Radiation Assessment at Gunung Ledang, Malaysia

IN-SITU NUCLEAR RADIATION DOSE ASSESSMENT AROUND TAMAN HUTAN LEGENDA RESORT AND ALONG TRAILS OF GUNUNG LEDANG, JOHOR

Ahmad Saat^1,2, Zaini Hamzah², Ab Khalek Wood²

¹Institute of Science

²Faculty of Applied Sciences

Universiti Teknologi MARA

40450 Shah Alam.

Abstract

Being a State Nature Park, areas within the Gunung Ledang precinct can be considered as undisturbed. No such data on nuclear radiation of the area was documented previously, hence this study was carried out as preliminary effort to gather base line data to assess external radiation dose. Areas around Taman Hutan Legenda Resort and along adventure trails (Laluan Batu Kapal and Trail Lagenda) are commonly visited by tourists, hence it is of anthropogenical importance for such study to be carried out. Radiation dose was measured in-situ at selected points by using portable radiation surveymeter. Around the low-lying resort area measurement points were determined based on loose gridding procedures, while along the higher altitudes trails measurements were at 0.5 km interval. At each points radiation dose was measured at the ground surface and at 1.0 m from the surface. Results showed that around the resort the radiation dose ranged from 0.269 to 0.442 mSv/h on the surface, and from 0.211 to 0.409 mSv/h at 1.0 m from surface. The corresponding dose along the trails ranged from 0.160 to 0.317 mSv/h and 0.147 to 0.270 mSv/h respectively. The study found that relatively the radiation dose around the resort area is higher than along the trails. However, on average these doses were comparable to that at Taman Negara, Pahang (0.126 – 0.332 mSv/h) which was studied earlier.

Keywords: Radiation dose, undisturbed area.