Determination of the Uranium Content in Some Soil Samples From Ajaokuta, Kogi State: Nigeria

Abstract

This work present the Uranium (238U) content in soil samples collected in Ajaokuta from some villages was been determined. The measurement of the soil Uranium activity concentration were made using a multi–channel pulse height analyzer (Camberra series 10 plus) coupled to a 76.2mm x 76.2mm NaI (TI) scintillation detector. 2.93)The mean Uranium content in the analyzed samples was found to be (44.26 Bq/kg which is higher than the world mean value of 35Bq/kg. The results were in good agreement with others for soils from region which is considered as normal or slightly high in radioactivity level.

Occurrence of uranium, thorium and rare earth elements in the environment: A review

“…However, uranium, thorium, and REE levels of 630, 75, and 56500 mg kg −1 , respectively, have been detected in various surface soils, with the highest levels measured in some areas of the United States of America, Bulgaria, and China (Neves et al, 2009;Caldwell et al, 2012;Mihaylova et al, 2013;Sadeghi et al, 2013;Wang and Liang, 2015;Fiket et al, 2016;Ramos et al, 2016;Han et al, 2017;Brito et al, 2018;Kaishwa et al, 2018;Santos-Francés et al, 2018;Arome et al, 2019;Wang et al, 2019a;Freitas Rodrigo et al, 2021;Wang et al, 2022;Table 5). In sediments, U, Th, and REE values of up to 126, 12, and 4000 mg kg −1 , respectively, were detected, with the highest values measured in some areas of Malaysia, Thailand, and Japan (Zhu et al, 1997;Munksgaard et al, 2003;Borrego et al, 2005;Marmolejo-Rodríguez et al, 2007;Prego et al, 2009;Tranchida et al, 2011;Deepulal et al, 2012;Antonina et al, 2013;Kritsananuwat et al, 2014;Cordeiro et al, 2016;Sahu et al, 2016;Fiket et al, 2018b;Brito et al, 2018;El-Taher et al, 2018;El-Taher et al, 2019;Elias et al, 2019;Nascimento et al, 2019;Sivasamandy et al, 2019;Bergmann and Graça, 2020;Tanaka et al, 2020;Wu et al, 2020...…”

“…Although some sources are associated with nearby ore deposits (e.g., Neves et al, 2009;Mihaylova et al, 2013;Kaishwa et al, 2018;Wang et al, 2019a) or secondary sources of these elements, such as the remains of the phosphorus fertilizer industry (Brito et al, 2018) or coal ash deposits (Fiket et al, 2018a), elevated U, Th, or REE concentrations in soils and sediments can also be attributed to other influences, such as the impact of steel mills (Arome et al, 2019), different agricultural practices (Han et al, 2017), or mining areas for other commodities (Pereirada et al, 2022). For example, soils in the gold mining region of the Amazon were found to be contaminated with REEs, with Y being most abundant in urban, agricultural, and mining areas and enriched in soil by a factor of 18.2, 39.0, and 44.4, respectively (Pereirada et al, 2022).…”

“…Due to industrial emissions, leaching of minerals, soils, and industrial wastes (e.g., coal ash, red mud, cement, and metal wastes, e-waste, used catalysts, etc. ), the natural concentrations of these elements are increasing in various environmental compartments (e.g., Neves et al, 2009;Erickson, 2018;Arome et al, 2019;Wang et al, 2019b;Li Z et al, 2019;Piarulli et al, 2021;Pereirada et al, 2022). This increase highlights the need to understand not only their sources, but also their fate, mobility, and toxicity in the environment, especially in contaminated areas.…”