The 226Ra, 232Th and 40K activities in beach sand minerals and beach soils of Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh

The radioactivity of Ra-226, Th-232 and K-40 beach sand minerals from the Plant of the Beach Sand Exploitation Center (BSEC) and soils from the tourist zone of Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh were measured using gamma-ray spectrometry with the aim of estimating the radiation hazard as well as establishing a database for radioactivity levels of the Plant and the tourist area nearby. The average activity concentrations of the corresponding nuclides were 6439, 1324 and 472 Bq kg(-1) for zircon; 348, 388 and 59.7 Bq kg(-1) for ilmenite; 22.0, 43.1 and 293 Bq kg(-1) for magnetite; 3951, 7903 and 213 Bq kg(-1) for garnet; 6643, 11670 and 182 Bq kg(-1) for rutile; 2582, 4684 and 639 Bq kg(-1) for heavy sand and 1 10, 213 and 501 Bq kg(-1) for light sand, respectively. The average activities of Ra-226, 232Th and 40K in the soils of tourist zone were 19.0, 36.7 and 458.2 Bq kg(-1), respectively. The average gamma-ray dose rates due to the activities of sand minerals and beach soil were 4.30 mu Gy h(-1) and 52.3 nGy h(-1), respectively. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.