Determining Radiological Hazards Due To the Natural Radioactivity in Building Materials Used in Van, Turkey

Abstract

The activity concentrations of building materials commonly used in Van province of Turkey were analyzed by using NaI (T1) detector. The observed highest values for Ra-226, Th-232 and K-40 activity concentrations of these samples were determined as 77.62 +/- 8.12 (Ahlat stone 3), 54.72 +/- 6.02 (Ahlat stone 3) and 1344.85 +/- 120.97 (Ahlat stone 2) Bq/kg, respectively, and compared with data related to samples collected from different part of the world. Moreover, the radium equivalent activities (Ra-eq), the indoor absorbed dose rate in air (D-in), indoor annual effective dose equivalent (AEDE(in)), the external hazard index (H-ex), the internal hazard index (FLO and he gamma index (1(gamma)) associated with the natural radionuclide were calculated to assess the radiation hazard of the natural radioactivity in the building materials. According to our results, the building material used in Van is safe to use in construction due to an acceptable limit values for human health considerations.