Open AccessDetermination of radioactivities in gamma vulcanized natural rubber latex (GVNRL) for the assessment of radiological safety
Author(s) -
Donruedee Toyen,
Kiadtisak Saenboonruang
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/773/1/012011
Subject(s) - vulcanization , natural rubber , gamma irradiation , radiochemistry , chemistry , radiological weapon , irradiation , nuclear chemistry , physics , organic chemistry , nuclear physics
Due to great potentials of utilizing products made from gamma vulcanized natural rubber latex (GVNRL) in applications that require less use or less release of hazardous chemicals during rubber vulcanization, the radiological health risks in rubber producers/users caused by radioactivities from natural radioisotopes containing in GVNRL must be thoroughly determined and evaluated. As a result, this work determined the activity concentrations of 226Ra, 232Th, and 40 K in GVNRL samples that were pre-vulcanized with 12-kGy and 24-kGy gamma irradiation using gamma spectroscopy. The results showed that the average radioactivity concentrations (± standard deviation) of 226Ra, 232Th, and 40K in 12-kGy (24-kGy) GVNRL were 30.8±1.5 (31.2±2.7) Bq kg-1, 89.1±0.6 (89.7±0.4) Bq kg-1, and 95.4±1.6 (93.2±2.2) Bq kg-1, respectively. These results implied that GVNRL vulcanized with 12-kGy and 24-kGy gamma irradiation had statistically similar radioactivity concentrations and higher gamma doses did not result in increasing radioactivies. Furthermore, when compared these results with the values from nonvulcanized natural rubber latex (NRL), of which the activity concentrations of 226Ra, 232Th, and 40 K were 29.9±1.2 Bq kg-1, 95.2±1.1 Bq kg-1, and 96.2±1.0 Bq kg-1, respectively, it could be concluded that the use of gamma irradiation for rubber vulcanization did not statistically increase or change activity concentrations of the mentioned radioisotopes, thus, it is radiologically safe for related personnel to work or use GVNRL products.