Development of new sensitive instrumentation for radon detection

There is increasing need to understand and control radioactive radon gas and related nuclides both because it can pose an environmental health issue but also because radon tracking can provide a diagnostic tool in multiple fields, for instance in the geology of rock fissures, the nuclear safety industry and in biophysics. In new rare event physics experiments the associated nuclear recoils can also mimic the true particle signals of interest. This PhD, undertaken in collaboration with the world's leading industrial producer of radon instrumentation, Durridge, which now has its European centre in Sheffield thanks to our previous collaborations, aims to push the frontiers of low level radon detection in these areas. In particular, to develop techniques for study of radon when it is emanated into different gaseous environments, including gas wells and in mines. There is interest here from geologists but also as a means of improving radiation detector instruments that use different gases as the detector medium and suffer from radon backgrounds. The student, supervised by Spooner and Durridge CEO Sadler will design, build and field-test a novel new instrument, including mapping for the first time the radon emanation in a gaseous mine environment.