Natural radioactivity in tap waters from the private wells in the surroundings of the former Žirovski Vrh uranium mine and the age-dependent dose assessment.

Activity concentration of (238)U, (234)U, (226)Ra, (228)Ra, (210)Pb and (210)Po in tap water from selected springs and private wells in the area of the former uranium mine at Žirovski Vrh were determined. A total of 22 tap water samples were collected at consumer's houses. The results show that the activity concentrations of uranium in water samples are in range (0.17-372) and (0.22-362) mBq L(-1) for (238)U and (234)U, respectively. Radium activity concentrations are in range (0.14-16.7) and (0.9-11.7) mBq L(-1) for (226)Ra and (228)Ra, respectively. (210)Po activity concentration is in range (0.28-8.0) mBq L(-1) and can be regarded as the lowest amongst all analysed radionuclides. The range for (210)Pb is (0.5-24.6) mBq L(-1). Based on the results obtained for activity concentrations of six radionuclides, the committed effective dose for three different age groups of population were estimated. It was found that the committed effective dose was well below the recommended value of 100 μSv year(-1), ranging from 2.3 to 34.3 μSv year(-1) for adults, from 3.5 to 32.0 μSv year(-1) for children (7-12 years) and from 3.0 to 23.3 μSv year(-1) for infants.