Determination Of Radioactivity Levels And Radiation Hazards In Soil Samples Collected From Hasasa, Toga And Bishan Guracha, Ethiopia

The activity concentration of Naturally Occurring Radio-nuclides such as 238U, 232Th and 40K in the collected soil sample from the selected area were measured by using Gamma ray spectroscopy employed by HPGe detector to perform the measurements. The average activity concentration values was found to be 46.708, 97.54, 795.414 and 2.23Bq/Kg for 238U, 232Th,40K and 137Cs respectively. These values were higher than the world average values given by UNSCEAR (2000). The average associated radiological hazard parameters indices Raeq, Dr, Din, Dout, AEDE, Hin, Hex, and I of natural radio-nuclides were determined to be as follow 191.7643, 148.5117, 1.020513, 0.182235, 1.202748, 0.794464, 0.668224 and 1.817106 Bq/Kg respectively. Some results such as Dout, Din, AEDE and I were found to be higher than the recommended world average values UNSCEAR (2000) and others were Raeq, Hex and Hin below the standard. Accordingly, the investigated soil sites were not radiation hazard free.