Thermal water, Bad Gastein

[pietkuip]

I was in Bad Gastein, and was a bit shocked by advertising signs for radon baths and radon gas treatments. So I took some bottles with me for analysis. This is from the Elisabeth source, with a running tap outside. The water was warm, about 40 or 50 C. The red spectrum is two days after I took the sample. Half life of radon is 3.8 days, so I took another spectrum 4 days later. It is clear that the gammas from the radon progeny (bismuth-214 and lead-214) are reduced to about half the intensity in the first spectrum.

The spectra were taken with 1 liter of water in a Marinelli beaker for a 3" NaI(Tl) detector. I used PRA on a Mac running Crossover.

[pilgrim]

Very interesting and nice spectrum.

[Sesselmann]

Another nice find, Yes it appears in Germany you can have radon therapy.

https://www.gasteiner-heilstollen.com/e ... galleries/

[Alain]

Very interesting an very nice, clear spectrum (for a school book:). A friend of mine from Germany promised me to supply me a similar water from Gemany (Erzgebirge region, Schlema-Oberode, where in the DDR times there were one of the world bigest uranium mines, now they are finishing remediation of once totaly devastated landscape and there is a lot of radon-spa resources there). I will try to do a similar measurement. But I noticed one detail on your spectrum: Pb-210 line at 46,5 keV is very supressed, almost invisible, covered with extreme Pb X-ray peak. This suggests that sample is quite fresh and maybe also a consequence of autofiltration (self-shielding) effect of the sample. How thick was the side-ring of the Marinelli beaker?
It would be very interesting to wait a month or so to further ingrowth of longer lived Pb-210 and decay of radon-progenies and then make another spectra. I expect much more prominent Pb-210 line, but don't know, what would be a ratio of peaks Pb X and Pb-210. What do you think?