Countrywide monitoring of absorbed dose rate in air due to outdoor natural gamma radiation in India.
PratipMitra,ManishKMishra,GadePriyankaReddy,SaurabhSrivastava,SandipSSalunkhe,AnishaKumari,SanjayGGavas,PruthvirajRNinawe,MukundanThekkinkattil,SaurabhGarg,AerattukkaraVinodKumar
Abstract
The Indian Environmental Radiation Monitoring Network continuously monitors, throughout India, the absorbed dose rate in air due to outdoor natural gamma radiation, by using Geiger-Mueller detector-based standalone environmental radiation monitors. The network consists of 546 monitors spread across 91 monitoring locations distributed all over the country. In this paper, the countrywide long-term monitoring results are summarised. The measured mean dose rate of the monitoring locations followed a log-normal distribution and ranged from 50 to 535 nGy.h-1 with a median value of 91 nGy.h-1. Due to outdoor natural gamma radiation, the average annual effective dose was estimated to be 0.11 mSv.y-1.