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Assessment of natural radioactivity levels in the Lesser Himalayas of the Jammu and Kashmir, India

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Abstract

In the present study, the activity concentration of radioactive nuclides (226Ra, 232Th and 40K) in different types of rocks in the lesser Himalayan mountainous region in Jammu and Kashmir, India have been measured using Sodium Iodide and High purity germanium detectors. The advanced smart RnDuo monitor was utilized for assessing radon and thoron exhalation rates and the results vary from 14.82 to 37.85 mBqkg−1 h−1 and 124–372 mBqm−2 s−1 respectively. The radium equivalent activities of the studied samples have been calculated to assess the radiation hazards arising due to the use of these rocks in the construction of dwellings. All the rock samples have radium equivalent activities lower than the limit set in the OECD report (370 Bq Kg−1).

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Acknowledgements

Authors are grateful to Principal DAV College Amritsar, Dr. Rama Prajith of Radiological Protection & Advisory Division Mumbai and Anjali Kaushal (Research Scholar) of DAV College Jalandhar for their help in carrying out the measurements and providing necessary facilities. The authors are thankful to the Board of Research in Nuclear Sciences (BRNS), Department of Atomic Energy, Government of India, for providing financial assistance. We are grateful to the reviewers for their valuable contributions to the improvement of our work.

Funding

This work has been supported by the Board of Research in Nuclear Sciences (BRNS), Department of Atomic Energy (DAE) India (No: 2013/36/60-BRNS).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Physics, DAV College, Amritsar, 143001, Punjab, India

    Ajay Kumar & Sumit Sharma

  2. Department of Physics, Dr. B R Ambedkar National Institute of Technology, Jalandhar, 144011, Punjab, India

    Sumit Sharma & Rohit Mehra

  3. Radiological Physics and Advisory Division, Bhabha Atomic Research Centre, Mumbai, 400085, India

    Rosaline Mishra

  4. Department of Remote Sensing and GIS, University of Jammu, Jammu, 180006, India

    Ajay Kumar Taloor

  5. Environmental Science and Engineering, Teknikringen 10B, 100 44, Stockholm, Sweden

    Prosun Bhattacharya

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  1. Ajay Kumar
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Correspondence to Ajay Kumar.

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Kumar, A., Sharma, S., Mehra, R. et al. Assessment of natural radioactivity levels in the Lesser Himalayas of the Jammu and Kashmir, India. J Radioanal Nucl Chem 331, 1907–1921 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10967-021-08164-2

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