Durgesh Nandini Goswami, Sarita Agrawal, Sanjay Kumar
Abstract: River Ganges is considered to be the most pious river of India. That is why its increasing level of pollution becomes a major environmental concern. Due to industrial affluent, municipal sewage, household drainage etc. the increasing concentration of heavy metals and radionuclieds as major pollutant is alarming. The present paper reported the concentration of heavy metals viz. cadmium, copper, lead and zinc ions in the different matrices of the river Ganges from Rishikesh to Allahabad. The concentration of these metals were determined through differential Pulse Anodic Striping Voltametry (DPASV) from the water and sediments of Ganges at different places from the above said locations. The results showed that the water at Narora barrage was maximum contaminated with Cd and Cu, while at Narora barrage and Jajmau, Kanpur, Pb and Zn were found at its maximum level than others. The Narora ghat river bank and Jajmau, Kanpur river bed sediments gave maximum amount of Cd, Cu and Pb while the maximum amount of Zn was found both in Narora bank as well as bed sediment and highest in the Jajmau river bank sediment. Natural and Anthropogenic radionuclides are measured in environmental matrices for wide range of purposes including migration studies, environmental monitoring, dose assessment, counter terrorism and age dating. There are approximately five thousand natural and artificial radionuclides that have been identified, each with different half life-radioactive waste has been created by humans as a byproduct of various endeavors since the discovery of radioactivity in 1896 by Antoine Henri Becquerel. The collected sediment samples were dried at 1100C for 24 hrs, sieved through a 2 mm mesh sieve. About 250 g of meshed samples were transferred to a pre-weighed cylindrical acrylic container with dimension of 75 mm diameter 75 mm, sealed and kept for 30 days to allow for growth of radon gas in order to achieve secular equilibrium. The activity levels of 226 Ra, 228 Ra, 40 K and Cs-137 were wine measured using Gamma- Ray spectrometry system based on a co-axial high purity Ge detector of 50% relative efficiency and Uranium is detected by LED Flourimetery .
Radio Nuclieds, LED Flourimetry, Spectroscopy, DPSAV