IIARD International Institute of Academic Research and Development

RESEARCH JOURNAL OF PURE SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY (RJPST )

E-ISSN 2579-0536
P-ISSN 2695-2696
VOL. 7 NO. 3 2024
DOI: 10.56201/rjpst.v7.no3.2024.pg164.173

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Population Dose Distribution Due to Natural Water Radioactivity Concentration Levels in Ten Local Government Area of Rivers State, Nigeria

Uchechukwu Clement and Gregory Onomakere Avwiri .

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Abstract

This study assessed the natural radionuclide content in water samples collected from twenty communities across ten Local Government Areas of Rivers State, Nigeria. Gamma spectrometry using a NaI (Tl) detector was employed to measure the activity concentrations of 40K, 238U, and 232Th. The obtained results revealed varying levels of radionuclide content within the samples. The activity concentrations ranged from 2.34±1.24 to 12.08±1.97 BqL-1 for 40K, 2.00±0.94 to 15.42±1.4 BqL-1 for 238U, and 0.32±0.02 to 1.77±0.26 BqL-1 for 232Th. The average values were determined as 6.16±1.04 BqL-1 for 40K, 11.22±0.83 BqL-1 for 238U, and 0.99±0.10 BqL-1 for 232Th. The annual collective effective dose resulting from these activity concentrations was calculated, with values ranging from 0.0009 to 0.0227 man-Sv and an average of 0.0082 ± 0.001 man-Sv. Notably, the estimated radiation parameters and activity concentrations of this study were found to be below the global permitted limits. Consequently, the study concludes that there is no significant radiological health impact on the general population based on the analyzed water samples.

keywords:

Natural radioactivity; Collective effective dose; gamma-ray spectrometry; Absorbed

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