Determination of levels of naturally occurring radioactive materials in lagoon samples containing produced water from the Minagish oil field in the state of Kuwait

An evaluation of the activity concentration (Ac) associated with naturally occurring radioactive materials has been undertaken as part of a systematic study to provide a radiological map of the ground materials from a produced wastewater lagoon located in the Minagish oil field in the south west of the State of Kuwait. This lagoon contains material from the discharge of produced water which is a by-product of oil production in the region. Samples of surface materials have been collected, prepared and placed into sealed, Marinelli beakers for a full gamma-ray spectrometric analysis using a high-resolution, low-background, high-purity germanium detection system. This short conference paper presents a summary of results for an initial selection of sixteen surface samples from the edges of the Minagish oil lagoon which have been analysed to obtain Ac values for members of the 226Ra (214Bi and 214Pb) and 232Th (228Ac, 212Pb and 208Tl) decay chains and for 40K. These are compared with other studies for the same geographical region.