Assessment of radiation doses in "conditional clearance" of tenorm waste from oil and gas industry

Abstract

Brazil lacks legal basis for disposal of the NORM waste generated in oil and gas production platforms. Currently, oil sludge or scales containing the radionuclides of the natural decay chains above clearance levels are only packaged in drums and stored indefinitely in licensed storage facilities. The clearance levels are established for unconditional release, resulting in very conservative values for the activities and the activity concentrations of those radionuclides. This work aims to obtain a basis for deriving new, higher concentration limits for clearance of solid radioactive wastes based on the concept of ‘conditional clearance’, allowing the disposal of a larger fraction of the waste in licensed landfills.