The effects of physico-chemical properties on natural radioactivity levels, associated dose rate and evaluation of radiation hazard in the soil of Taiwan using statistical analysis

Abstract

Activity concentrations using gamma-ray spectrometer and distributions of natural radionuclides in soil samples collected were investigated to assess the environmental radioactivity and characterization of radiological hazard. The average concentrations of 238U, 232Th series and 40K in the 5 cm depth soil were 22.53, 33.43 and 406.62 Bq kg−1, respectively, which was within world median ranges in the UNSCEAR 2000 report. The average absorbed dose rate estimated by soil activity and annual effective doses were 49.32 nGy h−1 and 60.48 μSv, respectively. Since the soil is an important building material, the mean radium equivalent activity (Raeq), external (Hex) and internal (Hin) hazard index using various models given in the literature for the study area were evaluated as 101.72 Bq kg−1, 0.27 and 0.34, respectively, which were below the recommended limits. The effects of pH value, conductivity, true density and textural properties of soil samples on the natural radionuclide levels were also studied. The application of cluster analysis (CA) and principal component analysis (PCA), coupled with Pearson correlation coefficient analysis, were utilized to analyze the data, identify and clarify the effects of physico-chemical properties on natural radioactivity levels. The CA and PCA results showed that the former method yielded three distinctive groups of the soil variables whereas the latter one yielded the number of variables into three factors with 87.5% variance explanation.