| ORIGINAL ARTICLE |
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| Year : 2013 | Volume
: 36
| Issue : 1 | Page : 27-31 |
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Assessment of natural radioactivity and the associated hazards in some local cement types used in Yemen
Muhammed El-Azab Farid1, Abdallah Ibrahim Abd El-Mageed1, Emran Eisa Saleh2, M Mansour1, Anwar Khadher Mohammed3
1 Department of Physics, Faculty of Science, Assiut University, Egypt
2 Department of Physics, Faculty of Education, Toor El-Baha, Yemen
3 Faculty of Education, Yafea, Aden University, Yemen
Correspondence Address:
Emran Eisa Saleh
Department of Physics, Faculty of Education, Toor El-Baha, Aden University
Yemen
 Source of Support: This study was carried out within the framework of a Ph D thesis conducted at Assuit University., Conflict of Interest: None  | Check |
DOI: 10.4103/0972-0464.121821
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The cement industry is considered as one of the basic industries that plays a significant role in the national economy of developing countries. Activity concentration of 226 Ra, 232 Th, and 40 K in 38 samples of local cement types from different Yemeni factories has been measured by using the gamma ray spectrometry and their mean values were in the ranges (25.18-40.39 Bq/kg), (14.6-24.75 Bq/kg) and (160.01-596.38 Bq/kg), respectively. The average values obtained for 226 Ra, 232 Th, and 40 K activity concentration in different types of cement are lower than the corresponding global values reported in United Nation Scientific Committee on the Effect of Atomic Radiation publications. The obtained results show that the averages of radiation hazard parameters for all types of local cement in the current study are lower than the acceptable level of 370 Bq/kg for radium equivalent, 1 for level index (Iγ), the external hazard index ≤ 1 and (59 nGy/h) for absorbed dose rate. The measured activity concentrations for these natural radionuclides were compared to the reported data for other countries. Therefore, the natural radioactivity of cement samples under study was lower than the recommended values in the established standard and hence safe for use in building constructions. |
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