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Investigation on the soil gas radon concentrations in Northwest Huahai Basin, Gansu Province, China

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Abstract

In this study, radon (222Rn) measurements were taken at a soil depth of 0.70 m in the northwest of Huahai Basin in Gansu Province, China. It ranged from 110 to 3715 Bq m−3 with mean value of 1368 Bq m−3. In the soil samples, most element compositions were close to the background data in China, whereas the U content was 91 ppm in the well ZHK3-1. These results indicate that higher radon level are related to lithogenic background such as the deeper uraniferous sandstone and concealed faults, providing the support for the protection for radiation exposure in this area.

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Acknowledgements

This research was supported by the Natural Science Foundation of Hunan Province, China (No.2019JJ50525), the Research Foundation of Education Bureau of Hunan Province, China (No. 18B260). The work was approved by also the Hunan Province Engineering Research Center of Radioactive Control Technology in Uranium Mining and Metallurgy & Hunan Province Engineering Technology Research Center of Uranium Tailings Treatment Technology, University of South China (No. 2018YKZX2002) and Open Fund Project of Hunan Cooperative Innovation Center for Nuclear Fuel Cycle Technology & Equipment (No. 2019KFY03). Anonymous reviewers are specially thanked for their valuable comments to improve the quality of the paper.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of resource Environment and Safety Engineering, University of South China, Hengyang, 421001, Hunan, China

    Bo Lei, Guan Chen & Jintao Guo

  2. School of Energy and Power Engineering, Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi’an, 710049, China

    Ziqi Cai

  3. Hunan Province Engineering Technology Research Center of Uranium Tailings Treatment, Hengyang, 421001, Hunan, China

    Changshou Hong

  4. Hunan Province Engineering Research Center of Radioactive Control Technology in Uranium Mining and Metallurgy, Hengyang, 421001, Hunan, China

    Changshou Hong

  5. Beijing Research Institute of Uranium Geology, Beijing, 100013, China

    Feng He & Zilong Zhang

  6. No. 203 Research Institute of Nuclear Industry, Xi’an, 710100, China

    Baolong Lu

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  1. Bo Lei
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Correspondence to Ziqi Cai or Changshou Hong.

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Lei, B., Cai, Z., Hong, C. et al. Investigation on the soil gas radon concentrations in Northwest Huahai Basin, Gansu Province, China. J Radioanal Nucl Chem 326, 1–9 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10967-020-07280-9

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