Activity Concentration of 222Rn Gas,226Ra, 232Th and 40K in Crops and Soil Taken from Safwan Granges Using Active, Passive and Gamma Spectroscopy Techniques

Abstract

It is widely expected that fertilizer has great effect on the soil crops, especially when it contains a radioactive elements. The radioactive content present in crops will increase the number of deferent type of cancer cases in consumers and will explain the importance of this study. In this work we used the passive method (can technique) to measure radon concentration and gamma ray spectrometer for gamma ray concentrations measurement type NaI(Tl) 3”x3”. The samples show an average radon concentration of 48.58 Bq/m3, area radon exhalation rate of 0.091 Bq.m-2.h-1 and mass exhalation rate of 0.007 Bq.kg-1.h-1. The average specific gamma activity concentration for 226Ra, 232Th, 238U and 40K were found to be 37.94, 27.88, 13.2 and 388.0 Bq/kg respectively. The gamma hazard indices Req, Hex, Hin, D, Eout were found to be 105.58 Bq/kg, 0.285, 0.383, 49.35 nGy/h, 0.06 mSv/y respectively. The concentrations of radionuclides found in this study are nominal and do not pose any health hazard.