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Background in the context of land contaminated with naturally occurring radioactive material
The financial implications of choosing a particular threshold for clearance of radioactively contaminated land are substantial, particularly when one considers the volume of naturally occurring radioactive material (NORM) created each year by the production and combustion of fossil fuels and the exp...
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| Format: | Default Article |
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2013
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| Online Access: | https://hdl.handle.net/2134/16373 |
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| _version_ | 1818173263464890368 |
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| author | David Read G.D. Read M.C. Thorne |
| author_facet | David Read G.D. Read M.C. Thorne |
| author_sort | David Read (1249314) |
| collection | Figshare |
| description | The financial implications of choosing a particular threshold for clearance of radioactively contaminated land are substantial, particularly when one considers the volume of naturally occurring radioactive material (NORM) created each year by the production and combustion of fossil fuels and the exploitation of industrial minerals. Inevitably, a compromise needs to be reached between the level of environmental protection sought and the finite resources available for remediation. In the case of natural series radionuclides, any anthropogenic input is always superimposed on the inventory already present in the soil; this ‘background’ inventory is conventionally disregarded when assessing remediation targets. Unfortunately, the term is not well defined and the concept of ‘background dose’ is open to alternative interpretations. In this paper, we address the issue of natural background from a geochemical rather than from a solely radiological perspective, illustrating this with an example from the china clay industry. We propose a simple procedure for decision making based on activity concentrations of primordial radionuclides and their progeny. Subsequent calculations of dose need to take into account the mineralogical and chemical characteristics of the contamination, which in the case of NORM are invariably reflected in uranium series disequilibrium. |
| format | Default Article |
| id | rr-article-9395267 |
| institution | Loughborough University |
| publishDate | 2013 |
| record_format | Figshare |
| spelling | rr-article-93952672013-01-01T00:00:00Z Background in the context of land contaminated with naturally occurring radioactive material David Read (1249314) G.D. Read (7165502) M.C. Thorne (7165505) Other chemical sciences not elsewhere classified untagged Chemical Sciences not elsewhere classified The financial implications of choosing a particular threshold for clearance of radioactively contaminated land are substantial, particularly when one considers the volume of naturally occurring radioactive material (NORM) created each year by the production and combustion of fossil fuels and the exploitation of industrial minerals. Inevitably, a compromise needs to be reached between the level of environmental protection sought and the finite resources available for remediation. In the case of natural series radionuclides, any anthropogenic input is always superimposed on the inventory already present in the soil; this ‘background’ inventory is conventionally disregarded when assessing remediation targets. Unfortunately, the term is not well defined and the concept of ‘background dose’ is open to alternative interpretations. In this paper, we address the issue of natural background from a geochemical rather than from a solely radiological perspective, illustrating this with an example from the china clay industry. We propose a simple procedure for decision making based on activity concentrations of primordial radionuclides and their progeny. Subsequent calculations of dose need to take into account the mineralogical and chemical characteristics of the contamination, which in the case of NORM are invariably reflected in uranium series disequilibrium. 2013-01-01T00:00:00Z Text Journal contribution 2134/16373 https://figshare.com/articles/journal_contribution/Background_in_the_context_of_land_contaminated_with_naturally_occurring_radioactive_material/9395267 CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 |
| spellingShingle | Other chemical sciences not elsewhere classified untagged Chemical Sciences not elsewhere classified David Read G.D. Read M.C. Thorne Background in the context of land contaminated with naturally occurring radioactive material |
| title | Background in the context of land contaminated with naturally occurring radioactive material |
| title_full | Background in the context of land contaminated with naturally occurring radioactive material |
| title_fullStr | Background in the context of land contaminated with naturally occurring radioactive material |
| title_full_unstemmed | Background in the context of land contaminated with naturally occurring radioactive material |
| title_short | Background in the context of land contaminated with naturally occurring radioactive material |
| title_sort | background in the context of land contaminated with naturally occurring radioactive material |
| topic | Other chemical sciences not elsewhere classified untagged Chemical Sciences not elsewhere classified |
| url | https://hdl.handle.net/2134/16373 |