Gamma Radiation Measurements in Tunisian Marbles

Kais Manai, Chiraz Ferchichi, Mansour Oueslati, Adel Trabelsi

National Center for Nuclear Sciences and Technologies, Sidi-Thabet, Tunisia.
Physics Department, College of Science, King Faisal University, Hofuf, KSA.
Research Unit of Nuclear and High Energy Physics, Faculty of Sciences of Tunis, Tunis El-Manar University, Tunis, Tunisia.

DOI: 10.4236/wjnst.2012.23013                

Abstract

The radioactivity of 15 kinds of different granites collected in Tunisia was determined by gamma-ray spectrometry using hyper-pure germanium (HPGe) detector. The average activity concentrations for primordial radionuclides ²³⁸U, ²³²Th and ⁴⁰K were respectively 33.24, 8.01 and 116.98 Bq/kg. The activity concentrations ranged from 3.59 to 87.37 Bq/kg for ²³⁸U, from 0.45 to 25.34 Bq/kg for 232Th and from 24.06 to 380.23 Bq/kg for ⁴⁰K. The measured activity concentrations were used to assess of the radium equivalent activity ranged from 22.2 to 995.8 Bq/kg, the absorbed dose rate in air from 7 to 1209 nGy/h and the internal (0.1 to 2.8) and external (0.1 to 2.7) hazard indices. The data obtained in this study may be useful for natural radioactivity mapping.

Keywords

Radioactivity; Marble; Radium Equivalent; External and Internal Hazard Indices

Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

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