The 226Ra, 232Th and 40K activities in beach sand minerals and beach soils of Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh

Abstract

The radioactivity of 226Ra, 232Th and 40K in beach sand minerals from the Plant of the Beach Sand Exploitation Center (BSEC) and soils from the tourist zone of Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh were measured using dγ-ray spectrometry with the aim of estimating the radiation hazard as well as establishing a database for radioactivity levels of the Plant and the tourist area nearby. The average activity concentrations of the corresponding nuclides were 6439, 1324 and 472 Bq kg -1 for zircon; 348, 388 and 59.7 Bq kg -1 for ilmenite; 22.0, 43.1 and 293 Bq kg -1 for magnetite; 3951, 7903 and 213 Bq kg -1 for garnet; 6643, 11670 and 182 Bq kg -1 for rutile; 2582, 4684 and 639 Bq kg -1 for heavy sand and 110, 213 and 501 Bq kg -1 for light sand, respectively. The average activities of 226Ra, 232Th and 40K in the soils of tourist zone were 19.0, 36.7 and 458.2 Bq kg -1, respectively. The average γ-ray dose rates due to the activities of sand minerals and beach soil were 4.30 μGy h -1 and 52.3 nGy h -1, respectively.