RADON MEASUREMENTS IN THE SOILS OF NONGSTOIN AND MAIRANG REGIONS OF WEST KHASI HILLS DISTRICT, MEGHALAYA

Abstract

This paper reports the measurements on radium in soil samples collected from different location of Nongstoin and Mairang area of West Khasi Hills District, Meghalaya, India, carried out using “Can Techniqueâ€. The radium content of the soil samples collected from Nongstoin have been estimated to vary from 4.72 to 16.39 Bq.kg^-1 with an arithmetic mean value of 9.28± 2.99 Bq.kg^-1 and a geometric mean value of 8.80±1.38 Bq.kg^-1. In Mairang, the radium content values was found to vary from 13.51 to 33.42 Bq.kg^-1 with an arithmetic mean value of 23.64± 5.61 Bq.kg^-1 and a geometric mean value of 22.98±1.27 Bq.kg^-1. The alpha index values (I_α) have also been calculated and the values are found to range between 0.02 and 0.08 for Nongstoin and between 0.07 and 0.17 for Mairang.