Question

A house has cracks in the basement floor through which radon is emitted into the house. The total volume of the house is 650 m3 (assume that it is well mixed throughout). The radon source emits 250 pCi/s (pCi or picocuries, is a unit proportional to the amount of radon gas, and indicates the amount of radioactivity of the gas). Air inflow can be modeled is as a flow of clean air into the house of 722 m3/h, and the outflow is equal to inflow.

(a) What is the steady-state concentration of radon (in pCi/L) in the house if radon is conservative?

(b) What is the steady-state concentration of radon (in pCi/L) in the house if radon decays via a first-order reaction with a rate constant of 0.025 h-1?

Answer 1