Researchers from the Trofimuk Institute of Petroleum Geology and Geophysics, Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences (IPGG SB RAS) have investigated a representative collection of 585 samples collected in the city of Novosibirsk and the eastern regions of Novosibirsk Region.
According to scientists, radon levels in groundwaters can vary significantly from month to month, therefore obtaining a true picture required collecting water samples from the same wells several times.
Why is this research important?
According to the Laboratory of Hydrogeology of Sedimentary Basins of Siberia at IPGG SB RAS, as many as 12 radon water occurrences were identified within the Novosibirsk metropolitan area back in the Soviet era. Most of Novosibirsk stands on the same-name granite massif where radon-222, a colorless inert gas is a naturally occurring. When released from granite aquifers, radon may easily move toward the surface in air or dissolve in groundwater.
As is known, the radioactivity from radon in the water at normal background level poses no health risk; it is therefore critical to test water for radon. In the city of Novosibirsk, groundwaters account for less than 3% of the total public drinking and household water supplies, and for up to 10% in the satellite cities of Berdsk and Iskitim. However, in other communities, groundwater constitutes the primary source of public drinking water supplies, and many private households use their own dug or drilled wells.
What conclusions have scientists come to?
The study has found radon levels to be within permissible limits in the vast majority of samples. However, its concentrations exceeding the norm were reported from 91 water intake wells (22% of samples), most of which were located within the city limits of Novosibirsk, in the vicinity of the towns of Akademgorodok, Kolyvan, Novobibeevo, and several other settlements in the Novosibirsk region. These well-water supply systems are located primarily within the Novosibirsk granite massif or at the contact zone with the Kolyvan massif – which is why radon levels there are higher than in other places. According to scientists, effective means of reducing elevated levels of radon in home air and dissolved in drinking water would be the ventilation of premises and water settling before drinking.
Detailed research results have been submitted to the Novosibirsk Region Government, and the work will be continued in the coming years.
Published by IPGG Press Service
For reference
Field works were partially funded under the umbrella of project No. FWZZ-2022-0014 of the Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Russian Federation, and project No. 25-17-20024 of the Russian Science Foundation and the Government of the Novosibirsk Region (No. 30-2025-000896) – in the part of radon activity concentrations measurement and risk assessment.