Journal de la science de l'énergie nucléaire et de la technologie de production d'électricité

Determination of Levels of Radioactivity of Uranium and Radium in Environmental Samples by Liquid Scintillation Counting and Alpha Spectroscopy

M Abdelmonem, MA Abd El-Samad, HA Hanafi and AMH Ibrahim

The present study aims to use the α-spectrometry using silicon surface-barrier detector Si (Li), as a radiometric technique to estimate U-isotopes and Ra-226 that were carried out for two rock samples from Gabal Gattar, north-eastern desert area, Egypt and two references soil samples of international atomic energy agency, IAEA. A secular equilibrium between U-238 and U-234 and disequilibrium between U-238 and Ra-226 were observed. There is no significant change of radioactivity levels of U-238, U-234 and Ra-226; this means that there is secular equilibrium between U-238 and its relative daughters. Specific dose equivalent rate of sample #1 equal about three times the corresponding value of sample #2 and doses equivalent rate for both two samples are negligible after about 6 cm without shield.