Estimation of the natural radioactivity levels in the soil along the Little Zab River, Kurdistan Region in Iraq

• Published in: Journal of radioanalytical and nuclear chemistry Vol. 331; no. 1; pp. 119 - 128
• Main Authors: Smail, Jahfer M., Ahmad, Saddon T., Mansour, Habeeb Hanna
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Cham Springer International Publishing 2022; Springer; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Cesium 137; Cesium isotopes; Chemistry; Chemistry and Materials Science; Diagnostic Radiology; Dosage; Equivalence; Gamma rays; Germanium; Hadrons; Health aspects; Health hazards; Heavy Ions; Inorganic Chemistry; Natural radioactivity; Nuclear Chemistry; Nuclear energy; Nuclear Physics; Physical Chemistry; Radiation, Background; Radium 226; Soils; Zab River; Soil; Geological formation; HPGe spectrometer; Hazard; Radioactivity
• ISSN: 0236-5731; 1588-2780
• DOI: 10.1007/s10967-021-08064-5

Gamma-ray spectrometry with high-purity germanium (HPGe) detector was used to estimate the natural radioactivity levels in the soil along the Little Zab River in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq. Results showed that the activity concentrations of
226
Ra,
232
Th,
40
K and
137
Cs were in ranges of 4.4–34.7, 1.5–13.3, 42.1–583.9 and 0.5–31.5 Bq kg
−1
, respectively. Ra equivalent activities, absorbed dose rate and hazard indices in the study area were calculated and compared with the global average activity of the soil. The Ra equivalent activities of the studied samples were below the internationally accepted values and did not pose any health hazard to the population.