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Monitoring geothermal springs and groundwater of Pir Panjal, Jammu and Kashmir, for radon contamination

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Abstract

Hot water springs and bore wells/hand-pumps were investigated to quantify radon and uranium levels in Rajouri area of the Pir Panjal. Scintillation-based radon monitor was employed for radon-222 detection while as LED Flourimetric technique was used to detect uranium-238 concentration. The radon-222 levels, found in the study area, are much higher than the limits prescribed by regulatory agencies like United States Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA). Some of the samples exceeded the allowed limits of 100 Bq L−1 set by World Health Organisation while none of the samples lied within the prescribed level of 11 Bq L−1 prescribe by USEPA.

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Acknowledgements

We appreciate the prodigious efforts of Zubair Salafi and Adil Rashid for their expeditious support to carry out field investigation. The authors express gratitude to the editor and the three anonymous reviewers for their comments on the earlier version of the manuscript that greatly improved the structure and content of this manuscript. A sincere thank you to Nidhi Jacob and Zabirah Fazili for their meticulous proofreading of this manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Physics, University of Kashmir, Hazratbal, J&K, 190006, India

    Salik Nazir, Shakeel Simnani & Sajad Masood

  2. Radiation Safety Systems Division, Health Physics Division, Bhabha Atomic Research Centre, Trombay, Mumbai, 400085, India

    B. K. Sahoo & Rosaline Mishra

  3. Department of Physics, Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar, Punjab, 143005, India

    Tanu Sharma

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  1. Salik Nazir
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Contributions

SN and SS designed the research plan and wrote the manuscript with contributions from BKS, RM, TS and SM. SN carried out all the radioactive surveys. SN and TS analysed the samples. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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Correspondence to Shakeel Simnani.

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Nazir, S., Simnani, S., Sahoo, B.K. et al. Monitoring geothermal springs and groundwater of Pir Panjal, Jammu and Kashmir, for radon contamination. J Radioanal Nucl Chem 326, 1915–1923 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10967-020-07451-8

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