Assessment of the radiation situation in the territory of the Saumalkol village, located near the mothballed uranium mine of the North Kazakhstan region

Abstract

For the first time after the mothballing of the uranium mine, comprehensive studies were carried out to assess the radiation situation in the territory of the Saumalkol settlement in the North Kazakhstan region. On the territory of the Saumalkol settlement, pedestrian and automobile gamma surveys were carried out, the rates of the ambient equivalent dose of gamma radiation, the flux density of α and β particles and the equivalent equilibrium volumetric activity of daughter products of 222Rn and 220Rn isotopes in residential premises were measured. Samples of soil, water and bottom sediments were taken for laboratory radio spectrometric and radiochemical analyzes. At all measurement points, geographic coordinates were determined using a satellite navigation device. On the territory of the abandoned mine and in some areas of the Saumalkol settlement, anomalous areas with a high value of gamma radiation power from 0.35 to 1.08 µSv/h were revealed. In the residential premises of the Saumalkol village, the equivalent equilibrium volumetric activity of daughter products of radon isotopes is up to 8 times higher than the norm (200 Bq/m3).