ASSESSMENT OF RADIOACTIVITY LEVELS IN A MINING SITE OF FARIN-DUTSE TOWN OF NASARAWA STATE

ASSESSMENT OF RADIOACTIVITY LEVELS IN A MINING SITE OF   FARIN-DUTSE TOWN OF NASARAWA STATE

ABSTRACT

Assessment of radioactivity level of mining site in Farin-Dutse was carried out using radiation alert meter by direct observation method. The result shows that Zone A has the highest measurement. Although in Zone A, there are five (5) points and all have high measurement but point A₂ has the highest measurement of 0.48±0.10 which is followed by zone B, and also Zone B has 4 points while Zone B₂ has 0.37±0.12 The lowest measurement is in Zone D point D₂ and Zone Fpoint F₁ (0.15±0.02). The measurement of Zone A has the highest measurement because of the mining activities in the area, which have radioactive materials such as mineral resources.The measured value of all the locations studied in this project have their readings lower than the recommended value of 1.0mSv/wk for the general public by the international commission on radiological protection (ICRP) of 1992. Therefore Farin-Dutse town is not under any radiological threat for now. The people living in this area and other workers within the area are radio logically safe.

CHAPTER ONE

                                                            INTRODUCTION

1.1       BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY

Radioactivity has great contribution in ionizing radiation to the world population, due to its presence in surrounding at a different amount because of its natural presence. Humans are always exposed to ionizing radiation in their everyday life arising outside and inside the environment. The exposure to these radiation occurs from natural sources such as; radioactive elements in rocks and soil, internal exposure form radioactive elements through water, food and air and cosmic rays entering from outer space to earth’s atmosphere. 

Soil is one of the major sources of radiation exposure to the population and of migration for transfer of radionuclide into the environment; hence it is the basic indicator of radiological contamination. There are presences of natural radioactivity in building materials containing high activity concentration of natural radioactivity in the construction of dwellings houses (Rahman and Faheemm, 2008).

Natural radioactivity in soil is mainly due to ²³⁸U, ⁴⁰K, ²³²Th and ²²⁶Ra, which causes external and internal radiological hazards due to emission of Gamma rays and inhalation of Radon and daughters nuclides (UNSCEAR, 1988).

Gold is most famous for its use in jewelry which is mostly due to its brilliant yellow luster and its never fading beauty. As a result, it has been used to adorn buildings, artwork, and furniture. Gold is formed deep within the earth’s surface by a series of geological processes which involves extraction or mining. Radiation exposures arising in the mining and min­eral processing industries are in three ways. These are external gamma radiation from ores, inhalation of dusts containing long-lived alpha-emitting radionuclides and inhalation of the short-lived decay products of radon (UNSCEAR, 2000).

 Inhalation of radon decay products in poorly ventilated underground mines can lead to exposures in excess of current radiation exposure limits, and this could cause high incidence of lung cancer in mine workers (UNSCEAR, 2000).

Environmental problems associated with Naturally Occurring Radioactive Materials (NORM) in solid minerals mines and processing occur in the process of dril­ling, leaching, handling, storage, transportation of mineral ores and the use of contaminated equipment or waste media without controls. These usually lead to the spread of NORM contaminating the environment, resulting in potential radi­ation exposure of members of the public (Innocent and Onimisi, 2013).

 Due to the health risks associated with the exposure to NORM and inhalation of the short-lived decay products of radon, international bodies and governmental organization such as International Commission on Radio­logical Protection (ICRP, 1991) and Environmental Protection Agency (EPA, 2007) have adopted strong measures at mini­mizing such exposure.

Apart from oil exploration and drilling, mining activities have not been subjected to radiological regulatory control in Nigeria and so there is generally little or no awareness and knowledge of the radiological hazards and exposure levels to NORMs in mining areas.

This study therefore, is aimed at to assess the Radioactivity levels of mining site and surrounding areas in Farin-Dutse village of Nasarawa State.

1.2   STATEMENT OF THE RESEARCH PROBLEM

It has been established that chronic exposure to a low dose rate of mining radiation from an irradiated building has the potential to induce cytogenetic damage to human beings. This induced cytogenetic damage can cause leukemia, chromosomal breakage, bone necrosis, bone cancer, mutation of genes, cataract of the eye lens, etc. Risk of exposure to radiation from radioactive substances is sometimes ignored while great attention is paid to associated risk from only atomic and nuclear power plants. Man in his every day experience is immersed in dangerous radiation occurring naturally in the everyday human environment. Small trace of many naturally occurring radioactive materials are present in the human body (Nwankwo and Akoshile; 2005).

The concentration of the radioactive nuclide radium and thorium in rocks are very similar (Yehuwdah et al., 2010). Background radiation is a weak radiation from environment. It is a low level radiation occurring naturally as a result of radioactivity present in the air, soil and other structure.

1.3       Aim and Objectives

Aim

The aim of this project work is to assess radioactivity levels in Farin – Dutse mining site of Nasarawa state.

Objectives

The objectives of this project work are;

• To evaluate the level of radiation exposure in which the people and the mining workers in Farin-Dutse town are to.
• To established a based line data for future reference in this mining site

1.4       SCOPE OF THE RESEARCH WORK

This research work is limited to investigation of radioactivity levels, analysis and discussion of the results related to the effects of radiation man and how it can be reduced to the acceptable levels in the locations that the this investigation was carried out.

1.5       SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY

Nasarawa state is a focal point nationally and internationally because of its abundant solid minerals, such as lime stones, cobalt, salt, precious-stones, tin, etc. Mining activities cause environmental pollution; this is because most of the accessories minerals are harmful, even in low concentrations, to human beings and animals. The mining of mineral resources also facilitates the release of radioactive materials from the host materials into the environment (Agba et al., 2006) while some of these minerals used as building materials are said to be radioactive (Birkhauser, 2003). Thus any human activities in the environment that leads to the depletion of the ozone layer increases the background ionization radiation of that area as the depletion of the ozone layer means increase in the cosmic radiation that is able to reach the earth (Yehuwdah and Margaret, 2010).

CHAPTER TWO

                                                      LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1       Radiation

Radiation is the emission or transmission of energy in form of wave or particles through space or through a material medium. It is also particles emitted by radioactive substances, that is, energy emitted in the form of particle by substance such as, uranium and plutonium whose atom are not stable and are spontaneously decaying. The energy can be converted into peaceful (electrically) and harmful uses and cause serious problems to people who are expose to it.

2.1.1    Types of radiation

The ionizing potential of an atom ranges from a low electron volt (ev) for alkali elements to 24.5eV for noble gases. There are two types of radiation, these are; ionizing radiation and non-ionizing radiation and this depends on its ability to ionize matter.

Ionizing radiation: Ionizing radiation is the radiation that produces ionization and excitation in matter in which they pass through and it is very harmful to human. Examples of ionizing radiation are ultra violet rays (UV), x-rays, ultra-rays, α-particles, β-particles and neutrons.  Ionization occurs when an electron is stripped off from an electron shell of the atom, which leaves the atoms with a net positive charge. Because living cells can be damaged by this ionization, exposure to ionization radiation and electromagnetic radiation simply due to its great potential for biology damaged can destroy human tissues (Edward, 1998).

 Ionization radiation removes charge (electron) from the atom or molecules that come in contact with the radiation. It can be in the form of particulate wave or electromagnetic rays (Sadiq et al., 2010.) 

 Ionization radiation and radioactivity are found naturally within the environment and their level depends generally on the distribution of natural radio nuclide within the environment. Human activities involving mining, the uses and processing of radionuclide or items which contains radionuclide can enhance the levels of environment ionizing radiation (Inyang et al., 2009). 

The specific levels of terrestrial environmental radiation are related to the composition of each separated area and to the content of the rock from which the soil originated (Diab et al., 2008).

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