| NUKLEONIKA 2009, 54(1):3-9
TECHNOLOGICALLY ENHANCED NATURALLY OCCURING RADIOACTIVE MATERIALS IN THE OIL INDUSTRY (TENORM). A REVIEWFiryal Bou-Rabee1, Abdallah Z. Al-Zamel1, Rana A. Al-Fares2, Henryk Bem3 1 Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, College of Science, Kuwait University, P. O. Box 5969, Safat, 13060, Kuwait 2 Department of Civil Engineering, College of Engineering and Petroleum, Kuwait University, P. O. Box 5969, Safat, 13060, Kuwait 3 Institute of Applied Radiation Chemistry, Technical University of £ódŸ, 36 ¯wirki Str., 90-924 £ódŸ, Poland A large amount of naturally occurring radioactive materials in the form of by-products or waste is produced annually by the growing activity of the oil and gas industry. Solid scale, sludge and produced water are typical residues contaminated with natural radionuclides from the uranium and thorium series, particularly 226Ra and 228Ra. The observed specific activities of these radionuclides are in the ranges up to 3700 kBq/kg and up to 168 kBq/kg for solid scale and sludge, respectively. The average activities of both radionuclides exceed the exemption level of 10,000 Bq/kg recommended by IAEA safety standards. This means that TENORM wastes from the oil industry may generate radiation exposure levels which require attention and continuous monitoring during some routine operations in this industry. This exposure is mostly caused by external gamma radiation coming from the 226Ra radionuclide and its progenies. Close X |