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Radon Rain Out, Radon Wash Out - How To Test Rain For Radon With Rain Swipe Test

Radon Rain Out, Radon Wash Out - How To Test Rain For Radon With Rain Swipe Test



Radon and/or other radioactive elements are washed out of the air with rain or snow. This is called a Radon rain out, or a Radon wash out. 

An example of how this looks is illustrated by a map above, which uses satellite photos of US rain/snow pattern put next to a map of EPA radiation monitors. The radiation monitors show elevated radiation in the same areas as the snow and rain. With a fairly sensitive pancake style radiation detector, one can usually detect this radon by doing a wipe test off of a metal mailbox or car with a paper towel, held inside of a plastic baggy. However, each rain storm has it's own radon signature. Some rain can be very 'hot', and then then next rainfall can measure completely the same as normal background radiation. Of course, radiation is invisible, so a person cannot tell if the rain is radioactive or not just by looking, smelling or tasting it. 

When doing the radon test 'wipe', it is important to measure the amount of surface area wiped and standardize this, so that all test results will be based on an 'equal' area. Wipe a wet area of 2 square feet. Be sure to specify the amount of square feet you wipe in your video or results each time you test and report. It makes a HUGE difference wiping 1 square foot or wiping 6 square foot, in terms of the radiation readings, if you want to be a citizen scientist, that is. 

"Radon daughters (progenies): the concentration of radon gas and its decay products depends greatly on temperature and weather patterns. When the air is cooler, or when there is an inversion layer "holding down" air near the ground, there can be a higher concentration of radon gas and its decay products -- especially Lead-214 and Bismuth-214, which are strong gamma and beta emitters and are quite radioactive. Other weather conditions can cause large variations as well, especially rain. Rain washes the radon progeny out of the air. So when it rains, there should generally be a short spike in the gamma and beta counts followed by a period of lower counts."

RADON GAS DECAY CHAIN

The following is the decay chain of radon, according to Wikipedia; "There are three other radon isotopes that have a half-life of over an hour: 211Rn, 210Rn and 224Rn. The 220Rn isotope is a natural decay product of the most stable thorium isotope (232Th), and is commonly referred to as thoron. It has a half-life of 55.6 seconds and also emits alpha radiation. 

Similarly, 219Rn is derived from the most stable isotope of actinium (227Ac)—named "actinon"—and is an alpha emitter with a half-life of 3.96 seconds.[25]No radon isotopes occur significantly in the neptunium (237Np) decay series, though a trace amount of the (extremely unstable) isotope 217Rn is produced. 

222Rn belongs to the radium and uranium-238 decay chain, and has a half-life of 3.8235 days. Its four first products (excluding marginal decay schemes) are very short-lived, meaning that the corresponding disintegrations are indicative of the initial radon distribution. Its decay goes through the following sequence:[25]

222Rn, 3.8 days, alpha 

218Po, 3.10 minutes, alpha

214Pb, 26.8 minutes, beta 

214Bi, 19.9 minutes, beta 

214Po, 0.1643 ms, alpha 

210Pb, which has a much longer half-life of 22.3 years, beta 

210Bi, 5.013 days, beta 

210Po, 138.376 days, alpha 

206Pb, stable.





According to IRPA: "With air monitoring the increase of radiation levels is observed at all monitoring sites with a similar pattern as far as rain is observed at all sites. The increase of radiation level should coincide with the beginning of the rain. However, small increase might be found with a weak rain, which is undetectable by rainfall detector.

The radiation level in the air monitor does not show sharp increase or decrease by the rain. It usually increases and decreases gradually. Sometimes, the higher level continues for more than a few days with continuous rain. Water monitor will not always increase with rain. The increase of water monitor usually starts 30 to 60 minutes after the beginning of the rain. However, when it rains not at the monitoring site but at the upper stream of the river the relationship between the increase of the radiation level and the initiation of the rain does not follow the above mentioned rule. The water monitor might show a sharp increase of the level due to rain. It does not always synchronize the increase of air monitor with water monitor. 

Only one water monitor could show the increase in contrast to the air monitor. The higher level of radiation will decrease with the half-life of 30 to 40 minutes. When the sharp peak is observed in the water monitor, the half-life of the decrease should be obtained."

There is no way to tell if rain has other more hazardous radioactive elements in it, other than to keep the sample in a ziplock baggie and then retest the same wipe sample or rain sample over a period of one week. If this sample contains only radon, the radiation will rapidly disappear over a period of several days to a week. If the radiation is still there at the same level with a wait time of one week, then the substances detected are the more hazardous elements such as cesium, strontium, uranium, which come from a nuclear bomb, nuclear accident or a radiation release of some kind.  

Radioactive Rain Closes 130 schools in Korea - Highly Radioactive Rain in California Dec. 2013; via @AGreenRoad

HIGHEST LEVELS OF RADON FOUND IN SWITZERLAND


According to Wikipedia, the highest 'normal' levels of radon are found in Switzerland; "St. Gallen is notable for reporting the highest maximum radioactivity measurements of any Swiss city, as published in the 2009 yearly report by BAG (Bundesamt für Gesundheit), the Swiss Federal Health Office. While the daily average level of gamma-ray radioactivity in the city is unremarkable at 105 nSv/h, the maximum can reach 195 nSv/h, as high as the average for Jungfraujoch, the location with the highest reported level of radioactivity in Switzerland, due to its high elevation and therefore greater exposure to cosmic rays. 

The same report explains that the unusually high spikes of radioactivity measured in St. Gallen are due to radioactive products of radon gas being washed to the ground during heavy rain or storms, but does not explain where the sufficient quantities of radon gas and its products to account for the anomaly would come from.[30]

The yearly report for 2009 on risks associated with radon published by the same governmental agency shows St. Gallen to lie in an area of the lowest level of radon exposure.[31] In addition to the measured gamma-radiation, the city may be subject to radioactive Tritium pollution in Teufen, a satellite town situated 4 km south of the city in the canton of Appenzell Outer Rhodes (this pollution is also covered in the report)."

Radon can also be released by nuclear plants, uranium/thorium mining, fracking, oil/gas drilling and oil/gas, coal mining, oil sands, shale oil, and uranium/thorium exploration activities, as the above video illustrates. 

For more information about radon, see; 

Highly Radioactive Rain Falling In USA, Other Countries; via @AGreenRoad

Radon Dangers; Hormesis Explored; via A Green Road

2400 Global Nuclear Atmospheric Bomb Tests 1945-1998 - Equivalent to Global Nuclear War; via @AGreenRoad

Alpha Radiation Dangers; Polonium, Radon, Radium, Plutonium, Uranium; via A Green Road

EPA Radon Information 
http://www.epa.gov/radon/pubs/citguide.html

List And Links To 68 Citizen And Government Radiation Monitoring Geiger Counter Networks Around The World; via @AGreenRoad
http://agreenroad.blogspot.com/2013/08/list-and-links-to-citizen-radiation.html

To get more information about Geiger Counters, click on the following links;

Radiation And Geiger Counter Readings Simplified; via @AGreenRoad
http://agreenroad.blogspot.com/2013/01/radiation-and-geiger-counter-readings.html

Geiger Counter, Principles, Readout, Limitations And Types; via @AGreenRoad
http://agreenroad.blogspot.com/2013/01/geiger-counter-principles-readout.html

Radon rain out can also be forecast and 'tracked' by following the jet stream, which usually carries the rain, storms and heavy duty thunderstorms. Usually, as the rain falls, the radiation networks light up and radiation levels increase, just due to radon, as illustrated by the picture above. But this is also when something worse will come down if something bad happened upwind, but they are 'hiding' it, either by covering it up, or by throwing it up into the upper atmosphere through those huge, tall vent stacks at every nuclear plant.. 

Watch the radiation networks combined with the jet stream to get the latest and greatest, because they can't hide anymore, with all of the citizen radiation detector networks going up all around the world. It is insane that we have to watch these people, because they throw invisible poison into the air whenever they feel like, and never warn anyone, but that is the way of the world right now.. 

Japan Fukushima Safecast Citizen Radiation Tracking And Map Project; via @AGreenRoad

List And Links To Citizen Radiation Monitoring Networks; via @AGreenRoad

Jet Stream Live Streaming Animated Map; Track Radiation Flows In Upper Atmosphere; via @AGreenRoad
http://agreenroad.blogspot.com/2013/12/jet-stream-live-streaming-animate-map.html

BUY A GEIGER COUNTER TO TEST RAIN IN YOUR AREA


If you don't have a radiation detector, click on the link below. This brand is recommended by AGRP and has the round pancake style of detector head, which is much more sensitive than the cheaper tube types of detectors.

Stay safe out there, AGRP has your back.

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Radon Rain Out, Radon Wash Out - How To Test Rain For Radon With Rain Swipe Test


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