Soil, coal and ash radioactivity around Baganuur coal deposit in Mongolia

For the determination of level of radioactive background and specific radioactivity concentrations of ²³⁸U, ²³²Th, ⁴⁰K in soil, coal and ash samples from Baganuur district of Ulaanbaatar city in Mongolia, was used HP-Ge gamma-spectrometer. Results of measurements of natural and man-made radioactive nuclides in soil, coal and ash samples were presented. The level of radioactive background and specific radioactivity of soil, coal and ash samples was determined and compared with other province data from Mongolia. Specific radio activity of ²²⁶Ra in some soil samples of Baganuur coal deposit was 1.3-2.4 times higher than world mean, specific radio activity of ²³²Th was 1.1-1.3 times higher, specific radio activity of ⁴⁰K was 2.51-3.1 times higher than world mean. Specific radio activity in the ash samples of the Baganuur thermal station was 3-5.2 times higher than coal sample. However total radio activity of the ash sample was 232.1 Bq/kg and it was lower than Russian building material standard (370 Bq/kg). Radiation background of Baganuur district was 1.6-1.7 times higher than world mean and 1.2 times higher than Zuunmod town. So it needs some more radioactive monitoring in this area.