Gross alpha and beta radioactivity concentration in water, soil and sediment of the Bendimahi River and Van Lake (Turkey) Özlem Selçuk Zorer & Hasan Ceylan & Mahmut Doğru Received: 8 August 2007 / Accepted: 20 December 2007 / Published online: 11 January 2008 # Springer Science + Business Media B.V. 2008 Abstract The concentrations of the natural radioac- tivity in water, soil and sediment samples collected from Bendimahi River which originates near the Tendürek Mountain (Van, Turkey), its tributaries and Van Lake (Turkey) were measured. The gross-alpha and gross-beta radioactivity concentrations were investigated in May and August in 2005. Determina- tion of the gross-alpha and gross-beta radioactivity of river water, soil and sediment samples was obtained by using gas-flow proportional counter, PIC-MPC 9604-α/β counter. In water samples, the obtained results show that in May; gross-alpha and gross-beta activity concentrations varied between 0.063–0.782 and 0.021–0.816 Bq l -1 and in August the values were 0.009–0.037 and 0.081–3.116 Bq l -1 , respec- tively. The gross-alpha and gross-beta activity con- centrations in soil samples ranged from 0.800 to 4.277 Bq g -1 and 0.951 to 11.773 Bq g -1 in May and 0.686 to 4.713 Bq g -1 and 0.073 to 9.524 Bq g -1 in August, respectively. Concentrations ranging from 0.782 to 4.596 Bq g -1 and from 0.482 to 10.372 Bq g -1 in May and from 0.580 to 5.824 Bq g -1 and from 0.303 to 9.702 Bq g -1 in August for gross-alpha and gross-beta radioactivity were observed in sediments, respectively. Keywords Gross-alpha . Gross-beta . Natural radioactivity . Sediment . Soil . Water Introduction Radioactivity present in surface waters is mainly due to the presence of radioactive elements in the earth's crust. The earth's crust contains small amounts of uranium, thorium, and radium as well as radioactive isotopes of potassium. The average of 238 U in earth's crust has been estimated to be 2.7 mg kg -1 and the average of 232 Th content of the earth's crust about 9.6 mg kg -1 (Lide 1994). Uranium in phosphate rock deposits throughout the world range from 3 to 400 mg kg -1 (Guimond 1978). Surface water and especially ground water play an important role in the migration and distribution of these radionuclides in the earth's crust. Human activities have contributed to the increased concentration of some of radionuclides in the environment (Baxter 1996; Bradley and Roberts 1998). Natural waters contain a small and variable quantity of alpha and beta emitters from decay of uranium and thorium and their daughters, together with 40 K (UNSCEAR 1993). Concentrations of Environ Monit Assess (2009) 148:39–46 DOI 10.1007/s10661-007-0137-x Ö. Selçuk Zorer : H. Ceylan Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Arts and Science, University of Yuzuncu Yıl, 65080 Van, Turkey M. Doğru (*) Department of Physics, Faculty of Arts and Science, University of Fırat, 23169 Elazığ, Turkey e-mail: mdogru@firat.edu.tr