This work presents experimental results concerning the radon concentration from different building materials used for construction of houses in the municipality of Bihac. The passive technique using nuclear track detectors C-39 was used for a period for three months. The highest and lowest radon concentration was found in concrete brick buildings 280±5 Bqm-3 and in stone buildings 122±1 Bqm-3. It depends on the radioactive content of the materials, emanation coefficient and diffusion coefficient of radon in that material, porosity and density of the material. The mean annual effective dose was 3.26 mSv/y. The results obtained also give a correlation between indoor radon levels and the associated level of risk.

The main objective of this study was to investigate the correlation between the indoor and outdoor ambient dose equivalent rates measured by the ion chamber inside and around the historical sacral objects at a few locations in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The investigated objects made of the traditional building materials were built in the Late Medieval, Post Medieval, and Ottoman Period of Bosnia and Herzegovina history. The LUDLUM Model 9DP instrument based on a pressurized ion chamber was selected for natural low level radiation measurements since the ionisation chambers have higher sensitivities than the other types of detectors. The detection capability of the LUDLUM Model 9DP pressurized ion chamber was examined in the laboratory conditions with a source of low activity and under natural environmental radiation conditions by measuring the indoor and outdoor dose rates. A weak positive correlation was found between the ambient dose equivalent rates inside the historical sacral objects and the dose rates outside the objects. The average evaluated value of the indoor to outdoor dose rate ratio of 1.07 for the studied historic objects is less than that obtained for the contemporary building materials such as concrete. No study on the indoor to outdoor dose rate ratio in Bosnia and Herzegovina measured by the LUDLUM 9DP dose rate meter based on an ion chamber has been conducted yet. In addition to direct measurements, the first gamma spectrometric analysis of a few samples of building materials from the Late Medieval period in Bosna and Herzegovina was performed. The results of the gamma analysis revealed almost uniform distribution of primordial radionuclides in the investigated samples. It was demonstrated that such materials had the reduced content of radioactive isotopes compared to the contemporary building materials and therefore they could have potential advantages in specific applications related to the environmentally sustainable architecture.

In contrast to some traditional neutron detectors, liquid scintillators are suitable for measuring spontaneous fission produced on the nanosecond time-scales. The high multiplicity events in a short period of time are signatures for fissile materials. The neutron and gamma multiplicities have potential to enable extraction of the fissile material attributes. The simulations presented in this paper were done using the MCNPX–PoliMi radiation transport code based on the Monte Carlo method. It was demonstrated that the energy and time information depending on the number of neutrons and gamma-rays emitted in spontaneous fission events of 252Cf contribute additionally to characterize a fission source.

This paper deals with correlation analysis of gamma dose rate measured in the test field with the five distinctive soil samples from a few minefields in Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina. The measurements of ambient dose equivalent rate, due to radionuclides present in each of the soil samples, were performed by the RADIAGEMTM 2000 portable survey meter, placed on the ground and 1m above the ground. The gamma spectrometric analysis of the same soil samples was carried out by GAMMA-RAD5 spectrometer. This study showed that there is a high correlation between the absorbed dose rate evaluated from soil radioactivity and the corresponding results obtained by the survey meter placed on the ground. Correlation analysis indicated that the survey meter, due to its narrow energy range, is not suitable for the examination of cosmic radiation contribution.

The knowledge of neutron energy spectra contributes to unambiguous identification of neutron sources in the fields of nuclear safeguards and nuclear non-proliferation. Since a real scenario situation includes the presence of shielding around the source, we have investigated the influence of the potential shielding surrounding the source on the shape of energy spectra for a few neutron sources. We have applied the maximum-likelihood, expectation–maximisation (MLEM) method with one-step-late (OSL) algorithm for neutron spectra unfolding. The pulse height distributions used in the unfolding procedures were simulated with the high accuracy by using the MCNP-PoliMi code based on the Monte Carlo method. A possibility to identify the shielded neutron sources by using the unfolding method was examined with two continuous-in-energy sources, such as 252Cf and 241Am–Be in source-shielding configurations with lead (Pb) and polyethylene (PE) blocks. The results of calculations have shown that the identification of 252Cf and 241Am–Be sources with 2.5 cm of Pb and PE shield can be achieved successfully by using the MLEM method with the OSL algorithm. However, the unfolded results for 252Cf and 241Am–Be sources with 10 cm of PE shield significantly deviate from the reference spectra and the sources cannot be correctly identified on the basis of their unfolded energy spectra.