CONCENTRATION OF 238p U, 239+240p U, 241Am, 90Sr, and 137CS RADIONUCLIDES IN MARINE SEDIMENTS AT THE AL KHAFJI,MNEEFA, AND AL JOBAIL COASTAL AREAS OF THE ARABIAN GULF IN SAUDI ARABIA

The present work is a part of a national project dedicated to establishing a marine radioactivity database for both natural and man-made radionuclides for the Saudi coasts of the Arabian Gulf and the Red Sea. Concentrations of Pu isotopes, 241 Am, 90Sr, and 137 Cs radionuclides have been measured in marine sediment samples collected from 11 different locations at Al-Khafji, Mneefa and Aljobail coastal areas. Pu isotopes,241Am, and 90Sr were sequentially separated from all other components of the sample by anion exchange chromatography and prepared fof counting. The alpha emitters were coprecipitated with Nd3+ as fluorides and mounted on a membrane filters for measurement by alpha spectroscopy while 90Sr concentration was measured using liquid scintillation counting. Measurements of 137CS have been made using a hyper-pure germanium spectrometer. The activity concentrations of 238pU, 239+240pU, 241Am,90Sr, and 137Cs for all measured samples were 0.02 - 0.094,0.05 - 0.51,0.09 - 0.38,0.76 - 4.13, and 0.17- 9.79 Bq/kg dry weight respectively. Results are discussed and compared with other reported data.