Siam Physics Congress 2015

Measurement of Specific Activities of Natural Radionuclides (${}^{40}$K, ${}^{226}$Ra and ${}^{232}$Th) in Beach Sand Samples from Soisawan Beach of Thepha District in Songkhla Province (Thailand)

20 May 2015, 14:00

3h 30m

Board: NUC-02

Poster presentation Nuclear and Radiation Physics Poster-1

Speaker

Ms MURNEE DAOH (Department of Physics, Faculty of Science, Songkhla Rajabhat University, 90000, Thailand)

Description

Specific activity of natural radionuclides (${}^{40}$K, ${}^{226}$Ra and ${}^{232}$Th) in 50 beach sand samples collected from Soisawan beach of Thepha District in Songkhla Province, Thailand, have been measured and analyzed. Experimental results were obtained by using a high–purity germanium (HPGe) detector and gamma spectrometry analysis system at Nuclear and Material Physics laboratory in Department of Physics, Faculty of Science, Thaksin University, Songkhla Campus. Gamma ray radioactive standard sources ${}^{60}$Co, ${}^{137}$Cs and ${}^{133}$Ba were used to calibrate the measurement system. The KCl and two well-known reference materials (IAEA/RGU-1 and IAEA/RGTh-1) obtained from the International Atomic Energy Agency were also used to analyze and compute the specific activities of ${}^{40}$K, ${}^{226}$Ra and ${}^{232}$Th in every samples. It was found that specific activities ranged from 512.00 – 3955.88 Bq/kg for ${}^{40}$K, 20.11 – 83.18 Bq/kg for ${}^{226}$Ra and 3.75 – 94.68 Bq/kg for ${}^{232}$Th with mean values of 1983.32 ± 187.39, 42.67 ± 4.00 and 37.98 ± 2.71 Bq/kg respectively. Furthermore, absorbed dose rate in air (D), radium equivalent activity (Raeq), external hazard index (Hex), and annual effective dose rate of this area were evaluated by using the mean values of specific activities of ${}^{40}$K, ${}^{226}$Ra and ${}^{232}$Th. Moreover, the experimental results were also compared with Office of Atoms for Peace (OAP) research data, Thailand and global radioactivity measurement and evaluations.