Possible correlation between uranium content in host rocks and radon and daughters concentration in air for two Italian ZnS-PbS mines

Research was carried out to evaluate the possible correlation between the uranium content in host rocks and the Rn and daughters concentration in air for two Italian ZnS-PbS mines. As a great variability had been ascertained for²²²Rn and daughters concentration in the different areas, it appeared of some interest to verify whether this fact was due to a different uranium concentration in the host dolomitic rocks or simply to a ventilation problem. Some rock samples were collected in several places where also radon and daughters were drawn; uranium was determined by fluorimetry and by alpha spectrometry after a chemical separation with a Microthene-TOPO column.²²²Rn was measured by the scintillation cell method, while the decay products were determined by the Markov and Tsivoglou methods. No correlation could be found between uranium content and radon concentration, but a good linearity was detected between the uranium content and the concentration of Rn decay products (alpha potential energy).