Assessment of radiological risk in tin tailing process

Abstract

This research aims to assess the radiological health risk to the workers froman amang processing plant at Kinta Valley, Perak. The gamma dose rates and activity concentrations of 238U, 232Th and 40K of the minerals from an amang processing plant at Kinta Valley, Perak after being process were measured. The direct measurements of gamma radiation dose rates were conducted by using aportable NaI(Tl) detector and the results range from 1.3 μGy h-1 to 26.7 μGy h-1. The activity concentrations of 226U, 232Th and 40K were determined by using hyper puregermanium (HPGe) detector. The activity concentrations were varied from 0.31 ±0.01 to 135.8 ± 5.9 kBq kg-1 for 232Th, 0.48 ± 0.02 to 58.8 ± 2.8 kBq kg-1 for 238U,and 0.09 ± 0.03 to 7.7 ±1.0 kBq kg-1 for 40K. Pyrite, ilmenite and waste (sand) have lower concentration of 232Th and 238U compared to raw materials after amang tailingprocess. The corresponding health risk for the annual effective dose equivalentvaried from 0.92 to 158.06 mSv with a mean of 34.8 mSv.