Baseline levels of radionuclides concentration in the sea of Wakatobi and Kendari

The importance of an information about the baseline value of radionuclides in the sea of Wakatobi and Kendari to see how large the input or contamination of radionuclides in the area. This contamination can come from waste human activities such as industry and nuclear utilization activities that are biased carried by seawater currents and air gusts. Natural and anthropogenic radionuclide concentrations in the Wakatobi and Kendari seas have been measured using a Gamma spectrometer (HPGe).The monitoring results show that both 226Ra, 232Th, 40K and 137Cs indicate that they are in normal condition and do not exceed the safe limit. The data presented in this study will be very important and useful to be used as basic data in mapping the improvement of radionuclide contamination in the area.

Specific Activity and Radioactive Contour Map of Anthropogenic Radionuclide (137Cs) in Surface Soil Samples from Chumphon Province, Thailand

Specific activities of anthropogenic radionuclide (137Cs) were studied and determined in 132 surface soil samples collected from 8 districts in Chumphon province in the south of Thailand. A high resolution high-purity germanium (HPGe) detector with a massive lead shield and gamma spectrometry analysis system were employed to measure the gamma ray energy spectra from the samples. The specific activity of 137Cs in all of surface soil samples were analyzed by using the IAEA/SL-2 radioactive standard source. It was found that the specific activities of 137Cs ranged from < 0.33 4.43 Bq/kg with mean values of 2.30 ± 1.38 Bq/kg. The experimental results were also compared with research data in the south of Thailand (2009 2012), Office of Atoms for Peace (OAP) annual report data and global radioactivity measurement and evaluations. The data can be also used to create the radioactive contour maps of the investigated area.