Determination of the Natural Radiation Level: An example from Campus Area of Gumushane University (Between October and November, 2011)

Abstract

The basic aim of environmental radiation measurements is to evaluate the assignment of radiation dose which the people take from the environmental resources, and the risk of health likely to be originated from it. In order to achieve this, it is necessary to determine separately the condensation of radionuclides in the environmental media forming the natural radiation resources and the contribution of that to the total radiation dose being exposed by the people. In this study, 45 measurements in total were taken each day between the dates 17th October - 30th November in front of Gümüşhane University Faculty of Engineering. These measurements were made by the students of Geophysics Department using 512-channal Gamma Ray Spectrometer device and Total Dose rate and Effective Dose rate values were identified. As a result of the calculations made by using effective dose rate values, annual equivalent dose rate values were found as average of 0.94 mSv/year betwen October and November. World average of annual effective dose value obtained from the natural resources was reported as 2.42 mSv/year. When the measured effective dose rate values were considered, it was seen that the results were under the world average level and that they did not have any disease-making effect on human health.

Keywords: Gümüşhane, Gamma-Ray Spectrometer, Natural Radiation, Annual Equivalent Dose Rate, Effective Dose Rate.