Monitoring of natural radionuclides by alpha scintillometry and gamma spectrometry techniques in soil of district Palwal, Southern Haryana, India

ABSTRACT

Forty soil samples from district Palwal of Southern Haryana, India were collected to estimates the radon/thoron exhalation rate using scintillation detector-based SMART RnDuo out of which twenty samples were tested to estimate the activity of ²²⁶Ra, ²³²Th and ⁴⁰K using high purity germanium (HPGe) gamma-ray spectrometry. The radon mass exhalation rate (mBqkg⁻¹h⁻¹) was observed as {range (mean)} {16 ± 1–48 ± 3 (28 ± 8)} and thoron surface exhalation rate (Bqm⁻²h⁻¹) was observed as {1800 ± 198–6331 ± 205 (3850 ± 850)}. Activities of radium (²²⁶Ra), thorium (²³²Th) and potassium (⁴⁰K) were {range (mean)} observed as {28.4–48.4 (40.0 ± 1.4)}, {49.7–75.0 (62.7 ± 1.6)} and {432–698 (522.9 ± 17.6)}, respectively. It is observed that the radium in 75% samples while thorium and potassium in all samples were found to higher than the world’s average values of 35, 30 and 400 Bqkg−¹, respectively, as reported by UNSCEAR. Average of radon mass exhalation and thoron surface exhalation rates exceeded the world’s mean value 57 mBq kg⁻¹ h⁻¹ and 3600 Bq m⁻² h⁻¹, respectively. Health hazard index is well below the unity (< 1), which indicates that there are no gamma radiation hazards associated with samples collected from the study region.

KEYWORDS:

• Radon
• radium
• exhalation rate
• health hazards
• absorb dose

Acknowledgments

The authors are thankful to Board of Research in Nuclear Sciences (BRNS), Department of Atomic Energy (DAE), Government of India, for extending financial assistance vide Project No.(36(4)/14/2014-BRNS/36018) dated 26/02/2016 for carrying out this work. The gamma ray spectrometry facilities availed at Center for Advanced Research in Environmental Radioactivity (CARER), Mangalore University, India, are also thankfully acknowledged.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Authors’ contribution

All authors were concerned for the field studies, involved in the formal analysis of data, interpretation of results, supervision and drafting of the original manuscript.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Board of Research in Nuclear Sciences with sanctioned number [36(4)/14/2014-BRNS/36018].