Natural Radioactivity Measurements for Assessment Radiation Hazards from Surface Soil of Industrial Yanbu City, Saudi Arabia

The present study was carried out to determine the activity concentrations of 40K, 226Ra and 232Th in surface soil samples collected from twenty five different locations of Industrial Yanbu city located in western region of Saudi Arabia, using a NaI(Tl) gamma-ray spectrometer. The activity concentrations of 226Ra, 232Th and 40K in the soil samples from the studied area ranged from 25.21 Bq kg to 50.73 Bq kg, 25.74 Bq kg to 65.11 Bq kg and 109.82 Bq kg to 987.09 Bq kg with overall mean values of 40.65, 42.89 and 513.16 Bq kg respectively. The mean radium equivalent (Raeq) and outdoor radiation hazard index (Hex) for the area under study were determined as 140.8 Bq kg and 0.65 respectively. The absorbed dose rate due to three primordial radionuclides lies in the range from 34.55 to 97.47 nGyh with a mean of 65.8 nGyh, which yields the annual effective dose of 0.81 mSvy which is well below the permissible limit. The excess lifetime CR ranged from (1.54 to 4.39) ×10, with an arithmetic mean of 2.96×10, which is in accordance with the global average.The measured values are comparable with other global radioactivity measurements and are found to be save for public and environment. This study would be useful for establishing base line data on the gamma background radiation levels in the study areas for assessment of radiation exposures to the population. [A.H. Al-Ghamdi. Natural Radioactivity Measurements for Assessment Radiation Hazards from Surface Soil of Industrial Yanbu City, Saudi Arabia. Life Sci J 2014;11(10):1123-1130]. (ISSN:1097-8135). http://www.lifesciencesite.com. 169