Abstract

Geological materials were collected from the northern region of the state of Kuwait for radioactive characterization. The northern region extended for an approximate distance of 100 km along highway 80 running from the north of Kuwait City to the Kuwaiti-Iraqi border. Back in 1991, during the Gulf War, this highway was called the highway of death due to the occurrence of intense combat and sabotage activities. Gamma-ray spectroscopic measurements were conducted on the geological materials collected to investigate the concentration of both natural and man made radio nuclides. From the gamma measurements, the mean activity concentration for the radio nuclides investigated were as follows; Uranium-238 at 11Bq/kg, Thorium-232 at 30 Bq/kg, Radium-226 at 12 Bq/kg, Potassium-40 at 397 Bq/kg, Cesium-137 at 2.0 Bq/kg, and Iodine-131 at 19.0 Bq/kg. The conclusion reached in this study illustrated that in general the radioactivity concentration of the radio nuclides investigated are both low and below international levels.

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