Optimized method for individual radon progeny measurement based on alpha spectrometry following the Wicke method

Abstract Accurate measurement of individual short-lived radon progeny concentrations is very important for dose evaluation and related researches taking radon progeny as radioactive tracers. Different methods have been developed, but higher methodological sensitivity is needed for field measurement under the limitation of size, weight and power consumption of the instrument. For the purpose of developing new measurement method with higher sensitivity, an optimized method based on alpha spectrometry following the Wicke method (Wicke, 1979) is demonstrated, which shortens the measurement cycle to 60 min and make it more suitable for field measurement. For comparison, a series of verification experiments were carried out, and the methodological sensitivity and uncertainty were analyzed in detail in this paper. Results show that the optimized Wicke method can give accurate individual radon progeny concentrations and equilibrium equivalent concentration (EEC) in different environments. The deviation between EEC measured by the optimized Wicke method and the original Wicke method is less than ±2.9%, and the deviation between the optimized Wicke method and the Kerr method is less than ±3.9% in different environment. The methodological sensitivity of the optimized Wicke method is nearly the same as the original method with a much shorter measurement cycle, and 4.3 times higher than that of the Kerr method, which lowers the measurement uncertainty especially in the actual environment.