# Radioactivity in Soils of Kosovo and Radiological Implications
## 3 Results and Discussion
### The Activity Concentrations of the Radionuclides
\begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{c c c c c c} \hline \hline
**County** & \({}^{226}\)**Ra** & \({}^{232}\)**Th** & \({}^{40}\)**K** & \({}^{137}\)**Cs** & **References** \\ \hline Italy & 79 & 48 & 640 & 25 & [38] \\ Saudi Arabia & 23.2 & 7.7 & 278.0 & 1.4 & [39] \\ Lebanon & 27 & 24 & 246 & 21 & [40] \\ Yemen & 44.4 & 58.2 & 822.7 & 4.8 & [41] \\ Syria & 29 & 21 & 310 & 27 & [42] \\ Upper Egypt \({}^{\star}\) & 16.5 & 10.2 & 192 & / & [46] \\ Turkey (Bolu) & 18.2 & 17.3 & 258.3 & 7.5 & [44] \\ Turkey & 42.2 & 32.2 & 402 & 30.4 & [12] \\ (Artvin) & 44.7 & 42.3 & 542 & 30.8 & [43] \\ Kosovo & 22.3 & 21.1 & 358.2 & 12.9 & Present study \\ \hline \hline \end{tabular} \({}^{\star}\) The values are presenting the average of the range.  
\end{table} 
Table 1: Comparisons of specific radionuclide concentrations by countries (Bq/kg). In Table 2, statistics on the proportional changes of radionuclide activities are comparatively listed for both real data and simulation data. For the actual data, the \({}^{232}\)Th/\({}^{226}\)Ra ratios varied from 0.69 to 1.21, with an average of 0.95 in Kosovo. The correlation between thorium and radium is lower than the world's average (1.29). The \({}^{40}\)K/\({}^{226}\)Ra ratios varied from 7.75 to 30.4, with an average of 16.5 in Kosovo. Its value is higher than the average of the world (11.77). Lastly, the \({}^{40}\)K/\({}^{232}\)Th ratios varied from 7.13 to 29.9, with an average of 17.4 in Kosovo. The ratio value is greater than the world's average (9.16). Similarly, for the simulation data, the \({}^{232}\)Th/\({}^{226}\)Ra, \({}^{40}\)K/\({}^{226}\)Ra, and \({}^{40}\)K/\({}^{232}\)Th ratios varied from 0.68 to 1.33, with a mean of 0.93; 9.75 to 29.4, with a mean of 16.4; and from 9.83 to 27.6, with a mean of 17.6, respectively. Correlations between natural radionuclide concentrations were also examined for real and simulation data. A significantly positive and strong correlation was determined between \({}^{232}\)Th and \({}^{226}\)Ra radionuclides (Figure 2). The variance explained (R\({}^{2}\)) between \({}^{232}\)Th, and \({}^{226}\)Ra radionuclides were calculated as 81% for actual data and 51% for simulation data. On the other hand, the correlations between \({}^{40}\)K and \({}^{226}\)Ra and \({}^{40}\)K and \({}^{232}\)Th were determined, and it was determined that there is a weak and positive relationship in both cases. The variance explained between \({}^{40}\)K and \({}^{226}\)Ra radionuclides were calculated as 14% for the actual data and 8.5% for the simulation data. Again, the variance explained between \({}^{40}\)K and \({}^{232}\)Th radionuclides were calculated as 10% for actual data and 7.3% for simulation data. The presence of a significant correlation between the activity concentrations of \({}^{226}\)Ra, \({}^{232}\)Th, and \({}^{40}\)K radionuclides shows that radionuclides in soils of the study area are derived from the same natural source. Figure 3 comparatively shows the histograms of both actual and simulation data for the activity concentrations of \({}^{226}\)Ra, \({}^{232}\)Th, \({}^{40}\)K, and \({}^{137}\)Cs radionuclides. According to the Shapiro-Wilk normality test results, \({}^{232}\)Th and \({}^{40}\)K distributions were found to be normal (\(p>0.05\)), while \({}^{226}\)Ra and \({}^{137}\)Cs distributions were log-normal (\(p>0.05\)). In addition, it was determined that the distribution structures of the real measurement data and the simulation data were significantly similar (\(p>0.05\)), according to the results of the two-sample Kolmogorov-Smirnov test. From all these findings, it could be seen that the simulation data, which reveal the radionuclide distribution for the entire study area, are very effective in representing real data.