Lavinia-Elena MUNTEAN^1,2*, Mircea MOLDOVAN^3,4, Dorin-Vasile MOLDOVAN¹, Nicoleta BICAN-BRIȘAN³ & Constantin COSMA^3,4
1Technical University of Cluj-Napoca, Faculty of Civil Engineering, Cluj-Napoca, Romania
²University of Agricultural Science and Veterinary Medicine, Faculty of Animal Science and Biotechnologies, Cluj-Napoca, Romania
³Babes-Bolyai University, Faculty of Environmental Science and Engineering, Cluj-Napoca, Romania
⁴Babes-Bolyai University, Environmental Radioactivity and Nuclear Dating Center, Cluj-Napoca, Romania
^*Corresponding author – lavinia.muntean@ccm.utcluj.ro

NATURAL RADIOACTIVITY OF WATER SOURCES RELATED TO GEOLOGY AND RADIATION EXPOSURE IN ALBA COUNTY

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Alba County is defined by a complex geological structure, having pegmatite and gnais formations that can be associated to large radon concentrations. Radon and radium concentrations (²²⁶Ra and ²²²Rn) were measured in various water sources: springs, wells, rivers and public water supply network. The water samples were collected from six places in the county of Alba (Romania). The method used to find radon and radium values were the scintillation method, based on Lucas Cells. The radon concentrations found varied between 11.51 and 22 Bq/L for the well water, from 1.6 to 2.13 Bq/L for the surface water, between 19.34 and 24 Bq/L for spring water, and from 0.9 to 1.66 Bq/L in the case of public water network source, respectively. The values of the measurements performed during this study indicate that the local population is not exposed to additional natural irradiation.