Nationwide survey on the natural radionuclides in industrial raw minerals in South Korea

A Nationwide survey on the natural radioactivity in industrial raw mineral commodities (17 kinds of domestic and 18 kinds of imported) that are representative minerals used in production and consumption in South Korea was conducted. The target industrial minerals can be categorized into two groups. The first group covers non-metallic and metallic raw minerals with low levels of radioactivity such as clay, silica sand, carbonates, bituminous and anthracite coal, iron ores, ilmenite, rutile, and phosphate ore. The other group comprises minerals with high levels of radioactivity including zircon and monazite. One hundred and sixty-four domestic and imported samples were analysed by γ-ray spectroscopy using an HPGe detector. The 40K content ranges from <0.00131 to 2.69 Bq g−1, and 226Ra and 232Th range over <0.0006 to 0.630 and <0.0008 to 0.474 Bq g−1, respectively. There was no anthropogenic radioactive signal in any of the samples.