Investigation Of Gross Alpha And Gross Beta Activities In Waters Of Suzhou City

Objective: To investigate gross alpha and gross beta activities in waters of Suzhou and find probable radioactive contamination in time.Methods: In accordance with the factors of nature and society,six kinds of water (rain,tap water,mineral water and water in river, lake and well) which were collected from four different sites (Suzhou city,Kunshan,Taicang and Zhangjiagang) were selected to investigate. The gross alpha and gross beta activities in waters were measured with mid-thickness relative activity method associated with the normal source of 241Am and high purity KCl by using a low level alpha/ beta counting system model BH1216.Results: Mean gross alpha and gross beta activities in rain were (1.30±0.16)×10-1Bq·L-1 and (1.42±0.24)×10-1Bq·L-1,respectively. Meanβ/αof rain was 1.10. The gross alpha and gross beta activities in waters of Suzhou city ranged from (3.56±0.81)×10-2 to (8.89±4.71)×10-2Bq·L-1 and (0.78±0.28)×10-1 to (3.75±0.26)×10-1Bq·L-1, respectively. Meanβ/αranged from1.7 to 4.7. The gross alpha and gross beta activities in waters of other cities of Suzhou ranged from (2.62±0.17)×10-2 to (8.48±2.80)×10-2Bq·L-1 and (0.77±0.47)×10-1 to (3.12±0.55)×10-1Bq·L-1, respectively. Meanβ/αranged from1.6 to 7.2. For the 30 samples, correlation between dry residual and gross alpha activities was statistically significant (0.002