Use of natural ventilation to control radon in single-family dwellings

Technical Report · Mon Jan 01 04:00:00 EST 1990

OSTI ID:6447783

Cavallo, A; Berkner, C; Gadsby, K

The paper discusses an examination of a fundamental assumption in radon mitigation work, that natural ventilation is not very effective in lowering indoor radon levels in buildings. (The mechanism by which ventilation acted to reduce radon levels was considered to be simple dilution; thus a factor of 10 increase in the air exchange rate would be required to reduce radon levels by this same factor.) The examination (in a natural ventilation experiment in a research house) showed that this assumption is fundamentally incorrect. Measuring the pressure field of a basement in conjunction with the building air exchange rate shows that ventilation reduces radon levels two ways: (1) by dilution, and (2) by modification of the pressure field of the building shell. The experiment indicates that effect (2) is much more important than (1)--dilution--and that natural ventilation can cause a much larger reduction in radon levels than was previously believed possible.

• Research Organization: Princeton Univ., NJ (USA). Center for Energy and Environmental Studies
• OSTI ID: 6447783
• Report Number(s): PB-90-262924/XAB; CNN: EPA-R-814673
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
540130* -- Environment
Atmospheric-- Radioactive Materials Monitoring & Transport-- (1990-)
AIR POLLUTION
AIR POLLUTION CONTROL
BUILDINGS
CONTROL
ECOLOGICAL CONCENTRATION
ELEMENTS
ENVIRONMENTAL TRANSPORT
FLUIDS
GASES
INDOOR AIR POLLUTION
MASS TRANSFER
MITIGATION
MONITORING
NONMETALS
POLLUTION
POLLUTION CONTROL
RADIATION MONITORING
RADIOECOLOGICAL CONCENTRATION
RADIONUCLIDE MIGRATION
RADON
RARE GASES
RESIDENTIAL BUILDINGS
VENTILATION