Case studies from a management program for radon reduction and prevention in a community affected by historic radium waste in Canada

Historic low-level radioactive wastes are located in Port Hope, Ontario, Canada. The radioactivecontaminants, mainly radium-226 and natural uranium, were deposited by a radium refining industrythat operated within the town from the 1930s to the 1950s.A national program for the assessment and remediation of communities affected by radioactivecontamination was initiated in 1975 by a Federal-Provincial Task Force on Radioactivity andterminated in 1982. At the programs conclusion, it had successfully assessed and remediated about3,500 properties in the town of Port Hope alone, to objectives set by the Task Force for the cleanup.Although, all residential and commercial properties now meet these cleanup criteria, marginallycontaminated soils remain. The Low-Level Radioactive Waste Management Office maintains aConstruction Monitoring Program (CMP) in association with the local building inspectors office, tomanage the remaining contaminated soils, and to assure that radon progeny concentrations do notexceed 0.02 WL in new or existing structures.This paper reviews the experience of the Construction Monitoring Program as it relates to radon gasconcentration issues in Port Hope properties.