Radiological and ecological hazards evaluation of episyenite used as building materials

The research area lies in Egypt’s Central Eastern Desert and is considered one of the most important localities where it contains many valuable metals. The episyenite rocks serve as a trap for uranium mineralization. The current study focused on evaluating the natural radioactive risk and pollution. The radioelement contents were determined by using Na–I detector. Episyenite rocks have high radioelement contents and low eTh/eU ratio. eU and eTh concentration contour maps indicate that the central and southeastern parts are high, while the northeastern and southwestern parts are high in Potassium. The radiological and ecological parameters were higher than the recommended international values in some samples, clarifying its unsafe use as building material or in infrastructure.