Author(s)

Wafaa Arafa¹, Hala Mahmoud¹, Eman Yousf², Ashry Ashry³, Ibrahim Elaassy², Ahmed Elsersy⁴

¹Faculty of Women, Ain Shams University, Cairo, Egypt.
²Nuclear Material Authority, Cairo, Egypt.
³Faculty of Education, Ain Shams University, Cairo, Egypt.
⁴National Institute of Standard, Giza, Egypt.

Gamma-ray spectroscopy based on a 100% efficiency hyper-pure germanium detector was used to evaluate the activity concentrations of ²²⁶Ra, ²³²Th, and ⁴⁰K natural radionuclides in sedimentary, conglomerate, igneous and sedi-ments rock samples collected from four different locations in Eastern desert in Egypt. The obtained activity concentrations are used to evaluate the radi-ological hazards indices, absorbed dose rate, annual effective dose equivalent in air, radium equivalent, external and internal hazard index, radiation level index, annual gonadal dose equivalent, excess lifetime cancer risk and expo-sure rate. The results show that 1) the absorbed dose rate depends on the rock type, 2) the annual effective dose equivalent in air in 71% of sample below 20 mSvy^-1 (permissible limit for workers), 3) the conglomerate rocks show low radioactivity level, 4) sedimentary rocks are rich in radium while igneous rocks are rich in thorium and the sediments rocks are rich in both radium and thorium.

Gamma Spectrometry, Radiological Hazard Indices, NORM, Sedimentary, Conglomerate, Igneous, Sediments

Arafa, W. , Mahmoud, H. , Yousf, E. , Ashry, A. , Elaassy, I. and Elsersy, A. (2024) Assessment of Radiological Hazards of Sedimentary, Igneous and Sediments Natural Rocks. World Journal of Nuclear Science and Technology, 14, 131-145. doi: 10.4236/wjnst.2024.142008.