Radiological Monitoring in Some Coastal Regions of the Saudi Arabian Gulf

Abstract

This research work has been done mainly to determine the natural radioactivity levels and the anthropogenic radionuclides (if detected) in seawater and beach sand in three selected regions; Khafji, Safaniyah and Menifah along the Saudi Arabian Gulf coast, for their closeness to the Iranian Bushehr nuclear plant and the presence of nearby non-nuclear activities (oil fields). The activity concentrations of the analyzed natural radioisotopes 226Ra, 228Ra and 40K in beach sand and seawater samples were all lower than the corresponding world average values. The anthropogenic radionuclides 137Cs and 241Am were not detected in all samples by the high efficiency germanium detector. Radiological hazards were quantified by the estimation of the absorbed dose rate, the annual effective dose and the external hazard index. On the basis of the current findings, we may conclude that the radioactivity levels in these marine Gulf Coastal regions don’t pose any radiological hazards to the public.