Measurement and analysis of radioactivity in environmental samples with alpha and gamma spectroscopy

All living organisms are exposed to radiation from natural and artificial radionuclides throughout their lives. The most significant part of natural radioactivity after radon gas arises from the 238U, 232Th and 40K nuclides in the soil. The most important source of artificial radioactivity is the 137Cs nuclide which is the result of the nuclear fallout caused by nuclear accidents and weapons. People are also exposed to internally a certain radiation dose from the foodstuffs. A source of this dose is the 210Po nuclide which is one of the uranium decay products. In this thesis, 210Po specific activity concentrations for 13 different types of fish and 3 mussels consumed in the Prince Islands, İstanbul were analysed by Alpha Spectroscopy after the samples were seperated by radiochemical analysis. In addition, the activity concentrations of 238U, 232Th, 40K natural nuclides and anthropogenic 137Cs nuclide in 56 soil and beach sand samples collected from the same regions were determined by using Gamma Spectroscopy. Gamma doses in air were measured with portable gamma detector. For all nuclides, annual internal and external dose equivalents were calculated for the people living in this region.