D. AYALEW, B. SITOTAW#, E. MENGISTU
Department of Physics, Dire Dawa University, Ethiopia
This study reports specific activity levels from the naturally occurring radionuclides 232Th, 238U and 40K, in various geological formations of Dire Dawa city, Ethiopia. High resolution gamma ray spectrometry was used to assess the natural radioactivity levels concentration of 238U, 232Th and 40K of soil samples. A total of 16 samples were collected from the city. The result revealed that the mean value of the specific activity ranged from 6.10±0.53 to 30.00±1.35 Bq·kg–1 for Uranium-238 (238U), 12.56±0.73 to 102.46±4.63 Bq·kg–1 for Thorium-232 (232Th) and 98.73±4.53 to 1182.83±49.11 Bq·kg–1 for Potassium-40 (40K), with mean values of 19.97±2.42 Bq·kg–1, 56.38±4.50 Bq·kg–1 and 716.59±68.43 Bq·kg–1, respectively. The results of this study revealed an area of low gamma emitting radionuclides, which could not lead to significant health hazard to the exposed people. On average, there are no harmful radiations effects posed to the population who live in the study area;however, there are some spots in which the level of radioactivity is higher than the internationally allowable threshold.
Key words: Gamma spectroscopy, radioactivity, radionuclides, 232Th, 238U,40K.
Corresponding author’s e-mail: belaysitotaw@gmail.com
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