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Monte-Carlo simulation of radon equilibrium under varying conditions

Crockett, R. G. M. (2011) Monte-Carlo simulation of radon equilibrium under varying conditions. Poster presented to: European Geosciences Union (EGU) General Assembly, Vienna, Austria, 03-08 April 2011. (Unpublished)

Item Type: Conference or Workshop Item (Poster)
Abstract: Preliminary results of a theoretical investigation into radon equilibrium under a variety of constraints will be presented, e.g. response to metallic daughter plate-out, response to modulation of radon ingress and phase relationship of alpha activity to cyclically modulated radon ingress. At the core of this investigation is the development of Monte-Carlo simulations of the radon (Rn-222) and thoron (Rn-220) decay chains. Currently, these simulations assume an hypothetical closed cubic metre of atmosphere and the simulations are time-stepped at constant interval. At each time-step, there is a radon or thoron ingress and each nuclei in the decay chains decays probabilistically, with nuclei and activity being aggregated and tabulated at the end of each time-step. Currently, the simulations have been coded in two open-source interpreted mathematical software packages; Scilab http://www.scilab.org) and Yorick (http://yorick.sourceforge.net). This has required that the decay chains are considered sequentially (in reverse order) within each time-step. However, once the simulations are finalised, these will be compiled to run on multi-core/CPU systems allowing the decay chain calculations to be paralleled at each time-step. This will allow much finer time resolution and generation of a larger statistical base from which to draw conclusions.
Subjects: T Technology > TD Environmental technology. Sanitary engineering > TD885.5 Radon pollution
Creators: Crockett, Robin G M
Northamptonshire and East Midlands: Environment
Faculties, Divisions and Institutes: Faculties > Faculty of Arts, Science & Technology > Environmental Science
Date: 7 April 2011
Date Type: Presentation
Event Title: European Geosciences Union (EGU) General Assembly
Event Dates: 03-08 April 2011
Event Location: Vienna, Austria
Event Type: Conference
Language: English
Status: Unpublished
Refereed: Yes
Related URLs:
URI: http://nectar.northampton.ac.uk/id/eprint/4015

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