Naturally Occurring Radioactive Material (NORM) in seawater of the northern Arabian Gulf - Baseline measurements.

This study focuses on creating baseline for U, U, U, Pb, Po and K concentrations in the northern Arabian Gulf. The respective concentration ranges were 0.047-0.050, 0.00186-0.00198, 0.054-0.057, 0.00085-0.00092, 0.00051-0.00062 and 18.6-19.1Bql. These results suggest that the levels are generally comparable to other marine waters in the northern hemisphere. There were no hot spots observed from oil and gas industry. These data will serve as a baseline to gauge possible future inputs of TENORMs in the northern Gulf. A positive and linear correlation was observed between U, K isotopes and seawater salinity. The results also suggest significant fractionation between Po and Pb, attributed to rapid removal of Po by biota compared to Pb. The mean residence time for Po in the study area was 371days. The U/U and U/U activity ratios in seawater samples vary between 1.14-1.15, and 0.038-0.040. The U/U and U/U ratio is similar to the expected composition of seawater (1.148±0.002) and 0.0462.