Journal of Radiation Research and Applied Sciences xxx (2016) 1e14 HOSTED BY Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Journal of Radiation Research and Applied Sciences journal homepage: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/jrras Distribution of natural radionuclides and assessment of the associated hazards in the environment of Marsa Alam-Shalateen area, Red Sea coast, Egypt * A.A. Arafat a, , M.H.M. Salama a, S.A. El-Sayed a, A.A. Elfeel b a Nuclear and Radiological Regulatory Authority, Egypt b Mineral Resources Authority, Egypt article info abstract Article history: Radiological aspects of water, soil and shore sediments resources in Marsa Alam-Shalateen area, Red Sea Received 4 October 2016 coast, Egypt, were investigated with the aim of presenting background about the radiological levels and Received in revised form assessing the associated hazards. The results of study are intended to support the governmental au- 26 November 2016 thorities as regards the future-natural resources management. Sixty nine environmental samples (30 Accepted 29 November 2016 water, 33 soil and 6 shore sediments samples) were collected in 2015 and analyzed for Ra-226 (U-238) Available online xxx series, Th-232 series, K-40 and Cs-137 radionuclides using Hyper-Pure Germanium (HPGe) detector. For all samples, the activity concentrations of Cs-137 radionuclide are under the detection limit of the used Keywords: Water analytical procedures. As regards the water resources, the Th-232 activity concentrations in the major Soil part of water samples were under the detection limit. The Ra-226 activity concentrations ranged from À1 À1 Shore sediment <0.7 to 7.6 Bq L and from <0.7 to 6.31 Bq L for groundwater and sea water samples, respectively. All Ra-226 the desalinized water and 50% from wastewaters were clear of Ra-226 activity concentration. The K-40 À À À Th-232 ranged from <3 to 32.84 Bq L 1, from <3 to 38.17 Bq L 1, from <3 to 54.31 Bq L 1 and from <3to À K-40 40.91 Bq L 1 for groundwater, sea water, desalinized water and wastewater samples, respectively. Cs-137 Radiologically, all fresh waters, safe for drinking except Al Gaheliya well showed Ra-226 activity con- Hazard indices centration higher than the guidance level recommended by the WHO. For soil cover, the average activity concentrations of Ra-226, Th-232 and K-40 of the carbonaceous soil À samples were 18.45, 16.78, and 334.35 Bq kg 1, respectively. While for the siliceous soil samples, they À were 10.24, 8.68 and 234.47 Bq kg 1, respectively. For shore sediment samples having calcareous nature, À the average concentrations of Ra-226, Th-232 and K-40 were 10.76, 9.86 and 304.74 Bq Kg 1. There are no risks for people health based on the calculated radiological hazard indices. However, people could be affected by radiation in one site (Marsa Alam-Shelateen Road km 33), where the representative level À À index (1.052 Bq kg 1) and absorbed gamma dose rate (66.5 nGy h 1) exceed the maximum permissible limits. © 2016 The Egyptian Society of Radiation Sciences and Applications. Production and hosting by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/ by-nc-nd/4.0/). 1. Introduction Sea Coast. The area is rich in its natural resources, cultural heritage and archaeological sites. Wadi El Gemal (24 400 E- 35 100 N), Qulan For the time being, the Egyptian governments have undertaken (34 220 E- 35 230 N) and Abraq (23 250 E- 34 480 N) are important a number of tourism, resort, mining and industrial projects to sites in the area because of their unique flora and fauna, and develop Marsa Alam-Shalateen area lying along the southern Red therefore, they have been declared as natural protectorates (Baha El Din, 2001, pp. 241e264). The diverse in geology and climate within the area provide favorable habitat for a wide variety of coastal and desert plants having valuable ecological benefits (FAO, 2002; IRG/ * Corresponding author. EEAA, 2004). E-mail address: [email protected] (A.A. Arafat). Peer review under responsibility of The Egyptian Society of Radiation Sciences Indeed, the development process must include some measures and Applications. to conserve the environmental-natural resources (air, water, soil, http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jrras.2016.11.006 1687-8507/© 2016 The Egyptian Society of Radiation Sciences and Applications. Production and hosting by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). Please cite this article in press as: Arafat, A. A., et al., Distribution of natural radionuclides and assessment of the associated hazards in the environment of Marsa Alam-Shalateen area, Red Sea coast, Egypt, Journal of Radiation Research and Applied Sciences (2016), http:// dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jrras.2016.11.006 2 A.A. Arafat et al. / Journal of Radiation Research and Applied Sciences xxx (2016) 1e14 shore sediment and plant) for the existing and future generations. A groundwater resources. rational approach, which balances between executing such projects The main concern of this work is to study the environmental and the natural resources, should be applied. In this context, it is radiological aspects in the environment of Marsa Alam-Shalateen important to have knowledge about the natural background base- area. The overall objectives are (1) to determine the activity con- lines of the radiological aspects so that potential environmental centrations and distributions of gamma ray emitter radionuclides, changes for the natural resources in future could be determined Ra-226 (U-238 series), Th-232 series, K-40 and Cs-137, in water, soil with a proper manner. and shore sediments, and (2) to assess their possible associated The activity concentrations of various radionuclides in natural hazards. The radiological obtained data and information from this resources play an essential role as regards the public and envi- study are highly needed to provide a basis for the sustainable ronmental health. The naturally occurring radioisotopes K-40 as development strategies. well as U-238 series and Th-232 series are the main sources of gamma radiation in rocks, soils and water. Human body could be 2. Methodology and techniques subjected to such radiation sources, either externally or internally (through inhalation and/or ingestion ways). From the radiological 2.1. Physical setting of the study area standpoint, the area under study attracted the attention of several workers. Ahmed et al., 2006 measured the activity concentrations Physical setting of an area (location, geomorphology, geology in different basement rocks in Wadi El Gemal area. The range of hydrogeology and climate) is of the important factors influencing À mean activities was 3.9e49.1 Bq kg 1,6e47.9 and 84.5e1211.7 Bq the mobility of radionuclides through the environmental compo- À kg 1 for Ra-226, Th-232 and K-40, respectively. Harb, El-Kamel, nents (IAEA, 2003; Harb et al., 2008, pp. 109e117). Some details Abd El-Mageed, Abbady, & Rashed, 2008, pp. 109e117, investi- about these factors in the study area are presented herein below. gated the radioactivity levels in granitic rocks along Idfu-Marsa Alam road. They found that the activity concentrations ranged from 2.1.1. Location À À 9.69 to 18.97 Bq kg 1 for Ra-226, from 9.99 to l7.65 Bq kg 1 for Th- Marsa Alam-Shalateen area lies along the southern Red Sea À 232 and from 298.58 to 955.78 Bq kg 1 for K40. Yousef and Saleh, coast, Egypt, 700 km from the capital Cairo. It is situated between 0 0 2013, found that the activity concentrations of Th-232 and Ra- latitude 23 07 N in the south, latitude 25 47 N in the north, the 226 and K-40 in cataclastic rock samples taken from Abu Rusheid Red sea in the east, and the Red Sea Hills in the west (Fig. 1). The area (45 km southwest of Marsa Alam) ranged from 2.40 to area runs parallel to the coast for about 370 km. Access to the area is 487.40 ppm, from 42 to 277 ppm and from 0.1% to 6.8%, respec- through a number of paved roads, such as Cairo-Halayeb interna- tively. In addition, the natural background radioactivity was tional coastal road and, Idfu- Marsa Alam road. Several thousands determined for some unconsolidated shore sediment, soil, sea of people live in the coastal urban regions (Marsa Alam and Sha- water and plant samples by El Mamoney & Khater, 2004, Abdel- lateen cities) and as inland-Bedouin communities. The main eco- Razek, Bakhit, & Nada, 2008, EL Saharty and Dar, 2008, El-Taher nomic activities of inhabitants are tourism, herding (camel and & Madkour, 2011 and Salama, 2012). sheep), fishing, mining works (such as gold, antimony and phos- It was obvious from these studies that an attention was given to phate), goods trading and craft productions. determine the natural radioactivity of the rocks, shore sediments, sea water and plant, while a little one was paid to the soil cover. 2.1.2. Climate Moreover, review the previous works revealed, also, that there is no As part of the Eastern Desert, the study area lies within the arid baseline data or information regarding the radioactivity of the belt of Egypt. It has dry-continental climate with scarce rainfall, Fig. 1. Geographic location of Marsa Alam-Shalateen area, Egypt. Please cite this article in press as: Arafat, A.