ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Public Health
Sec. Radiation and Health
Volume 13 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2025.1681537
This article is part of the Research TopicRadon and Related Health Effects: From Exposure to Risk Assessment and PoliciesView all 11 articles
Intercomparison of radon and radon progeny concentration measurements performed in the Historic Silver Mine in Tarnowskie Gory, Poland
Provisionally accepted
Katerina Navratilova Rovenska1*
Miriam Slezakova2
Caroline Vignaud3
Pascale Blanchart3Katarzyna Wołoszczuk4Jostein Hoftuft5Agata Grygier6
Krystian Skubacz6Arturo Vargas7Andrea Maiorana8
Valeria Gruber9Joachim Gräser9Claudia Grossi10
Karel Jilek2Victòria Moreno Baltà11
Lluís Font11- 1National Radiation Protection Institute (NRPI), Prague, Czechia
- 2Statni Ustav Radiacni Ochrany, Prague, Czechia
- 3Autorite de surete nucleaire et de radioprotection, Fontenay-aux-Roses, France
- 4Centralne Laboratorium Ochrony Radiologicznej, Warsaw, Poland
- 5Direktoratet for stralevern og atomtryggleik, Østerås, Norway
- 6Glowny Instytut Gornictwa - Panstwowy Instytut Badawczy, Katowice, Poland
- 7Institute of Energy Technologies, Universitat Politecnica de Catalunya, Barcelona, Spain
- 8Istituto Superiore di Sanita, Rome, Italy
- 9Osterreichische Agentur fur Gesundheit und Ernahrungssicherheit GmbH, Vienna, Austria
- 10Physics Department, Universitat Politecnica de Catalunya, Barcelona, Spain
- 11Departament de Física, Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain
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In the frame of the RadoNorm project, within work package 5.4, an intercomparison of radon and radon progeny measurements was organized in the Historic Silver Mine in Tarnowskie Gory (Poland). The aim of this intercomparison campaign was to compare the results of different electronic monitors for measurement of radon and radon progeny concentration under field conditions of an underground workplace over three days of measurements. In total, nine laboratories from seven European countries participated in the intercomparison study contributing with sixteen continuous This is a provisional file, not the final typeset article radon monitors, ten radon progeny continuous monitors, and one TLD-based integrating system for PAEC measurements. Despite the short duration of the field campaign, the comparison of radon activity concentration measurements showed strong consistency across most instruments, although notable deviations were observed with three instruments. Radon equivalent equilibrium concentration measurements also demonstrated good agreement, with only one outlier among ten instruments. Comparison of short term averages of EEC (PAEC) obtained from continuous monitors and integral TLD based Alpha probes showed good agreement. Greater variability was observed in the results for unattached radon progeny. This intercomparison also allowed of testing instrument's responses in extreme ambient conditions with high humidity and relatively low temperature that are at the edge of the instrument's operating conditions.
Keywords: Intercomparison, Underground mine, Radon concentration, Radon progeny concentration, Potential alpha energy concentration (PAEC), Continuous monitor, Integrative measurement
Received: 07 Aug 2025; Accepted: 15 Sep 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Navratilova Rovenska, Slezakova, Vignaud, Blanchart, Wołoszczuk, Hoftuft, Grygier, Skubacz, Vargas, Maiorana, Gruber, Gräser, Grossi, Jilek, Moreno Baltà and Font. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Katerina Navratilova Rovenska, katerina.rovenska@suro.cz
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