Radiological Characterization of Natural Spring Waters in Eastern Black Sea Region, Turkey

Abstract

The activity concentrations of 226Ra, 232Th, 40K and 137Cs radionuclides in the natural spring waters of the Eastern Black Sea region of Turkey were measured using gamma-ray spectrometry. The mean specific activities of the radionuclides in the samples were 52, 23, 379 and 24 mBq/L–1, respectively. The overall annual effective dose from all measured radionuclides was much below the World Health Organization (WHO, Geneva Switzerland) recommended reference level of 0.1 mSv.y−1 for drinking water consumption. Gross α and β activities ranged from 1 to 188 mBq/L−1 and from 3 to 91 mBq/L−1, respectively. Concentrations of elements in waters were also measured by inductively coupled plasma-optical emission spectrometry. An analysis of variance and Pearson correlation analysis were performed for radioactivity and elemental analysis. This study provides background values of investigated nucleotides in the water from the region, which could also be useful in forensic investigations to distinguish potential contributions from point pollution sources.