Radon permeability and radon exhalation of building materials

High radon concentrations indoors usually depend on the possibilities of radon penetration from the surrounding soil into the buildings. Radon concentrations in dwellings up to 100 kBq/m3 were found in some special regions (i.e. Schneeberg/Saxony, Umhausen/Tyrol), where the soil shows a high uranium content and additionally, a fast radon transport in the soil is possible. To reduce the radon exposure of the inhabitants in these 'radon prone areas' it is necessary to look for building and insulating materials with low radon permeability. We examined several building materials, like cements, concretes and bricks of different constitutions for their diffusion coefficients and their exhalation rates. The insulating materials, like foils and bitumen were tested also on their radon tightness. The measurements were performed with an online radon measuring device, using electrostatic deposition of 218Po ions onto a surface barrier detector and subsequent alpha spectroscopy. The mean diffusion lengths for the investigated building materials range from lower than 0.7 mm (i.e. for plastic foil), up to 1.1 m for gypsum. The diffusion length R was calculated from the diffusion coefficient D with R = square root(D/lambda). If the thickness of the material is more than 3 times the diffusion length, then it is called radon-tight. The mean 222Rn exhalation rates for the building materials varied between 0.05 and 0.4 mBq/m2s. The samples were investigated as stones, plates, blocks, foils, coatings, powders etc., no statement can be made about working at the construction site of a building. Also the fabrication and processing of the materials has to be considered, because the material characteristics may have changed.