Abstract

A first comprehensive study is presented on natural radionuclide activity concentrations in surface soils in different divisions of Tafila city. The natural radioactivity of ²³⁸U, ²³²Th and ⁴⁰K is determined using gamma spectroscopy. The soil activity concentrations ranged from 1.8 to 76.4 Bq kg^?1 for ²³⁸U, 6.3 to 85.5 Bq kg^?1 for ²³²Th, and 84 to 516.7 Bq kg^?1 for ⁴⁰K. The activity concentrations of the radionuclide in soils are directly relevant to outdoor exposure. Absorbed dose rates in air outdoors were calculated to be in the range of 22.28 – 62.71 nGy h^?1 with an overall average value of 40.12 nGy h^?1. The study showed an annual effective dose equivalent in the range of 27.34 – 76.96 µSv y^?1. A comparison of the measured values with the corresponding worldwide average values shows that the activities of natural radionuclides in the studied samples are below the world average activity values.

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