# Radioactivity in Soils of Kosovo and Radiological Implications
## 3 Results and Discussion  
### The Activity Concentrations of the Radionuclides  
It was observed that the mean activity concentrations of these radionuclides were comparable with the worldwide average concentration [28]. In this context, all of the concentrations of \({}^{232}\)Th and \({}^{226}\)Ra were found to be below the world average. The average value of the \({}^{40}\)K concentrations in the studied soil samples was lower than the world average. However, the \({}^{40}\)K concentrations of site-1 (Leposavid), site-2 (Zubin Potok), site-3 (Mitrovice), site-4 (Podujeve), site-8 (Podujeve), site-10 (Peje), site-15 (Prishtin), site-17 (Gjakove), and site-30 (Dragash) samples were slightly higher than the worldwide average. The difference in the activity values of the naturally occurring \({}^{40}\)K in the soil samples had been fertilized with artificial fertilizers and contained residues from animal carcasses. \({}^{137}\)Cs do not exist in soil naturally, but it is a product of fallout radioactivity. It might have been deposited in the soil of Kosovo, presumably due to the Chornobyl nuclear power accident on 26 April 1986, a nuclear weapon tests, or a reprocessing of spent nuclear fuel. The concentration of \({}^{137}\)Cs in the trace level was reported on honey samples from Kosovo [37]. The study findings were compared to the values of some works used in other literature (Table 1). As shown in Table 1, the average activity value (22.32 Bq/kg) found for \({}^{226}\)Ra in this study is lower than the reported values in Italy (79 Bq/kg) [38], Saudi Arabia (23.2 Bq/kg) [39], Lebanon (27 Bq/kg) [40], Yemen (44.4 Bq/kg) [41], Syria (29 Bq/kg) [42], Artrin (42.2 Bq/kg) [12], and Croatia (44.7 Bq/kg) [43], while less results were reported for Bolu (18.2 Bq/kg) [44], and Oman (14.4 Bq/kg) [45]. The average activity value (21.1 Bq/kg) found for \({}^{232}\)Th is higher than the reported values in Saudi Arabia (7.7 Bq/kg), Oman (9.9 Bq/kg), and Turkey (17.3 Bq/kg), yet lower than the other values. The average activity value found for \({}^{40}\)K is lower than the reported values in Italy (640 Bq/kg), Yemen (822.7 Bq/kg), and Croatia (542 Bq/kg) but higher than other values. In addition to these, the average activity value found for \({}^{137}\)Cs in the soil samples is lower than the reported values in Italy (25 Bq/kg), Lebanon (21 Bq/kg), Oman (2770 Bq/kg), Syria (27 Bq/kg), and Croatia (30.8 Bq/kg) but higher than other values. The statistical summary information of the activity concentrations (actual data) obtained from the Kosovo soils' experimental measurement results and the simulation distributions obtained by the SGS-ANN method for each radionuclide is shown in Table 2, comparatively. According to this, for the actual data, the activity concentrations of \({}^{226}\)Ra, \({}^{232}\)Th, \({}^{40}\)K, and \({}^{137}\)Cs varied from 8 Bq/kg to 30 Bq/kg, with a mean of 22 Bq/kg; 7 Bq/kg to 31 Bq/kg, with a mean of 21 Bq/kg; 105 Bq/kg to 515 Bq/kg, with a mean of 358 Bq/kg; and <MDA to 43 Bq/kg, with a mean of 13 Bq/kg, respectively. Similarly, for the simulation data, the activity concentrations of \({}^{226}\)Ra, \({}^{232}\)Th, \({}^{40}\)K, and \({}^{137}\)Cs varied from 12 Bq/kg to 29 Bq/kg, with a mean of 23 Bq/kg; 11 Bq/kg to 29 Bq/kg, with a mean of 21 Bq/kg; 181 Bq/kg to 541 Bq/kg, with a mean of 370 Bq/kg; and 1 to 41 Bq/kg, with a mean of 10 Bq/kg, respectively.