Determination of natural and artificial radionuclides in long shore sediments of Prachuap Khiri Khan, Chumphon, Surat Thani and Nakhon Si Thammarat Provinces for based line data
Abstract:
The aim of this research was to measure natural and artificial radionuclides in long shore sediments of Prachuap Khiri Khan, Chumphon, Surat Thani and Nakhon Si Thammarat provinces in order to establish baseline data. This research was conducted to measure the gross emission rate of alpha/beta. It was found that the highest gross alpha emission rate was 0.050±0.003 cps/cm² at Amphoe Bandon, Surat Thani Province, whereas the highest gross beta emission rate was found to be 0.091±0.001 cps/g in Amphoe Sichon, Nakhon Si Thammarat Province. Measurement of the activity concentration due to ²²⁶Ra, ²²⁸Ra, ⁴⁰K (naturally occurring radionuclides) and ¹³⁷Cs (artificial radionuclide) in sediment samples was performed by gamma-spectrometry, and ²³⁸U, ²³⁵U and ²³²Th concentrations were analyzed by ICP-MS and alpha-spectrometry. The maximum activity concentration of analyzed radionuclides in sediment samples were found at Amphoe Sichon, Nakhon Si Thammarat Province, which were: 69.89±0.84 Bq/kg for ²²⁶Ra, 116.73±1.96 Bq/g for ²²⁸Ra, 1,176.89±21.28 Bq/kg for ⁴⁰K, 4.04±0.63 Bq/kg for ¹³⁷Cs, 59.42 ±0.96 Bq/kg (65.55±1.35 Bq/kg, alpha-spectrometry) for ²³⁸U, 2.23±0.04 Bq/kg (2.98±0.06 Bq/kg, alpha-spectrometry) for 235U and 118.13±0.35 Bq/kg (126.40±0.87 Bq/kg, alpha-spectrometry) for ²³²Th. The absorption behavior of ¹³⁷s radionuclide in sediment was also investigated. The distribution coefficient, Kd, of ¹³⁷Cs was carried out in three sediment types namely very coarse sand, fine sand and clay. The K[subscript d] value in small (< 0.002 mm) sediment particles was found to be significantly higher than that of coarse particles (<2 mm)