Author(s)

A. Al-Zahrany & K. S. Al-Mogabes

Abstract

Concentrations of 238U, 232Th, 226Ra, 40K, and 137Cs in 43 soil samples obtained from Najran region were analyzed using high resolution hyper pure germanium spectrometers. The activity ranged from 1.08 Bq/Kg to 7.76 Bq/Kg, 8.56 Bq/Kg to 49.09 Bq/Kg, 8.67 Bq/Kg to 41.54 Bq/Kg, 202.85 Bq/Kg to 993.07 Bq/Kg and 0.08 Bq/Kg to 7.65 Bq/Kg, respectively. The mean concentrations for all naturally occurring radio-nuclides averaged over the whole region were found to be less than the international level for soil in the United States, China, and Japan. Moreover, the average annual effective dose for Najran region was evaluated to be 0.33mSv/year, which is comparatively less than the annual average dose worldwide from all natural sources of exposure (2.40 mSv/year). Keywords: natural radioactivity, Cs-137 fallout, NORM, radioactivity level in soil, Saudi Arabia.

Keywords

natural radioactivity, Cs-137 fallout, NORM, radioactivity level in soil, Saudi Arabia