Natural radioactivity and radiation risk assessment in fly ash Soil and Water Samples Collected from and around of the AL-Zubaydiyah Thermal Power Plant, wasit, Iraq

Abstract

In this study, the activity concentrations of radium -226 (236Ra),actinium-228 (238Ac) and potassium -40 (40K) of fly ash , in the Zubaidiyah thermal power station in Wasit province in Iraq were determined using gamma-rays spectroscopy with a hyper -pure germanium (HPGe) and sodium iodide (NaI(TI)) detectors. Reagent system used sodium iodide gamma spectrum and is surrounded by a shield of lead to reduce background radiation and measuring models and calculate the concentrations of natural radioactive isotopes of uranium -238 series, and a series of thorium-232, as well as potassium isotope -40 natural . In general, the results of uranium were higher than the results of thorium with a limit of 3 to 4 times. These are normal results that confirm that there are no previous or old pollutants in the study areas. The risk factors have been calculated in the present study, which include radium equivalent activities ( ), gamma dose rate (D), external hazard index ( ), internal hazard index ( ), annual effective dose which comprise indoor and outdoor effective dose rate (E) It is measured by unit mSv/y and representative level index ( ), respectively.