Estimating Radioactivity in Various Types of Milk using NaI (Tl) detector

In this research, uranium (238U), thorium ,(232Th) and potassium (40K) specific activity in (Bq/kg) were measured in 10 different types of milk that are available in iraqi markets. The gamma spectrometry method with a NaI(Tl) detector has been used for radiometric measurements. Also we have calculated the radiation hazard indices (radium equivalent activity and internal hazard index) and ingestion effective dose in all samples. It is found that the specific activity in milk samples were varied from (0.274±0.158) Bq/kg to (7.851±0.877) Bq/kg, for 238U, for 232Th from (0.821±0.273) Bq/kg to (3.067±0.569) Bq/kg and for 40K from (266.558±5.018) Bq/kg to (485.740±7.197) Bq/kg. Also, it is found that the radium equivalent activity and internal hazard index in milk samples ranged from (27.341) Bq/kg to (48.035) Bq/kg and from (0.07867) to (0.14720) respectively. But the range of summation of the ingestion effective dose were varied from (4.861×10^-5) Sv/y to (1.541× 10^-4) Sv/y. This study proves that the natural radioactivity, radiation hazard indices and ingestion effective dose were lower than the safe, except the some value of potassium.