Did anybody here know that radioisotopes occur in produced water discharges for offshore platforms?

[TalkingDog]

http://www.onepetro.org/mslib/servlet/onepetropreview?id=00029727&soc=SPE

Naturally occurring radioactive materials (NORM) are known to occur in discharges of produced water which is generated during oil and gas production. NORM is potentially bioaccumulated by marine organisms living around produced water discharges located on the offshore Gulf of Mexico continental shelf. Meinhold and Hamilton identified biological uptake of radium by marine organisms as a potential human health concern because of increased cancer risk to people ingesting radium in food.

and

http://www.dec.ny.gov/chemical/23473.html for wells in NY state


http://www.springerlink.com/content/j33k4j0256075133/

Samples were collected from offshore oil company for analysis of 238U, 235U, and 232Th series in produced waters. The activities of samples were determined by high-purity germanium detector, well for lowlevel activity γ-spectrometry. The results have shown that, 226Ra concentration ranges from 5.26 Bq/L to 27.93 Bq/L. Also the total activity in produced water is in the range of 16–840 Bq/L were mainly due to enhanced levels of dissolved 226Ra, 214Pb, 214Bi ions. Also, enhanced dissolution of elements such as radium by increasing of salinity, result in higher concentration of NORM in old oil region. Measured values are above EPA regulation (40 CFR 141055) & aqueous Derived Release Limit (DRL) of Canadian guideline for the management of (NORM). Therefore produced water has to dispose in pits which have to design for decrease the environmental effects.



Okay, somebody else is going to have to do the reading and feedback on this, I have a lot to do today. But specifically I'd like to know the NORM levels for the GOM and how much of that was also "dispersed" by the Corexit?

[ensho]

1. assume the worst when it comes to the murdering of the Gulf of Mexico

nt

[yella_dawg]

2. Oh please!

Radioactives are a common by product of oil production. The scrapyards in this part of the country keep detectors and refuse pipe and fittings that are contaminated. This is a huge problem and one inherent in oil production. The culprit is brine that naturally occurs with the oil. The water carries dissolved radioactives, at a very low level, but in staggering quantities. The pollution generated by offshore production doesn't even rise to a blip.

[TalkingDog]

4. How much of a blip?

"Meinhold and Hamilton identified biological uptake of radium by marine organisms as a potential human health concern because of increased cancer risk to people ingesting radium in food."


Inquiring minds want to know. That's why I posted it. Because there are informed, intelligent people on this board who know more than I do.

'Splain it to me. Like you would a 5 year old. With graphs and numbers and charts. Like the folks in those studies did.

[Posteritatis]

19. For a non-snarky answer...

If I'm parsing the numbers correctly, you - you, personally - aren't too far outside the ranges they're giving there. They're talking about 5-28 becquerels (which is a very very small amount) at one point and 16-840 (which is a suspiciously huge range) elsewhere. Your body, and I'm assuming for discussion's purposes that you're a Generic Adult Of Generic Weight And Don't Eat Plutonium Or Something, is shuffling around something like 70Bq of radioactivity. There's probably more than a liter of you, of course, and the figures there are in Bq/L, but we're still talking amounts of radioactivity you would get from enough humans to fill a minivan, or maybe a small bus. Compared to either you or the water, a you-massing block of granite or cement would be astonishingly radioactive, if still mostly harmless. (cite - the numbers are under the "human body" heading, though the other sections are worth reading too.)

Something like this falls into the territory of "interesting" rather than "alarming" for me, really. I'll probably get a nastier dose of radiation going to the store to finish stocking up for Earl's arrival tomorrow than I would from contact with the Gulf of Texaco, even if I'll be plenty cleaner otherwise.

[hobbit709]

3. Go to any granite outcropping and check the levels.

[TalkingDog]

5. You and that guy up thread are going to have to be a little more forthcoming

I'm admitting abysmal ignorance here.....


enlighten me.

[hobbit709]

7. Naturally occuring radioisotopes of many elements are common.

Almost all rocks, especially those of volcanic origin have traces of radioactive elements in them. Seawater contains small amounts of Deuterium and Tritium.
Carbon 14 is used for radioactive dating for things less than 50,000 or so years old.

[TalkingDog]

9. And this is:????

Meinhold and Hamilton identified biological uptake of radium by marine organisms as a potential human health concern because of increased cancer risk to people ingesting radium in food.


Which is what caught my eye.

[hobbit709]

13. guess how much radium you breathe in downwind of a coal power plant?

If you analyze any foodstuff, you can find isotopes. the question is always how much are you ingesting.

[TalkingDog]

16. How much is the question exactly.

Can anybody answer it?

[Brother Buzz]

8. It's everywhere

Wrap your head around this tidbit: Coal Ash Is More Radioactive than Nuclear Waste

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=coal-ash-is-more-radioactive-than-nuclear-waste

[TalkingDog]

10. How does the risk explained here:

"Dana Christensen, associate lab director for energy and engineering at ORNL, says that health risks from radiation in coal by-products are low. "Other risks like being hit by lightning," he adds, "are three or four times greater than radiation-induced health effects from coal plants." And McBride and his co-authors emphasize that other products of coal power, like emissions of acid rain–producing sulfur dioxide and smog-forming nitrous oxide, pose greater health risks than radiation."

Compare to the risk of it entering and moving up the food chain via seafood (or plant material, etc.)?

[Brother Buzz]

14. It's already in the foodchain everywhere...

from naturally occurring and man made sources (coal). The question remain: What is an acceptable safe level?

[TalkingDog]

17. Yes, agreed. Do you have numbers? n/t

[Brother Buzz]

18. Nope. I preceive heavy metals being a bigger threat to the foodchain

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

6. Collodial silver confers protective effects against radiations.

I highly recommend it.

[TalkingDog]

11. You're responding to the wrong thread.

Go peddle your snark elsewhere, please.

[Swede]

12. Are you blue?

:shrug:

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

15. No, that's a lie from the big chemtrail industries.

Liberal doses of laetrile confer protective effects against the so-called "blue" side effect.