Comparative analysis of NORM concentration in mineral soils and tailings from a tin-mine in Nigeria
- PDF / 4,493,907 Bytes
- 17 Pages / 595.276 x 790.866 pts Page_size
- 44 Downloads / 201 Views
ORIGINAL ARTICLE
Comparative analysis of NORM concentration in mineral soils and tailings from a tin‑mine in Nigeria M. Atipo1 · O. Olarinoye2 · B. Awojoyogbe2 Received: 26 February 2020 / Accepted: 10 August 2020 © Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature 2020
Abstract Mining of tin and other related activities have been active and thus leading to economic growth in the Jos area of Nigeria for more than a century. However, mining of minerals has been confirmed to enhance the concentrations of heavy metals and natural radioisotopes in the soil, air and water bodies in the environment. In an attempt to evaluate the radiological burdens resulting from tin mining activities at Rayfield-Du area of Jos, specific activities of naturally occurring radioactive nuclei (238U, 232Th and 40K) concentrations were evaluated in soil samples collected from the mine site. The soil samples were classified as normal soil (S), tailings (T) and mineral soils (M) and their corresponding mean activities for 238U, 232Th and 40 K were analysed using an HpGe detector-based gamma spectrometric system. The mean activity concentration for 238U, 232 Th and 40K were 323.44, 877.63 and 864.99 Bq/kg, 138.84, 469.31 and 578.65 Bq/kg and 168.83, 436.08 and 346.1 Bq/ kg, respectively for M, T and S samples. The calculated radiation dose parameters for the soil samples were all higher than the recommended safety limit. For all the collected soil samples, the external hazard risk Hext were 2.21, 2.81 and 4.44 for S, T and M, respectively while the mean calculated radium equivalent was 819, 1057 and 1645 Bq/kg for S, T, and M, respectively. The excess lifetime cancer risk estimated for the mine was more than the world average value. The radio-ecological dose rate estimate for non-human biota in the mine revealed that all non-human species except lichen and bryophyte had absorbed dose rate less than the 10 µGy/h screening dose. Keywords NORM · ERICA · Radiation dose · Radioactivity · Tin-mine
Introduction The exposure of man and his environment to natural sources of ionizing radiation is a continuous process (UNSCEAR 2000). These sources are mainly from external primordial radionuclides such as uranium ( 238U), thorium (232Th), potassium (40K) and from radionuclides within man himself. Of major concern from the perspective of radiological health is the external (terrestrial) source. Although, many radionuclides of natural origin exist, however, only 238U, 232Th, 40 K and their radioactive decay daughters such as 226Rn and 222 Ra have relative abundance and radioactive intensity to contribute largely to the total absorbed dose from natural
* O. Olarinoye [email protected] 1
Nigerian Nuclear Regulatory Authority, Abuja, Nigeria
Department of Physics, Federal University of Technology, Minna, Nigeria
2
sources (UNSCEAR 2000). The radionuclides—238U, 232Th, 226 Rn and 40K are sometimes referred to as naturally occurring radionuclide materials (NORM). The absorbed doses from NORM are directly linked to their distribut
Data Loading...
