Radioactivity levels in some sediment samples from Red Sea and Baltic Sea

Levels of 226,228Ra, 232Th, 210Pb, 210Po and 40K in sediments from four monitoring areas, El Hamraween and Ras El Behar (Red Sea (Egypt)) and LL3A and JML (Baltic Sea (Finland)), have been investigated using alpha and gamma spectrometry. The average activity concentrations were 238±4 Bq kg-1 ( 226Ra), 215±11 Bq kg-1 ( 210Pb) and 311±18 Bq kg-1 ( 210Po) for El Hamraween area. In Ras El Behar area, the corresponding values were 16±0.4, 18±1 and 20±5 Bq kg-1, respectively. The activity concentrations for 226Ra, 210Pb and 210Po (uranium series) in El Hamraween bottom sediment are much high compared with those in Ras El Behar area, which indicates the enhanced levels due to the activities of phosphate mining and shipment operations in El Hamraween area. Excluding the influence of phosphate mining activities, it can be concluded that the levels of radioactivity in Baltic Sea sediments are higher than those in Red Sea sediments. (authors)