Radiological risk assessment of fuel fabrication facility at al-Tuwaitha nuclear site

Abstract EN

The specific activity of 29 soil samples collected from Fuel Fabrication Facility FFF at AL-Tuwaitha site, 20 km south of Baghdad were determined using HPGe detector in a low background configuration, it's relative efficiency of 40%, and resolution of 2keV for the 1332 keV gamma ray emission of 60Co.

The range of activity concentrations of 226Ra, 232Th and 40K were between (12.56-31.96), (10.2-18.4) and (47.47-402.1) Bq/kg respectively.

In order to assess any radiological hazard to human health, the absorbed gamma dose rate D in air at 1m above the ground surface was calculated in the range (18.87 to 36.46) nGy/h; the outdoor annual effective dose equivalent AEDE was evaluated to vary from 0.0039 to 0.0076 mSv/y with the mean value 0.0059 mSv/y, this value comparable to the worldwide effective dose 0.48mSv/y.

The Radium Equivalent Raeq for all samples were evaluated and were lower than the accepted safety limit value of 370 Bq/kg.

The results indicated that the radiation of hazards from primordial radionudlides in all samples in this study is not significant.