Thermal soil radon mitigation

Abstract

In this work consideration is given to the possibility for thermal soil radon mitigation. It is known that the diffusion coefficient of radon through minerals and rocks have are characterized by Arrhenius linear plots increasing inasmuch that temperature increases. For the case of rocks, for example, it was observed that a mild heating -less than 100 degrees, translates into a radon release which can be enhanced by 100 to 1000 times than the normal release at STP. Therefore, it is reasonable to think that if soil is deliberately heated -for example, harnessing solar thermal energy, it is reasonable to think that it could be possible to pump radon from soil because the radon atoms will escape preferentially from cold regions (low diffusion coefficient) toward hot regions (high diffusion coefficients) where a radon sink is located. Utilizing a simplified two-group thermal one-dimensional model an expression was derived which allows a first assessment on this new mitigation technique