Use of radium in studying water resources in Shanafiya-Samawa areasouth Iraq

The water resources, Groundwater and surface water, in Shanafiya – Samawa area- southern Iraq were investigated using radium-226. The study examines the use of radium as tracer whether saline surface water (Sawa Lake) seeps and interacts with water of the Euphrates River and where groundwater interacts with surface water, Euphrates, Atshan River and Sawa Lake. As well as examine the radiological doses caused by consumption of these waters. Thirteen water samples were analysis for radium-226 content by precipitation with barium carrier by using gamma spectroscopy based on hyper-pure Germanium with efficiency 30%. The result shows that Sawa Lake contains radium concentration higher than that of groundwater and other sources of surface water. The high value of Ra in the Sawa Lake can be related to the high salinity. Groundwaters generally have Ra concentrations that broadly correlate with salinity or with total dissolved solids (TDS). The radium content in the different water depends on the hydrochemistry of water especially chlorine and TDS. The radium contents accumulate as clusters in different groups when plotted with chlorine and TDS which reveals no intermixing between the different water resources. While the relatively high concentration of Ra- 226 in Sawa Lake may be caused by accumulation of Ra by maxing with groundwater according the hypotheses that states: in high salinity water system the dissolution of radium increases and accumulates in the solution. While low Ra-226 concentration in river water reveals that no intermixing has occurred between groundwater and river water. The annual effective doses due to ingestion of groundwater and river water in the study area were estimated to be less than the values recommended by IAEA and WHO.