Preliminary investigation of naturally occurring radionuclide in some five locally manufactured cement types commonly used in kashmir valley as building material

The present study was aimed at the determination of specific activity of locally manufactured and commercially available five cement types used as building material in Kashmir valley, India by using a NaI (Tl) gamma ray spectrometer. The study envisages that the mean values of specific activity concentrations in the different analyzed cement samples were found to vary from 44.4±0.81 to 51.02±2.3 Bq〖kg〗^(-1) for 226Ra; 20.11±3.60 to 36.91±2.9 Bq〖kg〗^(-1) for 232Th and 25.29±1.42 to 55.78±2.81 Bq〖kg〗^(-1)for 40K, the mean value specific activity for 226Ra in all the investigated cement brand were above the world average of 32 Bq〖kg〗^(-1). The radiation hazard indices determined are well below the limits and all the analysed cement brands used in Kashmir valley meet the safety requirement and do not pose any radiological hazard to human health.