Drinking water treatment for radon removal. Review of the methods according to the European project

Abstract

The treatment methods for the removal of radon from drinking water were analyzed according to the materials of the final report of TENAWA European project. A need for the project was caused by the fact that in many countries the majority of the available groundwater resources contained a significant amount of natural radionuclides, radon in particular. We considered the results of laboratory and field investigations on the possibility of the use of various equipment and methods for the removal of radon from drinking water for individual and collective water pipes in Ukraine. Objective: We analyzed the effectiveness of various methods for the removal of radon from drinking artesian water under conditions of individual and collective water use. We assessed a possibility of the application of the methods in Ukraine and ascertained the practical aspects for their implementation. Materials and methods: We analyzed the final report of TENAWA European project on the treatment of artesian drinking water from radon. We studied the ways for the construction of the systems for the treatment of drinking water from radon using the processes of aeration or filtration on the granular activated carbon, the results of their tests, the effectiveness, the improvement of the quality of water from subsurface and underground sources for radon content. In our investigations we applied bibliographic, analytical, physical-and-chemical, sanitary-and-hygienic methods, and method of expert evaluation.