Department of Physics
University of Osijek
Ministry of Science, Education and Sports
Principal Investigator: Josip Planinić
Radioactive radon gas (Rn-222), which we inhale together with air, comes from the uranium, which is situated in soil with very different concentrations in places. It is known that longer exposition to radon and its progeny increase lung cancer risk. - Beside former measurements of radon in Croatian spas, we intend to end the survey of indoor radon measurements on districts in Croatia, as well as in the soil.
A different grid approach is to be applied by performing national radon mapping for Croatia. Using experience of European countries, as well as instruction of the Joint Research Center (JRC) of the European Comission, the hole land Croatian territory we grid by fields of the size of 10x10 km², and in the every one of 700 fields we perform three one-year-measurements of indoor radon at first floor, as well as in the soil, by a random location choose. We include our research into performing European atlas of natural radiation and radon, that prepares the JRC. We visit random addresses, and with agreement of dwelling owner, we take data about construction, and we arrange setting radon detector (LR-115) in the dwelling. Then we etch detector films, we measure track density, and we determine respective radon concentration. We measure the radon in soil by the AlphaGuard detector at 0.8 m depth and we investigate a correlation between radon concentrations in soil and indoors.
We use radon for predicting seismic activities. We investigate an association between the radon variations (anomaly) and meteorological parameters, as well as the seismic activity.- By the particular application of our experience with the nuclear track detectors (LR-115, CR-39), we investigate a neutron detection in the environment. For thermal neutron detection, we use the detectors in combination with the boron as converter. Thus we register tracks from the nuclear reaction 10B(n,alpha)7Li. We develop a method of track analysis which detects coincident events. We apply the method of neutron detection in dosimetry of the cosmic rays for aircraft crew at flight level (10 km), where the neutrons approximately doe a half of the total radiation dose. We apply the neutron detectors in dosimetry of the neutron (BNC) therapy too.
