Estimation of radioactivity content in beach sands of Kanyakumari Coast, Tamil Nadu

The distribution of radioactive nuclides in different environmental matrices of high background areas were undertaken in the beach sands of the coastal areas from Muttom to Midalam. Results of the Gamma ray spectrometric measurements carried out for natural radioactivity levels due to 226Ra, 232Th and 40K in the beach sand samples. These studies were carried out during the period of March to April 2010 in the Health Physics Unit of BARC located in the campus of Indian Rare Earths Limited, Manavalakurichy in Tamil Nadu. The natural radioactivity concentration in the samples were measured using a NaI(Tl) based Gamma ray spectrometer. The activities of 226Ra , 232Th, 238U and 40K in the beach sand samples varied from (380-5227)Bq/Kg, (312-12798)Bq/Kg, (58-529)Bq/Kg and (24-429)Bq/Kg respectively. The results of these investigations are presented and discussed in this paper in detail. (author)