Environmental radioactivity of soils and sediments: Egyptian sector of the Nile valley

ABSTRACT

The activity concentrations of natural ⁴⁰K, ²³²Th, and ²³⁸U in 89 soil and 84 sediment samples collected over the entire Egyptian Nile River basin including the Nile delta are reported based on the results of epithermal neutron activation analysis. The average activity concentrations of ⁴⁰K, ²³²Th, and ²³⁸U equal to 15.3 ± 6.6, 15.6 ± 11.1 and 220 ± 31 Bq/kg, respectively, are significantly lower than those reported for the Upper Continental Crust, World Average Sediments as well as World Average Soils, suggesting the presence of a considerable portion of mafic material, most probably originating from the Ethiopian High Plateau. Their average activity concentrations are statistically the same in soil and sediments, indicating that the Nile sediments and soil material are of the same origin. The main goal of this study was not only to estimate the radiological hazards but also to show the influence of sedimentary material transportable by the Blue Nile from the Ethiopian High Plateau. The different hazard indices like the radium equivalent, gamma index, external hazard as well as the internal hazard show a low radiological exposure either on direct contact or if local mud bricks are used in the construction of dwellings.

KEYWORDS:

• Dose rate
• natural radioactivity
• Nile
• neutron activation analysis
• radionuclides
• soil
• sediment

Acknowledgements

The authors acknowledge grant of the Academy of Science and Technology (Egypt) and Joint Institute for Nuclear Research (Russia), project #405 ASRT-JINR and Protocol No. 4322-4-14/16 of the fulfilment of joint research work by Bucharest University and FLNP JINR.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

ORCID

Wael M. Badawy http://orcid.org/0000-0002-5392-1319