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Offsite Dose Assessment to the Public from Residual Radioactivity due to Mining Activities in Adamawa State, Nigeria. |
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PP: 65-72 |
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doi:10.18576/jrna/080110
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Author(s) |
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Soja Reuben Joseph,
Muhammad Bello Gusau,
Umar Ibrahim,
Samson Dauda Yusuf,
Nuraddeen Nasiru Garba,
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Abstract |
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| Mining activities in Adamawa State is uncontrolled and can increase the background radiation to members of the public around the mining area. This study assessed the Offsite Dose to the public using the RESRAD Offsite code from residual radioactivity concentrations (AC) of 226Ra, 232Th and 40K in soil samples due to mining activities from four selected Mining sites in Adamawa State, Nigeria. The AC was obtained using the sodium Iodide (NaI) detector at the Centre for Energy Research and Training (CERT), Ahmadu Bello University Zaria, Nigeria. Result shows that the order of AC in soil samples were: 226Ra > 232Th > 40K. Though 40K constitute the highest total mean AC of 466 Bq/kg in soil, the public are more pruned to 226Ra and 232Th than 40K due to AC ratio of 3.03, 2.8 and 1.17 respectively. Also, the total offsite doses due to inhalation after 30years from the four mining sites are 2.62E-04mSv/yr, 2.97E-04mSv/yr, 2.42E-04mSv/yr, and 2.168E-04mSv/yr for mining sites S-A, S-B, S-D, and S-C respectively. These doses were all lower than EPA dose limit of 0.1mSv/yr, indicating that the inhalation doses emanating from residual radioactivity from all the mining site in this study has less impact on offsite residents in a short time. However, the danger of radiation exposure and its impacts must be understood by the population living near the mining sites as no radiation exposure is safe since accumulation of low exposure dose can result to stochastic effects. Routine assessment and a setback of at least 800 meters for residential will be required to reduce the magnitude of exposure. |
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