Radiological characterization of phosphate fertilizers: Comparison between alpha and gamma spectrometry

摘要

The natural radioactivity in phosphate fertilizers used in central Italy has been measured by alpha and gamma spectrometry. The results show that the specific activities of U-238, U-234 and U-235 ranged within interval from <0.5 to 2628.8, from <05 to 2826.3 and from <0.9 to 138.0 Bq kg(-1) respectively and those of Pb-210 and Po-210 ranged within interval from <15.0 to 401.5 and <0.5 to 351.6 Bq kg(-1) respectively. The Th-228. Th-230 and Th-232 concentrations found by alpha spectrometry ranged from <0.5 to 50.2, from 0.9 to 2727.2 and from <05 to 60.8 Bq kg(-1) respectively. Ra-226 and Ra-228 activity concentrations ranged from <14.3 to 290.9 and from <2.9 to 24.9 respectively. K-40 specific activities ranged from 39.2 to 8263.7 Bq kg(-1). A very good correlation exists between the activity concentrations found by alpha spectrometry and those found by gamma spectrometry.