Radon-222 and Radium-226 Activity Concentration Measurement

A total of twenty five (25) drinking water samples from two categories of water resources, i.e., underground water (spring and well waters) and surface water from Erbil-governorate(Kurdistan region-Iraq) were collected systematically and analyzed for radon 222Rn activity concentration. The measurement has been carried out by using RAD7 as an active method for alpha analyses ,which is an electronic radon detector connected to a RAD-H2O accessory from (Durridge Co. USA) and a permeable cup provided with CR-39 alpha nuclear track detector (Tastrak from Track Analysis Systems Ltd, from the UK) as a passive method . Sodium iodide NaI (Tl) as an active method for gamma spectrometry was used for radium (226Ra) activity concentration measurement for the same water samples. These detectors were first characterized for back ground count, as well as their detection limits. From the results, it was found that these detectors are well characterized for alpha and gamma energies detection and has a low detection limits.