Determination of radioactive concentrations in Tigris river soil samples in Baghdad province

الملخص EN

In this study, the amounts of activity concentrations of naturally occurring in 10 soil samples of the Tigris river and surrounding areas collected from deferent city of Baghdad have been investigated.

Tigris river is an important water source for irrigation and drinking in Iraq.

This study was done during 2018 in Protection Center of the Iraqi Ministry of Health and Environment using a high purity germanium detector.

The resolution of (HPGe) at 2keV and 30% efficiency.

The results of soil sample obtained showed that the effective activity concentration of 40K are ranged from 181.4 Bq/kg in sample S6 to 286.4 Bq/kg in S7.

For Raeq values are ranged from 6 Bq/m3 in sample S5 to 17 Bq/m3 in sample S3.

The obtained data revealed that the mean specific activity for 226Ra, 228Ac and 40k in these samples were less than World average.

The artificial radionuclide represented by 137Cs was observed in some samples and vary from minimum value of detector ˂MDA to 7.5Bq/kg in sample S9 with an average value 3.842857 Bq/kg.

Area around the site may attributed to the nuclear activities of this site or may be due to the nuclear accident (Chernobyl Catastrophe) which have been spread throughout a large area of the world including the samples locations were collecting.