Spatial mapping and radiometric survey of high background radiation areas in Southern Tamil Nadu, India

Southern Tamil Nadu has placer deposits, which is rich in minerals like zircon, garnet, monazite and rutile containing with radionuclides of U, Th and their decayed products. The present study is to identify the high background radiation areas in the regions of South west–east coast of Tamil Nadu. T...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Radiation Protection and Environment 2020-07, Vol.43 (3), p.162-170
Main Authors: Baskaran, Kamesh, Arunachalam, Kantha
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
absorbed dose rate
Background radiation
Dosage
Global positioning systems
GPS
high background radiation area
inverse distance weighting
Mapping
Minerals
Monazite
Polls & surveys
Radiation
Radiation effects
Radioisotopes
radiometric survey
Seasonal variations
Zircon
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Summary:Southern Tamil Nadu has placer deposits, which is rich in minerals like zircon, garnet, monazite and rutile containing with radionuclides of U, Th and their decayed products. The present study is to identify the high background radiation areas in the regions of South west–east coast of Tamil Nadu. The ground radiometric survey was conducted in different seasons using portable radiation survey meter and global positioning system. Total of 137 observation spots were marked from 5 blocks for repeat measurements. Then calculated for the outdoor effective external terrestrial dose to the public residing in these blocks. The survey found average absorbed dose rate of block in this order 3>2> 4>1>5 (1394, 641, 247, 225, 167 nGy/h, respectively). From the data, a spatial mapping was performed for seasonal variation and interpolated for the unknown areas of dose rate. The outdoor effective dose to the public was found to be 1.66> 0.79>0.31>0.27>0.20 mSv/y with respective blocks. Conclusion: The dose to public was found to be lower, when compared with other high background radiation areas in the world. Therefore, there is no significant radiological risks to the public from natural radiation exposure.
ISSN:0972-0464
2250-0995
DOI:10.4103/rpe.rpe_47_20