Investigation on the soil gas radon concentrations in Northwest Huahai Basin, Gansu Province, China
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Investigation on the soil gas radon concentrations in Northwest Huahai Basin, Gansu Province, China Bo Lei1 · Ziqi Cai2 · Changshou Hong3,4 · Guan Chen1 · Jintao Guo1 · Feng He5 · Zilong Zhang5 · Baolong Lu6 Received: 17 October 2019 © Akadémiai Kiadó, Budapest, Hungary 2020
Abstract In this study, radon (222Rn) measurements were taken at a soil depth of 0.70 m in the northwest of Huahai Basin in Gansu Province, China. It ranged from 110 to 3715 Bq m−3 with mean value of 1368 Bq m−3. In the soil samples, most element compositions were close to the background data in China, whereas the U content was 91 ppm in the well ZHK3-1. These results indicate that higher radon level are related to lithogenic background such as the deeper uraniferous sandstone and concealed faults, providing the support for the protection for radiation exposure in this area. Keywords Huahai Basin · Soil · 222Rn concentrations · Radioactive materials · Concealed faults
Introduction Radon (222Rn) is a colorless, odorless, and tasteless natural radioactive inert gas with a half-life of 3.82 days. As a progeny of 238U decay series, 222Rn is produced continuously and released to the atmosphere from the ground surface of uranium and radium in the rock layers and soil. Radiation can alter the DNA structure of cells leading to lung cancer; radon exposure is the second-most common cause of lung
* Ziqi Cai [email protected] * Changshou Hong [email protected] 1
School of resource Environment and Safety Engineering, University of South China, Hengyang 421001, Hunan, China
2
School of Energy and Power Engineering, Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi’an 710049, China
3
Hunan Province Engineering Technology Research Center of Uranium Tailings Treatment, Hengyang 421001, Hunan, China
4
Hunan Province Engineering Research Center of Radioactive Control Technology in Uranium Mining and Metallurgy, Hengyang 421001, Hunan, China
5
Beijing Research Institute of Uranium Geology, Beijing 100013, China
6
No. 203 Research Institute of Nuclear Industry, Xi’an 710100, China
cancer after smoking [1]. For this reason, it is important to accurately monitor quantities of 222Rn at the source. Researchers across the globe have sought to determine the amount of 222Rn in soil, residential dwellings, and other areas which may expose humans to radiation. The 222Rn concentrations in family homes are closely related to the concentrations in the surrounding soil, although there is no fully precise method for estimating 222Rn levels in an individual dwelling based on soil 222Rn data. There may be direct correlations between uranium, radium, and 222Rn in soil gas with indoor 222Rn concentrations [2–5]. Almost 80% of the 222 Rn exhaled from the ground surface to the atmosphere is known to be derived from the top few meters of the ground [2, 3]. The migration ability of 222Rn also depends on many factors such as the radium distribution, particle size, moisture, and mineralogy [4, 5]. Various organizations including the International Commission on Radiological
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