Fast determination of indoor radon (222Rn) concentration using liquid scintillation counting.

The indoor 222Rn radionuclide was directly absorbed in typical 20 ml glass scintillation vials by passing -3 dm3 of ambient air through 16 ml of water-immiscible non-volataile scintillation cocktail Ultima-Gold F for 10 min. The activity of radon and its two α-emitting daughters: 218Po and 214Po, was determined with the BetaScout low-background liquid scintillation counter. The limit of 222Rn detection is 9 Bq/m3, and the quantification limit with 20% relative accuracy is 28 Bq/m3. The results of the indoor Rn measurement in different houses showed good consistency with results obtained from a Sarad EQF 3220 device.