Title: Measurement of natural radioactivity in Kufa River, Iraq

Authors: Hayder H. Hussain

Addresses: Faculty of Science, Physics Department, University of Kufa, Al Najaf, Kufa, Iraq

Abstract: The levels of natural radioactivity for ²²⁶Ra, ²²⁸Ra and ⁴⁰K were measured for 28 water samples taken from Kufa River inside Governorate of Al-Najaf Al-Ashraf in Iraq. Measurements were performed using a HPGe gamma-ray spectrometer system. The activity concentration (mBq/l) varied from 17.70 ± 1.83 to 58.90 ± 3.34, 4.60 ± 0.86 to 37.10 ± 2.44 and 142.56 ± 07.96 to 652.67 ± 17.03 for ²²⁶Ra, ²²⁸Ra and ⁴⁰K, respectively. The average values of activity concentration for ²²⁶Ra, ²²⁸Ra and ⁴⁰K were 35.14 (mBq/l), 19.13 (mBq/l) and 352.84 (mBq/l), respectively. Annual effective dose in (nSv/y) was also calculated and all the annual effective dose values are much lower than the recommended values. So the water of Kufa River in Najaf Governorate, Iraq is safe to be used by humans either as drinking water or for daily routine activity.

Keywords: natural radioactivity; HPGe gamma-spectrometry; water; annual effective dose; Kufa River.

DOI: 10.1504/IJLR.2019.103344

International Journal of Low Radiation, 2019 Vol.11 No.2, pp.132 - 142

Received: 15 Mar 2018
Accepted: 14 Mar 2019
Published online: 04 Nov 2019 *

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