Calculating the Dose Rate of Natural Radioactivity in Vegetables from an Agricultural Area, El Jadida, Morocco

Abstract

The present work aims to measure the natural radioactivity and annual effective dose in vegetables collected from an agricultural area in El-Jadida located in the Northwestern part of Morocco. The activity concentrations of 210Pb, 226Ra, and 40K were determined using a high-resolution gamma spectrometry technique. The results show that the specific activities in vegetable samples of 210Pb, 226Ra, and 40K vary between 3.44 ± 0.55 Bq.Kg−1 and 12.80 ± 0.57 Bq.Kg−1; 2.25 ± 0.6 Bq.Kg−1 and 5.15 ± 0.60 Bq.Kg−1, and between 507.5 ± 27.76 and 1808.6 ± 93.19 Bq.Kg−1 respectively. The total annual effective doses calculated for investigated vegetable samples for Pb-210, Ra-226, and K-40 are 0.5997 mSv/y, 0.1202 mSv/y, and 0.4194 mSv/y respectively. The obtained values of natural radioactivity and annual effective dose for 210Pb, 226Ra, and 40K in the vegetable of the El Jadida region are safe and do not exceed the International limit values.

Keywords

• radio
• vegetable samples
• gamma spectrometry system
• annual effective dose