Assessment of Human Exposure to Dissolved Radon in Groundwater around the Uranium Industry of Jaduguda, Jharkhand, India

Abstract

Radium, thorium, and radioactive lead isotopes in groundwaters: application to the in situ determination of adsorptiondesorption rate constants and retardation factors. Water Resour. Res., 1982Res., , 18, 1663Res., -1675. Kozowska, B., Walencik, A., Dorda, J. and Zipper, W., Radon in groundwater and dose estimation for inhabitants in spas of the Sudety Mountain area, Poland. Appl. Radiat. Isot., 2010, 68, 854-857. 19. Zouridakis, N., Ochsenkühn, K. M. and Savidou, A., Determination of uranium and radon in potable water samples. CATALYSED exchange of deuterium (D) between hydrogen (H) gas and liquid water (liquid phase catalytic exchange (LPCE) reaction) using bi-thermal hydrogen water (BHW) process is receiving considerable attention for heavy water production 1 . This is because it is more energy-efficient and environment-friendly compared to the existing 'girder sulphide' and 'ammonia-hydrogen' processes. The catalysed exchange involves two stepsfirst, deuterium exchange between hydrogen gas and water vapour at the catalytic site and subsequently equilibration of deuterated water vapour with liquid water at gas-liquid interface, which results in the transfer of deuterium from gas to liquid phase. Success of the process requires simultaneous presence of H 2 gas and water vapour at the catalytic site and easy accessibility of liquid water to water vapour involved in isotopic exchange reaction. However, because the solubility of H 2 gas in water is poor, if the catalytic site is covered with liquid water, the exchange of deuterium between hydrogen gas and water vapour is highly impeded 2 . Therefore, a primary requirement for the LPCE process is that the catalyst should allow access of gaseous reactants to the catalytic RESEARCH COMMUNICATIONS CURRENT SCIENCE, VOL. 109, NO. 10, 25 NOVEMBER 2015 1861 However, these show good activity only up to atmospheric pressure and rapidly lose activity as the pressure is increased above atmospheric pressure. This has limited the use of the LPCE process for relatively low-throughput applications like removal of tritium from heavy water of the moderator used in pressurized heavy water reactor operation 10 . The reduction in catalyst activity at higher pressure is believed to arise due to ingression of water at such pressure through pores in the fibrous network or mesh structure of the commonly used hydrophobic binders like PTFE and SDBC. Indeed, the studies carried out by Malhotra et al. 11 showed how the size and distribution of pore in binder contribute to the loss of activity at higher pressure. To address this issue, we have explored different approaches like high-pressure melting of PTFE film, PTFE overcoat, coating of other binders like polyvinylidenedifluoride (PVDF), perfluoroalkoxyalkanes (PFA), etc. to control the porosity of the film. These studies have led us to the successful development of hydrophobic platinumdoped carbon aerogel (PtCA) catalyst that shows good catalytic activity even up to 20 bar.In our earlier studies we had mixed PtCA powder synthesized...

Study of the Presence of Radon in Groundwater from Two Regions in Saudi Arabia

“…A correlation between radon and radium was tried and the result correlation coefficient (R 2 = 0.02) value revealed that the activity concentration of222 Rn dissolved in groundwater in this region does not depend on the activity concentration of226 Ra dissolved in the same water. This is in agreement with previous study which suggested that dissolved radon concentration in groundwater is unsupported by soluble 226 Ra in aquifer[14]. Low radon levels found in these wells may be attributed to the nature of aquifer rocks[15] [16].…”

Measurement of 222Rn concentration in drinking water in the environs of Thirthahalli taluk, Karnataka, India

“…Liquid scintillation technique Bem, plota, Staniszewska, Maria Bem, & Mazurek, 2014 7.5e389.6 Jaduguda, Jharkhand, India Radon Emanometry using Alpha Guard Sethy et al, 2015…”

“…The Uranium and Radium bearing mineral present in the rock and soil is a major source for radon in ground water. (Idriss, Salih, & Sam, 2011;Sethy, Jha, Ravi, & Tripathi, 2015;Srilatha, Rangaswamy, & Sannappa, 2014). The diffused radon from this, gets soluble in water, leading to the presence of 222 Rn in ground waters.…”

“…According to EPA regulations the maximum contamination level for radon in drinking water is 11.1Bq/L. (Rajesh et al, 2014;EPA 1999;Correa et al, 2011, Srilatha et al, 2014Sethy, Jha, Ravi, & Tripathi, 2015;Risk assessment, 1999;Wu et al, 2014). However, an alternative maximum contamination level of 148 Bq/L was proposed by EPA considering the contribution to radon concentration in indoor air from household usage of water (Binesh, Mowlavi, & Mohammadi, 2012).…”

Adsorption of U(VI) ions from aqueous solution using nanogoethite powder

“…Thus, the discharge of U(VI) is particularly hazardous to human health. For example, U(VI) can reach the top of the food chain where it is consumed by humans, thus causing harmful effects on the human body, such as kidney damage, liver damage, and even death (Sethy et al., 2015; Yang et al., 2011). U(VI) is, thus, a significant threat to human health, particularly because of its mutagenic and carcinogenic characteristics (Konietzka, 2015; Njinga et al., 2016; Saini and Melo, 2015).…”