RADON TESTING FOR LARGE NONRESTOENTIAL BUILDINGS

Recently, considerable attention bas been dedicated to ascertaining the best approach to perform radon testing in large, oomesidential buildings. Rom 1988 to 1995, Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) performed radon testing studies within large buildings to collect data sufficient to perform statistical analysis on radon distribution within large buildings. Briefly, die protocol entailed the sampling of 100% of all ground-contact rooms, pipe chases, elevator shafts, and stairwells of a large building. From 1991 through 1995, ORNL has collected more than 40,000 large building measurements in radon priority areas. The building ground-contact areas range from 1K ff to 1,OWK ft2. Overall, die presence of elevated radon within rooms of large buildings was found to be a random, norstatistical distribution Therefore, all rooms within large buildings must be tested in order to determine whether elevated radon is present.