Analysis of the Spectrum of Gamma-Rays Emitted from Sand by Using a High Purity Germanium Detector with an Electric Field

In this study, the spectrum due to radioactivity contained sand samples from famous beaches on the east coast of Gangwon-do was measured. The sand samples were seven famous beaches in Gangwon-do and were placed into a high-purity germanium detector (HPGe) using with an electric field, which is a semiconductor detector and subjected to a precision analysis of the gamma-rays emitted from the radionuclides in the sand by using a multichannel analyzer (MCA). To measure the concentration of the radionuclides, we obtained a spectrum by analyzing the gamma-rays emitted from the radionuclides for a measurement time of 8,000 seconds. The results show that of all the radionuclides, Tl-208 had the highest radioactivity at five of the seven beaches which K-40 had the highest radioactivity at the other two beaches. In conclusion, the radionuclides that were detected in the coastal sand samples from South Korea's East Coast are natural radionuclides; however, they can affect of the human body internally. Therefore, the radioactivity levels need to be reduced and to be investigate further.