Assessment the health hazard from 222Rn in old metalliferous mines in San Luis, Argentina

DA SILVA, A; VELASCO, H

WATER AIR AND SOIL POLLUTION

SPRINGER

Lugar: Berlin; Año: 2011 vol. 218 p. 371 - 386

0049-6979

Radon levels in two old mines in San Luis, Argentina, are reported and analyzed. The radiation dose and environmental health risk of 222Rn concentrations to both guides and visitors were estimated. CR-39 nuclear track detectors were used for this purpose. The values for the 222Rn concentration at each monitoring site ranged from 0.43±0.04 to 1.48± 0.12 kBq m−3 in the Los Cóndores wolfram mine and from 1.8±0.1 to 6.0±0.5 kBq·m−3 in the La Carolina gold mine, indicating that, in this mine, the radon levels exceed up to four times the action level of 1.5 kBq m−3 recommended by the International Commission on Radiological Protection. The patterns of the radon transport process revealed that the La Carolina gold mine can be interpreted as a gas confined into a single tube with constant crosssection and air velocity. Patterns of radon activity, taking into account the chimney-effect winds, were used to detect tributary currents of air from shafts or larger fissures along the main adit of the Los Cóndores mine, showing that radon can be used as an important tracer of tributary air currents stream out from fissures and smaller voids in the rock of the mine.