Data on natural radioactivity and associated radiation hazards in coastal sediment of Chennai Coast, Tamilnadu, India using gamma ray spectrometry

Abstract

This article contains data on the activity concentration of natural radionuclides in coastal sediment samples collected from Pulicat Lake to Vadanemmeli, East coast of Tamil Nadu using NaI(Tl) detector based γ-spectrometry. As marine sediments are found to be the repository of many radioactive pollutants, studied the objectives like (i) determine natural radionuclide activity concentrations in sediment samples in and around Chennai coast (ii) evaluate the radiological hazards due to natural radioactivity associated with coastal sediments and (iii) identify areas which may be radiological hazardous for the public along the study area. The average activity concentration of 238U, 232Th and 40K in the present study is lower than world median value. The radiological hazard indices such as External hazard index (Hex) and Gamma representative level index, (Iγ) were evaluated to assess radiation hazard associated with the sediments. The simulated results show sediments do not pose any significant radiation hazards due to concentration of natural radionuclides.

Eco-Toxic Risk Assessment of Nearshore Sediments in Bay of Bengal - Environmental Radioactivity and Ecological Risk as a Proxy

“…Using the above equation Hex, as shown in Figure 3, we can conclude from the figure that Hex contained in this analysis was between 0.086 and 0.66, with an average of 0.265. In the present sample region, the values for Hex with a mean of 0.26 are lower than the acceptable limit (<1) and less than 0.3 in soil (Tholkappian et al 2018;Sérgio et al 2021). This ensures the sediment samples are healthy and not heavy in radiation levels.…”

“…For a total of 20,000 seconds of measurement in the framework for each marine sediment sample, the detection limit at NaI (Tl) detector for 238 U, 232 Th and 40 K was in 2.21, 2.11 and 8.50 Bq/kg (Ravisankar et al 2014;Tholkappian et al 2017). The gamma-ray spectroscopy photo-peak correspondingly to 1460 keV for 40 K, 1764 keV for 214 Bi and 2614 keV for 208 Tl the appearance at the activity was considered of 40 K, 238 U ( 226 Ra) and 232 Th in the sediment samples (Beretka and Matthew (1985); Tholkappian et al 2018;). The results were statistically analysed, and the geospatial distribution of radiological hazards and ecological risk data set has been done using the spatial tools analysis module in Arc GIS 10.7.1, GeoDa and…”

“…Where 238 U,232 Th and 40 K in Bq/kg are specific behaviours of Active concentration of AU, ATh and AK. Outdoor naturally absorbed gamma dose rates were measured at radioactivity of 238 U,232 Th and 40 K dependent on terrestrial radiation at a height above ground level of 1 m. The allowed value of Raeq activities was 370 (Bq/kg), and efficient dose in 1 mSv/yr for the environment inhabitants in the ecosystem(IAEA, 2003;Tholkappian et al 2018). In such marine sediment samples, Radium Equivalent Activity (Raeq) levels range from 31.51-243.21 Bq/kg on average and around 95.6 Bq/kg.…”