Environmental-Impact Assessment of Natural Radioactivity Around a Traditional Mining Area in Al-Ibedia, Sudan

• Published in: Archives of environmental contamination and toxicology Vol. 70; no. 4; pp. 783 - 792
• Main Authors: Idriss, Hajo, Salih, Isam, Alaamer, Abdulaziz S, Saleh, Almuaiz, Abdelgali, M. Y
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York Springer US 01.05.2016; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: air; Analysis; Assessments; Contamination; Detectors; Earth and Environmental Science; Economic conditions; Ecotoxicology; Environment; Environmental Chemistry; Environmental Health; Environmental impact; gamma radiation; Gamma rays; gold; Gold mines & mining; Human exposure; Mining; monitoring; Monitoring/Environmental Analysis; Natural radioactivity; Pollution; potassium; Radiation; Radiation Monitoring; Radioactivity; radionuclides; radium; radon; Scientific imaging; soil; Soil - chemistry; Soil Pollutants, Radioactive - analysis; Soil Pollutants, Radioactive - standards; Soil Science & Conservation; Spectrometry; spectroscopy; Studies; Sudan; Surveys and Questionnaires; United Nations; Vegetables; Volcanoes; Sudan; Annual Effective Dose; United States Environmental Protection Agency; Radon; Allowable Limit; Absorb Dose Rate
• DOI: 10.1007/s00244-016-0271-y
• ISSN: 0090-4341

Recently, in the Sudan, traditional gold mining has been growing rapidly and has become a very attractive and popular economic activity. Mining activity is recognized as one of the sources of radioactivity contamination. Hence, the radioactivity concentration and radiological hazard due to exposure of radionuclides ²²⁶Ra, ²³²Th, and ⁴⁰K were evaluated. The measurements were performed using gamma-ray spectrometry with an NaI (Tl) detector. The results show that ²²⁶Ra, ²³²Th, and ⁴⁰K activity concentration ranged from 2.66 to 18.47, 9.20 to 51.87, and 0.17 to 419.77 Bq/kg with average values of 7.54 ± 4.91, 20.74 ± 11.29, and 111.87 ± 136.84 Bq/kg, respectively. In contrast, ²²²Rn in soil, ²²²Rn in air, and ²²⁶Ra in vegetables along with radiation dose were computed and compared with the international recommended levels. Potential radiological effects to miners and the public due to ²²⁶Ra, ²³²Th, ⁴⁰K, and ²²²Rn are insignificant. ²²⁶Ra transferred to vegetables appears to be negligible compared with the allowable limit 1.0 mSv/year set by United Nations Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation (UNSCEAR). The average value of the annual gonadal dose equivalent (AGDE) is lower than the global average of 300 µSv/year (UNSCEAR 2000). However, some locations exhibit values >300 µSv/year. To the best of our knowledge, so far there seems to be no data regarding radioactivity monitoring in traditional mining areas in the Sudan.