Radionuclide determination and radioactivity evaluation of surface soil samples collected along the Erc¸ek Lake basin in eastern Anatolia, Turkey

Abstract

In the present study, the mean activity concentrations of 238U, 232Th, 40K and fission products 137Cs in the soil samples measured by using high-purity germanium gamma spectrometry were 18.9, 27.2, 524.0 and 10.6 Bq kg−1, respectively. The activity results were analyzed for frequency distribution, tabulated and compared with Turkey and worldwide literatures. Radiological risk evaluation was done by calculating absorbed gamma dose rate in outdoor air and the corresponding annual effective dose due to external exposure to radionuclides distributed in soil. The mean values of the outdoor gamma dose rates and the external annual effective doses received by members of the public from terrestrial radiation and 137Cs were estimated as 47 nGy h−1 and 0.6 nGy h−1 and 57.7 μSv and 1.2 μSv, respectively. Keywords: Erçek Lake; Soil; Terrestrial radionuclides; 137Cs; External exposure