Study of 210Po and 210Pb in the riverine environments of coastal Karnataka

Activity of Po-210 and Pb-210 were measured in soil and sediment samples collected from the major rivers Kali, Sharavathi and Netravathi of Coastal Karnataka. The activity of these two radionuclides were determined by radiochemical separation of Po-210 and counting the activity using a ZnS(Ag) Alpha counter. The activity of Pb-210 was higher than that of Po-210 in the riverine environs. The Po-210 and Pb-210 content in sediment was found to increase with silt/clay and organic matter contents. However no significant correlation was found between the activity Po-210 and Pb-210 with pH in sediments. The activity of Po-210 and Pb-210 and influence of physico-chemical parameters on these radionuclides were studied and discussed in this paper. (C) 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.