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It is important to identify the concentrations of radioactive isotopes in soil because it constitutes a path for radioactivity to humans, plants and animals, and is an indicator of radioactive accumulation in the environment. Soil includes submarine, sediment and river-bed soil, but here it includes only soil from cultivated land. Detection and quantification of environmental radiations and radioactivity may be performed for a number of reasons. The basic purpose may be a desire to satisfy basic scientific curiosity and gain knowledge and an improved understanding of the world. A second reason may be to assess the impact of human activities involving radioactivity and radiation on the environment, a process which may require differentiation of natural and anthropogenic sources of radioactivity and lead to assessment of dose from environmental sources.

Differentiation between naturally occurring and artificially introduced radioactivity implies some sort of isotopic analysis technique, as well as knowledge of what was present prior to the introduction of man-made sources. Environmental dose assessment is a sequential procedure that begins with the characterization of the radionuclides or radiation sources. This logical first step is followed by determination of the radionuclide distributions and quantification in the environment, and the detection of external radiations incident on man and the uptake and accumulation of radioactivity by man. Once these data have been determined, they serve as the basis for the calculation of dose incurred from environmental sources. Any environmental surveillance program involving dose assessment must thus be …