[ RadSafe ] Geology Type Question

KARAM, PHILIP PHILIP.KARAM at nypd.org
Tue Nov 22 10:00:03 CST 2016


You see something similar in the high-background area in Ramsar Iran. Groundwater circulates between the surface and subsurface, where the radioactivity is. By the time it gets to depth it's lost pretty much all of its oxygen, so it can't dissolve out the uranium. But the radium will go into solution, and it's brought to the surface with the rest of the mineral-laden water. Once there, the minerals precipitate out to form freshwater limestone (travertine) with the radium substituting for calcium in the mineral structure. Some rocks there are as much as 10-11 million pCi/gm and the soils derived from these rocks are in the thousands of pCi/gm.

So - same geochemistry, just a different setting.

Andy

P. Andrew Karam, PhD, CHP
NYPD Counterterrorism Division
(718) 615-7055 (desk)
(646) 879-5268 (mobile)

-----Original Message-----
From: radsafe-bounces at health.phys.iit.edu [mailto:radsafe-bounces at health.phys.iit.edu] On Behalf Of Dan McCarn
Sent: Tuesday, November 22, 2016 8:36 AM
To: The International Radiation Protection (Health Physics) Mailing List
Subject: Re: [ RadSafe ] Geology Type Question

Hi Mike:

Uranium has 2 common valence states in geologic media: +4 and +6; chemically reduced (+4) and oxidized (+6) which have 8 (or so) orders of magnitude differences in aqueous solubility. The reduced phase - commonly uraninite (UO2) - has far less aqueous solubility than the oxidized phase. Oil & gas deposits are, by definition, methanogenic and strongly reducing, thus little or no soluble uranium is present in connate waters. 

Thorium has very little aqueous solubility. 

So what ends-up on pipes as NORM are the decay products. 


Dan W McCarn
108 Sherwood Blvd
Los Alamos, NM 87544 USA
+1-505-670-8123
Sent from my iPhone

> On Nov 22, 2016, at 00:46, Cowie, Michael I <michael.cowie at aramco.com> wrote:
> 
> Classification: Saudi Aramco: Company General Use
> 
> 
> Looking for some assistance or pointing in the correct direction. I am interested to the reason/s why Uranium and Thorium are not seen in NORM associated with oil/gas production. Also K40 is it possible to enhance its concentrations by such processes that are used in oil/gas recovery?
> 
> Your assistance is greatly appreciated.
> 
> Mike
> 
> This email has been classified as Saudi Aramco: Company General Use by Cowie, Michael I on Tuesday, November 22, 2016 10:46:14 AM.
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