Estimation of Concentration of Naturally Occurring Radioactivity and Radiation Hazards, in Iron Ore Deposit Soil from Wag-Himra Zone, Ethiopia

The current study looked at the concentration of naturally occurring radioactivity and radiation hazards in iron ore deposited in soil. The aim of this study was to identify the dose of radiation which is emitted from rocks, soil and some building materials, the radiation dose and the effect in the area. In this work, analyses of the sample soils were performed with a computer-based gamma-spectrometry system with software of G-2000 for qualitative and quantitative determination of gamma-emitting radionuclide of natural occurrence of radioactive materials. The quantitative investigation of natural radioactive materials of 238U, 232Th and 40K were 11.688±0.42Bq/kg, 23.505±0.925Bq/kg and 141.48±4.403Bq/kg respectively. In addition to this, the results of absorbed dose rate, annual effective dose equivalent, radium equivalent activity and representative gamma index of the sample were much less as compared to recommended international values by UNSCEAR-2000. At low activity concentrations of the radionuclides produce low background radiation to the environment. The value obtained from the experiment reveals that the radiation hazards emitted by natural radionuclides in the soil cause insignificant harm to the public from the Wag-himra iron ore deposit soil. The concentration of natural radioactive elements in this area's soil could be used for construction purposes without causing any significant radiological hazards to humans for the time being.