Validation of a model for calculating environmental doses caused by gamma emitters in the soil

A model has been developed to calculate the adsorbed dose rates caused by gamma emitters on both natural and artificial origin distributed in the soil. The model divides the soil into five compartments corresponding to layers situated at different depths, and assumes that the concentration of radionuclide is constant in each one of them. The calculations, following the model developed, are unertaken through a program which, based on the concentrations of the radionuclides in the different compartments, gives as a result the dose rate at a height of one metre above the ground caused by each radionuclide and the percentage this represents with respect to the total adsorbed dose rate originating from this soil. The validity of the model has been checked in the case of sandy soils by comparing the exposure rates calculated for five sites with the experimental values obtained with an ionisation chamber