Soil and building material as main sources of indoor radon in Băiţa-Ştei radon prone area (Romania)

Radon contributes to over than 50% of the natural radiation dose received by people. In radon risk areas this contribution can be as high as 90–95%, leading to an exposure to natural radiation 5–10 times higher than normal. This work presents results from radon measurements (indoor, soil and exhalation from building materials) in Băiţa-Ştei, a former uranium exploitation area in NW Romania. In this region, indoor radon concentrations found were as high as 5000 Bq m−3 and soil radon levels ranged from 20 to 500 kBq m−3. An important contribution from building materials to indoor radon was also observed. Our results indicate two independent sources of indoor radon in the surveyed houses of this region. One source is coming from the soil and regular building materials, and the second source being uranium waste and local radium reached material used in building construction. The soil as source of indoor radon shows high radon potential in 80% of the investigated area. Some local building materials reveal high radon exhalation rate (up to 80 mBq kg−1 h−1 from a sandy-gravel material, ten times higher than normal material). These measurements were used for the radon risk classification of this area by combining the radon potential of the soil with the additional component from building materials. Our results indicate that Băiţa-Ştei area can be categorized as a radon prone area.