Radiological hazard assessment and sensitivity analysis for soil samples in Taghdoua area of Ranyah, Saudi Arabia

Abstract

In this study, twenty-two samples of soil were studied for 222Rn, 226Ra, 232Th and 40K using hyper-pure Germanium (HPGe) detector. The soil samples were collected from an inhabited area surrounding the small mountain in Taghdoua area of Ranyah. The measured activity concentrations of 226Ra, 232Th and 40K in the soil were found to vary from 6 to 54, 7 to 52 and 299–761 Bq kg−1, respectively. The radiological risk parameters including excess lifetime cancer risks and other relevant parameters were also evaluated. Furthermore, the effect of ventilation changes on both external and internal doses over a protracted exposure duration were studied through sensitivity analysis using RESRAD-BUILD computer code. The external doses were observed to be insensitive to ventilation while a considerable change was detected in the internal doses with ventilation. Hence, the investigated radiological risk parameters including the results from RESRAD were all below the recommended limit.

Keywords

• Radiological hazard
• Radon exposure
• External dose
• Cancer risk
• Radioactivity
• RESRAD-BUILD code