Natural radionuclides in soil profiles surrounding the largest coal-fired power plant in Serbia

Abstract

This study evaluates the influence of the largest Serbian coal-fired power plant on radionuclide concentrations in soil profiles up to 50 cm in depth. Thirty soil profiles were sampled from the plant surroundings (up to 10 km distance) and analyzed using standard methods for soil physicochemical properties and gamma ray spectrometry for specific activities of natural radionuclides (40K, 226Ra and 232Th). Spatial and vertical distribution of radionuclides was determined and analyzed to show the relations between the specific activities in the soil and soil properties and the most influential factors of natural radionuclide variability were identified. The radiological indices for surface soil were calculated and radiological risk assessment was performed. The measured specific activities were similar to values of background levels for Serbia. The sampling depth did not show any significant influence on specific activities of natural radionuclides. The strongest predictor of specific activities of the investigated radionuclides was soil granulometry. All parameters of radiological risk assessment were below the recommended values and adopted limits. It appears that the coal-fired power plant does not have a significant impact on the spatial and vertical distribution of natural radionuclides in the area of interest, but technologically enhanced natural radioactivity as a consequence of the plant operations was identified within the first 1.5 km from the power plant. [Projekat Ministarstva nauke Republike Srbije br. III43009 i br. III41005]

Analysis of specific radionuclides activity variations in soil within geotectonic units of Republic of North Macedonia

“…The global re searches also in clude in ves ti ga tion of ter res trial ra dio ac tiv ity in dif fer ent ar eas of the Balkan re gion. Some of the re cent stud ies are gen er ally related to es tab lish ing the back ground: ra dio ac tiv ity in soil, col lected from the ter ri to ries of: Ser bia [1]; Western Ser bia [2]; Ser bian spas [3,4]; Kastela Bay, Croatia [5]; Bosna and Herzegovina [6]; ru ral ar eas of Kosovo and Metohija [7]; Ad di tional pur poses are to dis cover anom a lies of geogenic radionuclides in the sur round ing of the larg est coal-fired power plant in Ser bia [8] and at the site of a closed Bul gar ian ura nium mine [9]. In the Re pub lic of North Mac e do nia, an inten sive cam paign for the ra dio ac tive back ground deter mi na tion be gan in 2008.…”

Environmental Impacts of Coal-Mining and Coal-Fired Power-Plant Activities in a Developing Country with Global Context

“…Along with the potentially toxic HMs, fly ash also contains radionuclides including 40 (Ozden et al 2018;Hower et al 2016;Papaefthymiou et al 2013;Sahu et al 2014Sahu et al , 2017Amin et al 2013;Baeza et al 2012;Papastefanou 2010;Mandal andSengupta 2003, 2005) (Table 24.10). During the technogenic process(es) of coal combustion, NORMs are fractionated in gaseous and solid combustion products and are released to and accumulated in the surrounding environmental compartments (Noli et al 2017;Barescut et al 2011;Galhardi et al 2017a, b;Tanic et al 2016;Liu et al 2012a, b;Ćujić et al 2015Campaner et al 2018 24.10) (Habib et al 2019b) which are relatively higher compared to those in the world mean value (UNSCEAR 2010) but the X-ray diffractometer and microscopic studies invoke that the elevated levels of radioactivities are mostly governed by the occurrence of monazite, zircon, kaolinite, Illite, and rutile minerals in the soil specimens compared to that of technogenic contributions from the BTPP (Habib et al 2019b).…”

Elemental composition of moss and lichen species in eastern Serbia

“…As al ready mentioned, thu lium is of ten found with min er als that contain gad o lin ium, so the re la tion ship of the el e ments in the moss com po si tion is most likely a re flec tion of the soil char ac ter is tics. A fu ture study of the el e men tal com po si tion in biomonitors should also in clude an anal y sis of the soil sam ple com po si tion hence a sig nifi cance of dif fer ent in flu enc ing pa ram e ters, in clud ing pol lu tion sources, could be re solved [25,59,63].…”