Measurement of radioactive nuclides present in soil samples of district Ganderbal of Kashmir Province for radiation safety purposes

Determination of uranium and thorium concentrations in sediment samples by using solid state nuclear track detectors

In this study, uranium and thorium concentrations in the sediment samples collected from the Gulf of Izmit in Marmara Sea were determined using neutron radiography method and alpha-autoradiography method. Mean uranium concentrations calculated for the sediment samples collected from the boreholes S2, S3, S5, S8 and KS-2 were found to be 5.99 μg/g (3.58-8.16 μg/g), 4,59 μg/g (2.54-8.22 μg/g), 4.03 μg/g (2.13-6.9 μg/g), 3.71 μg/g (2.36-4.48 μg/g) and 2.81 μg/g (2.16-4.06 μg/g), respectively. The highest uranium concentration in all borehole samples was obtained from borehole S3 with a value of 8.22 μg/g at a depth of 77.00 m, followed by borehole S2 with a value of 8.16 μg/g at 76.95 m depth. These results also confirms the possibility of thermal sources at boreholes S2 and S3. The mean thorium concentrations in boreholes S3 and S8 were found to be 15.26 μg/g (9.60-17.49 μg/g) and 15.76 μg/g (13.89-17.37 μg/g), respectively. The highest thorium concentration in obtained samples from all boreholes was obtained in borehole S3 with a value of 17.49 μg/g at a depth of 77.00 m.

RADIOACTIVITY OF SOIL IN THE REGION OF THE TOWN OF NIŠ, SERBIA

The concentration of radionuclides in samples of soil collected in the region of the town of Niš, was measured and presented in this paper. The naturally occurring radionuclides, 226Ra, 232Th and 40K, were found in all samples. In many of them, 137Cs was also measured, while the other artificial radionuclides were not detected. The measurements were carried out using the standard gamma spectroscopy system with high purity germanium (HPGe) detector. The results show that the average activity concentrations of 226Ra, 232Th, 40K and 137Cs are: 21, 26, 414 and 4.7, in Bq/kg, respectively. The sediment in the municipality spa Niška Banja exhibits a high content of 226Ra, 573 Bq/kg. The outdoor dose rates, due to the gamma radiation of the ground, were also determined for all soils. The average absorbed dose rate in air was estimated to be 39 nGy/h, while the corresponding annual effective dose is 0.048 mSv.