Every day radiology

Comrades, I have updated this blog with tags, and a search box, so that you now may search for articles by using terms and tags instead of going through every post seeking for a specific subject.

This post was going to be only about the above, as I'm currently writing articles for my exhibition, but then something else came up. It's not so much about Chernobyl as it is about radiation.

415 bq by the window.

Recently, I met professor Janne Wallenius, who lent me his Gamma Scout. A Gamma Scout is nowadays probably the most commonly used popular device for measuring radiation, which was also used by my group during our Chernobyl expedition in May. I borrowed it to get a chance to learn more about how it works, and also check the readings on various places. Starting out in Gothenburg city, the average background radiation showed to be approximately 0,22 µSv/h. Returning to my home outside the city, the readings showed an average of 0,16 µSv/h, and then I went inside my house, where the readings immediately increased. I quickly realized that this must be a so called Radon house After having checked the numbers displayed over a few hours, making a note of the wide fluctuations displayed (between 0,15 and 0,32 µSv/h), I decided to switch the GS into reading bequerel instead and I'm glad I did...  

Here in Sweden, the MRL in resident buildings is 200 bq/m³ and the readings were a solid 447 bq in the middle of the room. No fluctuations. Today I measured another apartment, where the readings were even higher: 547 bq. On Monday I will contact the housing company and demand them to investigate this further, because I cant be 100% sure that these readings are  exactly what I think they are, but if they are and I was to make a point here, I'd say it's healthier to live in a house in Pripyat.