Abstract

Today, sealed and unsealed radioactive materials have been used in Thailand for various purposes such as medical, agricultural and industrial applications. There is a growing trend in the use of radioactive materials. Moreover, neighboring countries are planning to construct and operate nuclear power plants. In case of nuclear power plant accidents, radioactive releases in environment and intakes into human body by inhalation and ingestion causing long term health effects. This research aims to determine the radiation baseline quantity of interested relevant radionuclides such as 131I, 137Cs, 134Cs as well as a natural radionuclide, 40K in urine samples of Thai people by gamma spectrometry. Two types of detectors (NaI and HpGe detectors) are calibrated by mixed radionuclide standards of 109Cd, 57Co, 133Ba, 54Mn, 137Cs and 60Co, (energy range from 88 to 1,331 keV). 720 urine samples are collected over a 24 hour period from Thai volunteers with the age older than 18 years old, who lived in eight locations of Thailand. To reduce the effect of geometric difference, 30 ml of urine samples are prepared for counting measurement and efficiency determination. The radiation baseline quantity of 131I, 137Cs, 134Cs and 40K in 30 ml of urine samples are 0.37±0.09, 0.63±0.13, 0.39±0.08 and 7.84±1.63 Bq, respectively. Based on the assumption of intake (50% of the intake by ingestion and 50% of the intake by inhalation), internal dose for members of public are assessed. The committed dose equivalent due to an intake of 131I, 137Cs, 134Cs and 40K are 2.36E-03±1.66-03, 1.15E-01±8.61E-02, 1.16E-01±7.77E-02, 9.44E-01±3.56E-01 mSv per year, respectively.

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