Environmental & Analytical Toxicology

Effect of Ground Water Chemistry and Surrounding Rocks on Radionuclides Distributions and their Environmental Hazard in Southwestern Sinai, Egypt

Abstract

H.A.S. Aly and F.M. Ragab

Ground water samples from four drilled wells with different depths were collected in May 2011 from Southwestern Sinai to study the distribution of radionuclides and their hazards effect. The depths are ranging between 30 and 150 m. The collected water has very low salinity as the total dissolved salt (TDS) is ranging between 1226 and 1836 ppm. The chemistry is mainly chloride as the anions distribution are in the order Cl- > SO42-> HCO3-> CO32- and the cations are in the order Na+ > Ca+2> K+> Mg+2. Results shown that the correlation coefficient between Na+ and Cl- was strongly positive (0.99), while it was 0.82 between Ca2+ and SO4 2-. The activity concentration of 238U is ranging between 8.2 and 14.0 Bq/L and it is slightly correlated with Mg+. 232Th activity concentration is very low and ranges between 0.316 and 0.683 Bq/L, while 40K ranges between 0.868 and 2.3 Bq/L. The activity concentrations of 222Rn are ranging between 540.5 and 1163.3 Bq/L and its progenies (214Pb, 214Bi) did not reflect its concentration. Radon exhalation rate was calculated using a-track detector. The annual effective dose was calculated for the different personal ages. The babies (< one year) are the most annually dosed.