Study of natural radionuclides and its radiation hazard index in Malaysian building materials

The main component of most building materials in Malaysia is rock. All rocks are known to contain natural radionuclides such as ²³⁸U and ²³²Th series as well as ⁴⁰K. In order to estimate the radiological impact to the dweller, the level of radionuclides present in various building materials available in Malaysia were analyzed using γ-spectrometry. The radiation hazard indexes were calculated based on the above results. The results showed that the activity concentration of natural radionculides ²³⁸U, ²³²Th, ⁴⁰K was between 19.0–42.2 Bq/kg, 16.5–28.8 Bq/kg and 243.3–614.2 Bq/kg, respectively. On the whole, the radionuclides concentration was still below the global average of 50 Bq/kg, 50 Bq/kg and 500 Bq/kg for ²³⁸U, ²³²Th, and ⁴⁰K, respectively The radiation hazard indexes of the building materials were also lower than the maximum value suggested.