Radioactive Wastes from Oil and Gas Drilling

[Amazon 7]

Here I go again...

http://www.epa.gov/radtown/drilling-waste.html

Radioactive wastes from oil and gas drilling take the form of produced water, drilling mud, sludge, slimes, or evaporation ponds and pits. It can also concentrate in the mineral scales that form in pipes (pipe scale), storage tanks, or other extraction equipment. Radionuclides in these wastes are primarily radium-226, radium-228, and radon gas. The radon is released to the atmosphere, while the produced water and mud containing radium are placed in ponds or pits for evaporation, re-use, or recovery.

The people most likely to be exposed to this source of radiation are workers at the site. They may inhale radon gas which is released during drilling and produced by the decay of radium, raising their risk of lung cancer. In addition, they are exposed to alpha and gamma radiation released during the decay of radium-226 and the low-energy gamma radiation and beta particles released by the decay of radium-228. (Gamma radiation can also penetrate the skin and raise the risk of cancer.) Workers following safety guidance will reduce their total on-site radiation exposure.

[lawrocket 3]

Be nice if they could give some figures/dosages/halflife.

The article itself looks like nothing more than rhetoric based on "all radiation = bad" and "linear no threshold risk."

My wife is hotter than your wife.

[Amazon 7]

lawrocket

Be nice if they could give some figures/dosages/halflife.

The article itself looks like nothing more than rhetoric based on "all radiation = bad" and "linear no threshold risk."

Maybe you can find that information in one of these......

http://www.bing.com/search?q=radioactive+filters+in+the+oilfield&qs=OS&sk=AS1&pq=radioactive+filter&sc=2-18&sp=2&FORM=QBLH&cvid=0d3e7413aa3f4b389f96bdfa5483a905&ghc=1

[lawrocket 3]

What I'm wondering is whether there is more or less radiation in these filters than in a can of Brazil nuts.

My wife is hotter than your wife.

[Amazon 7]

lawrocket

What I'm wondering is whether there is more or less radiation in these filters than in a can of Brazil nuts.

There is more than enough to set off radiation monitors at some landfills as companies are sneaking them in illegally

[lawrocket 3]

Amazon

***What I'm wondering is whether there is more or less radiation in these filters than in a can of Brazil nuts.

There is more than enough to set off radiation monitors at some landfills as companies are sneaking them in illegally

That doesn't answer my question. Brazil Nuts do the same thing.

My wife is hotter than your wife.

[sfzombie13 324]

in wv, the legislature almost approved a bill which would allow the unlimited storage of waste from fracking, or horizontal well drilling waste (i think it is the same thing) to be disposed of in landfills in excess of the posted limits. in other words, as much as they want.

and in the case of this kind of waste, all of it is bad, there is no safety net of exposure limits. it may not stay radioactive long, but it does not get any safer with time. this is a subject i have been looking into, i am not going to post any links, however, people in this forum tend to get irate over the validity of the information when the link comes from sites they deem questionable. besides, the information is freely available.

_________________________________________
Si hoc legere scis nimium eruditionis habes

[Amazon 7]

lawrocket

******What I'm wondering is whether there is more or less radiation in these filters than in a can of Brazil nuts.

There is more than enough to set off radiation monitors at some landfills as companies are sneaking them in illegally

That doesn't answer my question. Brazil Nuts do the same thing.

Would you like them dumped in your yard Jerry.... or is this a NIMBY situation??

[jakee 1,610]

Amazon

Would you like them dumped in your yard Jerry.... or is this a NIMBY situation??

"drilling mud, sludge, slimes, or evaporation ponds and pits."

In my actual back yard? Not really - but that's nothing to do with radiation.

Do you want to have an ideagasm?

[Amazon 7]

jakee

***Would you like them dumped in your yard Jerry.... or is this a NIMBY situation??

"drilling mud, sludge, slimes, or evaporation ponds and pits."

In my actual back yard? Not really - but that's nothing to do with radiation.

From the OP

Radioactive materials are not necessarily present in the soils at every well or drilling site. However in some areas of the country, such as the upper Midwest or Gulf Coast states, the soils are more like to contain radioactive material.

Radioactive wastes from oil and gas drilling take the form of produced water, drilling mud, sludge, slimes, or evaporation ponds and pits. It can also concentrate in the mineral scales that form in pipes (pipe scale), storage tanks, or other extraction equipment. Radionuclides in these wastes are primarily radium-226, radium-228, and radon gas. The radon is released to the atmosphere, while the produced water and mud containing radium are placed in ponds or pits for evaporation, re-use, or recovery.

But the real fun.... http://news.yahoo.com/officials-cache-illegal-oil-field-waste-found-212940360.html

Filter socks, which can become contaminated with naturally occurring radiation, are banned for disposal in North Dakota. Oil companies are supposed to haul them to approved waste facilities in other states such as Montana, Colorado and Idaho, which allow a higher level of radioactivity in their landfills.

State regulators and law enforcement officials are investigating, Radig said. He said the filter socks found in Noonan have been tested, and show low levels of radioactivity.

"The public is not at risk as long as people don't break into the building and start handling them," Radig said.

Health officials say that since the state's oil production has soared in the past several years, radioactive filter socks increasingly are being found along roadsides, in abandoned buildings or in commercial trash bins of an unsuspecting business — sometimes that of a competing oil company.

Divide County Chief Sheriff's Deputy Rob Melby said there were "piles and piles" of filter socks scattered through a 4,000-square-foot building that once housed an auto shop.

http://www.isssource.com/nd-fracking-radioactive-filter-socks/

Some of the water injected into deep shale formations during hydraulic fracturing returns to the surface as “flowback water.”

The catch is the flowback will contain the chemical additives used during fracking, which means it is an industrial wastewater that requires proper treatment and/or disposal, according to Cornell University’s Water Resources Institute. In addition, flowback will also contain chemical constituents associated with the shale, which may include high levels of salt, metals, organic compounds, and naturally occurring radioactive materials (NORM).

Filter socks’ job is to capture the solids in flowback water.

North Dakota prohibits disposal of waste that emits more than 5 picocuries per gram of radiation. Filter socks tested by a Williston, ND landfill operator emitted up to 47 pico curies per gram, the Sun reported.

[1969912 0]

Quote

.....North Dakota prohibits disposal of waste that emits more than 5 picocuries per gram of radiation. Filter socks tested by a Williston, ND landfill operator emitted up to 47 pico curies per gram, the Sun reported.....

The person who wrote that needs to take a basic physics course. It's like saying that my beer contains 5 meters of alcohol per curie of beer. I dismiss that kind of shit outright.

"Once we got to the point where twenty/something's needed a place on the corner that changed the oil in their cars we were doomed . . ."
-NickDG

[Amazon 7]

1969912

Quote

.....North Dakota prohibits disposal of waste that emits more than 5 picocuries per gram of radiation. Filter socks tested by a Williston, ND landfill operator emitted up to 47 pico curies per gram, the Sun reported.....

The person who wrote that needs to take a basic physics course. It's like saying that my beer contains 5 meters of alcohol per curie of beer. I dismiss that kind of shit outright.

It seems someone is using it here in this country.

http://www.davistownmuseum.org/cbm/Rad1.html

CURIE: a measurement of radioactivity: the amount of radioactive material giving off 3.7 x 1010 d.p.s., or 37 billion disintegrations per second. In the United States, the picocurie (1 pCi = 0.037 d.p.s. or 1 x 10-12 of a curie) is the unit used for many measurements of radioactive contamination.

Responses welcome:
FAX (207) 288-2725
cbm@davistownmuseum.org
or write to:
Center for Biological Monitoring
Box 144
Hulls Cove, ME 04644
/cbm/
(207) 288-5126

[billvon 3,132]

>>North Dakota prohibits disposal of waste that emits more than 5 picocuries per
>>gram of radiation.

>The person who wrote that needs to take a basic physics course. It's like saying
>that my beer contains 5 meters of alcohol per curie of beer. I dismiss that kind of
>shit outright.

No, it's more like saying that your beer contains 100 milliliters per liter of alcohol. It's not the clearest phrasing (it would be clearer to say "there are 100 milliliters of alcohol in every liter of beer") but the units work out.

As a reference a human body emits .0025 picocuries per gram from the naturally occurring radioactive isotopes within it (mainly isotopes of carbon and potassium.)

[rwieder 0]

Guy's do you think we can discuss this later. It kills me to see it being discussed here.

Best-
Richard

[lawrocket 3]

A picocurie is a trillionth of a curie.

Brazil nuts at about 5,500 picocuries per kilogram. Or 5.5 per gram. So one test had 47 picocuries per gram. Roughly 8 or 9 times the radioactivity of brazil nuts.

Quote

In the United States, the picocurie (1 pCi = 0.037 d.p.s. or 1 x 10-12 of a curie) is the unit used for many measurements of radioactive contamination

It's one trillionth of a curie. 1 x 10^-12 is a mighty small number.

The picocurie measures very small amounts of radioactive activity. Like the amount of disintegrations of atoms you'd find in bananas is measured in picocuries because there isn't another number small enough.

My wife is hotter than your wife.

[Amazon 7]

lawrocket

A picocurie is a trillionth of a curie.

Brazil nuts at about 5,500 picocuries per kilogram. Or 5.5 per gram. So one test had 47 picocuries per gram. Roughly 8 or 9 times the radioactivity of brazil nuts.

Quote

In the United States, the picocurie (1 pCi = 0.037 d.p.s. or 1 x 10-12 of a curie) is the unit used for many measurements of radioactive contamination

It's one trillionth of a curie. 1 x 10^-12 is a mighty small number.

The picocurie measures very small amounts of radioactive activity. Like the amount of disintegrations of atoms you'd find in bananas is measured in picocuries because there isn't another number small enough.

The problem Jerry is if you read thru some of those articles.. some of those filter socks are in the hundreds of pCi The wonderful people who are disposing of them illegally, tossing them out along the roads... stuffing black garbage bags by the hundreds in old buildings... Or better still hey.. lets just dump em in the local tribes reservation.

Now if you think that is an effective way of dealing with radioactive material...

[lawrocket 3]

[Reply]The wonderful people who are disposing of them illegally, tossing them out along the roads... stuffing black garbage bags by the hundreds in old buildings... Or better still hey.. lets just dump em in the local tribes reservation.