Radon in potable waters in Luxembourg

The presence of elevated concentrations of radon in water is a potential health risk when the water is used in public water supply, mainly because of the increase of radon concentration in the indoor air due to degassing [16]. Samples were taken from a large number of Luxembourg’s drinking water springs in 2007 to determine the major ion chemistry and potential contaminants, mainly from agriculture. The natural radioactive isotopes were analysed as part of this program. Two sampling campaigns were performed, one in summer, one in winter, to consider seasonal variations. This paper presents the radon activities, which were sampled during the two field campaigns and measured using liquid scintillation counting (LSC). For quality assurance of our results we made three replicates from each collected water sample. This methodology was used because it is more accurate than other possible methods of radon measurement, and its limit of detection is sufficiently low, i.e., 700 Bqźm–3. The correlation between radon and radium levels was estimated, as well as the dependence of radon levels on geology. The results from the year 2007 were compared to previous measurements from the year 2003. Five springs in the program were sampled monthly throughout a year to account for possible seasonal variations, additionally to the large spatial extend of the program.