A RADIOLOGICAL CHARACTERIZATION OF REMEDIATED TANK BATTERY SITES

Tank battery sites have historically been used for the initial process ing of elude oil which separates mater and sediment from the produced oil. Typically, one or more producing wells is connected to a tank bat tery site consisting of storage and separation tanks. Historical opera ting practices also included a production holding pit for increased se paration of oil, water, and sediment. The sediment remaining in the pi t is composed of an oily, viscous material called sludge. Under certai n circumstances, this sludge may contain naturally occurring radioacti ve material. The methodology required for reclamation of the productio n holding pits consisted of removal of soil and sludge from the pits w ith controlled land-spreading to achieve biodegradation of the hydroca rbons. The purpose of this study was to perform a radiological charact erization on representative tank battery sites that had been reclaimed in the above fashion. The average gamma radiation exposure rates enco untered ranged from 2.1-7.2 pC kg(-1) s(-1). The average concentration of Ra-226 for the tank battery sites ranged from 0.5-2.3, 0.5-2.8, an d 0.3-3.2 Bq g(-1) for soil depths of 0-15, 15-30, and 30-51 cm, respe ctively. Average radon nux measurements ranged from 29.7-211.8 mBq m(- 2) s(-1). Measurements of the radon emanation coefficient of NORM rang ed from 3-7%.