Radioactivity distributions in soils from three central districts of Bangladesh and their radiological consequences

Radionuclides in soil creates a significant amount of background radiation and also responsible for food chain contamination. That's why fifteen soil samples collected from three central districts of Bangladesh have been evaluated using High Purity Germanium (HPGe) detector. Activity concentration were found in the range of 9.88 to 86.95 Bq kg^-1 for ²³⁸U, 24.07 to 178.07 Bq kg^-1 for ²³²Th and 68.01 to 792.68 Bq kg^-1 for 40K. Artificial radionuclide ¹³⁷Cs was not found in this study. Radium equivalent activity (Ra_eq), gamma absorbed dose rate (D), external hazard index (H_ex) and annual effective dose rate (D_eff) were found 147.47 Bq kg^-1, 68.064 nGyh^-1, 0.404 and 83.46 μSv respectively, which shows that soils of the study area is radiologically safe. (author)