6 Bq/kg, C
'"
"55.0 Bq/kg) and the #oor ceramic
tiles (C
"
"77.3 Bq/kg, C
'"
"64.3 Bq/kg, C
'
"569 Bq/kg). Wall and #oor ceramic
tiles, commonly used in bathrooms, toilets and kitchens get their sanitary white
appearance from zircon added to the glassy (glaze) matrix. Zircon, a zirconium silicate
(ZrSiO
"
), is a mineral that usually contains approximately 400}1000 ppm by mass of
the thorium and uranium oxides. Although the amount of zircon used in the glaze
(10}15% by weight) is low, it may still pose a radiological problem, as glazed tiles are
used in domestic buildings and may cover large areas in places like commercial
kitchens and public toilets (O'Brien, Aral & Peggie, 1998).
To assess the radiological hazard of the building materials used, it is useful to
calculate an index called the radium equivalent activity, Ra
, de"ned according to
the estimation that 1 Bq/kg of ``"Ra, 0.7 Bq/kg of ```U and 13 Bq/kg of ""K produce
the same -ray dose (Malanca et al., 1993). This index Ra
is given as:
Ra
"C
"
#1.43C
'"
#0.077C
'
, (9)
258 R. H. Higgy et al. / J. Environ. Radioactivity 50 (2000) 253}261
Table 2
Comparison of activity concentrations for uranium obtained with gamma spectrometry and alpha spectro-
metry
Sample description Activity concentrations in Bq/kg dry weight
``"U -spectrometry ```U -spectrometry ```U -spectrometry ``"U/```U
Clay brick 31.3$1.5 31.9$1.6 30.2$6.8 0.981
Sand brick 13.3$0.8 14.4$0.9 14.1$4.1 0.924
Light-weight brick 21.4$1.0 24.0$1.1 26.1$2.9 0.892
Cement brick 11.7$0.7 11.9$0.7 9.4$2.7 0.983
Cement tile 16.8$0.7 17.3$0.7 18.8$4.4 0.971
Mozaic tile 15.9$0.7 16.1$0.7 16.1$2.8 0.988
Marble tile 15.4$0.8 15.1$0.8 10.8$2.9 1.020
Natural marble 5.7$0.7 5.1$0.6 3.6$1.6 1.118
Ceramic (wall) 65.2$2.9 67.5$3.0 80.1$9.9 0.966
Ceramic (#oor) 63.3$3.3 68.5$3.6 72.5$7.9 0.924
where C
"
, C
'"
and C
'
are the activity concentrations in Bq/kg of ``"Ra, ```Th and
""K, respectively. The calculated values of the radium equivalent Ra