Elevated concentrations of primordial radionuclides in sediments from the Reedy River and surrounding creeks in Simpsonville, South Carolina

Abstract

Abstract.A gamma-ray survey and analysis of sixteen riverbed samples from the Reedy River watershed near Simpsonville, SC were conducted and compared with national and international studies of primordial radionuclides. The study reported here follows on a recent discovery of anomalously high uranium concentrations in several private well waters in the area near Simpsonville, SC. A HPGe spectrometer was used for quantification of gamma emitting radionuclides in the sediments. All sediments contained radionuclides from the uranium and thorium series as well as 40 K. Uranium-238 concentrations in sediment samples ranged from 11.1 to 74.2 Bq kg -1 . The measured radionuclide concentrations were compared with data from UNSCEAR and NURE reports. The river and stream sediment data were augmented by in situ NaI(Tl) gammaray spectrometer measurements. Comparisons between the ex-situ and in-situ measurements indicate equivalently distributed uranium in the surface soils and stream sediments, the source of which is likely attributed to the monazite belts that are known to exist in the area.

Magnetic Susceptibility and Radiological Hazardous Nature of the River Sediments - Spectroscopical Approach

“…The mean concentration of 40 K is 0.91 times the world average value (420 Bq/kg) and 0.96 times Indian average value (400 Bq/kg) [6], respectively. The measured concentrations of 238 U and 232 Th (present study) are lower than the values obtained for the Danube river [24], Nile river [9] and Reedy river [16] sediments. However, the concentration of 232 Th in the present study is similar to the values registered by Descamps and Foulquier [25] and Powell et al [16] for French and Reedy river, respectively.…”

“…The measured concentrations of 238 U and 232 Th (present study) are lower than the values obtained for the Danube river [24], Nile river [9] and Reedy river [16] sediments. However, the concentration of 232 Th in the present study is similar to the values registered by Descamps and Foulquier [25] and Powell et al [16] for French and Reedy river, respectively. El-Gamal et al [9] and Chowdhury et al [26] have obtained the lower concentration of 40 K in river sediments when compared with present study (Table I).…”

“…The enhanced 238 U concentration in S 2 may be due to the solubility and mobility of U(VI) O 2+ 2 [16]. The highest concentration of 232 Th and 40 K are observed in site number S 40 , whereas their lowest concentrations are found in site number S 3 and S 1 , respectively.…”

“…Especially, Chaparro et al, [12,13] proved that magnetic susceptibility is able to reflect anthropogenic input into river sediments. Radioactivity of river sediments was measured by many authors [8,9,[16][17][18]. The infrared spectra of river sediments from Cauvery and Vellar have been characterized by Ramasamy et al, [19,20].…”

A relationship between the natural radioactivity and mineralogical composition of the Ponnaiyar river sediments, India

“…Knowledge about the distribution of the radioactivity present in natural materials enables one to assess any possible radiological hazard to mankind by the use of such materials. Radiation exposures due to naturally occurring radionuclides in sediments including river sediments (building materials) have been studied by many workers (El-Arabi et al, 2006;Narayana et al, 2007;El-Gamal et al, 2007;Powell et al, 2007;Krmar et al, 2009;Al-Hamarneh and Awadallah, 2009;Ramasamy et al, 2004, 2006aand Taskin et al, 2009) all around the world. They were reported that the all studied values are lower than the recommended values.…”