title: Soil radioactivity levels, radiological maps and risk assessment for the state of Kuwait.
abstract: An evaluation of the radioactivity levels associated with naturally occurring radioactive materials has been undertaken as part of a systematic study to provide a surface radiological map of the State of Kuwait. Soil samples from across Kuwait were collected, measured and analysed in the current work. These evaluations provided soil activity concentration levels for primordial radionuclides, specifically members of the (238)U and (232)Th decay chains and (40)K which. The (238)U and (232)Th chain radionuclides and (40)K activity concentration values ranged between 5.9 ↔ 32.3, 3.5 ↔ 27.3, and 74 ↔ 698 Bq/kg respectively. The evaluated average specific activity concentrations of (238)U, (232)Th and (40)K across all of the soil samples have mean values of 18, 15 and 385 Bq/kg respectively, all falling below the worldwide mean values of 35, 40 and 400 Bq/kg respectively. The radiological risk factors are associated with a mean of 33.16 ± 2.46 nG/h and 68.5 ± 5.09 Bq/kg for the external dose rate and Radium equivalent respectively. The measured annual dose rates for all samples gives rise to a mean value of 40.8 ± 3.0 μSv/y while the internal and internal hazard indices have been found to be 0.23 ± 0.02 and 0.19 ± 0.01 respectively.
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics, University of Surrey, Guildford, GU2 7XH, UK; Environmental Radiation Protection Laboratory, Qadesiyah, PO Box 16087, Kuwait.
authors.forename: N
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Alazemi
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics, University of Surrey, Guildford, GU2 7XH, UK; Department of Physics, Gombe State University, Gombe, Nigeria; National Physical Laboratory, Teddington, Middlesex, TW11 0LW, UK. Electronic address: a.bajoga@surrey.ac.uk.
authors.forename: A D
authors.initials: AD
authors.lastname: Bajoga
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics, University of Surrey, Guildford, GU2 7XH, UK.
authors.forename: D A
authors.initials: DA
authors.lastname: Bradley
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics, University of Surrey, Guildford, GU2 7XH, UK; National Physical Laboratory, Teddington, Middlesex, TW11 0LW, UK.
authors.forename: P H
authors.initials: PH
authors.lastname: Regan
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics, University of Surrey, Guildford, GU2 7XH, UK; Environmental Radiation Protection Laboratory, Qadesiyah, PO Box 16087, Kuwait.
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Shams
mesh_terms: D007730:Kuwait; D011834:Radiation Monitoring; D011851:Radioactivity; D011868:Radioisotopes / Q000032:analysis; D018570:Risk Assessment; D012987:Soil; D012990:Soil Pollutants, Radioactive / Q000032:analysis*
chemical_list: D011868:Radioisotopes; D012987:Soil; D012990:Soil Pollutants, Radioactive
keywords: Activity concentration; Baseline studies; Dose rates; Hazard indices; NORM; Radium equivalent