Natural radioactivity in soil samples of Kocaeli basin, Turkey

The city of Kocaeli is in the western part of Anatolia in Turkey and has a population of approximately 1.000.000. There is no information about radioactivity in the Kocaeli soils samples so far. For this reason, the concentrations of the natural radionuclides in soil samples from 27 different sampling stations in Kocaeli Basin and its surroundings have been determined. The results have been compared with other radioactivity measurements in different country"s soils. The typical concentrations of ¹³⁷Cs, ²³⁸U, ⁴⁰K, ²²⁶Ra, ²³²Th found in surface soil samples ranged from 2±0.6 to 25±6 Bq/kg, from 11±4 to 49±10 Bq/kg, from 161±30 to 964±127 Bq/kg, from 10±4 to 58±11 Bq/kg, and from 11±3 to 65±13 Bq/kg, respectively.     

Natural radioactivity levels and associated radiation hazards in ophiolites around Tekirova,Kemer, and Kumluca Touristic Regions in Antalya,Turkey

Journal of Radioanalytical and Nuclear Chemistry - In this study, the natural radioactivity levels of the ophiolites in the western region of Antalya, their anomaly values, and effects on human...     

Determination of the gross radioactivity in drinking water of Kahramanmaras, Turkey

A monitoring of radioactivity content was performed in drinking waters collected in Kahramanmaras. Gross alpha and gross beta activities concentration were measured. The values of measured gross alpha and gross beta are compared with recommended WHO (World Health Organisation) and ITS (Institution of Turkish Standards) guideline activity concentration. Obtained results are in good agreement with the values recommended by WHO and ITS guideline activity concentrations for drinking water (except for two values).     

Natural radioactivity level and radiological hazard assessment of commonly used building material in Xining,China

Natural radioactivity of the commonly used building materials in Xining of China was measured using gamma-ray spectrometer system comprising a NaI(Tl) detector. Radioactivity concentrations of ²²⁶Ra, ²³²Th and ⁴⁰K in the studied samples range from 11.6 to 120.6, 10.2 to 107.1 and 228.0 to 1,036.2 Bq kg^?1, respectively. The concentrations for these natural radionuclides were compared with the reported data of other countries and the mean value for soil. Radium equivalent activity, indoor air absorbed dose rate, annual effective dose rate as well as external and internal hazard indices were calculated to assess radiological hazards for people living in dwelling made of the building materials. The radiological hazard assessment results show that the studied building materials, except for some aerated concrete block samples, are safe for use in construction of dwellings in the study area and do not pose any significant source of radiation hazard.     

Gamma-ray spectrometry for the self-attenuation correction factor of the sand samples from Antalya in Turkey

In this paper, we attempt to determine the self-attenuation correction factor for 37 different sand samples collected from Antalya region of Turkey with densities changing from 2.205 to 2.679 g  \(\hbox {cm}^{-3}.\) Transmission method has been used in order to obtain self-attenuation correction factor in comparison with the air and ultrapure water samples for each case. Self-attenuation correction factor versus energy fit curve is obtained. While the self-attenuation correction factor has large values at low energies, it becomes smaller at high energies and tends to become constant thereafter.     

Natural radioactivity levels and related risk assessment in soil samples from Sakarya,Turkey

Journal of Radioanalytical and Nuclear Chemistry - An evaluation of the environmental radioactivity levels in soil samples from Sakarya province (Turkey) was undertaken in order to create a...     

Determination of natural radioactivity levels and associated radiation hazard indices of wheat flour samples from selected Ethiopian markets

Journal of Radioanalytical and Nuclear Chemistry - In this study, natural radioactivity levels of 226Ra, 232Th, and 40K, as well as the related harmful radiological features, were determined for...     

Measurement of natural radioactivity and radiation hazard assessment in the soil samples of Visakhapatnam,Andhra Pradesh,India

The present work aims to measure and estimate radioactivity and hazardous radiation indices of the soil. Soil samples were collected from various locations in the Visakhapatnam district in Andhra Pradesh, India. The measurement of specific activity of ²²⁶Ra, ²³²Th, and ⁴⁰K radionuclides is carried out with the help of HP-Ge based gamma spectrometer system. Activity concentration of radionuclides in the samples ²²⁶Ra, ²³²Th and ⁴⁰K ranged from 20 ± 2 to 91 ± 2 Bq.kg^-1, 45 ± 3 to 365 ± 3 Bq.kg^-1, and 400 ± 9 to 607 ± 8 Bq.kg^-1, and the respective mean values are 53.36 Bq.kg^-1, 203.74 Bq.kg^-1 and 479.19 Bq.kg^-1. The measured mean value of the absorbed dose rate is 171.41 nGy.h^-1, which was beyond the worldwide mean outdoor value of 60 nGy.h^-1. Thus, the annual effective dose estimated from the above value is 1.04 mSv.y^-1. The correlation was done among the measured ²²⁶Ra, ²³²Th, and ⁴⁰K activity concentrations. The estimated radium equivalent dose is 381.60Bq.kg^-1. The estimated health hazard index and annual effective dose rates of dwellers of Visakhapatnam were studied and compared to Indian average values. The study will help to generate the baseline data for assessing hazard indices to the public and geological mapping of natural radiation in India.     

Investigation of radioactivity level in soil and drinking water samples collected from the city of Erzincan,Turkey

This study is part of an effort to assess the level of background radiation for Erzincan Province of eastern Turkey. Radionuclide activity concentrations in soil samples were measured through gamma-ray spectrometry and the average activities were determined as 8.93, 11.39, 281.94, and 9.52 Bq/kg for the radionuclides ²³⁸U, ²³²Th, ⁴⁰K, and ¹³⁷Cs, respectively. The average annual effective dose from these natural radioactivity sources (²³⁸U series, ²³²Th series and ⁴⁰K,) was calculated to be 27.9 μSv. Radioactivity levels in drinking and potable water samples were studied using a multi-channel low level proportional counter. The average gross alpha activity concentration was found to be 0.0477 Bq/L (min. 0.007 Bq/L; max. 0.421 Bq/L) and the average gross beta activity was measured as 0.104 Bq/L (min. 0.008 Bq/L; max. 1.806 Bq/L). These values lead to an average annual effective dose of 9.75 μSv from the alpha emitters and 56.34 μSv from the beta emitting radionuclides in water. The radioactivity levels in the water samples investigated were found to comply with the reference levels recommended by WHO and the regulations set forth by the Turkish Health Ministry.     

Prediction of the radioactivity in Hazar Lake (Sivrice, Turkey) by artificial neural networks

Summary This paper presents an Artificial Neural Network (ANN) model for determining the total radioactivity in Hazar Lake (Sivrice, Turkey). In order to cope with complex calculations and experiments required for the determination of total radioctivity. The proposed ANN system employs the individual training strategy with fixed-weight and supervised models. The simulation demonstrate the feasibility of the neural based model. Compared to the classical methods, the proposed ANN-based model makes the processes much easier.     

Natural radioactivity and radiological hazards of building materials in Xianyang,China

Common building materials collected from Xianyang, China were analyzed for the natural radioactivity of ²²⁶Ra, ²³²Th and ⁴⁰K using γ-ray spectroscopy. The average activity concentration of ²²⁶Ra, ²³²Th and ⁴⁰K in the studied building materials ranges from 13.4 to 69.9, 13.1–99.1 and 124.7–915.1 Bq kg^?1, respectively. The measured activity concentrations for these radionuclides were compared with the reported data of other countries and with the worldwide average activity of soil. To assess the radiation hazard of the natural radioactivity in all samples to the people, the radium equivalent activity, external hazard index, internal hazard index, indoor absorbed dose rate and total annual effective dose were estimated. The radium equivalent activities of the studied samples are below the internationally accepted values. The external hazard index and internal hazard index of all analyzed building materials are less than unity. The mean values of indoor absorbed dose rate for all building materials except for lime are higher than the world population-weighted average of 84 nGy h^?1 and the total annual effective dose values of building materials are lower than 1 mSv y^?1 except for some cyan brick samples. The study shows the measured building materials do not pose significant source of radiation hazard and are safe for use in the construction of dwellings.     

A study on the activity concentrations of 226Ra, 232Th, 40K, 137Cs and radiological risk assessments in soil samples from Seydisehir and Beysehir districts of Konya in Turkey

Journal of Radioanalytical and Nuclear Chemistry - The aim of this study is to investigate the activity concentrations of 226Ra, 232Th, 40K and 137Cs in soil samples from Seydisehir and Beysehir...     

Radiological hazard assessment of natural radionuclides and heavy metal pollution in deep mud samples of Van Lake,Turkey

Journal of Radioanalytical and Nuclear Chemistry - In the present investigation, thin layer activation technique has been employed to study the effectiveness of an amine derivative compound, namely...     

Determination of U(VI) and U(IV) concentrations in aqueous samples containing strong luminescence quenchers using TRLFS

Novel luminescence (LM) spectroscopy-based uranium (U) analysis methods are developed for aqueous samples containing strong LM quenchers. Reducing agents often found in biological samples, such as thiols, ascorbate and Fe(II) ions, are identified as the major strong quencher species. A strategy to selectively oxidize the reducing moieties of the quencher species using monopersulfate (the selected oxidant) is employed to rapidly reduce the LM quenching effects. Without requiring conventional sample pre-processing (ashing) procedures this method improves the limit of detection of U(VI) (~nM levels) and enables rapid and simultaneous determination of U(VI) and U(IV) dissolved in biological samples containing strong quenchers.