Distribution of some natural and artificial radionuclides in the environment of coastal Karnataka of south India

Coastal Karnataka, which is an important region of the south-west coast of India, is poised to become a region of major industrial activity with the construction of nuclear and thermal power stations, oil refineries and petrochemical complexes. This is in addition to existing chemical and fertilizer factories and a host of other industries. Systematic studies on radiation levels and radionuclide distributions in the environment of this region were undertaken to provide baseline data on the radiation levels for future assessment of the impact of these industrial activities and to throw light on the basic aspects of transportation of radionuclides in the environment and their uptake by vegetation species. The activities of 40K, 226Ra, 210Po, 210Pb, 228Ra, 137Cs and 90Sr were determined in a number of environmental samples of the region by employing well established nuclear techniques and standard radiochemical methods. The internal dose to the population of the region from ingestion of different radionuclides was estimated. The results of these systematic investigations, which form the first ever report on the radionuclide distribution of coastal Karnataka, are presented and discussed in this paper.