Natural radioactivity in roadside soil along Jamshedpur-Musabani road: a mineralised and mining region, Jharkhand and associated risk.

Sahoo, S. K.; Mohapatra, S.; Sethy, N. K.; Patra, A. C.; Shukla, A. K.; Kumar, A. V.; Tripathi, R. M.; Puranik, V. D.

The specific activity and the gamma radiation dose rates due to naturally occurring radioactive materials (238U, 232Th and 40K) were determined in 26 roadside surface soils along Jamshedpur-Musabani road—a mineralised and mining region, using high-resolution gamma-ray spectrometry. The concentrations of 238U, 232Th and 40K in the soil samples were found to be in the range of 16.6 ± 0.6–390.5 ± 1.6, 24.1 ± 0.7–148.2 ± 2.1 and 85.9 ± 3.8–881.6 ± 22.4 Bq kg−1, respectively. The annual effective dose equivalent was found to be in the range of 0.04–0.32 mSv y−1 with an average value of 0.13 mSv y−1. The excess cancer risk is in the range of 0.16 × 10−3–1.22 × 10−3 with an average value of 0.49 × 10−3.

JAMSHEDPUR (India); JHARKHAND (India); INDIA; RADIOACTIVITY; ROADS; RADIOACTIVE substances

Radiation Protection Dosimetry, 2010, Vol 140, Issue 3, p281

0144-8420

Academic Journal

10.1093/rpd/ncq111