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Natural Radioactivity Levels and the Corresponding Radiation Exposure in Agricultural Environment in Hail, KSA

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Last updated: 03 Jan 2025

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Abstract

 The natural radioactivity levels in groundwater, soil and crops have been determined in seven farms at Hail region in Saudi Arabia to assess any radiological hazards to the public, and to maintain a radiological map of natural radioactivity levels in this region. The radium isotopes (226Ra and 228Ra) were measured in groundwater samples collected from wells in these farms, and the 228Ra activity concentrations exceeded the national guidance level of 2.7 pCi/L set by Saudi Arabian Standards Organization (SASO) and the WHO. These relatively higher activities did not contribute to the annual effective dose rate from the ingestion of both isotopes (226Ra and 228Ra) in the analyzed crops, which showed lower values than the upper limit of 1 mSv/yr. The activity concentrations of 228Ra in soils of five farms were found to be higher than the world average value reported by the (United Nations Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation) UNSCEAR. These relatively higher activities contributed to the absorbed dose rate in air from external gamma radiation which was higher than the world average value of 57 nGy/hr in some farms. These high activities contributed also to the annual effective dose which showed values higher than the world average value of 0.07 mSv/yr for outdoor terrestrial gamma radiation in three farms. On the basis of these results, it can be concluded that the presence of such activities in the groundwater and crops samples do not pose any radiological hazards or significant risk to the public and animals, since they drink these waters. it may be recommended that the activity levels of the combined radium isotopes in the animal products (milk and meat) and the annual effective dose should be estimated to evaluate the contribution of the 228Ra exceeded limits in these wells.

DOI

10.21608/ajnsa.2018.13519

Keywords

Radium isotopes, Hail, natural radioactivity, Soil, crops, gamma spectrometry, Transfer factor, Dose Assessment

Authors

First Name

Ahmed

Last Name

El-Sharkawy

MiddleName

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Affiliation

Nuclear and Radiological Regulatory Authority, Cairo, 11762, P.O.Box 7551, Egypt

Email

ahmedtharwat741@gmail.com

City

-

Orcid

0000-0003-4518-9970

First Name

Al-Jawhara

Last Name

Al-Muqren

MiddleName

-

Affiliation

Physics Department ,College of Science, Princess Nora University, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

Email

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City

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Orcid

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Volume

51

Article Issue

4

Related Issue

875

Issue Date

2018-10-01

Receive Date

2016-09-12

Publish Date

2018-10-01

Page Start

197

Page End

203

Print ISSN

1110-0451

Online ISSN

2090-4258

Article File

AJNSA_Volume 51_Issue 4_Pages 197-203.pdf

PDF . 326.8kB

Link

https://ajnsa.journals.ekb.eg/article_13519.html

Detail API

https://ajnsa.journals.ekb.eg/service?article_code=13519

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21

Type

Original Article

Type Code

455

Publication Type

Journal

Publication Title

Arab Journal of Nuclear Sciences and Applications

Publication Link

https://ajnsa.journals.ekb.eg/

MainTitle

Natural Radioactivity Levels and the Corresponding Radiation Exposure in Agricultural Environment in Hail, KSA

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Type

Article

Created At

22 Jan 2023