Radon Gas as an Indicator for Air Quality Control in Buried Industrial Architecture: Rehabilitation of the Old Británica Warehouses in Alicante for a Tourist Site

Abstract

The infrastructure of the Británica warehouses in Alicante is a very important industrial architectural element in the history of Spain, although it is unknown to almost all of the inhabitants of the city. The former fuel refinery is located in the Serra Grossa Mountains and served much of the country until 1966. This research is based on the plans of the city of Alicante to convert a historical element, the Británica warehouses, into a unique tourist site. Currently, the network of storage domes in this facility, which has an approximate footprint of 20,000 m 2 and domes approximately 20 m high, is in a state of neglect, and there are neighborhood initiatives for its rehabilitation to become a cultural or tourist site. Therefore, it is necessary to take into account the quality of the indoor air. Radon gas is analyzed as a control element for future refurbishment of the facility. Alicante is a nongranite area and therefore is not very susceptible to generation of radon gas indoors, but the conditions of a buried and poorly ventilated space make the site appropriate for analysis. Most scientific agencies in the field of medicine and health, including the World Health Organization, consider radon gas to be very harmful to humans. This element in its gaseous state is radioactive and is present in almost all the land in which the buildings are implanted, with granitic type soils presenting higher levels of radon gas. Nongranitic soils have traditionally been considered to have low radon levels. The city of Alicante, where the installation is located, is a nongranitic area and therefore is not very susceptible to generating radon gas in buildings, but the conditions of buried and poorly ventilated places make the site appropriate for analysis to support air quality control and decision-making.

Mechanisms of Diffusion of Radon in Buildings and Mitigation Techniques

“…In recent years, several studies have been performed throughout the world to identify the areas most exposed to radon hazard in terms of geogenic potential, according to different techniques and methodologies, which may be subdivided into geostatistical [22][23][24][25][26][27][28], based on geochemical/geological models of the territory, eventually combined with Geographical Information Systems (GIS) [25,29], and non-geologically based techniques based on statistics [30] typically empirically based on the survey of emissions. Such survey activities have been conducted and disseminated in several countries, including Austria [26,31], Belgium [25,32,33], Bulgaria [34], Canada [35], China [36][37][38], Egypt [39], Finland [40], France [29], Germany [41], Greenland [42], Iran [43], Ireland [11], Mexico [44], Norway [45], Poland [46,47], Romania [48], Russia [49], Spain [50][51][52], Sweden [53,54], Switzerland [55], the UK [56][57][58], the USA [59]…”

“…Sustainability 2024, 16, x FOR PEER REVIEW 3 of 17 [40], France [29], Germany [41], Greenland [42], Iran [43], Ireland [11], Mexico [44], Norway [45], Poland [46,47], Romania [48], Russia [49], Spain [50][51][52], Sweden [53,54], Switzerland [55], the UK [56][57][58], the USA [59][60][61][62][63][64], Uzbekistan [65], and Italy [27,28,[66][67][68][69][70][71]. It is noted that a priori identification of rock types likely to be implicated in radon hazard is difficult and likely to be successful in only a few cases [72], and measurements of radon concentrations in soil give only limited information about the radon concentrations to be expected in new buildings [73].…”

Radon Gas in the City of Alicante. High Risk of Low Indoor Air Quality in Poorly Ventilated Buildings

“…Apart from the underground volume that makes up the complex today, there are few elements that were once part of such an important industrial factory in the city. Today, it is abandoned and, due to its size and historical route, it can be considered to be part of industrial archaeology [ 40 ].…”