Primordial radionuclides contamination level in fertilized farms soils of Faisalabad-Pakistan

Primordial radioactivity in soil depends upon the type, origin and the amount of phosphate fertilizers applied to it. Certain selected cultivated soils of the third largest city of Pakistan, Faisalabad were probed for the values of radioactivity contamination because of the use of phosphate fertilizers. The soils selected for this study were the farms of Nuclear Institute for Agriculture and Biology (NIAB) (about 80 hectares), 120 hectares of University of Agriculture, Faisalabad (UAF) farm and Ayub Agriculture Research Institute (AARI) (about 100 hectares). These all soils were situated in the urban area of Faisalabad. The technique exercised in order for the natural radioactivity estimation was gamma ray spectrometry, which revealed that the existence of radioactivity in soils of these farms result the presence of Potassium (40K), Cesium (137Cs), and Uranium (238U). The average amount of radioactivity due to the presence of 40K in the NIAB, AARI, and UAF were 650.50, 642.6