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- Title
Assessment of natural radioactivity in soil samples and comparison of direct and indirect measurement of environmental air kerma rate.
- Authors
Chinnaesakki, S.; Chopra, Manish; Kumar, Sanjeev; Arora, Vishal; Sartandel, S.; Bara, S.; Tripathi, R.; Puranik, V.; Bajwa, B.
- Abstract
This study presents the high purity germanium (HPGe) gamma spectrometric measurement of natural radioactivity mainly due to Ra, Th and K in soil samples collected in Ferozepur and Faridkot district of Punjab, India. Ra activity varied from 28.6 to 51.1 Bq kg with the mean of 39.7 Bq kg. The range and mean activity of Th were 42.9-73.2 and 58.2 Bq kg, respectively. K activity was in the range of 470.9-754.9 Bq kg with the mean of 595.2 Bq kg. The air kerma rate (AKR) at 1 m height from the ground was also measured using gamma survey meter in all the sampling locations, which was ranging from 92.1 to 122.8 nGy h with the mean of 110.6 nGy h. The radiological parameters such as Ra and activity index of the soil samples were also evaluated, which are the tools to assess the external radiation hazard due to building materials. The mean and range of the Ra values were 168.7 and 132.9-210.4 Bq kg, respectively, whereas the activity index varied from 0.5 to 0.8 with the mean value of 0.62. These indices show that the indoor external dose due to natural radioactivity in the soil used for the construction will not exceed the dose criteria. The AKR was also evaluated from soil activity concentration and altitude correction of cosmic radiation contribution. The statistical tests such as Pearson correlation, spearman rank correlation, box and whisker plot, the Wilcoxon/Mann-Whitney test and chi-square test, were used to compare the measured AKR with evaluated AKR, which indicates good correlation.
- Subjects
RADIOACTIVITY; SOIL sampling; COMPARATIVE studies; ENVIRONMENTAL chemistry; GAMMA ray spectrometry; RADIATIVE corrections; STATISTICAL hypothesis testing; STATISTICAL correlation
- Publication
Journal of Radioanalytical & Nuclear Chemistry, 2011, Vol 289, Issue 3, p885
- ISSN
0236-5731
- Publication type
Academic Journal
- DOI
10.1007/s10967-011-1192-x