Latitudinal variation and residence time of (137)Cs in Indian coastal environment.

Anthropogenic (137)Cs activity concentration, in surface sea water along the western and eastern coast of India has been estimated using the in-situ pre-concentration approach. Activity levels of (137)Cs ranges from 0.09-1.30Bqm(-3) with an overall mean of 0.69±0.29Bqm(-3). Latitudinal variation and higher depletion in activity concentration of (137)Cs at few locations were observed. Temporal change of (137)Cs in sea water along Indian coast unveils a lower effective half-life of 13.8±0.7y in comparison to Asia Pacific regional sea water. The results prevailed that the spatial distribution confers no fresh input of (137)Cs in Indian coastal region.

Spatial distribution of fallout 137Cs in the coastal marine environment of India.

The data on the fallout (137)Cs in the coastal marine environment assume significance in view of massive expansion of nuclear power plants in the Asia-Pacific region and to fulfill the benchmark study required to evaluate the possible impact of the Fukushima radioactive releases in the Asia-Pacific region. Measurements of (137)Cs in sea water, along with salinity and temperature, were carried out at 30 locations covering the coastal area of the Arabian Sea and the Bay of Bengal. For the present study the Indian coastal area is divided in three different regions. The (137)Cs concentration in sea water of the entire Indian coastal region varies from 0.30 to 1.25 Bq m(-3). The data obtained in the present study was compared with the North Indian Ocean data and it was observed that there is a 33% decrease in the Arabian Sea (region I), 50% in the high rainfall coastal area (region II) and 24% in the Bay of Bengal (region III).

Radiological characterisation of synthetic rutile using HPGe gamma spectrometry.

This paper discusses the radiological characterisation of synthetic rutile, which is the source material for the production of titanium. The natural radioactivity due to uranium ((238)U), thorium ((232)Th) series radionuclides and potassium ((40)K) was measured in synthetic rutile samples of a production plant in Tamil Nadu, India. n-type high-purity germanium-coupled gamma spectrometry was used for the analysis. It is observed that thorium is more abundant than any other radionuclide, which is due to the monazite present in the primary sand. The activity index (I) evaluated from the radioactivity concentrations of (226)Ra, (232)Th and (40)K of the analysed samples is found to be well below the recommended levels. This study shows that the use of synthetic rutile from Tamil Nadu, India, for the manufacture of building materials will not pose any increased radiation exposure to the public beyond the dose criterion of the European Union.

Spatial distribution of uranium and thorium in the surface soil around proposed uranium mining site at Lambapur and its vertical profile in the Nagarjuna Sagar Dam.

The understanding and evaluation of the possible interactions of various naturally occurring radionuclides in the world's third largest man-made dam, Nagarjuna Sagar located in Andhra Pradesh, India and built on river Krishna assumed significance with the finding of uranium deposits in locations near the dam. For the present work, surface soil samples from the mineralized area of Lambapur, Mallapuram, Peddagattu and sediment core samples from the Nagarjuna Sagar dam were analyzed for naturally occurring radionuclides namely uranium and thorium using gamma spectrometric technique. Also toxic elements lead and chromium were analysed by the Energy Dispersive X-ray Fluorescence Spectrometer (EDXRF) technique. Surface soil samples show a variation from 25 to 291 Bq/kg (2.02-23.5 mg/kg) for (238)U and 32-311 Bq/kg (7.9-76.9 mg/kg) for (232)Th. U/Th concentration ratio in surface soil samples ranged from 0.19 to 0.31 and was found comparable with the nation wise average of 0.26. The study of sediment core samples reflected higher U/Th concentration ratio of 0.30-0.33 in the bottom section of the core as compared to 0.22-0.25 in the upper section. The concentration ratio in the upper section of the core was similar to the ratio 0.23 found in the western Deccan Basalt region through which the river originates. A higher concentration of lead and chromium was observed in the upper section of the core compared to bottom section indicating the impact of river input on the geochemical character of dam sediment.