Evaluation of occurrence and distribution of natural radionuclides in groundwater of Korea

Abstract:

This study was conducted to evaluate the occurrence and distribution of natural radionuclides in groundwater of Korea. For this purpose, we collected the groundwater radionuclides data of 2000-2011 from National Institute of Environmental Research and available literatures. The sample data were classified into five groups according to the rock types and radionuclide levels were used to construct detailed concentration maps. Radon, uranium, gross-α and radium concentrations ranged from 0.4 to 64,688 pCi/L (mean: 4,907 pCi/L), 0 to 2,297 µg/L (mean: 27.5 µg/L), 0 to 312.0 (mean: 3.9 pCi/L) and 0 to 17.4 pCi/L (mean: 0.2 pCi/L), respectively. Radon concentrations in 562 (53.5%) of 1,501 wells exceeded 4,000 pCi/L, which is the maximum contaminant level by the US environmental protection agency. Uranium, gross-α, and radium concentrations in 121 (11.9%) of 1,031 wells, 34 (3.5%) of 978 wells and 4 (4.5%) of 89 wells exceeded 30 µg/L, 15 pCi/L and 5 pCi/L, respectively. Radionuclide mean concentration in igneous and metamorphic rocks showed higher levels than those of other rocks such as volcanic, carbonate and sedimentary rocks. However, we found that correlations among radionuclides were weak or not significant. This subject is supported by Korea Ministry of Environment as “the GAIA project”.