ANALYSIS OF RADIONUCLIDE LEVEL IN SOIL AND ROCK POWDER SAMPLES AND ASSESSMENT OF RADIOLOGICAL RISKS

The activity concentration of natural radionuclides such as 226Ra, 238U, 232Th and 40K in rock and the surrounding soil samples were collected from 20 different locations in the lower hills of western ghats, Kanyakumari district. The measurements were carried out using a 3” × 3” NaI gamma spectrometry. Gamma spectrometric analyses were performed and the mean activity concentrations obtained for each of the radionuclides expressed in Bq/Kg are 19.0, 7.59, 20.35 and 192.52 for 226Ra, 238U, 232Th and 40K for soil samples and 18.51, 6.41, 20.43 and 199.89 for 226Ra, 238U, 232Th and 40K for rock samples respectively. Also the radium equivalent activity, representative level index, external hazard index, Internal hazard index, Annual gonadal dose equivalent, Gamma absorbed dose were found to be within the permissible limits and would not pose any significant radiological threat to the population resident in the studied areas.