Study on radiological contamination of ship scraps and environmental materials in ship breaking area of Chittagong, Bangladesh

The environmental radioactivity levels, both natural and anthropogenic, in the ship scrapped materials such as metal, rubber and foam and tree bark of ship breaking area of Bhatiari, Chittagong in the southern part of Bangladesh were analyzed by using a high purity germanium γ-ray spectrometry. The specific radioactivities of Radium ( 226 Ra), Thorium ( 232 Th) and Potassium ( 40 K) were measured in the above samples. From the measured specific radioactivities of the above three natural radionuclides, the radium equivalent activity (Ra eq ) and the external hazard index (H ex ) were calculated. The natural radioactivity in scrapped metal collected from the engine of a ship is found to be a bit higher. In other samples, the Ra eq values were in the range of 21 → 145 Bq/kg and the H ex varied from 0.06 to 0.39, which indicates that the working environment of the ship breaking area of Chittagong is radiologically safe.