Radioactivity Levels in Ceramium rubrum collected from Eastern Black Sea Coast of Turkey

Year 2019, NSP2018 Special Issue, 11 - 17, 28.03.2019

Nilay Akçay , Ali İhsan Kobya

Abstract

The Black Sea is a
unique sea with its natural properties. In last 
decades, The Black Sea has suffered from the pollution that creates
detrimental effects in its ecosystem. The some of the main pollutants in the
Black Sea are the artificial radionuclides formed after the Chernobyl Nuclear
Power Plant disaster (¹³⁷Cs, ⁹⁰Sr) and the radionuclides
formed due to the human and natural activities (²³⁸U, ²³²Th,
⁴⁰K). In many surveys, biomonitor organisms such as macroalgaes were
used for the determination of radioactivity levels in The Black Sea. The aim of
this study is to determine the activity levels of natural and artificial
radionuclides in Ceramium rubrum (a
species of red macroalgae) collected from five provinces and eighteen stations
in Eastern Black Sea Coast of Turkey. The activity analyzes of samples were
carried by using a HPGe gamma spectroscopic detector system and a Genie 2000
software programme. The maximum radioactivity levels of ²³⁸U, ²³²Th,
¹³⁷Cs and ⁴⁰K were measured as 23.8 Bq.kg^-1,
36.1 Bq.kg^-1, 4.8 Bq.kg^-1 and 882 Bq.kg^-1,
respectively.

Keywords

radioactivity, macroalgae, Ceramium, radionuclide, gamma

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