Radon dynamics and effective dose estimation in a volcanic cave: La Cueva del Viento, Tenerife (Canary Islands, Spain)

Abstract

La Cueva del Viento is a volcanic lava tube located in Tenerife Island (Canary Islands, Spain). With 18.2 km in length, it is the 6 th longest volcanic tube on Earth. Its touristic section, 180 m long, receives more than 28,200 visitants each year. According to the European and Spanish legislation, a radon monitoring program is required to minimise the radon exposition of workers, tourists, and cavers. In this work, we studied the radon concentration dynamics in the touristic section of the cave for ca. 1 year, using both passive and active radon detectors. Pluviometry and external air temperature played an important role in the seasonal and daily variations of indoor radon concentrations. Daily fluctuations during the dry season were analysed using time series (Box-Jenkins methodology) and frequency analysis (Fourier and Wavelet transforms) methods. The experimental radon time-series was well-fitted using a seasonal autoregressive integrated moving average model: SARIMA (2,0,1)(2,1,0) 24 , and its value, in a short-time window (ca. 1 week) was conveniently forecasted. Finally, this work revealed that the annual effective doses received by the touristic guides and visitors was ca. 2 mSv/year and 4 μSv/h, respectively. We concluded that the touristic exploitation of La Cueva del Viento is safe for both tourists and guides. However, based on our results, La Cueva del Viento had to be classified as a "Monitoring zone" and a regular monitoring program should be implemented. Hosted fileessoar.10512327.1.docx available at https://authorea.com/users/540217/articles/600161-radondynamics-and-effective-dose-estimation-in-a-volcanic-cave-la-cueva-del-viento-tenerifecanary-islands-spain Radon dynamics and effective dose estimation in a volcanic cave: La Cueva del Viento, Tenerife (Canary Islands, Spain)

Puesta a punto de la cámara de radón para validación de detectores

“…Se origina de manera natural en suelos, y aguas, con cierto contenido en uranio y en radio, así como en materiales de construcción cuya materia prima contenga también estos dos elementos. La peligrosidad de la exposición al radón en lugares de trabajo, viviendas y espacios públicos ha impulsado la mejora de la regulación europea y nacional, basadas ambas en numeras investigaciones que analizan el comportamiento del radón en sus diferentes fuentes (Nuccetelli et al, 2020), los procesos de transferencia (Calugaru et al, 2002) y liberación a la atmósfera (Rodriguez-Losada et al, 2022) o la dosis recibida por las personas expuestas (Carballo et al, 2022).…”