[ RadSafe ] I'm back

[Cowie, Michael I]

First can I say thank you to the Mailing list admin for their patience and cooperation with me! Due to my companies computer system being the victim of a targeted "cyber" attack late last year, we had seriously reduced internet and email access, and things are slowly getting back to normal, but it caused a lot of stress and anguish. A result of this was that mail from external sources and mailing lists was prohibited, hence I lost contact with the RadSafe list. My recent attempts at returning to the list were fraught with difficulties as well, however I am back and looking forward to all that the Radsafe list provides! :-)

I have recently encountered some issues relating to enhanced levels of natural activity in Fracking proppant, and was wondering if others had similar issues or were aware of similar? I am ignorant to the various types of proppant, but assume that the differences are in size/density dependent upon the structure they are being forced into. At the site I visited there were sacks containing different "grades" of proppant, some were just at background radiation level, but others (actually manufactured by Saint Gobain) had slightly enhanced gamma dose-rates up to 0.3micrSieverts/hr where the background in the area was 0.02microSieverts/hr. Analysis of the material indicated total activity of around 3 Bq/g and contained the usual suspects of Ra226, U238 and Th232. I have the following questions:

Is this in line with what is commonly found in certain grades of proppant?
Are there standards that require to be complied with by manufacturers/suppliers of the proppant?

I have some similar questions about abrasive sands.....but let me dig out my data (pardon the pun)



Mike





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