Study of background radiation from soil samples of Pollachi taluk, Tamilnadu, India

Abstract Pollachi is one of the nine taluks in Coimbatore district, India. Totally 100 soil samples have been collected from different places of Pollachi taluk. It is found, from the gamma-ray spectra, that activity concentrations of 232 Th, 238 U and 40 K are varying from 3.63 to 263.39, 4.31 to 32.27 and 36.68 to 1821.76 Bq kg −1 , respectively. The effective dose rates of 232 Th, 238 U and 40 K, estimated from soil samples, are ranging from 2.77 to 201.38, 2.19 to 16.46 and 1.93 to 96.12 μSv year −1 , respectively.