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Major Sources of Technologically Enhanced
Naturally-Occurring Radioactive Materials
TENORM spans a wide spectrum of raw materials and products
destined for use, recycling, or disposal. This chapter summarizes TENORM
concerns associated with various industrial activities and notes unique
characteristics of possible importance in dose assessment. Because of the
diversity of sues, materials, and processes (table 3.1), it is difficult to summarize
radionuclide concentrations and waste volumes here. For that kind of
information, the reader is referred to an Environmental Protection Agency
(EPA) review (EPA 1993b).
URANIUM MINING
Uranium production from surface mining operations generates large
volumes of overburden with either ambient or elevated, but below-ore-grade,
concentrations of uranium and its decay products. Smaller amounts of waste
rock are produced by underground uranium mines. The ratio of overburden to
ore has increased as less-accessible and lower-grade ores have been exploited.
In the 1950s, the ratio was about 10:1; by the 1980s, it had increased to about
60:1. Most of the mines in question are in the western states: Arizona, Colorado,
New Mexico, South Dakota, Texas, Utah, and Wyoming. A 1989 survey
showed the average radium-226 concentration in uranium-mine overburden to
be about 0.9 kBq/l~g (25 pCi/g).
Those mining wastes are distinct from uranium mill tailings (UMT),
which are the ore residues discharged to a waste pond after extraction of the
uranium, typically by sulfuric acid leaching. Although 90-95% of the uranium
in the ore is extracted, most of the uranium-decay-product activity remains with
61
OCR for page 62
62
GUIDELINES FOR EXPOSURE TO TENORM
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MAJOR SOURCES OF TENORM
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64
GUIDELINES FOR EXPOSURE TO TENORM
the UMT. UMT are regulated under EPA's standards for uranium and thorium
mill tailings (40 CFR Part 192) and are therefore not a focus of this report.
Some of the TENORM considered in this report has had processing and disposal
histories similar to those of UMT, and UMT have been the focus of more
research than most other TENORM. However, such UMT properties as radon
emanation coefficients and leachability of radionuclides should not be
generalized to the entire TENORM spectrum of materials without due
consideration of material similarities and differences.
PHOSPHATE-FERTILIZER AND ELE1\¢IENTAL-PHOSPHORUS
PRODUCTION
Up to about 0.02% uranium can substitute for positions typically
occupied by atoms of calcium in the structure of the mineral carbonate
fluorapatite (Durrance 1986~. This mineral commonly occurs in phosphate rock,
the ore for the production of phosphoric acid and elemental phosphorus.
Commercial extraction of uranium has occurred at several phosphoric acid
plants in Florida and Louisiana (DOE 1996~. The transfer of uranium-series
radionuclides to both the waste materials and the fertilizer product makes each
of these a diffuse source of TENORM. Phosphate operations in Florida amount
to about 80% of domestic production; other major mining and processing plants
are in Idaho, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, and Wyoming.
Two distinct manufacturing processes, a wet process and a thermal
process, are involved. The wet process treats the ore with sulfuric acid to yield
phosphoric acid and hydrated calcium sulfate (gypsum). This "phosphogypsum"
(PG) waste contains trace amounts of 226RaSO4 coprecipitated with the CaSO4~n
H2O. About 80% of the 226Ra in the ore follows the PG, which results in an
average 226Ra concentration of about 1.1 kBq/kg (30 pCi/g). The volumes of the
waste are large: the process yields about 5 tons of PG for every ton of
phosphoric acid produced. The PG waste has been disposed of both on land and
in rivers. Land disposal generally results in large piles (called "gyp stacks"~.
Hull and Burnett (1996) found process waters contained in these stacks to have
high ionic strength, low pH (1.4-2.5), and low concentrations of 226Ra (0.08-0.30
Bq/L), because of high sulfate concentrations, but high concentrations of
uranium and lead-210 (up to 65 Bq/L). Studies on the Mississippi River and the
Rhine estuary have shown that where PG is discharged to such fresh or brackish
water, the gypsum dissolves rapidly, releasing the radium, which remains in
solution or sorbs onto suspended sediment (Pennders and others 1992; Kraemer
and Curwick 1991~. Lead-210 and polonium-210 in the PG occur as an
insoluble residue that settles in the estuarine discharge zone, whereas the
gypsum dissolves. The mineralogic occurrence of the 2~0Pb and typo in the PG
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MAJOR SOURCES OF TENORM
65
is probably similar to that observed by Landa and others (1994) in acid-leach
UMT effluent lead sulfate crystallites in a gypsum matrix. Sediment
enrichment in uranium has also been seen in a tidal marsh in Spain where
phosphate-fertilizer manufacturing plants discharge liquid and solid wastes to a
river (Martinez-Aguirre and others 1996~.
About 85% of the uranium partitions to the phosphoric acid, which is
further processed to produce a variety of fertilizers with uranium-238
concentrations of about 740-2200 Bq/kg (20-60 pCi/g). Gypsum is often applied
to soils as a fertilizer source of calcium and sulfur. PG is an inexpensive and
readily available byproduct source of gypsum for agricultural uses. To limit
radiation exposure (principally by direct gamma radiation and indoor-radon
inhalation exposure), EPA (1992d) issued a ruling that bans the agricultural use
of PG that contains 226Ra at over 370 Bq/kg (10 pCi/g). Pipe scales that contain
226Ra at up to 3.7 x 103 kBq/kg (1 x 105 pCi/g) are a low-volume, discrete
TENORM waste at wet-process plants.
The thermal process involves heating the phosphate rock to about
1300 °C to yield an elemental phosphorous product and a calcium silicate
vitreous slag waste containing 226Ra at about 0.7-2 kBq/kg (20-50 pCi/g). The
low coefficient of radon emanation from this glassy material (the fraction of the
radon formed in a radium-bearing solid that escapes to the atmosphere) limits
the radon-exposure pathway. Another atmospheric pathway involves the
volatilization of 2~0Pb and typo associated with the heating of the ore (EPA
1989d); such releases are regulated under the Clean Air Act (see chapter 7~. At a
thermal plant in the Netherlands, where such stack off-gases are vented through
a wet scrubber for emission control, the water from the system is discharged to
an estuary. In sharp contrast with the case of the wet-process PG effluent noted
above, about 30% of the 2~0Pb and 10% of the typo are dissolved in the thermal-
plant effluent; through dilution with seawater by a factor of about 200, the typo
figure increases to 100% (Pennders and others 1992~. The bioavailabilit,v of a
soluble radionuclide can be expected to be much higher than that of its insoluble
form, so the importance of understanding TENORM processing and
geochemical forms of radionuclides when doing dose assessments is clear.
The application of phosphate fertilizers to soils may increase their
uranium and radium content. Over 50-80 y of application, the concentrations of
238U and 226Ra in the plow layer could be increased from a few percent to several
times background (NCRP 1987b; Pfister and others 1976~.
RESIDERS OF COAL CO1\IBUSTION
The reducing conditions under which coals form are conducive to the
accumulation of uranium. Typical mucks, peats, [ignites, and coals contain
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GUIDELINES FOR EXPOSURE TO TENORM
uranium at about 0.05-3 ppm. Thorium is strongly adsorbed by peats, and the
typical coal contains thorium at 1-10 ppm (Boyle 1982~. On combustion of
coals, most of the uranium, thorium, and decay products remain with the ash.
For its evaluation of coal ash, EPA (1993b) considered compos*ed fly ash plus
bottom ash with a literature-derived mean 226Ra concentration of about 0.14
kBq/kg (3.7 pCi/g). Although most coals have decay products in secular
equilibrium with the parent, a young, postglacial peat deposit in northeastern
Washington state with about 0.1% uranium has less than 10% ingrowth of the
possible decay-product activity. This deposit has been exploited as a uranium
source, and the lack of decay-product activity rendered the UMT here more
benign than those at a typical uranium mill a factor that was considered in the
licensing decision (Stohr and Erickson 1984~. Disequilibrium can also be seen
in combustion products. Data on fly ash presented by Baxter (1996) suggest
strong enrichment (with respect to other uranium-series nuclides) in 2~0Pb and
Typo, presumably because of volatilization and subsequent condensation on the
fly-ash particles. The bottom ash is assumed to show depletion in these
radionuclides. Such differential behavior and the resulting concentration
differences should be considered in dose assessments.
Radon emanation from ash is a possible exposure pathway from both
ash disposal piles and use of fly ash as a concrete aggregate. The low
coefficients of radon emanation from glassy materials, such as coal ash and
phosphate slag, mitigate exposures.
OIL AND NATURAL-GAS PRODUCTION AND PROCESSING
Oil and natural-gas reservoirs commonly contain large quantities of
saline water. These brines come to the surface during pumping operations and
require disposal after separation of the water from the oil and gas. The disposal
of oilf~eld brines in a manner that does not result in the salinization of soil and
water has been a concern since the early days of the petroleum industry. The
radiation hazard was recognized later; the brines tend to be low in uranium
(because of reducing conditions in the petroleum reservoir) and low in thorium,
but they can contain elevated concentrations of 226Ra and 228Ra (Perel'man
1977~. In the United States, more than 90% of such brine is disposed by
injection underground, sometimes in enhanced oil-recovery wells, and at other
times solely with waste disposal as a goal. The remainder is disposed by surface
discharge to earthen evaporation or seepage pits or to wetlands, streams, and so
on (Smith 1992~. Some brines have been applied to dirt roads for dust control
(Rittiger and Yusko 1996~. At offshore wells on the Outer Continental Shelf of
the Gulf of Mexico, overboard disposal of produced well solids (formation sand,
TENORM scale, and so on) is banned, but overboard disposal of production
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MAJOR SOURCES OF TENORM
67
water (treated to remove such solids) is allowed (Minerals Management Service
1996a).
At some facilities in Texas, radium has been removed from brines by
treatment with activated charcoal prepared from walnut hulls. The spent
charcoal is thus rendered a solid TENORM waste (Ruth McBurney, Texas
Department of Health, personal communication, 1993~. In Pennsylvania, a
brine-treatment facility using pH adjustment and flocculation techniques to
remove metals yielded a sludge that was dewatered and sent to a landfill. The
sludge, which contained 226Ra and 228Ra at about 0.9 kBq/kg (25 pCi/g) each,
triggered portal radiation detectors at the landfill, and this initiated an
investigation by the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection
(Rittiger and Yusko 1996~.
As brine flows through pipes at the oil field, temperatures tend to drop
and solutes tend to precipitate, forming a scale consisting of sulfates, carbonates,
and silicates of calcium, strontium and barium along the interior walls. Radium
tends to coprecipitate with these compounds, resulting in a radioactive scale.
226Ra concentrations as high as 15,000 kBq/kg (400,000 pCi/g) have been
reported, but typical concentrations are 4-400 kBq/kg (100-10,000 pCi/g).
Exposure scenarios associated with these scales include gamma-ray exposure of
workers at oil-production platforms and exposure to soil contamination at pipe-
reaming facilities. Operations like the latter are conducted to maintain flow at
the oil wells. Scale can be removed from pipes and other production equipment
by mechanical methods, including cutting, shearing, and high-pressure blasting
with water, sand and cryogenic carbon dioxide pellets (Lancee and others 1997~.
Chemical decontamination methods that use salts of amino carboxylic acids and
proprietary reagents are available for the dissolution of scale and other surficial
TENORM materials; radium can be precipitated from the spent solutions and
the solid concentrate disposed of (Coil 1997; Lancee and others 1997~.
Sludges are related deposits, typically found settled on the bottoms of
equipment and storage tanks at various points in the oil-gas-water separation
processing stream. The sludges are often oily, and disposal in burn pits used to
be common. Large quantities of dewatered TENORM-contaminated scales and
sludges have been stored in barrels at production facilities pending development
of regulatory guidance. In 1992, an estimated 410,000 barrels of such TENORM
waste was stored in Louisiana alone. In 1994, two commercial state-licensed
TENORM-waste facilities opened in Louisiana and Texas, TENORM waste is
diluted to reduce its specific activity to meet state criteria for reuse or disposal.
Limited quantities of TENORM wastes from the oil and gas industry have been
disposed of at low-level radioactive-waste sites licensed by the Nuclear
Regulatory Commission (Minerals Management Service 1996a).
In addition to near-surface burial, TENORM waste can be disposed of
by deep subsurface encapsulation in abandoned well bores or injection into
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GUIDELINES FOR EXPOSURE TO TENORM
permeable formations. Geologic and engineering criteria for such disposal on
the Outer Continental Shelf of the Gulf of Mexico have recently been released
by the Minerals Management Service (1996b). State regulations on down-hole
encapsulation and injection of TENORM oil and gas wastes in onshore wells are
in place or pending in Texas, Louisiana, and Mississippi (Minerals Management
Service 1996a).
Equipment and piping that handle only the natural-gas fraction are not
subject to scale and sludge deposits. However, radon-222 is carried from the
reservoir with the gas, and its decay products tend to plate out on the interior
surfaces of pipes, valves, and equipment in the gas plant (Gesell 1975~. Short-
lived, gamma-emitting radon decay products, such as bismuth-214, can pose an
exposure hazard to plant workers, but the environmental fate of the longer-lived
decay products 2~0Pb and typo is of concern after disposal of scrap metal from
such operations, as is occupational exposure during maintenance and repair of
disassembled equipment (Summerlin and Prichard 1985~.
MUNICIPAL WATER TREATMENT
Conventional water-treatment processes designed to remove suspended
solids and dissolved chemical contaminants from drinking-water supplies also
remove radionuclides. During the period of atmospheric nuclear-weapons
testing, the US Public Health Service and others did much work on removal of
fission products, such as strontium-89 and strontium-90, from water supplies
(Straub 1971~. A variety of treatments, including lime-soda ash softening and
phosphate coagulation, that were shown to be effective for radiostrontium
removal can also remove substantial quantities of other alkaline earth metals,
including radium (Menetrez and Watson 1983~. Lime softening is effective in
removing uranium from water. The radionuclide concentrations in the sludges
generated by these treatments will be a function of the raw-water radionuclide
concentrations and He radionuclide-removal efficiencies.
Regional geology is the key determinant of raw-water radionuclide
concentrations. Water supplies win elevated concentrations of radium are found
with the greatest frequency in the north central and Coastal Plain states. Water
supplies with elevated levels of uranium are found most frequently in the
western states (Horton 1985~. Groundwater supplies with elevated
concentrations of typo have been reported in Florida (Harada and others 1989~.
Lime-softening sludges from water supplies in Illinois and Wisconsin that have
raw-water 226Ra concentrations of 0.04-0.2 Bq/L (1-5 pCi/L) have 226Ra
concentrations of 0.2-1.1 kBq/l~g (6-30 pCi/g) (EPA 1993b). The sludges are
most often disposed of in onsite lagoons or at municipal landfills with little
regulatory control (for further discussion see chapter 7~.
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MAJOR SOURCES OF TENON
69
Treatments designed specifically to remove radium include
coprecipitation with barium sulfate and selective sorbents. The latter include
ion-exchange resins, barium sulfate-coated alumina, and manganese dioxide-
coated polymers. Some of these can have 226Ra concentrations as high as 3,700
kBq/kg (100,000 pCi/g) and might require disposal in low-level-waste burial
grounds; likewise, brines from the regeneration of high-efficiency radium-
removal resins might have high radium concentrations that present liquid-waste
disposal problems. Indeed, at some municipal wastewater-treatment plants,
elevated concentrations of radium in sewage sludge have been attributed to
residual materials discharged to the sewer systems by drinking-water treatment
plants (Nuclear Regulatory Commission 1997b). Activated-carbon filters, used
for removal of the short-lived 222Rn, can be handled with a delay-and-decay
method before disposal (Lowry 1983~.
METAL MINING AND PROCESSING
This category has by far the largest TENORM solid-waste volume an
estimated US inventory of about 50 billion tons- most of it with NORM
concentrations less than 10 times background. On the basis of geologic
reasoning, Bliss (1978) has outlined the types of metallic ores (other than
uranium) whose mining and extraction might lead to TENORM problems. The
list is broad and includes:
· Ores of rare-earth elements, molybdenum, gold, aluminum,
lead-zinc, iron, tin, vanadium, copper, and other metals (commercial-
scale byproduct recovery of uranium has occurred in connection with
the extraction of copper and gold).
· Placer deposits of any metal (for thorium and its decay
products).
· Ores that result from intense weathering, such as bauxite.
The remainder of this section focuses on metal resources, but selected
non-metal resources might be associated with TENORM (Bliss 1978~. These
include organic deposits (such as black shales), fluorspar, granite, and clays.
Liquid and solid wastes from metal mining and processing include
mine waters, overburden, mill tailings, pipe scales, smelter slags, and spent
leachates. The presence of sulfide minerals in overburden and tailings is an
important consideration. Oxidation of these materials on exposure to air
generates sulfuric acid. As seen in chapter 2, one can expect migration of
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GUIDELINES FOR EXPOSURE TO TENORM
radium to differ from migration of uranium and thorium under such a
weathering regime.
Although high sulfate concentrations in processing and disposal
environments will limit the mobility of radium, the presence of other anions
associated with metal-extraction processing can increase radium mobility.
Chlorination is a process in which ores are treated with chlorine gas and then
water to recover soluble metallic chloride salts; the process is used extensively
with gold ores. At a plant in Oregon, chlorination of zircon-bearing sands was
used to extract zirconium, niobium, tantalum, and haLnium. The process
rendered radium, as well as these economic metals, water-soluble. The finely
ground process tailings contained 226Ra at about 20 kBq/kg (500 pCi/g), much of
it occurring presumably as soluble RaCl2. Seepage water at this tailings disposal
site contained up to 1.7 kBq/L (45,000 pCi/L) (Boothe and others 1980; Bliss
1978~.
GEOTHERMAL ENERGY PRODUCTION
TENORM wastes associated with geothermal-energy production are
similar to those associated with oil and gas production: temperature changes
lead to precipitation of solids from hot formation waters in piping, equipment,
and retention ponds at the surface. 226Ra and 228Ra are the radionuclides of
concern in the pipe scales and the solids dredged from holding ponds for spent
geothermal fluids. The possibility of locally increased atmospheric 222Rn
concentrations near geothermal plants exists (Gesell and Adams 1975~.
OTHER INDUSTRIES
Metal casting: Foundries use refractory sands to create molds for
casting steel-alloy parts. The molds are eventually disposed of in landfills. The
foundry sands~ined from deposits in Florida, South Africa, Australia, India,
and Brazil contain elevated concentrations of uranium and thorium that occur
in heavy accessory minerals, such as zircon and monazite. State regulations
restricting the disposal of radioactive material and the use of portal radiation
monitors at landfills have in some cases made it difficult for the industry to
dispose of discarded casting molds (Anonymous 1995~.
The radon-emanation coefficients of these accessory minerals tend to
be low, about 0.1-5% for zircon and monazite, compared with about 10-40% for
soils and UMT (Landa 1987; Barretto and others 1975~. Such differential
environmental mobility factors should be considered for the atmospheric
pathway in radiologic dose assessments of these wastes.
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MAJOR SOURCES OF TENOR
71
Pulp and paper: Radium-bearing barium sulfate scales have been
found deposited at various points in paper mills (Coil 1997~. Such scales
probably were responsible for an incident reported by the Pennsylvania
Department of Environmental Protection in which a paper-mill digester tank
taken to a scrap-metal facility triggered radiation monitors (Yusko 1997~.
Soils from former radium-processing or -manufacturing sites:
Radium was extracted from uranium ores at a variety of sites in the United
States during the early 20th century. The radium was used extensively for
medical purposes and for the production of luminous paint until the 1950s.
Residual radium contamination of soils at such sites has required cleanup under
the Superfund or other programs (Neiheisel 1990; Simon 1990; Landa 1984~.
TENORM in Selected Nonnuclear Industries in Other Nations:
Most of the categories covered in the discussion above have been the subjects of
multiple investigations of TENORM occurrences in the United States. Some
additional categories of TENORM in nonnuclear industries have received more
attention in other nations and are noted briefly in table 3.2.
Many industrial processes use feed materials with NORM or have
TENORM as byproducts. In some cases, the existence of TENORM is ignored
by industrial managers and workers, and TENORM wastes might yet be
discovered. But some nonnuclear industries are aware of TENORM in their
processes or wastes. Table 3.2 presents a selected list of nonnuclear industries in
which TENORM play a role either in processes or as byproducts.
MINIMIZATION OF TENORM
Risks posed by TENORM can sometimes be reduced or redirected to
other populations by the application of specific technologies. For example, in
the case of radionuclide removal from municipal drinking-water supplies,
worker exposure might increase because of handling of radionuclide-bearing
treatment residues (such as sludges, spent ion-exchange resins, and spent
granular activated carbon) or inhalation of emanated radon and its decay
products; at the same time, exposure of the water-supply users will decrease.
The use of scale inhibitors or in situ removal of radionuclides from oil-field
production fluids by the introduction of sorbents downhole can limit the buildup
of TENORM in piping and equipment (Lancee and others 1997~. The removal
of uranium as an economic product from phosphoric acid production circuits
will decrease the exposure of people who obtain foodstuffs from fertilized soils.
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72
GUIDELINES FOR EXPOSURE TO TENORM
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MAJOR SOURCES OF TENORM
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74
NONRADIOLOGIC IMPACTS
GUIDELINES FOR EXPOSURE TO TENORM
This report focuses on the radionuclides associated with TENORM.
But nonradioactive inorganic and organic contaminants are also associated with
these materials. For example, metal-mining wastes can contain a wide variety of
inorganic contaminants associated with the ores and their processing; sludges
with elevated radium concentrations at oil-water separators can also contain
appreciable concentrations of oil. In establishing groundwater standards for
remedial actions at inactive uranium-processing sites (40 CFR Part 192), EPA
provided specific concentration limits for nitrate and molybdenum, as well as
for uranium and radium, because these constituents had been found in high
concentrations at many UMT sites (EPA 1995~. Risk assessments for TENORM
should consider such exposures.
CONCLUSIONS
TENORM present unique problems because of their large volumes and
widespread occurrence in industrial products, byproducts, and wastes. The
physical, chemical, and radiologic properties of TENORM vary widely. 226Ra
and its decay products are the radionuclides of primary concern, but other
uranium- and thorium-series nuclides should also be considered. As discussed
further in chapter 4, the leachability, sorption, and biologic availability of these
radionuclides can be expected to vary with the processing history and siting
environment of the TENORM. We might not know all sources of TENORM.
Representative terms from entire chapter:
major sources
