Open AccessAssessment of natural radioactivity hazards in selected water samples collected from northern regions of Oman
Author(s) -
A. Al-Harmali
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
iop conference series. materials science and engineering
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 1757-899X
pISSN - 1757-8981
DOI - 10.1088/1757-899x/757/1/012011
Subject(s) - natural radioactivity , radionuclide , environmental science , nuclide , hydrology (agriculture) , physical geography , environmental chemistry , geography , chemistry , geology , physics , nuclear physics , geotechnical engineering
This study explores the radioactivity hazards in water samples collected from the Northern regions of Oman. The naturally occurring radioactive nuclides of the main series, 238 U, 232 Th, 235 U and 40 k have been studied by means of low level gamma spectroscopy. Majority of the studied valleys (wadis) are descending from Super Hajar Mountains either towards its east part (coastal area) or the west part (desert). Water samples were analyzed by applying the same analysis technique and ranges of concentrations of 238 U, 232 Th, 235 U and 40 K were found to be (0.35-1.7), (<DL-0.17), (0.01-0.18) and (0.26-0.91) all in Bq.L-1 respectively. The radiological hazards, D, H R and Ra eq were calculated and found at ranges (0.21-7.94) nGy/h, (3.0-9.0)*10 −4 mSv/yr and (0.02-3.6) Bq.L −1 respectively. The H in , H ex and I γr results were less than 1. The assessment of radioactivity in water samples showed values lower than world-wide average according to (WHO. The results indicate that the radiation hazard from naturally and artificially radionuclides in water samples from the area studied in this current work is barely significant.