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Effect of natural radionuclide’s in the environment along the Jwalamukhi thrust of Himachal Pradesh, North West Himalayas, India

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Abstract

This research paper is devoted to measure the activity contents of natural radionuclide, like, radium (226Ra), thorium (232Th) and potassium (40K) in the soil gathered along the Jwalamukhi thrust of Himachal Pradesh, North Western Himalayas, India. NaI(Tl) Scintillator detector was utilized for the estimation of activity content. The activity concentration of 226Ra, 232Th and 40K for some of the soil samples have been observed to be above the global normal mean values. The outcomes acquired for indoor and outdoor effective dosage are well below the normal international and national proposed results. The determined values of external hazard (Hex) for studied locations are less than unity, therefore; samples assembled from these regions are safe from a health hazard point of view and can be utilized as a construction purposes without producing any radio-logical hazard to human beings. The average estimations of radium equivalent activity were found to be within the limits suggested by Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). Radon (222Rn) and thoron (220Rn) exhalation rates have also been calculated and discussed.

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Data availability

We declare that all data used in this manuscript are available on (a) the supplementary information and (b) articles published and submitted for publication by the authors, listed on the references and available to the editor and reviewers during the review process and request.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Physics, Career point university, Hamirpur, HP, India

    Naveen Thakur & Reetika Bhadwal

  2. Government Degree College Padhar, Mandi, HP, India

    Jitender Kumar

  3. Department of Physics, Dr. B.R. Ambedkar National Institute of Technology, Jalandhar, India

    Manpreet Kaur & Rohit Mehra

  4. Department of Physics, DAV College Amritsar, Amritsar, India

    Manpreet Kaur & Ajay Kumar

Authors
  1. Naveen Thakur
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  2. Reetika Bhadwal
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  3. Jitender Kumar
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  4. Manpreet Kaur
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  5. Rohit Mehra
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  6. Ajay Kumar
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Contributions

NT and RB contributed to conceptualization, collection of samples, data curation, investigation, methodology, resources, writing orginal draft. JK and MK contributed to writing- review and editing and formal analysis. RM and AK contributed to resources, formulated the paper and data analysis.

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Correspondence to Ajay Kumar.

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Thakur, N., Bhadwal, R., Kumar, J. et al. Effect of natural radionuclide’s in the environment along the Jwalamukhi thrust of Himachal Pradesh, North West Himalayas, India. Environ Geochem Health 44, 1783–1793 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10653-021-01103-w

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