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EVALUATION OF RADON EMANATION FROM SOIL WITH VARYING MOISTURE CONTENT IN A SOIL CHAMBER
Citation:
Menetrez*, M Y., R B. Mosley*, R. Snoddy, AND S. Brubaker Jr. EVALUATION OF RADON EMANATION FROM SOIL WITH VARYING MOISTURE CONTENT IN A SOIL CHAMBER. ENVIRONMENT INTERNATIONAL 22(Suppl 1):S447-S453, (1996).
Impact/Purpose:
Published Journal Article
Description:
The paper describes measurements to quantitatively identify the extent to which moisture affects radon emanation and diffusive transport components of a sandy soil radon concentration gradient obtained in the EPA test chamber. The chamber (2X2X4 m long) was constructed to study the convective and diffusive soil gas movement under known conditions of radium-226 and radon-222 concentration, moisture, soil constituent, and physical response to pressure variation. Radon emanation rates of soil are known to depend strongly on the moisture content of the soil. Because moisture content varies greatly with depth in the chamber (from saturated at the bottom to nearly dry at the top), emanation rate is determined as a function of moisture to better understand the radon distribution in the chamber. Steady state radon concentrations were determined as a function of moisture for the soil studied (1682 kg/m3 density and approximately 200 Bq/kg radium) by placing equal amounts of well-mixed oven-dried soil in 20 L aluminized gas-sampling bags and taking radon samples after approximately 1 month in-growth, after which water was added followed by another period of in-growth and sampling. Emanation coefficients and radon concentrations in the gas bag experiments increased with increasing moisture and then decreased before reaching saturated conditions.
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EVALUATION OF RADON EMANATION FROM SOIL WITH VARYING MOISTURE CONTENT IN A SOIL CHAMBER (PDF, NA pp, 1794 KB, about PDF)