Radionuclide Concentration of Soil and Sediment in Gold-Mining Locations of Atakumosa-West Local Government, South-West Nigeria

Abstract

This study determined the activity concentrations of ⁴⁰K, ²³²Th and ²³⁸U in the soil, and sedimentusing gamma spectroscopy. This is with a view to determining the impacts of the mining operations on concentration of radioactive elements in the environment. Soil and Sediment were collected from three gold mining locations of Atakumosa-west Local Government area of Osun State for a period of 12 months. The control site selected for the study is Tonkere village, about 13Km from the study site, in Ife North-Central Local Government area of the State. Collected samples were analysed using gamma spectrometer. The NaI detector used was properly calibrated using absolute gamma ray energy for easy identification of peaks in the gamma spectrum. Results obtained from Gamma spectroscopic analysis revealed higher concentration of the three primordial radionuclidewith ⁴⁰K having a generally high value in the locations 1 and 2 and increasing through the wet season while having lower values in the dry season. A similar trend was observed for ²³²Th and ²³⁸U whose recorded values were also higher in the wet season than in the dry season. Values recorded in all the samples were higher than world safe limits. Notably, similar results obtained for samples from control site were lower.