An investigation on the natural radioactivity of Th232 , Ra226 and K40 in some samples of raw building materials in Governorate of Karbala.

Issa Dawood, Hassan

	An investigation on the natural radioactivity of Th232 , Ra226 and K40 in some samples of raw building materials in Governorate of Karbala.
journal of kerbala university
Article 1, Volume 6, Issue 1, 2010, Pages 245-251 PDF (0 K)
Author
Hassan Issa Dawood
Abstract
The study of the radiation hazards from raw building materials were performed in the present work. The measurements of the natural radioactivity of Th232 ,Ra226 and K40 were verified for some Karbala raw building materials(sand , cement , gypsum and thermiston powder) to assess any possible radiological hazard due to their use. The measurements were done by gamma-ray spectroscopy using Hyper-Pure Germanium (HPGe) detector. The results were found to vary from (18.88±4.34 to 54.33±7.37 , 13.085±3.617 to 82.80±9.09 and 14.185±3.766 to 140.523±11.854)Bq/Kg for Th232 ,Ra226 and K40 respectively. The concentrations of these radionuclides are compared with the available data from other countries. The measured activity concentration of Th232 , Ra226 and K40 in raw building materials is higher than the world average except the activity of K40 show lower than the available data previously. Radium equivalent activities(Req) are calculated for the analyzed samples to assess the radiation hazard arising due to the use of these raw building materials samples in the construction of dwellings. All the raw materials have radium equivalent activities lower than the limit (370)Bq/Kg. As well as calculated values of external radiation doses in air are also lower than the world average of about 0.5 mSv per year.

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