NATURAL RADIONUCLIDES IN AGRICULTURAL PLANTS FROM NORTHERN THAILAND

2019 ◽  
Vol 184 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 397-399
Author(s):  
R Kritsananuwat ◽  
C Kranrod ◽  
S Chanyotha ◽  
T Ploykrathok ◽  
P Sriploy

Abstract Thailand is predominantly an agricultural country. The Northern Region occupies the second largest cultivated land area in the country. To establish baseline data for future environmental monitoring, seventy-nine plant samples including vegetables, fruits and tobaccos and their relevant soils were collected from the major plantation zones of Northern Thailand. Activity concentrations of natural radionuclides in the samples were determined using gamma-ray spectrometry technique. The median activity concentrations of 226Ra and 228Ra in the soil samples were higher than worldwide value, while as those of 40K were comparable with worldwide value. There was a large variation and non-uniform distribution in the soil samples. The activity concentrations of 226Ra, 228Ra and 40K in the plant samples varied widely within plants and between species and were very low compared to their relevant soils. A decreasing trend of their activity concentration has been observed in the order leaf > stem > rhizome/root (as found in galangal); and leaf > stalk/stem (as found in lemongrass).

2020 ◽  
Vol 27 ◽  
pp. 121
Author(s):  
Filothei K. Pappa ◽  
Christos Tsabaris ◽  
Dionisis Patiris ◽  
Georgios Eleftheriou ◽  
Effrossini G. Androulakaki ◽  
...  

Radionuclides are characterized by their nuclear and chemical behavior. Additionally, the geochemical characteristics of radionuclides result in their accumulation in the sediments via sorption processes. In this work the radionuclide activity concentrations obtained by gamma-ray spectrometry (HPGe detector) were converted to metal concentrations as described in [1]. The results were compared with the measured metal concentrations obtained by atomic spectrometry (X-ray fluorescence system-XRF). The samples originate from the coastal environment of two Greek areas, characterized by elevated values of natural radionuclides (e.g. 226Ra) and metals. The preliminary study revealed a good agreement among the concentrations of potassium calculated via activity concentrations of 40K and those of XRF measurement, while a great divergence was observed for the thorium case. These differences can be attributed to the low statistics, as well as to the calibration set-up of Th XRF measurement.


2016 ◽  
Vol 44 ◽  
pp. 1660237
Author(s):  
Huda Al-Sulaiti ◽  
Tabassum Nasir ◽  
K. S. Al Mugren ◽  
N. Alkhomashi ◽  
N. Al-Dahan ◽  
...  

The goal of this study was to establish the first baseline measurements for radioactivity concentration of the artificial radionuclide [Formula: see text]Cs in soil samples collected from the Qatarian peninsula. The work focused on the determination of the activity concentrations levels of man-made radiation in 129 soil samples collected across the landscape of the State of Qatar. All the samples were collected before the most recent accident in Japan, “the 2011 Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant accident”. The activity concentrations have been measured via high-resolution gamma-ray spectrometry using a hyper-pure germanium detector situated in a low-background environment with a copper inner-plated passive lead shield. A radiological map showing the activity concentrations of [Formula: see text]Cs is presented in this work. The concentration was[Formula: see text]found to range from 0.21 to 15.41 Bq/kg. The highest activity concentration of [Formula: see text]Cs was observed in sample no. 26 in North of Qatar. The mean value was found to be around 2.15 ± 0.27 Bq/kg. These values lie within the expected range relative to the countries in the region. It is expected that this contamination is mainly due to the Chernobyl accident on 26 April 1986, but this conclusion cannot be confirmed because of the lack of data before this accident.


Author(s):  
P.M. Gyuk ◽  
J.O. Anaegbu ◽  
H.O. Aboh ◽  
R. Daniel ◽  
A. Aruwa ◽  
...  

The background radiation of the areas was collected at random for each point using a rados survey meter. The detectors (two rados survey meter were used) were placed 1 meter above the ground with the operator positioned a few meters away. Three (3) readings were taking from each detector in other to reduce error or reach accuracy in obtaining the background readings from each randomly selected point where soil samples were later collected. In the current study, the concentration levels of naturally occurring radioactive materials (NORMs) of 40K, 232Th, and 238U in the surface soil samples of selected areas in kigo road new extension Kaduna north, Kaduna in Nigeria were studied. The collected soil samples were analyzed by means of gamma-ray spectrometry. The mean activity concentrations of the natural occurring radionuclides of  226Ra, 232Th and 40K in the soil samples were estimated to be 62, 78.35, 227.17 Bq/kg respectively for kigo road new extension respectively. Radium equivalent activity, absorbed dose rate, annual effective dose equivalent were also calculated for assessment of radiological risk. External hazard value (Hex) is between 0.3163 and 0.9557 and Internal hazard value is between 0.4462 and 1.1618. The worldwide average activity concentrations of 226Ra, 232Th and 40K in soil samples from various studies around the world have values of 37, 30 and 400 Bq/kg respectively [UNSCEAR, 2000]. The values compared well with published data from UNSCEAR shows Ra-226, Th-232 from the location are well above the standards while K-40 below the risk value.


2017 ◽  
Vol 7 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. Haque ◽  
J. Ferdous

The radioactivity of environmental samples from nuclear reactor sites must be analyzed before the public is given free access to the plants grown in these soils. Plant and corresponding soil samples were collected from a sample site around the Savar research reactor near Dhaka (Bangladesh) and the activity concentrations of natural radionuclides <sup>226</sup>Ra (<sup>238</sup>U-chain), <sup>228</sup>Ra (<sup>232</sup>Th-chain) and non-chained <sup>40</sup>K were measured using gamma ray spectrometry. Soils of Savar contained more radioactive <sup>40</sup>K than <sup>226</sup>Ra and <sup>228</sup>Ra. The influence of certain soil properties on the activity concentrations and transfer factors (TF) of natural radionuclides were investigated by correlating the observed data with those of soil properties. The activity concentrations of <sup>40</sup>K were much higher than those of <sup>226</sup>Ra and <sup>228</sup>Ra in plants due to higher uptake from soils. The transfer factors for <sup>226</sup>Ra, <sup>228</sup>Ra and <sup>40</sup>K were found to range from 0.04 to 0.10, 0.12 to 0.32, and 0.24 to 0.72, respectively. The soil to plant transfer factors for <sup>40</sup>K was found to be much higher in plants, which might be due to this element being vital in plants. This study showed that activity concentrations of these radionuclides in plants and their plant transfer factors seem to depend on the activity concentrations of the same radionuclides in soil.</p><p><strong> </strong>


Author(s):  
Somsavath LEUANGTAKOUN

This paper presented the method of determining the radioactivity of 40K, 226Ra and 232Th in soil samples by gamma-ray spectrometer using NaI (Tl) scintillation detector. The radioactivity of each isotope is calculated based on the net count rate in the energy window characteristic for the 40K, 226Ra and 232Th radioisotopes respectively. We have determined  activity concentrations of the natural radionuclides 226Ra,232Th and 40K in 15 soil samples collected around gold mines of Khamkeut district, Bolikhamxay Province, Laos. The average activity concentrations of the natural radionuclides 226Ra, 232Th and 40K are 46.58  ±  7.36 , 71.19  ±  5.42 and 574.62  ±  25.02 Bq.kg-1, respectively. The average activity concentrations of 226Ra and 232Th in this work are higher than those of Bolikhamxay Province, Laos and the world average values. The estimated average outdoor annual effective dose (E) and radium equivalent actitvity (Raeq) are 0.10  ±  0.004 mSv.yr-1 and 192.64  ±  16.12 Bq.kg-1, respectively.


Author(s):  
Y. M. Ahijjo ◽  
A. N. Baba-Kutigi ◽  
M. Momoh ◽  
A. M. Bayawa ◽  
M. Hussain

Aims: This study was conducted in a bid to ascertain the concentration of NORMS in the soil samples dugout of some mining sites in Kandam, Gyalggal, Burmawan masaka, Dinbisu and Giyawa town in Wurno LGA, Sokoto State Nigeria. The concerns about NORMS radioactivity in the environment are frequently linked to natural radioactivity which is more of primordial radionuclides. Study Design: A total number of nine soil samples were randomly collected for this study. The randomness was in order to represent over 90% of the sample population of different mines in Wurno LGA, Sokoto state for the analysis of gamma-ray spectrometry of High Purity Germanium (HPGe) detector coupled to a Multi-Channel Analyzer (MCA). Place and Duration of Study: Department of Physics, Usmanu Danfodiyo University, Sokoto, Nigeria, between August 2015 and June 2016. Methodology: The concentrations of the radionuclides (226Ra, 232Th and 40K) were ascertained through a high-resolution gamma-ray spectrometry of HPGe detector coupled with a Multi-Channel Analyzer, Centre for Advanced Studies in Physics (CASP), Government College University (GCU), Lahore, Pakistan. The activity concentrations of 226Ra, 232Th and 40K in the soil samples were obtained and used to calculate the radiological parameters ( Raeq, Hex, Hin, DAbs and Deff ) in order to assess the radiological impacts on the inhabitants. Results: The mean activity concentrations for 226Ra, 232Th and 40K in the soil samples were found to be 58.34, 53.76 and 679.70 Bqkg-1 while the radiological hazards parameters revealed mean values of 187.55 Bqkg-1, 0.51, 0.66, 87.77 nGy.h-1 and 107.64 μScyr -1 for Raeq, Hex, Hin, DAbs  and Deff respectively. These were compared with the results of similar studies conducted elsewhere and around the world. It was noticed that 40K contributes the highest level of radioactivity in this study which could enhance the amount of background radiation received by the population in the study area. The activity concentration unveiled from the soil samples were considerably lower for 226Ra and 232Th when compared to the activity of 40K. The mean value of the doseused to calculate the radiological parameters calculations shows that an elevated exposure to radioactivity by the inhabitants around this mine is eminent.  Conclusion: Cancer and various forms of ailment due to radioactivity exposure are further anticipated for the workers in the pits and the dwelling communities.


Atmosphere ◽  
2022 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 98
Author(s):  
Randa Osman ◽  
Yehia H. Dawood ◽  
Ahmed Melegy ◽  
Mohamed S. El-Bady ◽  
Ahmed Saleh ◽  
...  

Due to heightening concern about radiation hazards protection, activity concentrations of 226Ra, 232Th, 40K in forty soil samples collected from Shoubra El Kheima in the South Nile Delta were measured using gamma-ray spectrometry. The mean activity concentrations of 226Ra and 40K were higher in 20% of the considered samples than the world average values. A comprehensive comparison with up-to-date data was carried out. Spatial distribution maps of the measured radionuclides and radiological parameters were generated. The distributions of natural radionuclides were influenced by the soil organic matter, clay content, and scavenger metals oxides, as well as differences in the physical and chemical attributes and solubility of these radionuclides. The results revealed that industrial activity and agricultural practices in the study area caused an incremental increase in 226Ra and 40K activity concentrations. It can be deduced that although there are intensive industrial activities in this area, the natural radiation that comes from the soil is normal and does not pose a significant radiological hazard to the public. The natural radioactivity of soil in this area needs to be monitored periodically to prevent unnecessary radiation exposure to inhabitants.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eyakifama Hazou ◽  
Benjamin Zorko ◽  
Milohum Mikesokpo Dzagli ◽  
Essolakina Manakrihèa Haliba ◽  
Cebastien Joel Guembou Shouop ◽  
...  

Abstract Natural radionuclides activity concentrations of 226Ra, 228Ra, and 40K in soil and grass samples, statistical analysis of these radionuclides and transfer factors (TFs) from soil to the grass were carried out from phosphate mining and processing sites in southern areas of Togo using gamma-ray spectrometry-based High Purity Germanium (HPGe) detector. The average activity concentrations of 226Ra, 228Ra, and 40K were found within the range usually measured worldwide. Statistical analysis was done by investigating the skewness, the kurtosis, and the density distribution of radionuclides in the study areas. Both skewness and kurtosis displayed that the activity concentrations of soil and grass samples in the dischargement waste site (Kpémé) and mining site (Hahotoé) exhibited slightly positively skewed, negatively skewed, leptokurtic, and platykurtic distributions. The TFs for 226Ra, 228Ra, and 40K from dischargement waste soil to grass were evaluated. The average transfer factors of 226Ra, 228Ra, and 40K in the phosphate processing area were found to be 0.16, 0.32, and 8.42, respectively. 226Ra and 228Ra TFs values were found to within the limit of worldwide measure values while that of 40K was to be larger than the values measured in other countries. The average TF value of 8.42 for 40K was 8 times higher than the average value of unity, showing its large intake by vegetables. The high TFs for 40K could be explained by the extensive application of phosphate fertilizers to soils when growing vegetables.


2015 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 54-57
Author(s):  
Reeba Maria Jose ◽  
S. Ben Byju ◽  
S. Anilkumar ◽  
M P Chougaonkar

Knowledge on the distribution of these radionuclides in soil is of great importance for radiation protection and measurement. A systematic radiological survey has been carried out in the region of HBRAs in Kollam district of Kerala and Manavalakurichi in Tamilnadu in India to compare the natural gamma-radiation levels. 180 soil samples collected and were analyzed for 238U, 232Th and 40K by NaI(Tl) gamma-ray spectrometry. Heterogeneous distribution of radionuclides in the region may be attributed to the deposition phenomenon of soil in the region. The result of gamma dose rate measured at the sampling sites using survey meter showed an excellent correlation with dose rates computed from the natural radionuclides estimated from the soil samples. From these radioactivity levels, the radium equivalent activity and the external hazard index which resulted from the natural radionuclides in sediments are also tabulated for the analyzed samples and compared with internationally recommended values.


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