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

Abstract

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.