Determination of gross α and β activities in waters from Batman, Turkey

The city of Batman, located in the southeastern part of Turkey, has lately been receiving national attention because of its oil reserves and production, and cultural, tourist attractions and rapid industrialization. There is no information about radioactivity measurement reported in water samples in the Batman province so far. For this reason, the concentrations of gross α and β radioactivity in water samples collected from 16 different sampling stations in Batman have been determined. The instrumentation used to count the gross α and β activities was an α/β counter of the low background multiple detector type with 10 sample detectors (Berthold LB770). The obtained results showed that natural activity concentrations of α- and β-emitting radionuclides in drinking water, river water and well water samples are within the range recommended by WHO, while thermal spring water is not in this range. Gross α and β activities of tap, well and river waters range from 10.8 mBq.l−1 to 73.4 mBq.l−1 and from 3 mBq.l−1 to 347 mBq.l−1, respectively. Concentration of thermal spring water is 3909.5 and 2097 mBq.l−1 for gross α and β, respectively. The gross β activities are generally higher than the corresponding gross α activities. The results obtained in this study indicate that the individual effective doses are below the WHO recommended reference level of 0.1 mSv.y−1 for all water samples, except for the thermal spring water, and shows no significant departure from the other parts of the country.