Study of environmental radioactivity in Las Canteras beach

Abstract

In this final degree work an assessment of the impact of environmental radioactivity, mainly on bathers of the most important beach in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria (Las Canteras), has been done. For this purpose, the main radionuclides contained in intertidal superficial sand samples have been measured by using gamma spectrometry analysis. Also alpha activity of the beach water was determinated by means of ZnS(Ag) scintillation detector. The radioactivity detected was due to the natural occurring radionuclides 226Ra (238U- series), 232Th and 40K in sand samples with an average activity concentrations of 14.6±1.0, 17.4±1.0 and 528±24 Bq/kg, respectively. From these values, the outdoor annual effective dose was of 0.047 mSv/y, which is below to the world’s average value (0.07 mSv/y)