Authors : Zahraa A. Ismail AL-Sudani and Sawsan Sh. Fleifil
Abstract: Bricks as building materials contain radionuclides. Primordial radionuclides in building materials are one of the sources of the radiation hazards in dwellings made of these materials. It is therefore important to determine the uranium levels in bricks for public health and radiation protection. The natural uranium concentrations of brick samples which collected from18 brick factories at 7 various areas of Misan province were measured using Kinetic Phosphorescence Analyzer (KPA-11) and an annual effective dose of the brick samples were calculated. The results showed that, the natural uranium concentrations ranged from the 0.692-46.481 mg kg-1 with a mean value of 9.403 mg kg-1 and the annual effective dose ranged from the 0.0000052-0.00162 mSv y-1 with a mean value of 0.000391 mSv y-1. The obtained results showed that all brick samples contained uranium concentrations with various rates and the annual effective dose of gamma rays that resulted from the dissolution of uranium isotopes in brick samples were less than the total gamma rays dose which is 0.5 mSv y-1. That is part of the total average annual doses of radiation from all natural sources of radiation, 2.4 mSv y-1.
Zahraa A. Ismail AL-Sudani and Sawsan Sh. Fleifil, 2019. Determination of Uranium Concentrations in Brick Samples from Misan Province-Iraq using Kinetic Phosphorescence Analyzer (KPA). Journal of Engineering and Applied Sciences, 14: 10380-10384.