Radon & Geology

With the 2013/59/EURATOM directive of the EU-Commission, the European member states were urged to update their radiation protection laws to account for the health risk of the exposure to elevated indoor radon levels and to prepare National Radon Action Plans (EC 2014). Following the directive, §121 of this Act states that areas shall be identified where the radon concentration (as an annual average) in a significant number of buildings is expected to exceed the national reference level of 300 Bq/m³. The European member states have to provide information on these so called “radon priority areas” by the end of 2020. The basis for the identification of those areas will be the map of the geogenic radon potential. For many regions the currently available data is not sufficient to provide a satisfying accuracy though, which means that additional field measurements are needed. Doing so, the selection of sampling sites ideally reflects both 1) the administrative level on which radon-priority areas will be delineated and 2) available knowledge about variability of landscape characteristics governing the geogenic radon potential. This session therefore is inviting contributions from the large field of action related to radon & geology. The topics include but are not limited to: What are your approaches in planning measurements? Which methodological experiences did you collect (What works and what does not work)? Which results and interpretations came up so far? Temporal and spatial variability Influence of local phenomena (e.g. tectonics) From measurements to maps: how to predict spatially