226Ra, 232Th and 40K contents in water samples in part of central deserts in Iran and their potential radiological risk to human population

Background: the radiological quality of 226ra, 232th and 40k in some samples of water resources collected inanarak-khour a desertic area, iran has been measured by direct gamma ray spectroscopy using high puritygermanium detector in this paper.result: the concentration ranged from ?0.5 to 9701 mbq/l for 226ra; ?0.2 to 28215 mbq/l for 232th and < mdato 10332 mbq/l for 40k. the radium equivalent activity was well below the defined limit of 370bq/l. the calculatedexternal hazard indices were found to be less than 1 which shows a low dose.conclusion: these results can be contributed to the database of this area because it may be used as disposal sitesof nuclear waste in future.