Re: Measurement of Radon Exhalation from Mine Tailings

[ERGKBAKER@aol.com]

I have made several hundred measurements on tailings piles using a modified
version of the LAAC.  I also have data on side-by-side canister measurements
at many locations on a tailings pile as well as data comparing our canisters
to the LAAC.

With proper venting of a charcoal canister, changes in baremetric pressure
should not affect the diffusion rate at this location.  I also believe that
the concentration gradient is not changed at the soil-air interface providing
the charcoal absorbs the radon (unsubstantiated at this time, I believe).
Therefore, the diffusion into the canister should not be significantly
perturbed.

I am preparing a paper in which I modeled the flux from a pile and compared
the flux to measured values.  We built pads of varying thickness and have data
for that as well as for the bare tailings.  The result shows good agreement
which may imply that the canister readings were accurate.  Naturally, it may
also be concluded that both are incorrect since the code RADON has not been
validated, to my knowledge.