Investigations of enhanced outdoor radon concentration in Johanngeorgenstadt (Saxony).

Since the beginning of the nineties, the German Federal Office for Radiation Protection (Bundesamt für Strahlenschutz, BfS) has performed extensive measurements of long-term radon concentration in areas influenced by mining. In the region of Johanngeorgenstadt (Saxony) enhanced long-term radon concentrations were measured in the surrounding area of a waste rock pile. To find the explanation for the enhanced radon concentrations both short- and long-term investigations of radon exhalation were performed. To gain information about the local distribution of the radon level, the radon concentrations were measured at a height of 15 cm above ground level. The radon exhalation rate was continuously measured at the toe and the plateau of the waste rock pile. It has been found that radon is extensively released through both diurnal and pronounced seasonal variations. The exhalation pattern is governed by convection processes triggered by the temperature gradient between the waste rock pile and the atmosphere.