Environmental Assessment of Radiation Impacts on Sharm El-Sheikh Area, South Sinai, Egypt

Sharm El Sheikh area represents one of the most important touristic resorts allover the world. This area is surrounded by exposures of Precambrian granites and dike swarms that imply more or less radionuclides U, Th, Ra and K. The radioactivity of 90 samples imposed within the Precambrian granites, dikes and stream sediments have been carefully evaluated using HPGe detector. In order to evaluate the radiological hazard of the natural radioactivity, the radium equivalent activity (Raeq), gamma activity concentration index (I), external hazard index (Hex) internal hazard index (Hin) and annual effective dose rate (AEDR) have been calculated and compared with the internationally approved values.The permissible values for each index revealed that all exposures of granite and mafic dikes have values below safety limits of radiation. The stream sediments within the major wadis are also safe and available for the agricultural purposes and/or as construction materials. On the other hand, the felsic dikes that occur far from Sharm El Sheikh town exceed the permissible radiation limits indicating their environmental hazards impacts. Thereby, it was recommended to restrict land use in a buffer zone adjacent to the felsic dikes of very limited distributions. A planned major town extension of Sharm El Sheikh area has to be stopped around and within these dikes sites, but alternative future residential areas could be delineated to the northwest of the town. An intensive coordination with the Ministry of Environmental Affairs of Egypt, the town planners and other responsible authorities guarantees must take into considerations the recommendations of this study into future town and regional land use planning. Mohamed Th. S. Heikal, et al. 58