Vol. 26 No. 2 (2016)
Artículos de Investigación

NORM determination in urban soils from selected cities in Chihuahua, Mexico

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  • Luis Humberto Colmenero Sujo,
  • María de Lourdes Villalba,
  • Héctor Rubio Arias,
  • María Montero Cabrera,
  • Humberto Silva Hidalgo
Luis Humberto Colmenero Sujo
Instituto Tecnológico de Chihuahua II
María de Lourdes Villalba
Universidad Autónoma de Chihuahua
Héctor Rubio Arias
Universidad Autónoma de Chihuahua
María Montero Cabrera
Centro de Investigación en Materiales Avanzados
Humberto Silva Hidalgo
Universidad Autónoma de Chihuahua
DOI: https://doi.org/10.15174/au.2016.939

Published 2016-05-17

Keywords

  • Radioactivity,
  • soil,
  • Chihuahua State,
  • dose.
  • Radiactividad,
  • suelo,
  • estado de Chihuahua,
  • dosis.

How to Cite

Colmenero Sujo, L. H., Villalba, M. de L., Rubio Arias, H., Montero Cabrera, M., & Silva Hidalgo, H. (2016). NORM determination in urban soils from selected cities in Chihuahua, Mexico. Acta Universitaria, 26(2), 36–42. https://doi.org/10.15174/au.2016.939

Abstract

Soil radioactivity affects the human body. This study determinates the 238U, 232Th and 40K activity (NORM) in 164 urban soils in 13 cities in the State of Chihuahua, Mexico.  Absorbed Dose Rate and the Annual Effective Dose were also calculated. Activities were analyzed using a coaxial hyper-pure germanium detector (HPGe), Ge Model 2020, Thermo and Dewar 7500 SL (CANBERRA brand). A one-way variance analysis (ANOVA) was performed and a Tukey test was applied to identify mean differences. Activity averages were 36.8 Bq kg–1 for 238U, 41.4 Bq kg–1 for 232Th and 805.7 Bq kg–1 for 40K. Calculated absorbed dose rate ranged from 36 nGy h–1 to 83 nGy h–1 while Annual Effective Dose varied from 1.02 mSv y–1 to 0.44 mSv y–1. Results suggest that some levels exceed global averages and are among the highest levels of natural radioactivity in the world.


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