Measurement of gamma natural background radiation at Chamaraja Nagar, Karnataka state, India

The radioactive elements and their radiation are ubiquitous in the environment. The Influence of radiation on living organisms is imminent and very important to study. The ocean, the mountains, the air, and our food all expose us to small amounts of natural background radiation. Cosmic rays from outer space are another large contributor of natural background radiation. Much of the earth's natural background radiation is in the form of gamma radiation, a part of which comes from outer space. Some part of cosmic ray is filtered out by the presence of earth's atmosphere, so there are natural controls for the amount of radiation that people receive. The amount of radiation received by an individual depends on altitude, latitude type of building and the building construction materials. In the present study, measurements of natural background radiation were made in the temples, schools, dwellings, and hill stations in Chamaraja Nagar area, Karnataka state, India by using environmental dosimeter technique. The results show that, absorbed dose rate of background radiations at inside schools varies from 93.96 to 120.93 nGyh-1 with a standard deviation of 10.62 nGyh-1 and outside schools it varies from 60.9 to 113.1 nGyh-1 with a standard deviation of 15.1 nGyh-1. In temples, the absorbed dose rate varies from 104.4 to 244.91 nGyh-1 with a standard deviation of 48.34 nGyh-1 and outside the temples it varies from 87.9 to 176.61 nGyh-1 with a standard deviation of 30.896 nGyh-1. The absorbed dose rate of background radiations at dwellings in indoor varies from 94.0 to 139.2 nGyh-1 with a standard deviation of 16.6 nGyh-1 and in outdoor it varies from 60.9 to 118.32 nGyh-1 with a standard deviation of 19.41 nGyh-1 . The measurements were also carried out in dwellings on hill stations in Chamaraja Nagar district. Indoor gamma dose rate varies from 103.53 to 236.64 nGyh-1 with a standard deviation of 59.8 nGyh-1 and outdoor gamma dose rate varies from 78.3 to 119.63 nGyh-1 with a standard deviation of 178 nGyh-1. The results will be discussed in detail at the conference. (author)