Speaker
Mr
Foued Gharbi
(UR-MTDN, National Center of Nuclear Sciences and Technolgies)
Description
The radioactivity concentrations of 226Ra, 232Th and 40K in different phosphate
fertilizers, triple superphosphate (TSP), diammonium phosphate (DAP),
monoammonium phosphate (MAP) and in phosphoric acids produced and used in the agricultural soils in Tunisia were measured. Other exported and used phosphate fertilizers in the country were also subject of radioactivity concentrations measurement and they consisted in some NPKs. Gamma spectrometry using a high purity germanium (HPGe) detector was used for the measurement. It was found that generally the Tunisian fertilizers contain the highest activity concentrations with the exceptions of 40K. TSP contains the highest concentration of 226Ra (186.2 14.5 Bq/kg) and of 232Th (33.7 3.5 Bq/kg). The highest amount of 40K was found in one type of NPK (9969.5 Bq/kg). The radium equivalent index was calculated for all the analysed fertilizers and was found to be the highest in the imported NPKs samples (the maximum value was about 775 Bq/kg) because of their high content in 40K. For the Tunisian fertilizers the maximum radium equivalent index was about 238 Bq/kg in TSP.
Primary author
Mr
Foued Gharbi
(UR-MTDN, National Center of Nuclear Sciences and Technolgies)
Co-authors
Mr
Adel Trabelsi
(UR-MTDN, National Center of Nuclear Sciences and Technolgies)
Mr
Malik Bentekaya
(UR-MTDN, National Center of Nuclear Sciences and Technolgies)
Mr
Mansour Oueslati
(UR-MTDN, National Center of Nuclear Sciences and Technolgies)
Mrs
Souad Baccouche
(UR-MTDN, National Center for Nuclear Sciences and Technology, Pole Technologique, 2020 Sidi Thabet. Tunisia)
Wahid Abdelli
(UR-MTDN, National Center of Nuclear Sciences and Technolgies)
