Design of new schools and other large buildings which are radon resistant and easy to mitigate. Report for September 1990-August 1991

The paper discusses the recent incorporation of radon mitigation design recommendations in the construction of a hospital in Johnson City, TN. The recommendations resulted in the mitigation of a 5,500 square meter building with only one suction point at an incremental cost of $1.03 per square meter. Extrapolation of the pressure field extension (PFE) measurements indicates that a much larger building could have been mitigated with the system used. A search is underway for larger buildings to be built in radon prone areas of the U.S. in order to determine the effectiveness of the mitigation system in reducing radon in even larger buildings. As a prelude to the preparation of a new construction technical guidance document for schools, architectural drawings of all schools research by EPA, to date, were carefully studied to determine which building characteristics affect radon entry and ease of mitigation. Results of the study were presented at an international symposium on radon in Philadelphia, PA, in April 1991.