Uranium concentration in groundwater of Al-Diwaniyah governorate, Iraq

Due to the scarcity of water in Al-Diwaniyah city most people have resorted to use groundwater for irrigation and watering animals, in addition to use it for drinking for some people. Samples of groundwater were collected from wells in varying locations of Al-Diwaniyah city, at different depths of the wells ranged between 5 – 15 m. The effective technique of neutron activation for the polymer detectors CR-39 was applied to investigate uranium content in groundwater samples. Findings of uranium levels in groundwater ranged from 1.98 ± 0.215µg/l to 5.06 ± 0.224 µg/l with an average value 3.60 ± 0.249 µg/l. The excess cancer risk (ECR) values in the surveyed district ranged from 0.14 × 10−4 to 0.55 × 10−4. Comparison of the current results with the global and recommended findings showed that the results were less than the acceptable limits.