Abstract
The natural radiation level has been determined for 135 sediment samples from forty-six drinking water purification plants supplied from different sources (Nile River, Ibrahimia Canal and Bahr Yousif Canal) aiming to evaluate the radiation hazard. The concentration of natural radionuclides (Ra-226, Th-232 and K-40) has been investigated by using gamma spectrometry (NaI (Tl) 3 '' x 3 '' ) detector. The results showed that the concentrations of average activity in the sediment samples collected from Nile River, Ibrahimia Canal and Bahr Yousif Canal are (29 +/- 2, 30 +/- 2 and 240 +/- 8 Bq kg(-1)), (47 +/- 3, 46 +/- 8 and 258 +/- 12 Bq kg(-1)) and (28 +/- 2, 27 +/- 3 and 219 +/- 18 Bq kg(-1)) for Ra-226, Th-232 and K-40, respectively. The distributions of average activity concentrations of samples under investigation are within the world values although some extreme values have been determined. Radiological hazard effects such as: absorbed dose rate (D), outdoor and indoor annual effective dose equivalent (AEDE), radium equivalent activities (Ra-eq), hazard indices (H-ex and H-in), gamma index (I-gamma), excess lifetime cancer risk (ELCR) and annual gonadal dose equivalent (AGDE) for the corresponding samples were also estimated. Copyright (C) 2014, The Egyptian Society of Radiation Sciences and Applications. Production and hosting by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.