Multipotential Trace Metal Concentrations in Soil Associated with the Ecological and Human Health Risk near the Rooppur Nuclear Power Plant, Pabna, Bangladesh

Soil samples were collected from ten sampling points surrounded the Rooppur Nuclear Power Plant to determine the metal concentration like As, Pb, Rb, Sr, Zr, Cu, and Zn. The metals concentrations in soil samples were determined by the Energy Dispersive X-ray Fluorescence (EDXRF) technique. The average metal concentrations in the study area were found in the following descending order: Zr (334.84 mg/kg) > Rb (179.35 mg/kg) > Pb (172.77 mg/kg) > Sr (138.86 mg/kg) > Zn (120.54 mg/kg) > Cu (16.96 mg/kg) > As (8.50 mg/kg) respectively. Moreover, the sampling sites were organized according to the total metal concentration as S7 > S3 > S4 > S5 > S11 > S2 > S9 > S1 > S10 > S8 > S12 > S6 respectively. This study showed that the average concentration of As, Sr, and Cu surpassed the suggested standard and average shale value (ASV) limits. In this study, the identification of the soil quality associated with the ecological and human health risk was evaluated using some important indices. The geoaccumulation index (Igeo) deliberated that most of the sites were not contaminated except for S3 and S7, which were classified as strong contamination and strong to extreme contamination. The enrichment factor (EF) revealed that three sampling points of S3, S4, and S7 were enriched with Pb, which was consistent with the contamination factor (CF) suggested that the study area was contaminated by only Pb and Zn. It might happen due to excess battery rechargeable vehicles in the study area. However, this study revealed that the pollution load index (PLI) for most of the sampling points was lower than 1 (PLI < 1) suggesting good soil quality in the study area. The finding of PLI was similar to the potential ecological risk assessment, which signified that the study area was not in a harmful situation as it did not surpass the limit of 100. Subsequently, the assessment of human health risk suggested that both adults and children would not be exposed to the non-carcinogenic and carcinogenic risks as these remained under the corresponded threshold limits (1 and 10−6 to 10−4 respectively). However, this study suggests an action plan for the continuation of further investigation for monitoring the soil quality change due to the nuclear power plant’s present ongoing construction work and future operation in the study area.