Distribution and environmental impact of radionuclides in marine sediments along the Venezuelan coast

The activity concentrations of 137 Cs, 40 K, 226 Ra and 232 Th in Bq/kg from 42 marine sediment samples collected at nine sampling sites were determined in order to establish a radiological baseline along the Venezuelan coast. The radioactivity levels were determined by means of a gamma-ray spectros...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of radioanalytical and nuclear chemistry 2014-04, Vol.300 (1), p.219-224
Main Authors: Alfonso, Juan A., Pérez, Karla, Palacios, Daniel, Handt, Helga, LaBrecque, John J., Mora, Abrahan, Vásquez, Yaneth
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Chemistry
Chemistry and Materials Science
Detectors
Diagnostic Radiology
Gamma rays
Hadrons
Heavy Ions
Inorganic Chemistry
Marine sediments
Nuclear Chemistry
Nuclear Physics
Physical Chemistry
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:The activity concentrations of 137 Cs, 40 K, 226 Ra and 232 Th in Bq/kg from 42 marine sediment samples collected at nine sampling sites were determined in order to establish a radiological baseline along the Venezuelan coast. The radioactivity levels were determined by means of a gamma-ray spectroscopy system using a hyper-pure germanium detector in a low-background configuration. Particle size distribution and total organic matter content were also determined. Activity concentrations of 137 Cs were lower than the detection limit of the analytical technique (0.9 Bq/kg) in all studied sites. The results suggest that the variation of grain-size distribution is one of the most important factors influencing the spatial variations of 40 K, 226 Ra and 232 Th in sediments along the Venezuelan coasts. In all sampling sites, average concentrations of 40 K, 226 Ra and 232 Th were lower than the world average values. Activity concentrations of 226 Ra, 232 Th and 40 K in coastal marine sediments along the Venezuelan coast could be considered to be low when compared with global average values, indicating that they are not apparently above of the range that might be considered normal or background. These results suggest that the studied sites do not pose any significant radiological threat to the population. The results attained in this study should be of considerable value as baseline data and background reference levels for Venezuelan coastlines.
ISSN:0236-5731
1588-2780
DOI:10.1007/s10967-014-2999-z