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Assessment of natural and artificial radionuclides in Mission (Texas) surface soils

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Abstract

Residents in the city of Mission, Texas have been noted to complain of health related problems possibly associated with low dose radiation exposure. The purpose of this study was to quantify radioactivity levels in the entire Mission area by measuring natural and anthropogenic radionuclide concentrations (226Ra, 228Ra, 137Cs) in 30 representative surface soil samples through high-resolution gamma-ray spectroscopy. The activity concentrations of these radionuclides followed an approximately normal distribution across the samples and were found to be comparable to other similar studies. In addition, radiological impact assessment factors were calculated and found to be within the recommended values.

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Acknowledgements

This material is based upon work supported in part by the Office of the Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering through the US Army Research Office under Grant number W911NF-11-1-0150, and the UTPA Science Education Grant number 52007568 from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. The authors also thank Dr. Juan Gonzalez for valuable cartographic advice. Presented at the 8th International Conference on Isotopes and Expo held in Chicago, IL, United States, 24–28 August 2014.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Physics and Geology, The University of Texas - Pan American, 1201 W. University Drive, Edinburg, TX, 78539, USA

    Mohammad Hannan & Kareem Wahid

  2. Department of Mathematics, The University of Texas - Pan American, 1201 W. University Drive, Edinburg, TX, 78539, USA

    Kareem Wahid & Nam Nguyen

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  1. Mohammad Hannan
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Correspondence to Mohammad Hannan.

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Hannan, M., Wahid, K. & Nguyen, N. Assessment of natural and artificial radionuclides in Mission (Texas) surface soils. J Radioanal Nucl Chem 305, 573–582 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10967-015-4018-4

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