Natural radioactivity and dose assessment for phosphate rocks from Wadi El-Mashash and El-Mahamid Mines, Egypt

Exhalation of 222Rn from phosphogypsum piles located at the Southwest of Spain

“…These data imply that the soil in parcel 9 is a mixture of typical soil in the upper and PG below. The average activity concentrations in soil reported by UNSCEAR (1988) Papastefanou et al (2006) and Abbady et al (2005), the 226 Ra activity concentrations in other countries ranged from 5022 Bq kg À1 in phosphate rocks of Tanzania (Arusha) to 10 Bq kg À1 for Finland. The 40 K is reported to vary from about 329.4 Bq kg À in phosphate rock from Egypt (W. El-Mahamid) to 4 Bq kg À1 in Taiba-Togo (Guimond and Hardin, 1989).…”

“…Investigations have reported a wide variation in the concentrations of radionuclides in phosphate rocks (Guimond and Windham, 1975;Pfister et al, 1976;Khater et al, 2001;Ahmed and El-Arabi, 2005;Abbady et al, 2005). Sedimentary phosphate rocks typically contain high 238 U concentrations (about 50e100 times higher than typical soils) and low 232 Th activities, and are sourced from various places in the world (Morocco, Egypt, Florida, Senegal, Togo etc.)…”

Assessment of radioactive pollution around a fertilizer factory complex in the North-Eastern part of Bangladesh

“…The presence of elevated levels of Ra, Th and K in fertilizer and in environmental (soil and water) samples around a fertilizer factory complex has been established in several previous studies (OlszewskaWasiolek, 1995;Alam et al, 1997;Khan et al, 1998;Righi et al, 2000;Khater et al, 2001;Bolivar et al, 2002;Ogunleye et al, 2002;El-Bahi et al, 2004;Abbady et al, 2005;Ahmed and El-Arabi, 2005;Saueia et al, 2005;Conceicao and Bonotto, 2006;El-Arabi et al, 2007;El-Aydarous, 2007;Ferdoas et al, 2007; ASSESSMENT OF RADIOACTIVE POLLUTION AROUND A FERTILIZER FACTORY COMPLEX Mourad et al, 2009). The general goal of many studies was to assess the environmental radioactive pollution and radiological impacts caused by a production plant of phosphate fertilizers (Alam et al, 1997;Ogunleye et al, 2002;Abbady et al, 2005;Ahmed and El-Arabi, 2005;Righi et al, 2005;Saueia and Mazzilli, 2006). Also, the assessment of fluoride and heavy metal pollution caused by such a plant was the objective of many investigations (El-Bahi et al, 2004;Wang et al, 2005;Loganathan et al, 2007).…”

Natural radioactivity and environmental risk assessment of Sokoto phosphate rock, Northwest Nigeria

“…It is widely believed that the radioactivity associated with phosphate rocks of sedimentary origin is formed by the adsorption and co-precipitation of uranium with calcium (Khater et al, 2001). Phosphate ores are found to occur as phosphorites, [Ca 3 (Po 4 ) 2 ], which are very old marine deposits associated with fossils; and apatite, Ca 5 [(Po 4 ) 3 (F)], which is of igneous origin (Schmidt, 1993;OSPARCOM, 1997;Abbady et al, 2005). van Straaten (2002), reported that sedimentary marine phosphate rock deposits accounts for about 75% of the world's phosphate source, which according to Okosun (1989), makes it a great economic base that provides most of the raw materials for the manufacture of phosphate fertilizers and phosphorus based chemicals Mining and processing of phosphate rock and its use in the manufacturing industry, redistributes the radioactive trace elements and 238 U and its decay products throughout the environment and also in the final products, thereby enhancing the concentrations of natural radionuclides in the end products and wastes of the phosphate industry.…”

“…Saueia et al (2005) undertook similar investigation for phosphate rock, phosphogypsum and phosphate fertilizers in Brazil. Abbady et al (2005), studied the natural radioactivity and dose assessment for phosphate rocks from Wadi El-Mashash and El-Mahamid Mines in Egypt. Cevik et al (2010), reported the radiological, structural and chemical characteristics of Mardin-Mazidagi phosphate rock in Turkey.…”