Radon Free Cleanroom and Laboratory

University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta
What the facility does

Maintains a clean environment with radon levels about 1 percent of normal air (or less), in which to fabricate and test low-background apparatus. 

Areas of expertise

The radon “free” laboratory consists of a sealed clean room with HEPA-filtered air to maintain low dust rates. The lab is supplied with a flow of air that cold-activated carbon columns have stripped of radon. Inside the room we have a CNC lathe and mill and various tools for fabricating equipment that is used for ultra-low-background experiments. There is also space for electronics testing and bench fabrication.

We have developed expertise in radon stripping, radon measurement and monitoring, and the measurement of radon emanation from materials.

The lab was built to aid our experiments in astroparticle physics experiments, including rare-event measurements of neutrinos and dark matter detectors. To that end, we have expertise in developing and constructing ultra-low-radioactivity apparatus, as well as conventional particle detectors.

Research services

Radon emanation analysis, access to the laboratory on a case-by-case basis.

Sectors of application
  • Clean technology
  • Environmental technologies and related services
Specialized lab Equipment Function
Radon Reduced Laboratory Radon stripping system Provides radon-free air to clean room
  Radon emanation chamber Measures radon emanation from samples
  • University of Alberta
  • Queen’s University
  • University of Montreal
  • Laurentian University
  • SNOLAB
  • TRIUMF