Re: Rad Content in Oil

[Schoenhofer <schoenho@via.at>]

At 09:12 1996-07-03 -0500, you wrote:
>Does anyone know the amount of rad content normally measured in petroleum oils?
>
>Thanks,
>
>S.A. McElhaney
>LMES K-25 Site
>mcelhaneys@ornl.gov
>
>============================================================================
>
>I canīt give you information on petroleum oils, but probably you are also
interested in natural radionuclides which might be of importance for the oil
industry:

Natural gas contains radon which might become enhanced when stored in
natural underground storages. The radon is concentrated in the course of
manufacturing "liquid gas" from natural gas. Daughter products will
accumulate in the pipes and on the surfaces of pumps etc. in contact with
the liquid gas. There was an interesting paper of Howard Prichard in Health
Physics on this subject about 8 years ago, if I remember correctly. He found
no health hazards from the storage tanks, but workers working with repair of
pipes and pumps should protect themselves from aerosols which will be formed
when grinding or polishing of surfaces is performed. (At least I think that
Howard wrote this.) 

Since radon is soluble in hydrocarbons crude oil will contain also certain
amounts of radon, but I canīt imagine any health hazard from it.

Water which is in contact with oil below ground usually contains small
amounts of uranium and other radionuclides. 

Franz Schoenhofer
Federal Institute for Food Control and Research - Radiochemistry
Vienna, Austria
Schoenhofer
Habichergasse 31/7
A-1160 Wien
Tel./Fax:	+43-1-4955308
Tel.:		+43-664-3380333
e-mail:		schoenho@via.at