radionuclides and radiation indices of high background radiation area in chavara-neendakara placer deposits (kerala, india)放射性核素和辐射指数的高本底辐射地区chavara-neendakara砂矿矿床(喀拉拉邦,印度).pdfVIP

Radionuclides and Radiation Indices of High Background Radiation Area in Chavara-Neendakara Placer Deposits (Kerala, India) 1 2 2 Mary Thomas Derin , Perumal Vijayagopal , Balasubramaniam Venkatraman , Ramesh 3 1 Chandra Chaubey , Anilkumar Gopinathan * 1 Division of Medical Biotechnology, School of Biosciences and Technology, VIT University, Vellore, India, 2 Radiological Safety Division, Indira Gandhi Center for Atomic Research, Kalpakkam, India, 3 Genetic Toxicology and Chromosome Studies Section, Cell Biology Division, Bhabha Atomic Research Centre, Mumbai, India Abstract The present paper describes a detailed study on the distribution of radionuclides along Chavara – Neendakara placer deposit, a high background radiation area (HBRA) along the Southwest coast of India (Kerala). Judged from our studies using HPGe gamma spectrometric detector, it becomes evident that Uranium (238U), Thorium (232Th) and Potassium (40 K) are the major sources for radioactivity prevailing in the area. Our statistical analyses reveal the existence of a high positive correlation between 238U and 232Th, implicating that the levels of these elements are interdependent. Our SEM-EDAX analyses reveal that titanium (Ti) and zircon (Zr) are the major trace elements in the sand samples, followed by aluminum, copper, iron, ruthenium, magnesium, calcium, sulphur and lead. This is first of its kind report on the radiation hazard indices on this placer deposit. The average absorbed dose rates (9795 nGy h21) computed from the present study is comparable with the top-ranking HBRAs in the world, thus offering the Chavara-Neendakara placer the second position, after Brazil; pertinently, th