Determination of terrestrial radionuclides and related radiological risks in the soils from Pangi Valley of Chamba, Himachal Pradesh, India

Abstract

The present study has been aimed to analyze the concentration activities of 226Ra, 232Th and 40K in soil samples collected from Pangi valley, Himachal Pradesh by means of gamma spectrometry with NaI(TI) detector and has been found to vary between 39.61 to 79.72 Bqkg-1 with average of 57.66 Bqkg-1, 32.8 to 66.57 Bqkg-1 with average of 49.69 Bqkg-1 and 495.62 to 653.85 Bqkg-1 with average of 579.41 Bqkg-1, respectively. Radium equivalent activity in these samples has also been determined and observed lower than the maximum permissible value 370 Bqkg-1, acceptable for the safe use. The average absorbed dose rate in air at 1 m height from the ground level has been found 81.43 nGyh-1, while the average outdoor and indoor annual effective dose rate has been calculated as 0.099 and 0.40 mSvy-1 respectively. The estimation of excess life time cancer risk assessments suggests about 13 out of 10000 persons may get affected by carcinogenic diseases due to indoor effective dose. The calculated external and internal hazard indices have been found to be less than unity.