Measurement strategies for radon in indoor air of waterworks – a review

Abstract

In waterworks, 222 Rn can exhale in large amounts through open water surfaces and cause a significant dose contribution. Annual effective doses up to 56 mSv y À1 are documented in literature. This paper gives a literature review on studies associated with radon measurements in indoor air of waterworks À covering more than 800 waterworks in nine regions. Special attention is given to the assessment of the workers' effective dose, which can be done either on basis of the personal exposure or on basis of the local activity concentrations and the residence times. Especially at facilities with a water treatment, large diurnal variations depending on its operation mode were reported. The average 222 Rn concentrations may considerably differ during the time spent of the staff and do not allow to determine the correct annual effective doses. Personal detectors avoid this problem and do not require the survey of the residence times, while the determination of the local exposure allows for the identification of spots with high activity concentrations to set dose reduction measures.

Relevance of radon progeny measurements for the assessment of inhalation doses in groundwater utilities

“…Although very high radon concentrations have been measured in the indoor air of water plants and the quality of the indoor air is known to differ significantly from the conditions of homes, workplaces, tourist caves and mines, Stietka et al (2017) noted in their literature review that very few studies have been published, especially on the F of the indoor air in water plants, the distribution of aerosol diameters and the proportion of f p . Furthermore, ICRP (2017) does not present reference aerosol parameters for water plants at all, and understanding of the exposure conditions of water plant workers is based on only a few studies.…”