Implication and hazard of radiation level in the building materials

Abstract

The natural radioactivity due to radium, thorium, and potassium in building material samples contribute to the radiation dose received by human beings significantly. It is essential to evaluate the activity levels of these nuclides for the assessment of natural radiation dose. Activity concentrations of the gamma emitting primordial radionuclides 232Th, 226Ra, and 40K were measured using high resolution gamma spectrometry technique with high purity germanium (HPGe) detector in building materials: sand, brick, granite, cement and rock, collected from various areas of Gulbarga and Koppal districts. The standard ASTM procedure was followed for the sample preparation. The distribution of radionuclides and variation in activity concentration depend upon the rock formation and the geological properties of the region. The activity of the three radionuclides, 232Th, 226Ra, and 40K, were found to be in the range of 3.1-227.1, 1.6-111, and 23.2-1505 Bq/kg, respectively. The dose related radiological parameters were also calculated for all the samples and the observations show that the activity concentrations of the radionuclides are well within the UNSCEAR limits. © 2013 Versita Warsaw and Springer-Verlag Wien.