Assessment the Natural Radioactivity of Radionuclides (226Ra, 232Th, 40K, and 137Cs) in Wheat Grain

This paper investigates the activity concentration of radionuclides (Ra-226, Th-232, K-40, and Cs-137) in the wheat grain samples using a high-purity germanium detector. Thirty-six wheat grain samples were collected from different locations of Koya City, Iraqi Kurdistan region. Average activity concentrations of Ra-226, Th-232, and K-40 in wheat grain are found to be 0.407 +/- 0.097 Bq.kg(-1) , 0.36 +/- 0.14 Bq.kg(-1) , and 109.25 +/- 2.214 Bq.kg(-1) for Ra-226, Th-232, and 40K, respectively. The measured activity concentrations for the radionuclides are compared with the reported data from other countries. In addition, the fallout radionuclide of Cs-137 has no detection of in the wheat grain samples. The radium equivalent activity Ra-eq , internal and external hazard indices Hin and Hex , and annual gonadal dose equivalent are calculated for the measured samples. The total ingestion dose is 113.19 mu Sv.y(-1) , which is below the world average value of 290 mu Sv.y(-1).