Radon Progeny Recoil Effect in Retrospective Indoor Glass Dosimetry

Abstract

Radon gas diffusion and progeny transport in air, are mechanisms to be considered in retrospective glass dosimetry.   With the aim to contribute to the understanding of the Rn progeny recoil energy role in this dosimetry methodology, we carried out a simulation employing GEANT4 code. In that, we assumed the chemical compound of the glass that is used commonly in households.  Results are compared to experimentally measured 210Bi concentration to show that the recoil energy helps the progenies incrustation, mainly for the 218,214Po alpha emitters but do not influence bismuth-210 diffusion directly. A significant difference exists between our results and measured values; that is interpreted as due to atomic displacement by primary knock-on atoms. The SiO2 molecule binding energy breaks and the following ion recombination, induce a structural modification between the atom by e.g. cavities formation in such a way that reduces significantly the radon progeny diffusion speed.