Baseline Measurement of Natural Radioactivity in Soil, Vegetation and Water in the Industrial District of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Abuja, Nigeria

Natural radioactivity in environmental samples (soil, vegetation and water) from the (Idu) industrial district of Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Abuja, Nigeria was measured by means of gamma-ray spectrometer with NaI (Tl) detector to establish a baseline data for activity concentration of 40K, 226Ra and 232Th. The highest activity concentration of 40K, 226Ra and 232Th were found in soil collected from location S2 (943.1 Bq/kg), in vegetation VC (82.3 Bq/kg) and in soil collected from location S3 (107.3 Bq/kg), respectively, where only the activity from S2 is higher than the world average of 420 Bq/kg and the highest activity concentrations of both 226Ra and 232Th from VC (82.3 Bq/kg) is above the world average of 50 Bq/kg (UNSCEAR, 2000). Results from the twelve field samples analysed also indicated that the activity concentration due to 40K in the soil samples ranked highest against the lowest value obtained for sediments in the water samples.