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http://dx.doi.org/10.9720/kseg.2018.4.631

Uranium and Radon Concentrations in Groundwater of the Daejeon Granite Area: Comparison with Other Granite Areas  

Yun, Uk (Groundwater and Ecohydrology Research Center, Korea Institute of Geoscience and Mineral Resources)
Kim, Moon Su (Soil and Groundwater Research Division, National Institute of Environmental Research)
Jeong, Do Hwan (Soil and Groundwater Research Division, National Institute of Environmental Research)
Hwang, Jae Hong (Geoscience Data Center, Korea Institute of Geoscience and Mineral Resources)
Cho, Byong Wook (Groundwater and Ecohydrology Research Center, Korea Institute of Geoscience and Mineral Resources)
Publication Information
The Journal of Engineering Geology / v.28, no.4, 2018 , pp. 631-643 More about this Journal
Abstract
Uranium and radon concentrations in groundwater from 80 wells from Daejeon area were measured to determine the range of concentrations according to the geology. The median uranium content of groundwater was $11.14{\mu}g/L$ for the two-mica granite, $0.90{\mu}g/L$ for the biotite granite, and $0.47{\mu}g/L$ for the Ogcheon group. The median radon content of groundwates was 114.3 Bq/L for the two-mica granite, 61.6 Bq/L for the biotite granite, and 42.2 Bq/L for the Ogchon group, respectively. The uranium content of two-mica granite is 3.78 mg/ kg, which is slightly higher than that of biotite granite 3.20 mg/kg. However, the uranium content in groundwatewr of two-mica granite groundwater is much higher than that of biotite granite. This can be explained by the fact that the two-mica granite is vulnerable to weathering than biotite granite, so uranium in mineral is easily leached into groundwater. The exceeding rate of samples having uranium content above $30{\mu}g/L$ in granite area was 23.8%, which is higher than that of 6.7% in Jurassic granite in Korea. On the other hand, the exceeding rate of samples having radon content above 148 Bq/L in granite rate area was 31.0% which is similar to that of Jurassic granite area of 31.7%.
Keywords
groundwater; uranium concentration; radon concentration; two-mica granite;
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