Abstract

COLMENERO SUJO, Luis Humberto et al. NORM determination in urban soils from selected cities in Chihuahua, Mexico. Acta univ [online]. 2016, vol.26, n.2, pp.36-42. ISSN 2007-9621.  https://doi.org/10.15174/au.2016.939.

Soil radioactivity affects the human body. This study determinates the 238U, 232Th and 40K activity (NORM) in 164 urban soils in 13 cities in the State of Chihuahua, Mexico. Absorbed Dose Rate and the Annual Effective Dose were also calculated. Activities were analyzed using a coaxial hyper-pure germanium detector (HPGe), Ge Model 2020, Thermo and Dewar 7500 SL (CANBERRA brand). A one-way variance analysis (ANOVA) was performed and a Tukey test was applied to identify mean differences. Activity averages were 36.8 Bq kg-1 for 238U, 41.4 Bq kg-1 for 232Th and 805.7 Bq kg-1 for 40K. Calculated absorbed dose rate ranged from 36 nGy h-1 to 83 nGy h-1 while Annual Effective Dose varied from 1.02 mSv y-1 to 0.44 mSv y-1. Results suggest that some levels exceed global averages and are among the highest levels of natural radioactivity in the world.

Keywords : Radioactivity; soil; Chihuahua State; dose.

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