Multivariate Statistical Approach of Natural Radioactivity on the example of Common Building

Materials used in Semnan Province, Iran

1
M. Imani , 2M. Adelikhah, 2A. Shahrokhi, 1A. Yadollahi, 3G. Azimpour, 2T.Kovács
1
Materials and Nuclear Fuel Research School, Nuclear Science and Technology research Institute, AEOI, P.O.Box:11365-
8486, Tehran-Iran
2
Institute of Radiochemistry and Radioecology, University of Pannonia, Veszprém, Hungary
3
Department of Natural Geography, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran

Abstract: Since a person spends 80% of their life inside buildings, determination of population exposure to
radiation from building materials is of great importance. Different building materials contain various quantities of
Naturally Occurring Radioactive Materials. For this reason, exposure to radiation from building materials has been
worldwide legislated [1-3]. The purpose of controlling the radioactivity of the building materials is to limit the
doses to the members of the public to as low as reasonably achievable. This paper aims to present a multivariate
statistical method for the assessment of natural radioactivity in building materials on the example of 40K, 232Th,
and 226Ra activity concentrations measured in 29 samples of common building materials used in construction
industry in Semnan Province in Iran, using high purity germanium gamma-ray spectrometry. The activity
concentrations of 226Ra, 232Th, and 40K in all samples varied from 6.7±1 to 54.1±9, 5.9±1 to 60±11 and 28.5±3
to 1085±113 Bq.kg-1 with an average of 27.2±5, 22.8±4, and 322.4±41 Bq.kg-1, respectively. The radiological
data were processed by multivariate statistical methods to determine the similarities and correlations among the
various samples. Based on Pearson correlation, the relative distribution of 226Ra and 232Th is positively
correlated with all of the calculated radiological parameters. This result may be due to the rich content of 226Ra
and 232Th, which plays an important role in determining the hazardous nature in the building materials; in
addition, a weaker relationships observed between these two nuclides and 40K, however, still indicated statistically
significant. The factor analysis yielded two factors with eigenvalues<1, explaining 95.58% of the total variance.
From the rotation space of component 1 and 2, the first factor accounts for 59.83% of the total variance and is
mainly characterized by high positive loading of concentrations of 232Th and 226Ra. Factor 2 accounts for
35.75% of the total variance and mainly corresponds to positive loading of 40K. Therefore, it can be deduced that
232Th and 226Ra dominantly increase the radioactivity in all the building materials. The results from the cluster
analysis coincide well with the correlation analysis. In the derived dendrogram, all 29 building materials are
grouped into four statistically significant clusters. As a result, the radiological data of the building materials
primarily depends upon the concentrations of the natural radionuclides.
References
[1] ICRP, 1994. Protection against 222Rn at home and at work. Oxford: Pergamon Press; ICRP Publication 65;
Annals of the ICRP 23(2).
[2] UNSCEAR, 2008. Sources and effects of ionizing radiation. New York (NY): United Nations Scientific
Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation.
[3] Council Directive 2013/59/Euratom, 2014. Laying down basic safety standards for protection against the
danger arising from exposure to ionizing radiation, and repealing directives 89/618/Euratom, 90/641/Euratom,
96/29/Euratom, 97/43/ Euratom and 2003/122/Euratom. L13, vol 57.