Natural radionuclide concentrations in two phosphate ores of east Algeria.

Ore is considered as an important source of many elements such as the iron, phosphorus, and uranium. Concerning the natural radionuclides, their concentrations vary from an ore to other depending on the chemical composition of each site. In this work, two phosphate ores found in East of Algeria have been chosen to assess the activity concentration of natural radionuclides represented mainly by three natural radioactive series (238)U, (235)U and (232)Th, and the primordial radionuclide (40)K where they were determined using ultra-low background, high-resolution gamma-ray spectroscopy. The measured activity concentrations of radioactive series ranged from 6.2 +/- 0.4 to 733 +/- 33 Bq.kg(-1) for the (232)Th series, from 249 +/- 16 to 547 +/- 39 Bq.kg(-1) for the (238)U series, around 24.2 +/- 2.5 Bq.kg(-1) for the (235)U series, and from 1.4 +/- 0.2 to 6.7 +/- 0.7 Bq.kg(-1) for (40)K. To assess exposure to gamma radiation in the two ores, from specific activities of (232)Th, (40)K and (226)Ra, three indexes were determined: Radium equivalent (Ra(eq)), external and internal hazard indexes (H(ex) and H(in)), their values ranged from 831 +/- 8 to 1298 +/- 14 Bq.kg(-1) for Ra(eq), from 2.2 +/- 0.4 to 3.5 +/- 0.7 Bq.kg(-1) for H(ex), and from 4.2 +/- 0.7 to 4.5 +/- 0.7 Bq.kg(-1) for H(in). Copyright (c) 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.