Radiological risk assessment of natural radionuclides in the marine ecosystem of the northwest Mediterranean Sea

Abstract

Purpose

This study aimed to assess the radiological risk of natural radionuclides (²²⁶Ra, ²³²Th, and ⁴⁰K) to marine ecosystem biota.

Materials and methods

The study site in this was the Mediterranean Sea, Cyprus. With the use of the RESRAD-BIOTA (RESidual RADioactivity BIOTA) code, the tissue concentration, external and internal dose rate of aquatic animals and riparian animals were estimated.

Results

The total tissue concentrations of the aquatic animals and riparian animals were simulated at 1.14 × 10⁶ Bq/kg (water media) to 0 Bq/kg (sediment media), and 1.33 × 10⁶ Bq/kg (water media) to 9.79 × 10¹ Bq/kg (sediment media), respectively. The total dose rate for aquatic animals and riparian animals was ranged from 1.94 × 10⁻² to 0 Gray per day (Gy/d) and 1.46 × 10⁻² to 7.40 × 10⁻⁷ Gy/d, respectively.

Conclusions

Based on the risk assessment of this study, there is no significant impact due to organisms' exposure to natural radioactivity. Although, further consideration of the exposure levels is required due to the potential effects of protracted low-level ionizing radiation.

Keywords:

• Radiological risk
• RESRAD-BIOTA
• marine ecosystem
• tissue concentrations
• sediment

Authors contributions

Akbar Abbasi: investigation, conceptualization, methodology; Hesham M. H. Zakaly: software, data curation, writing-original draft preparation; Merfat Algethami: writing-reviewing and editing, visualization, resources; Shams H. Abdel-Hafez: project administration.

Disclosure statement

The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have influenced the work reported in this paper.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Taif University Researchers Supporting Project number (TURSP-2020/23), Taif University, Taif, Saudi Arabia.

Notes on contributors

Akbar Abbasi

Akbar Abbasi is an Associate Professor in the nuclear physics area. His research area is nuclear physics, with a particular focus on natural radioactivity and the biological effect of ionizing radiation. His Ph.D. thesis is concerned with radon measurements in air, soil, and drinking water. In recent years, he has been working on some topics relating to nuclear safety, radiation protection, and nuclear fuel cycle, and mathematical modeling. Concerning modeling, he has an in-depth knowledge of Monte Carlo techniques, GEANT4, RESRAD, DOSAGE, and VISTA simulation codes.

Hesham M. H. Zakaly

Hesham M. H. Zakaly is currently pursuing a Ph.D. degree program in radiation physics at Ural Federal University, Russia; his doctoral thesis is concerned with the study of radiation doses of patients from radiopharmaceuticals with the aim of estimating the absorbed dose of various organs and tissues and be able to compare different examination techniques to achieve adequate optimization. Also, he is an assistant lecturer at the Physics Department, Faculty of Science, Al-Azhar University, Assiut Branch, Egypt.

Merfat Algethami

Merfat Algethami holds a Ph.D. in Medical Physics from RMIT University in Australia. Her master's degree in Medical Physics from QUT University in Australia. Following the doctoral study, she worked as a physics lecturer at Taif University since 2019.

Shams H. Abdel-Hafez

Shams H. Abdel-Hafez currently works at the Department of Chemistry, Taif University KSA. He got his PhD from Kazan State University Russia, since 2000, then postdoctoral at NTNU, Norway, from 2003 to 2004. Visitor professor at Lorrain University France 2014 and visitor professor at NTNU Norway 2019. Abdel-Hafez does interesting research in Organic Chemistry, Synthesis of new heterocyclic systems-based selenium, Pharmacology, and Medicinal Chemistry.