Preliminary Investigation of Naturally Occurring Radionuclide in Some Six Representative Cement Types Commonly used in Cameroon as Building Material

The present study was aimed at the determination of the specific activity of naturally occurring radionuclides and evaluation of the radiological health hazards in 24 cement samples representing six cement types commonly used in Cameroon for building construction have been analyzed. A high purity germanium detector spectrometer was used for quantification of gamma emitting radionuclide in the cements to demonstrate the radiological health hazards. Terrestrial absorbed dose rate (D), annual effective dose, radium equivalent activity, external/internal hazard index, activity gamma and alpha index caused by gamma emitting natural radionuclide are determined from the obtained values of 226 Ra, 232 Th and 40 K. The calculated values of the absorbed dose rate and the indoor annual effective dose are slightly higher as compared to the recommended world-wide values. The details of the samples preparation procedure and the gamma-ray spectrometry technique are presented, together with the preliminary investigated results of specific activity of naturally occurring radionuclide chains for six representative cement type-analyzed in this current work.