Some trace elements in coal are naturally radioactive. These
radioactive elements include uranium (U), thorium (Th) and their numerous
decay products, including radium (Ra) and radon (Rn). So, the staff of
underground coal mine can be exposed to 222Rn and its progeny (218Po,
214Pb and 214Po). The present study has been done in El-Maghhara mine. It
is located in the middle of Sinai desert about 250 km north-east of Cairo,
where a coal-fired power plant is intended to be built in El-Maghhara mine.
A filter method was used to measure the individual radon progeny
concentrations (218Po, 214Pb and 214Po). The mean value of activity
concentrations of 218Po, 214Pb and 214Po were determined to be 75 ± 8, 49 ±
7 and 28 ± 5 Bq m-3, respectively. With a dosimetric model calculation
ICRP 66, the total deposition fractions and total effective doses have been
evaluated considering the obtained experimental data in the present work
[1]. At a total deposition fraction of about 21 ± 4 % the total effective doses
to the lung were determined to be 6, 3.3 and 5.3 x 10-7 mSvy-1 for 218Po,
214Pb and 214Po, respectively. The effect of static magnetic field on the
biophysical properties of distilled water is investigated in this work.
Magnetic field was applied in a direction perpendicular to distilled water
drops coming from a burette (drop by drop), using a variable gap magnet,
producing a magnetic field of strength varying from 0.2 up to 5 kG.
Variations in the rate of flow of water, electric conductivity and dielectric
constant were observed. Increasing the strength of magnetic field decreases
the rate of flow, increasing both the electric conductivity and the dielectric
constant of water.