Natural radioactivity measurements and age-dependent dose assessment in groundwater from Al-Zulfi, Al-Qassim and Al-Majmaah regions, Saudi Arabia

In this study, the levels of natural radioactivity in the groundwater samples collected from 26 different locations in Al-Zulfi, Al-Qassim and Al-Majmaah regions were determined. The estimated average values of ²²⁶Ra, ²²⁸Ra, ⁴⁰K, gross α and gross β activities in the samples were 0.87 Bq L^-1, 1.33 Bq L^-1, 4.22 Bq L^-1, 36.82 mBq L^-1 and 831.91 mBq L^-1, respectively. We found that age-dependent effective ingestion dose from radionuclides in all samples were higher than WHO recommended levels of 0.1 µSv y^-1 for adults 0.2 µSv y^-1 for children and 0.26 µSv y^-1 for infants while 20 sampling locations have age-dependent effective dose equivalent from β contributors were higher than WHO recommended level of 0.1 mSv y^-21. (author)