Speaker
Description
Radon research in the Malá Stanišovská Cave (Low Tatras Mts., Slovakia) started in December 2024 and is planned for two years. Five monitoring stations were established along the tourist route, radon monitoring is performed using CR-39 track detectors, changed in one month and three-months intervals. The results obtained during the year 2025 showed the lowest radon levels at the cave entrance, while the values measured at other stations were relatively similar. Annual variation of radon in this cave was observed with maximum in the summer season. At the most distant station from the cave entrance also continual radon monitoring is carried out, using RPP sensor with semiconductor photodetector (Piketronic, CZ) with one hour resolution. From November until April radon levels remained low and not exceeded 300 Bq/m3. During April, May and October low radon levels were interrupted by the non-periodical short-term variations with duration up to 7 days and amplitude up to 1200 Bq/m3. Maximal radon values were registered between the beginning of June and the end of September, ranging 670 - 2070 Bq/m3. Cave is open daily all year round, with 7 visits per day during summer tourist season and approximately two visits per day during the rest of the year. Effective doses received by the cave guides are dependent on radon levels and their time spent inside the cave. Cave guides and visitors received an effective dose 11 – 18 µSv per 50 minutes lasting visit in summer season (May – September) and 0.5 – 5 µSv per visit during the rest of the year. Considering the number of their visits per year, the limit for effective dose for the cave guides equal to 20 mSv per year was not exceeded. This work was supported by the Slovak Research and Development Agency (project No. APVV-23-0269).