Evaluation of natural radioactivity and radiological hazards in basement rocks from Gabel Abu El-Hassan in the North Eastern Desert of Egypt by multivariate statistical approach with remote sensing data

PurposeThe present work deals with the natural radioactivity levels of basement rocks from Gabel Abu El-Hassan in the North Eastern Desert of Egypt.
MethodsThe activity concentrations of ²²⁶Ra, ²³²Th and ⁴⁰K in rock samples were measured using a gamma-ray spectrometry with an HPGe detector. Landsat Enhanced Thematic Mapper Plus (ETM+) data were processed and interpreted to create rock forming radioactive map.
Results and conclusionThe activity concentrations of ²²⁶Ra, ²³²Th and ⁴⁰K varied from 28.2 ± 9.4 to 259.6 ± 38.6 Bq/kg, 37.9 ± 9.9 to 297.4 ± 54.6 Bq/kg and 487.0 ± 73.4 to 5514.6 ± 786.0 Bq/kg, respectively. The radiological hazard indices (gamma index), the annual effective dose rate and excess life-time cancer risk were estimated to assess the radiological hazards due to the use of rock samples as building material. Remote sensing data were also used to integrate between radioactive analysis and Landsat-7 (ETM+) data processing to detect radioactive anomalies and to identify the uraniferous alteration zones in Abu El-Hassan area.