QUANTITATIVE AND QUALITATIVE STUDY OF RADON CONTENT IN BULGARIAN MINERAL WATERS.

This study presents the results of 222Rn in 24 sources of mineral water, 54 samples from different captured natural springs and drillings. 222Rn determination was performed by direct measurement using Alpha Guard with Aqua Kit. The results for the TDS, anions (F-, Cl-, SO42-), cations (Na+, Ca2+, Mg2+), pH and temperature of the investigated mineral waters were correlated with radon content by statistical software tool IBM SPSS. In the paper are shown the results of investigated correlations between the 222Rn content and gross alpha activity, gross beta activity and specific activity of 226Ra. The received results show that the 222Rn activities range from 0.40 to 476 Bq/l with a median value of 16 Bq/l. The Spearman's rho coefficients demonstrate a strong positive correlation between SO42- and F- anions and 222Rn (r, 0.731 and r, 0.784 respectively). Correlations between226Ra/222Rn, gross alpha activity/222Rn, gross beta activity/222Rn were investigated but not observed.