Presence of Radionuclide Concentrations in Himalayan Region of Uttarakhand, IndiaA Review

Abstract

Earth is a major source of several elements which are occurring with different physical and chemical properties in nature. Some of the elements are categorized as Naturally Occurring Radioactive Materials and termed as NORMs. These natural sources and anthropogenic sources combined make the earth’s environment radioactive and human beings continuously receive the amount of the total radiation dose more than 50% of the radiation that comes from radon and thoron. It has been evident that soil is the furthermost important feature that affects the radon/thoron level in the human living surroundings which increases human exposure to radioactivity. The concentration of natural radionuclides elements present in soil or rocks is the main feature of levels of natural background radiation dose. This review paper represents the activity level of Ra-226, Th-232, and K-40 in soil samples of the Himalayas region of Uttarakhand. The data so obtained from previous studies of radionuclides shows the high abundance of radioactive mineralization in the soil of the Himalayan region in the Uttarakhand state of India.