Assessment of Terrestrial 40k, 238u And 232th Activities in Soil Within the Basement Complex Terrain of West Central Part of Nigeria

Abstract

Assessment of natural radioactivity in soil samples have been made within the basement complex terrain of Tanke district of Ilorin in west central part of Nigeria. The work has been carried out keeping in mind the health effects of radio-elements in the environment and evolution of the area as satellite town of the University of Ilorin. The results revealed the presence of potassium, uranium and thorium radio-elements. The activity of the radionuclides range from 252.03 to 494.02 Bq Kg-1 for 40K with a mean of 379.30 ± 31.15 Bq Kg-1 , 2.08 to 12.87 Bq Kg-1 for 238U having a mean of 6.81 ± 2.03 Bq Kg-1 and 232Th activity ranges from 6.55 to 11.85 Bq Kg-1
with a mean of 9.05 ± 2.95 Bq Kg-1 . The derived absorbed dose rate ranges from 20.01 to 30.03 nGy h-1 with a mean of 24.89 nGyh-1. Consequently, the annual effective dose received by the population is estimated to range from 0.025 to 0.037 mSv y-1 with anaverage of 0.031 mSv y-1. The radio-activities in soil samples of the area are found to be within global range for average terrestrialionizing radiation exposure due to radionuclides in the soil.