Radiometric hazard assessment of soil and water samples adjacent to Bangladesh's first nuclear power plant before commissioning: Insights into human health and environmental radiological dynamics.

The current study provides a comprehensive examination of both natural and anthropogenic activity concentrations found in soil and surface water samples near the Rooppur nuclear power plant (RNPP), the first of its kind under construction in Bangladesh. The investigation covers a range of activity concentrations including ²²⁶ Ra, ²³² Th, and ⁴⁰ K in fifty soil and fifty water samples, revealing values ranging from 18 to 38, 18-51, and 310-560 Bqkg ^-1 for soil, and 2.1-6.1, 2.1-5.5, and 67-115 Bqkg ^-1 for water, respectively. Although outdoor absorbed dose rate, outdoor effective dose, and gamma representative level index values in some soil samples exceed global averages, other radiological hazard parameters such as radium equivalent activity, annual effective dose, external and internal hazard indices, and lifetime carcinogenic risk for both soil and water samples consistently remain below safety thresholds established by international organizations. These findings indicate that the soil and water samples collected from the vicinity of the RNPP do not pose significant radiological hazards to the nearby populations. This study's comprehensive dataset is anticipated to play a crucial role in facilitating the identification and evaluation of any changes in environmental radioactivity, thereby assisting in the effective management and regulation of nuclear power plant activities in the years to come.
Competing Interests: The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.
(© 2024 The Authors.)