Radiological safety assessment of some mine sites at Gusau and environs, Nigeria
A. J. Innocent1, O. John1, H. Ali2*, M. Y. Onimisi2, S. A. Jonah3, and N. A. Nwodo4
Research Article | Published June 2014
Advancement in Scientific and Engineering Research, Vol. 2(2), pp. 23-28
1Department of Preliminary Studies (Sc), Federal Polytechnic, Kaura-Namoda, Nigeria.
2Department of Physics, Nigerian Defence Academy, Kaduna, Nigeria.
3Centre for Energy Research and Training, Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, Nigeria.
4Department of Physics, Federal University, Ndufu-Alike Ikwo, Nigeria.
*Corresponding author: E-mail:
harunaali64@yahoo.com
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Investigations were carried out to determine radiological hazard indices of NORM associated with selected abandoned mine sites at Gusau and its environs in Zamfara State, Nigeria. The γ-ray spectrometry setup at the Centre for Energy Research and Training, Ahmadu Bello University Zaria, Nigeria, which consists of 3” × 3” NaI(Tl) detector and associated electronic modules was used to determine the quantity and quality of radioactivity in the soil samples randomly collected from 10 abandoned mine sites in area of study. The results obtained show that the activity concentrations for 40K, 226Ra and 232Th ranged from 227.10 ± 7.54 to 590.44 ± 10.57 Bq.kg-1, 4.68 ± 3.52 to 18.98 ± 0.84 Bq.kg-1 and 40.58 ± 1.85 to 94.92 ± 2.76 Bq.kg-1, respectively. The values of the radiological hazard indices further show that radium equivalent activity ranged from 94.41 ± 5.64 to 191.34 ± 7.11 Bq.kg-1 with mean value of 130.93 ± 4.94 Bq.kg-1. The mean values of gamma index level, external and
internal hazard indices are 0.48, 0.35 and 0.39, respectively. The mean absorbed dose rate of the samples was found to be 59.7 nGy.h-1 while the mean annual effective dose was estimated to be 0.073 mSv.y-1. From the hazard indices information, it can be concluded that the radiation level in the study areas is within the safety limit.
Keywords: Radionuclides, soil, mining, NaI (Tl) detector, hazard indices.
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Citation: Innocent AJ, John O, Ali H, Onimisi MY, Jonah SA, Nwodo NA (2014). Radiological safety assessment of some mine sites at Gusau and environs, Nigeria. Adv. Sci. Eng. Res. 2(2): 23-28
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