Modeling of radon diffusion through soil

Abstract

Radon 222Rn has been identified as an important factor that could result in a health hazard. The health risks can be minimized by taking some preventive measures where the radon concentration is very high such as in some mines and homes. A study in the diffusion of the inert gas, will give us a better understanding of its possible pathways through soil into the air where the radon releases can become hazardous. This thesis aims to investigate the Radon diffusion through soil and into air. Results obtained from two-medium model (soil and air) is compared with the one-medium model (only soil). Finite difference methos has been used here to solve the equation describing diffusion of radon through a cylindrical soil slab (Savoic et al. 2011). It is seen that the Explicit Finite Difference Method (EFDM) is effective and accurate for solving this equation, which is used to calculate the radon diffusion, which may help to assess health hazards.