Gamma dose measurement in dwellings of Agastheeswaram Taluk of Kanyakumari district, lying 30 km Radius from Kudankulam nuclear power plant site

• Published in: Environmental monitoring and assessment Vol. 137; no. 1-3; pp. 163 - 168
• Main Authors: Malathi, J, Selvasekarapandian, S, Brahmanandhan, G. M, Khanna, D, Meenakshisundaram, V, Jose, M. T, Rajan, M. P, Hegde, A. G
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Dordrecht Dordrecht : Springer Netherlands 01-02-2008; Springer Netherlands; Springer; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Applied sciences; Assessments; Atmospheric pollution; Atmospheric Protection/Air Quality Control/Air Pollution; Autumn; Biological and medical sciences; Biological effects of radiation; Cement; Coasts; Dwellings; Earth and Environmental Science; Ecology; Ecotoxicology; Environment; Environmental Management; Environmental Monitoring; Exact sciences and technology; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; Gamma Rays; Health physics; Houses; Housing; India; Indoor; Indoor gamma dose; Indoor pollution and occupational exposure; Laboratories; Marble; Monitoring/Environmental Analysis; Nuclear power generation; Nuclear power plant; Nuclear power plants; Physics; Plant introductions; Pollution; Power Plants; Radiation; Radioactive wastes; Radiocontamination; Radioisotopes; Radon; Seasonal variations; Seasons; Studies; Summer; Thorium; Tissues, organs and organisms biophysics; TLD; Uranium; Winter; Asia; Tamil Nadu; India; India, Tamil Nadu, Kanyakumari Dist; Nuclear power plant; TLD; Indoor gamma dose; Natural origin pollution; Radioactive pollution; Natural radioactivity; Construction materials; Radioactive contamination; Radioisotope; Housing; Radioactivity measurement; Health and environment; Seasonal variation; Geogenic factor; Indoor pollution; Dosimetry; Gamma spectrometry
• ISSN: 0167-6369; 1573-2959
• DOI: 10.1007/s10661-007-9736-9

Most of the building materials contain naturally occurring radioactive elements, the most important of which are potassium ⁴⁰K and the members of two natural radioactive series, which can be represented by the isotopes of thorium ²³²Th and Uranium ²³⁸U. The presence of these radioisotopes in the materials causes external exposure to the people who live in the building. In addition, the disintegration of Uranium ²³⁸U increases the concentration of radon gas ²²²Rn and of its daughters in the house. So a systematic indoor gamma dose measurement has been performed in the dwellings of Agastheeswaram Taluk of Kanyakumari district, which is lying within the 30 km radius from the upcoming Kudankulam nuclear power plant site. The geometric mean of annual absorbed dose from gamma radiation in dwellings has been found to be 278 nGyh-¹. The seasonal variation of indoor gamma dose measurements has also been studied. Significant differences have been observed in dwellings built of different materials such as concrete, tiled, etc.