Risk Determination of Radionuclide Derived from Agriculture Fertilizers in Iraqi Markets by Gamma Spectrometry

Abstract

Abstract A fertilizer has increase production and becomes a necessary tool that uses in agriculture. Different amount of uranium and thorium are including in the fertilizers that mean natural nuclide will be concentrated in high values. In this work, seventeen samples of commonly used fertilizer in Iraqi markets were collected and determine the specific activities of radiation 238U, 232Th, and 40K using a technique of gamma-ray spectroscopy NaI(Tl) detector. The concentration of these nuclides has average values (79.66±0.41Bq/kg, 30.52±0.31Bq/kg, and 181.27±2.91 Bq/kg) comparing with worldwide limitation (35Bq/kg, 35Bq/kg, and 350 Bq/kg), respectively. So the concentration of 238U nuclei greater than its global limit. The radiological hazards of all samples as radium equivalent activity (Raeq), external (Hex) and internal (Hin), alpha and gamma indices, and annual effective dose, due to the presence of these radionuclides, were calculated to assess it hazards and by the statistical study that using SPSS program one can mark the relations between all hazards indices.