Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-t7czq Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-28T03:38:17.072Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Natural radioactivity in aerosols collected in a NORM Industry: Radiological implications

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 June 2009

J. Barescut ,
E. G. San Miguel ,
J. P. Bolívar  and
R. García-Tenorio
E. G. San Miguel
Affiliation:
Dpto Fίsica Aplicada, Facultad Ciencias Experimentales, Universidad de Huelva, 21071 Huelva, Spain
J. P. Bolívar
Affiliation:
Dpto Fίsica Aplicada, Facultad Ciencias Experimentales, Universidad de Huelva, 21071 Huelva, Spain
R. García-Tenorio*
Affiliation:
Dpto Fίsica Aplicada II, E.T.S. Arquitectura, Universidad de Sevilla, 41012 Sevilla, Spain
*
[email protected]
Get access

Abstract

On the frame of a broad project devoted to the evaluation of the occupational and environmental radiological impact of several NORM industries located at the South-West Spain, a study determining the U-series radionuclides levels in air particulate matter has been accomplished inside a phosphate rock processing plant dedicated to phosphoric acid production. U-series radionuclides concentrations in aerosols collected inside this plant have been determined and compared with those obtained in aerosols collected from a reference monitoring station not affected by NORM industries or other anthropogenic inputs. Additionally, based on the observed increments in the volumetric concentrations of the radionuclides from the U-series in the plant, the increase in the occupational doses due to inhalation for their workers has been estimated. Even under conservative assumptions, the dose enhancements are clearly below 1 mSv/year, the annual limit for the public.

Type
Research Article
Information
Radioprotection , Volume 44 , Issue 5: ECORAD 2008 - Radioecology and Environmental Radioactivity , 2009 , pp. 377 - 382
Copyright
© EDP Sciences, 2009

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

United Nations Scientific Commitee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation (UNSCEAR). Sources and effects of Ionizing Radiation. Report to the General Assembly with Scientific Annexes, United Nations, Volume I, 2000.
Bolívar, J.P., García-Tenorio, R. and Vaca, F., Water Research 34, 2941 (2000). CrossRef
Bolívar, J.P., García-Tenorio, R., Más, J.L. and Vaca, F., Environment International 27, 639 (2002). CrossRef
Holm, E. and Fukai, R., Talanta 24, 659 (1977). CrossRef
Aguado, J., Aplicaciones de la espectrometría alfa en la caracterización de isótopos de Ra y U en residuos industriales y matrices ambientales (Univ. de Sevilla, Sevilla, 2003). In Spanish.
El-Daoushy, F., Olsson, K. and García-Tenorio, R., Hydrobiologia 214, 43 (1991). CrossRef
Martínez-Ruiz, F., Borrego, E., San Miguel, E.G. and Bolívar, J.P., Nucl. Inst. Meth. A 580, 663 (2006). CrossRef
Human respiratory tract model for radiological protection. ICRP Publication 66. Annals of the ICRP 24 (1–3).