The Investigation of Terrestrial Radioactivity in Soil Samples around Pshdar Region in Iraqi-Kurdistan

Abstract

Measurements of the natural radioactivity levels in soil samples from the Pshdar area in Iraq have been carried out. This survey is considered the first scientific assessment of the radioactivity level in the studied area so far. Soil samples were collected in 22 regions across the landscape over an area of 1,339.13 km2. Gamma ray spectroscopy analysis was carried out using the high purity germanium (HPGe) detector in a low background configuration to detect radioisotopes of natural decay chains (226Ra, 232Th), the long-lived radionuclide 40K in the environment. It was found that the activity concentrations of 226Ra, 232Th and 40K ranged from 7.6±1.0 Bq kg-1 to 23.5±1.7 Bq kg-1, 2.50 Bqkg-1 to 31.8±2.2 Bqkg-1 and 77.6±7.8 Bq kg-1 to 554.5±42.7 Bq kg-1 respectively. The results have been compared with other radioactivity measurements in different countries’ soils. The absorbed dose rate (D), the annual effective dose equivalent (AEDE), the radium equivalent activity (Raeq), the external hazard index (Hex) and the internal hazard index (Hin) in the soil samples were also determined. They were found to have ranges of 7.34 ± 0.78 to 45.01 ± 2.37 nGy h-1 with an average value of 33.26 ± 0.39 nGy h-1, 9.01 ± 0.96 µSvy-1 to 55.20 ± 2.91 µSvy-1 with an average of 40.79 ± 0.48 µSvy-1, 15.72 ± 1.6 to 96.12 ± 4.17 Bq kg-1 with an average of 69.83 ± 0.82 Bq kg-1, 0.06±0.003 to 0.27 ± 0.01 with an average of 0.20 ±0.002, and 0.07 ± 0.002 to 0.31 ± 0.01 with an average of 0.22 ± 0.002 respectively. The results indicate that the radiation hazard from primordial radionuclides in all soil samples from the studied area in the current work is not significant, and the natural background radiation of the area is at normal levels.