Spatial distribution of radioisotopes in the coast of Suez Gulf, southwestern Sinai and the impact of hot springs

Abstract

This work describes the concentrations of radioisotopes in soil, sediment, wild plants and groundwater in southwestern Sinai. The study area extends from Suez to Abu Rudies along the eastern part of the Suez Gulf. It included two hot springs: Ayun Musa and Hammam Faraoun. No dependence of ¹³⁷Cs concentrations on any of the measured sand characteristics was found, including calcium carbonate. The enrichment of ²²⁶Ra in Hammam Faraoun hot spring was the most prominent feature. The ²²⁶Ra concentration in hot springs of Ayun Musa and Hammam Faraoun were 68 and 2377 Bq kg⁻¹ for sediments, 3.5 and 54.0 Bq kg⁻¹ for wild plants and 205 and 1945 mBq l⁻¹ for the groundwater, respectively. In addition, ²²⁶Ra activity concentration in local sand in the area of Hammam Faraoun was ∼14 times that of Ayun Musa. On the other hand, the ²³²Th concentrations were comparable in the two hot springs, while ¹³⁷Cs concentrations were relatively higher in Ayun Musa. The characteristics and radioelements studies support possible suggestions that the waters in the two hot springs have different contributions of sea and groundwaters crossing different geological layers where the water-rock interaction takes place.

Assessment of elemental and NROM/TENORM hazard potential from non-nuclear industries in North Sinai, Egypt

“…The counting time was prolonged as necessary to ensure at least counting statistics less than 3 and 5 % in the measured net peak area of the major gamma ray photopeaks for natural radionuclides and 137 Cs, respectively. The activities of 226 Ra and 232 Th were determined as previously described (Ramadan et al 2011;Al-Sharkawy et al 2012). 40 K and 137 Cs were directly determined using 1460.8-and 661.7-keV γ-rays, respectively.…”

“…Waste contains reasonable values of 226 Ra and 232 Th and somewhat a high value of 40 K. The radioactivity concentrations in soil collected from two locations 5 km away from the cement plant were very comparable. Their mean activities and those Table 6 The activity concentrations (Bq kg -1 ) and ratios of the measured NORM in coal from El-Maghara mine, and charcoal and wood samples from the same area ND not detected from samples collected from seven locations at distances 8-20 km away from the cement plant, the mean value of the locations 5-20 km from the El-Maghara mine, the mean value of dune sand from locations in the coastal area in North Sinai (Seddeek 2006), and the mean value of locations in Suez Gulf, West Sinai (Ramadan et al 2011) are presented in Table 9. The overall mean values are also given.…”

Multivariate Statistical Analysis of High Background Radiation Area on the Hadhramout Coast

“…These results are in general agreement with those obtained in North Sinai, Egypt, for dune and beach sand where the average pH values were 8.4 and 8.0 for dune and beach sand, respectively, and the TOM content was <1 % for most samples [7,26]. In addition, relatively similar results for sand were obtained in northeast Sinai where the mean pH was 8.8 and the TOM content was <5 % for most samples [27] and in Suez Gulf where the mean pH was 8.8 and the TOM contents were <9.1 % [22]. Figure 2 shows examples of the measured gamma-ray spectra of sand sample from location S13 and background obtained with NaI(Tl) detector.…”

“…This observed value is not far from the mean values for this ratio in North Sinai [7] of 0.92 ± 0.23 and 1.06 ± 0.18 for beach and dune sand, respectively, and in northeast Sinai [27] of 1.07 ± 0.41 for dune sand. On the other hand, sand samples contaminated from hot springs have higher values of this ratio [22]. Based on all these values, the 226 Ra/ 232 Th ratio seems to be higher than unity in dune sand and lower than unity for beach sand.…”

“…The calculated minimum detectable activities using this experimental setup were 0.2, 0.1, and 0.4 Bq kg −1 for 226 Ra, 232 Th, and 40 K, respectively. Reference materials (IAEA reference materials Soil 6, 326 and 327 and uranium ore GU-1) were used for checking the calibration of the system and for routine monitoring of the performance of the spectrometer [22] and checking the tightness of the containers [7]. For quality control, the measurements were cross-checked for some samples using a 50 % p-type closed-end coaxial HPGe detector (Canberra) with an energy resolution (FWHM) of 1.89 keV for the 1332.5 keV 60 Co γ -line.…”