A Modified Method for Measuring the Specific Activity of Ra-226 in Soil Samples
The paper demonstrated that, due to <sup>222</sup>Rn emanation from soil samples it is possible to under-estimate the specific activity of <sup>226</sup>Ra in the case when the measurement of this quantity is conducted by the registration of gamma radiation of its daughter products <sup>214</sup>Pb and <sup>214</sup>Bi. On average, this underestimation is nearly 15 %. It is shown that the addition of the activated carbon into the sample of soil during the sample preparation leads to the binding of the radon from interporous space. It's minimizing errors due to losses of radon during the preliminary sample storing and its measurement