FFA STUDY ON ACTIVITY CONCENTRATION OF NATURAL RADIONUCLIDES OF BUILDING MATERIALS IN PACHAL, TIRUVANNAMALAI DIST, TAMILNADU, INDIA

This paper presents the finding of a study undertaken to determine the natural radioactivity present in building materials in Pachal of Tiruvannamalai District, Tamilnadu. During this study, the samples of commonly used raw materials for buildings were collected and analyzed for primordial radionuclides by gamma ray spectrometry using NaI (TI) detector. The specific activities of 226Ra, 232Th and 40K were measured in the samples. The radium-equivalent activity (Raeq) of the samples was calculated and compared with similar data obtained in other countries that are reported in the literature. The comparison reveals that Raeq values obtained in our study area fall far below the criterion limit specified in building materials. The potential radiological hazard of the different samples was estimated using different approaches. These values were compared with the published data and were found to be within the acceptable limits. The results show that these materials are quite safe to be used as building materials.