The review, led by S. Veerasingam and colleagues at Qatar University’s Environmental Science Center, followed the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses guidelines, searching Google Scholar alongside Web of Science, PubMed, and Scopus for peer-reviewed studies and national monitoring reports. The team compiled data across an unusually diverse set of environmental matrices: terrestrial soils, marine sediments, seawater, groundwater, building materials ranging from cement to steel slag, and marine organisms as varied as pearl oysters, shrimp, sponges, mangroves, and even the dugong, the region’s iconic sea cow. Measurements were dominated by high-purity germanium gamma spectrometry, often supplemented by sodium iodide detectors for screening and, in some studies, inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry for ultra-trace analysis of plutonium isotopes and strontium 90.

Qatar’s radiological character is written in its geology. The peninsula sits on carbonate-rich Eocene formations, principally the Rus and Dammam formations, whose limestones and evaporites host the primordial radionuclides uranium 238, thorium 232, and potassium 40, along with decay products such as radium 226. Carbonate rocks tend to immobilize uranium and radium through co-precipitation with calcium carbonate, while clay-rich and phosphatic strata preferentially hold thorium and potassium isotopes. The hyper-arid climate amplifies these geochemical controls: with minimal rainfall, leaching is negligible, so radionuclides accumulate in surface soils and sabkha salt flats rather than migrating downward. High evaporation rates raise salinity and ionic strength, further fixing radium and uranium onto carbonate and sulfate minerals.

The numbers tell a consistent story. Mean uranium 238 activities in Qatari soils ranged from 2.46 to 213.9 becquerels per kilogram depending on location, radium 226 typically averaged around 17.2 becquerels per kilogram, thorium 232 spanned 0.42 to 20 becquerels per kilogram, and potassium 40 ranged from 10 to 327 becquerels per kilogram. Compared with the global averages reported by the United Nations Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation, 33 becquerels per kilogram for uranium 238, 45 for thorium 232, and 420 for potassium 40, Qatar’s natural background sits comfortably low. Marine sediments echoed this pattern, with cesium 137, the fingerprint of mid-twentieth-century atmospheric nuclear weapons testing, detected at a maximum of only 0.66 becquerels per kilogram, and many samples falling below detection limits altogether.

Artificial radionuclides across the country are essentially relics of global fallout rather than evidence of local contamination. Cesium 137 in surface soils ranged from below detection to 7.99 becquerels per kilogram, strontium 90 averaged just 3.364 becquerels per kilogram, and plutonium isotopes appeared only at trace levels. In seawater within Qatar’s Exclusive Economic Zone, cesium 137 concentrations of roughly 1.5 to 1.65 becquerels per cubic meter align closely with measurements from Kuwaiti waters and the Indian Ocean, confirming their origin in historic weapons testing dispersed through the stratosphere before the Partial Nuclear Test Ban Treaty of 1963. Notably, a meta-analysis of depleted uranium in the Middle East found no contamination in Qatar, in contrast to several neighboring countries affected by the Gulf wars.

Groundwater tells a more nuanced story. A nationwide survey of 48 wells measured radon 222, a short-lived gaseous decay product of uranium 238, at concentrations ranging from 2.7 to 60.7 becquerels per liter, with a mean of 20.65. Nearly half of the analyzed drinking water samples exceeded the United States Environmental Protection Agency’s maximum contamination level of 11.1 becquerels per liter. Yet the estimated total annual effective dose from radon inhalation and ingestion, 0.056 millisieverts per year, remained below the World Health Organization’s recommended limit of 0.1 millisieverts per year. Intriguingly, inhalation contributed more than ingestion, a reminder that radon’s volatility makes indoor air, not drinking water, the dominant exposure route in confined spaces.

The review’s most consequential findings concern technologically enhanced naturally occurring radioactive material, or TENORM, generated by Qatar’s hydrocarbon industry. Oil and gas operations, particularly at the onshore Dukhan field, produce scales, drilling muds, and sludges in which radium isotopes concentrate during extraction and processing. Soil near Dukhan showed radium 226 values up to 342 becquerels per kilogram, nearly ten times the global average, and sludge collected from oil-field separation tanks reached a radium equivalent activity of 14,678 becquerels per kilogram, against a recommended safety threshold of 370. Calculated absorbed dose rates in this sludge hit 6,778 nanograys per hour, the annual effective dose equivalent reached 8.313 millisieverts per year, roughly seven times the public dose limit, and the external hazard index climbed to 39.67. The authors stress these figures represent localized occupational and waste-management scenarios, not public exposure, but they underscore why handling, storage, transport, and disposal of TENORM residues require stringent controls.

Industrial by-products recycled into construction raise parallel concerns. Steel slag used in road construction exhibited radium 226 concentrations of 273.2 becquerels per kilogram and thorium 232 of 135.2, pushing its radium equivalent activity to between 467 and 522 becquerels per kilogram, above the safety threshold, with hazard indices exceeding unity. By contrast, conventional materials such as cement, sand, gypsum, clinker, and gabbro aggregates all fell well within international limits, with hazard indices between 0.03 and 0.31 and excess lifetime cancer risk estimates for natural soils averaging 0.12 per thousand, below the global average of 0.29 per thousand. The message is clear: Qatar’s buildings are radiologically safe, but screening of recycled industrial residues before reuse is essential to prevent long-term indoor exposure.

Dust storms add a dynamic dimension to the picture. Winds sweeping from local sabkhas and deserts, and from as far as northern Saudi Arabia and Iraq, transport fine mineral particles enriched in adsorbed radionuclides, with airborne dust showing uranium 238, thorium 232, and potassium 40 concentrations two to three times higher than local soils. Prevailing northwesterly Shamal winds can also carry trace cesium 137 from distant sources, and the semi-enclosed circulation of the Arabian Gulf allows limited marine redistribution near the boundaries of Qatar’s Exclusive Economic Zone. Although these transboundary inputs remain radiologically insignificant, the authors argue they justify regional cooperation, particularly given operational and planned nuclear power plants in neighboring countries and the potential for atmospheric or marine transport following any incident.

Looking forward, the review lays out an ambitious research and policy agenda aligned with Qatar National Vision 2030. Priorities include a long-term nationwide monitoring program spanning terrestrial, freshwater, coastal, and marine ecosystems; isotopic fingerprinting to distinguish natural, technologically enhanced, and anthropogenic radionuclides; site-specific transfer coefficients for arid environments, since most existing parameters derive from temperate ecosystems; and formal ecological risk assessments using frameworks such as the International Atomic Energy Agency’s ERICA approach. The authors also champion emerging digital tools, artificial intelligence, machine learning, geographic information systems, remote sensing, and Internet of Things sensor networks, for near-real-time surveillance and automated risk mapping, alongside integration with the IAEA’s International Radiation Monitoring Information System. For now, the baseline is established: Qatar’s natural environment radiates little more than gentle desert sunshine in particle form, while its industrial wastes, if left unmanaged, could tell a very different story.

Subject of Research: Environmental radioactivity and radiological risk assessment of natural and artificial radionuclides across environmental matrices in Qatar

Article Title: Risk assessment of radionuclides in different environmental matrices in the State of Qatar, Arabian Gulf

Article References: Risk assessment of radionuclides in different environmental matrices in the State of Qatar, Arabian Gulf. (n.d.). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10653-026-03469-1

Image Credits: AI Generated

DOI: 10.1007/s10653-026-03469-1

Keywords: radionuclides, Qatar, environmental radioactivity, TENORM, radiological risk assessment, gamma spectrometry, oil-field sludge, cesium-137, radon, Arabian Gulf, building materials, dust storms