الفهرس | Only 14 pages are availabe for public view |
Abstract Oil and gas production and processing operations sometimes accumulate Naturally Occurring Radioactive Material (NORM) at elevated concentrations in by-product waste streams. The presence of high concentrations of NORM in formation water associated with oil and gas production has been recognized since 1904. However, concerns about the possible associated health risk did not arise until the mid-1980s, when the industry and regulators realized that TE- NORM occurrence was more widespread than originally thought and the activity levels could be quite high. The main sources of most of the radioactivity are isotopes of Uranium-238 (U-238) and Thorium-232 (Th-232), which are naturally present in subsurface formations from which oil, gas and formation water are produced. |