The determination of gross alpha and gross beta activity levels and element concentrations in thermal waters in the Siirt

Determination of metal levels and the gross α and β activity concentrations in the thermal waters of Billoris-Siirt, Bostancık (şemsimira)–Siirt, Kuğa (Çırpılı)-Eruh, Kever (Çetinkol)–Eruh, Memira (Görendoruk)-Eruh spas in Siirt province and Hesta Süleyman-Güçlükonak, Hesta Belkısana-Güçlükonak sapas in Şırnak were measured by MPC-9604 multi-detector α / βcounting system. Ranges of activity concentrations found were from 0.03 to 5.648 Bq L-1 for gross a and from 0.04 to 2.76 Bq L-1 for gross β. The ranges of minimum detectable concentrations for gross α(0.03-0.05 Bq L-1) and for gross β (0.04-0.15 BqL-1) were obtained. Gross α and β activity concentrations found in samples were compared with the recommended guidelines of the World Health Organization and the Turkish Standards, and literature values. Na, Mg, Al, Si, S, K, Ca, Mn, Fe, Rb, Sr, Cl, Br, P, Cr, Ni, Cu, Zn and U metal levels in these thermal ground waters were also determined by using wavelength dispersive X-ray fluorescence spectrometry. The chemometric techniques of principal component analysis (PCA) and cluster analysis (CA) were used for the classification studies of spas. It was found that tree principal components account for 90.97% of the total variance in the data.