Assessment of Activity Concentration of The Naturally Occurring Radioactive Materials (Norm) in the Yankandutse Artisanal Gold Mining Belt of Kaduna, Nigeria.

Abstract

The activity concentrations of potassium, Radium and thorium in soil samples from a mining site in yankandutse, Kaduna north western Nigeria were measured using gamma ray spectroscopy method. Activity concentration of potassium, Radium and thorium were determined. The activity concentrations of 40K, 226Ra and 232Th, respectively in Bq kg-1 in the soil samples ranged as follows: K-40 196.11±2.02 to 553.03±1.08 with average of 382.01, Ra-226 .1506±.03 to 5.67±.03 with average of 2.08 and Th-232 18.13±3.19 to 73.09±1.59 with average activity concentrations of 47.23 .The mean activity concentration of potassium and radium are below average but for thorium the activity concentration is above average