Concentration of Radon Released from Marine Sediment Around Hajjam Island, Southern Iraq, North West Arabian gulf, using CR-39 detector

Abstract

Hajjam Island lies in the lower reaches of Khor Al-Zubair southern of Iraq, it is the unity island in the Iraqi marine water. 15 sediment samples were collected from sites around the island and transferred to the lab in Marine Science Centre for radiological investigation. Two methods were adopted, Active and Passive, for determination of Radon in which an environmental radon monitoring system comprising a radon-cup, an etching system, and a track counting system, was constructed. The radon cup is a cylindrical chamber with a radius of 3.5 cm and a height of 15 cm in combination with a CR-39 detector. The effected radium concentrations from sediment samples were found to range from 0.0013 to 0.0049 with an average value of 0.0028 Bq/Kg. Concentrations of radon measured by passive method were 132±34 to 414±108 with average value 287±45 Bq/m 3 and by active method were 401±26 to 145±9 with average value 263±20 Bq/m 3 . The area and mass exhalation rates were found to be 0.1 to 0.31 with average value of 0.220 Bq/m 2 /h and 0.002 to 0.006 with average value 0.004 Bq/kg/h respectively. The values are found to be safe for sediment use.