Measuring the radioactivity concentration of ⁴⁰K, ²²⁶Ra, ²³²Th with PH, conductivity and radiological risk in tap water

ABSTRACT

Water is important in environmental studies because of its daily usage by humans and its ability to transport pollutants. The radiological quality of ²²⁶Ra, ²³²Th and ⁴⁰K in 20 samples of water taps were collected in Kirkuk Governorate, Iraq, and those data have been measured and analysed by gamma ray spectroscopy HPGe detector. The activity concentration of ²²⁶Ra ranged from (140.84 to 89.43) mBq.L⁻¹with an average value of 121.95 mBq.L⁻¹, from (106.89 to 47.39) mBq.L⁻¹with an average value of 81.523 mBq.L⁻¹of ²³²Th, and from (1550.51 to 379.55) mBq.L⁻¹with an average value of 1091.37 mBq.L⁻¹ of ⁴⁰K, those were lower than the world average values suggested by UNSCEAR: 35, 30, 400 Bq.kg⁻¹. The results show that the values of Raeq varied from (223.24 to 369.90) mBq.kg⁻¹ with a mean of 339.95 mBq.kg⁻¹ which is lower than worldwide average value (370 Bq.kg⁻¹). And the AEDE ranged between minimum and maximum values 120.36 μSvy⁻¹ and 208.33 μSvy⁻¹ with an average value of 186.64 μSvy⁻¹. Also, the values of ELCR ranged from (0.421 to 0.729) × 10⁻³ with an average value of 0.653 × 10⁻³, these values were lower than the world’s average value of 3.21 × 10⁻³. The values of AGDE were ranged from (67.96 to 118.41) μSvy⁻¹ with a mean value of 106.29 μSvy⁻¹ these values were lower than the world average values 300 μSvy⁻¹. Average ingestion of ²²⁶Ra, ²²²Rn ²³²Th and ⁴⁰K were found to be 0.6032 μSv y⁻¹ for infants, 0.1141μSv y⁻¹ for children, 0.0350μSv y⁻¹ for adults of ²³²Th, and 0.57312 μSv y⁻¹ for infants, 7.557 μSv y⁻¹ for children, 3.4146μSv y⁻¹ for adults of ²²⁶Ra, also 0.0676 μSv y⁻¹ for infants, 0.0229 μSv y⁻¹ for children, 0.0075 μSv y⁻¹ for adults of ⁴⁰K. all those values were below the WHO permissible limit of 0.1 mSv y⁻¹ for all ages.

KEYWORDS:

• Gamma ray
• Water
• Radionuclide
• Radioactivity
• Annual effective dose

Acknowledgments

The authors wish to thank the School of Physics (Koya University) for supporting in experimental assistance, Ministry of Higher Education (MHE) Kurdistan Regional Government.

Disclosure statement

No conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Availability of data and materials

Presented in the paper.

Additional information

Funding

The present study was not supported by Koya University.