RESUMEN
The South-west coast of India is known to have very high levels of natural background radiation due to the monazite beach sand. Uranium is the heaviest trace element found in all terrestrial substances at varying levels with chemical and radio toxicities. It supports several short-lived radioisotopes in its decay series including radium. Uranium in drinking water is important in terms of the ingestion dose. The present study reports the results of uranium analysis of 346 drinking water samples from the three costal districts of Kerala using fission track registration technique. Results obtained show that uranium concentrations vary from 0.31 micro g/l to 4.92 micro g/l equivalent to the specific activity of 3.9 Bq/m3 and 62 Bq/m3, respectively. The estimated daily intake of uranium through drinking water is lower than the recommended limits. The distribution of uranium in water bodies shows a heterogeneous nature of distribution