Concentrations of radionuclides in soil and exposure rates of different provinces in Saudi Arabia

Abstract EN

Measurements of concentrations of naturally occurring and man-made radionuclides deposited in soil have been carried out in different provinces of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia namely Western province, Eastern province, Central province, and Northern province.

220 samples from different sites have been carefully collected with the help of the global position system (GPS-100) in most of the sites.

Hyper pure germanium spectrometers have been used to measure the concentrations of gamma emitting radionuclides from both uraniumradium series, thorium series, 40K, and 137Cs.

Exposure rates have been measured 1 m above the soil surface and compared with those calculated based on the measured concentrations of gamma emitters radionuclides in soil.

It has been found that the specific activities as well as the exposure rates are within the international averages.