Radiological assessment of urban soil samples in the residents of a central Anatolian volcanic province, Turkey

ABSTRACT

The concentration of natural and anthropogenic radionuclides, emanation fraction (EF), and mass (χ_M) and area (χ_A) exhalation rate of ²²²Rn in urban soil samples collected from dwelling areas in Nevşehir city located in a region known as the central Anatolian volcanic province of Turkey were determined using gamma-ray spectroscopy. The average activity concentrations of ²²⁶Ra^{, 228}Ra^{, 40}K and ¹³⁷Cs were measured as 60.2 ± 3.8, 50.1 ± 2.8, 631.0 ± 29.7 and 5.5 ± 0.4 Bq/kg, respectively. The average concentration of ²²²Rn in soil and air was estimated as 27 kBq/m³ and 84 Bq/m³, respectively. The average values of EF, χ_M and χ_A were found as 20%, 25.4 μBq/kg⋅s and 20.2 mBq/m²⋅s, respectively. The average values of outdoor absorbed gamma dose rate, external and internal annual effective dose and lifetime cancer risk estimated for radiological assessment were found as 85 nGy/h, 104 µSv/y, 797 µSv/y and 4.1 × 10⁻⁴, respectively.

KEYWORDS:

• Soil
• radioactivity
• radon emanation fraction
• radon exhalation rate
• absorbed gamma dose rate
• excess lifetime cancer risk

Acknowledgement

The authors would like to thank Dr. Celalettin Duran.

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The author(s) reported that there is no funding associated with the work featured in this article.