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Research Highlights

Lowing the Fee and Shortening the Period - Development of Outreach Mobile Radon Calibration System

  • Writerkrissadmin
  • Date2022-01-28 00:00
  • Hits904

Lowing the Fee and Shortening the Period – 

Successful Development of Outreach Mobile Radon Calibration System

- The new system lowered the calibration fee 

and shortened the calibration period to several days.

- The new system allows schools and hospitals 

to use the radon detectors more accurately.


▲KRISS Researchers are operating a mobile radon calibration system   

The Ionizing Radiation Metrology Group of the Division of Chemical and Biological Metrology at KRISS successfully developed a mobile radon calibration system that can reduce the calibration fee to half of the current amount and shorten the calibration period from one month to several days.

Securing the measurement reliability of a radon detector requires calibration, and KRISS is the only institution in Korea that provides the calibration service. The biggest feature of the newly developed mobile radon calibration system is its mobility that allows the calibration service, which used to be carried out only at the calibration laboratory at KRISS, to be performed at the sites where the detector is installed

Radon is an odorless and colorless radioactive isotope that was designated by WHO as one of the Group 1 carcinogens. Since the radon bed incident that occurred in 2018 drew people’s attention to the indoor radon concentration, various radon detectors have been used in the spaces for daily life.

The radon calibration system at KRISS has the world’s highest radon sensitivity and so it allows for precise calibration. Based on the cryogenic solid angle method,* KRISS has an independent primary radon standard.** Through a recent international comparison, the KRISS system has secured international measurement equivalence and maintained the world’s highest measurement uncertainty.

*Cryogenic solid angle method: Measuring alpha particles emitted from radon by adsorbing radon gas to a tip cooled down to 30 K.

**Primary radon standard: A standard for realizing Bq (number of decays per unit time), which is a unit for measuring radioactivity.

Until now, however, a radio detector should be transported to KRISS to receive the calibration service. Due to the high radioactivity of the certified reference material of radon, the calibration service used to take more than one month and required calibration fee over 2.5 million KRW. Another limitation of the service was that a new radon detect could not be added during the calibration.

The Ionizing Radiation Metrology Group of the Division of Chemical and Biological Metrology at KRISS developed a mobile radon calibration system that can reduce the calibration fee and shorten the calibration period. The system, consisting of a radon measurement instrument, a radon source, and a calibration chamber, can reduce the calibration period, while keeping the accuracy as high as before.

This new system enables one to visit a publicly used facility, such as school or hospital, where dozens of radon detectors are installed in a building. The convenience of the on-site calibration service and the reduced calibration period will save the calibration cost and decrease the burden of calibration works. KRISS will implement the new calibration service in the second half of this year to improve the efficiency of radon calibration.

Through the research, the Ionizing Radiation Metrology Group at KRISS acquired Korea’ first source technology for nuclide spectroscopic radon detectors that can distinguish the nuclides of radon and thoron. The technology was transferred in last October, and commercialization is being carried out.


▲The schematic diagram of a mobile radon calibration system

The conventional radon detectors measure radon and thoron together without distinguishing the nuclides. However, the methods for responding to the nuclides are different, because the half-life of radon is about 3.8 days and that of thoron is about 55 seconds. Thoron, having a short half-life, can be reduced by wrapping a plastic bag, while radon can be reduced through ventilation.

Sang-Hoon Hwang, a principal research scientist of the Ionizing Radiation Metrology Group at KRISS, said, “Our new system, which can be used to perform calibration of many detectors at a reasonable price, will contribute to the measurement quality assurance of radon detectors.” He added, “We will develop Korea’s first nuclide spectroscopic radon detector based on the transferred technology transfer to relieve the citizens’ anxiety regarding radon.”

The results of the present study, supported by the Key Research Program of KRISS, were published in Journal of Radioanalytical and Nuclear Chemistry, an international journal in the field of radiation and nuclear chemistry.

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