Measurement of Radon Concentration in Water Sources around Ririwai Artisanal Tin Mine Kano State, Nigeria

Abstract

In this work liquid scintillation analysis was used to measure the concentration of ²²²Rn in three sources of water around Ririwai Artisanal Tin mine. The annual effective dose due to ²²²Rn concentration in surface water source and Domestic water were also determined. The result shows that the tailing bearing water has the highest ²²²Rn concentration of 3.04±0.14 Bq/L followed by surface water source with ²²²Rn concentration of 2.51±0.13 Bq/L while the Domestic water has the lowest ²²²Rn concentration of 2.23±0.11 Bq/L. The results also indicated that the annual effective dose due to the ²²²Rn concentration is higher in surface water with 13.05±0.55 mSv/year than in Domestic water with 11.11 ± 0.44mSv/year. The mean ²²²Rn concentration obtained in this work is lower than 10.00Bq/L recommended by WHO and UNSCEAR. Also in this study the annual effective dose obtained is lower than the maximum permissible of 0.1mSv/year recommended by UNSCEAR.

Keywords: Radionuclide, activity concentration and annual effective dose