Measurement of radon diffusion length in thin membranes

Building regulations in Israel require the insulating of buildings against radon ²²²Rn penetration from soil. In radon-prone areas membranes stretched between the soil and the building foundation are used, together with sealing other possible penetration routes. Designing the radon mitigation procedure requires checking that all sealing materials are practically, radon tight, having a thickness of at least three times the radon diffusion length. In this work, a very simple technique to evaluate the radon diffusion length in thin membranes, using a radon source of known activity and an activated charcoal canister as radon detector is presented. The theoretical formalism and measurement results for polyethylene membranes of different densities obtained in a recent comparison exercise are presented.