Threshold values for the protection of marine ecosystems from NORM in subsea oil and gas infrastructure

Darren J.  Koppel; Tom Cresswell; Amy  Macintosh; Rebecca von Hellfeld; Astley Hastings; Stuart  Higgins

Threshold values for the protection of marine ecosystems from NORM in subsea oil and gas infrastructure

Darren J. Koppel^* (Corresponding Author), Tom Cresswell, Amy Macintosh, Rebecca von Hellfeld, Astley Hastings, Stuart Higgins

^*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

2 Citations (Scopus)

8 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

Naturally occurring radioactive materials (NORM) may contaminate some oil and gas infrastructure. The risk of these NORM contaminants to the marine ecosystem must be assessed to determine appropriate decommissioning options, particularly where in situ decommissioning options are permitted. This is challenging because in these decommissioning scenarios, contaminants may be isolated from the marine environment until containing infrastructure corrodes, and there are limited data and guidelines describing how to assess radionuclide risk in a manner consistent with international recommendations.
This modelling study uses the ERICA approach to derive threshold values assessing the dose rate from NORM-contaminated products found in subsea oil and gas infrastructure to marine organisms.
Products include unsupported: (1) radium (226Ra and 228Ra) contaminated scales, (2) 210Pb films, and (3) 210Po films. Threshold values are calculated as the activity of the products’ head of chain radionuclide (i.e. 226Ra and 228Ra, 210Pb and 210Po, respectively) that will increase radiation dose rates in sediments by 10 µGy/h to the most exposed organism at a given release time.
To account for temporal variability in radioactivity of NORM-contaminated products due to ingrowth and decay, threshold values were also calculated at different ages of NORM-contaminated products allowing for age-dependent threshold values. The lowest values (corresponding to peak radiation dose rates from the ingrowth of progeny) were for radium-contaminated scales which were 0.009 Bq 226Ra/g, 0.029 Bq/g 228Ra (in the absence of 226Ra) or 0.14 Bq 228Ra/g (in the presence of 226Ra), 0.015 Bq/g for 210Pb films, and 1.6 Bq/g for 210Po films. These may be used as default threshold values and when added to background radionuclide activities after determining appropriate mixing and dilution, can provide a default screening value for generic assessments. Added activities of the NORM contaminated products to marine sediments below these threshold values implies a negligible doserate risk to organisms while exceedances imply that further investigation is necessary.

Original language	English
Article number	107093
Journal	Journal of environmental radioactivity
Volume	258
Early online date	6 Jan 2023
Publication status	Published - Mar 2023

Bibliographical note

Acknowledgements
The authors thank Professor Claus Otto (Curtin University) and Professor Richard Neilson (National Decommissioning Centre, Aberdeen, UK.) for comments and support to the project team; and, Sam Jarvis (National Environment Resources Australia), Professor Peter Macreadie, Dr Rick Tinker, and the industry partners of the National Decommissioning Research Initiative for helpful comments to
this project.
Funding
This research was funded by the Australian Government’s Industry Growth Centre National Energy Resources Australia (NERA) through a National Decommissioning Research Initiative (NDRI) grant to Curtin University. The NDRI project was funded by eight industry partners including Shell Australia,
Esso Australia, Chevron Australia, BHP Petroleum, Woodside Energy, Santos Limited, ConocoPhillips Pipeline Australia, and Vermilion Oil and Gas Australia. AH is partly funded by the National Decommissioning Centre, Scotland, and the University of Aberdeen.

Data Availability Statement

No data was used for the research described in the article.

Keywords

TENORM
risk assessment
Rigs to reef
decommissioning
radium

UN SDGs

This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

Access to Document

Koppel_etal_JER_Threshold_Values_Protection_VOR
Under a Creative Commons license https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Final published version, 4.36 MBLicence: CC BY

1 Presentation

Mercury in the North Sea
Rebecca von Hellfeld (Speaker)
8 May 2023 → 12 May 2023
Activity: Disseminating Research › Presentation

Cite this

@article{92ace725e510415a87f33a0b6403c5f2,

title = "Threshold values for the protection of marine ecosystems from NORM in subsea oil and gas infrastructure",

abstract = "Naturally occurring radioactive materials (NORM) may contaminate some oil and gas infrastructure. The risk of these NORM contaminants to the marine ecosystem must be assessed to determine appropriate decommissioning options, particularly where in situ decommissioning options are permitted. This is challenging because in these decommissioning scenarios, contaminants may be isolated from the marine environment until containing infrastructure corrodes, and there are limited data and guidelines describing how to assess radionuclide risk in a manner consistent with international recommendations.This modelling study uses the ERICA approach to derive threshold values assessing the dose rate from NORM-contaminated products found in subsea oil and gas infrastructure to marine organisms.Products include unsupported: (1) radium (226Ra and 228Ra) contaminated scales, (2) 210Pb films, and (3) 210Po films. Threshold values are calculated as the activity of the products{\textquoteright} head of chain radionuclide (i.e. 226Ra and 228Ra, 210Pb and 210Po, respectively) that will increase radiation dose rates in sediments by 10 µGy/h to the most exposed organism at a given release time.To account for temporal variability in radioactivity of NORM-contaminated products due to ingrowth and decay, threshold values were also calculated at different ages of NORM-contaminated products allowing for age-dependent threshold values. The lowest values (corresponding to peak radiation dose rates from the ingrowth of progeny) were for radium-contaminated scales which were 0.009 Bq 226Ra/g, 0.029 Bq/g 228Ra (in the absence of 226Ra) or 0.14 Bq 228Ra/g (in the presence of 226Ra), 0.015 Bq/g for 210Pb films, and 1.6 Bq/g for 210Po films. These may be used as default threshold values and when added to background radionuclide activities after determining appropriate mixing and dilution, can provide a default screening value for generic assessments. Added activities of the NORM contaminated products to marine sediments below these threshold values implies a negligible doserate risk to organisms while exceedances imply that further investigation is necessary.",

keywords = "TENORM, risk assessment, Rigs to reef, decommissioning, radium",

author = "Koppel, {Darren J.} and Tom Cresswell and Amy Macintosh and {von Hellfeld}, Rebecca and Astley Hastings and Stuart Higgins",

note = "Acknowledgements The authors thank Professor Claus Otto (Curtin University) and Professor Richard Neilson (National Decommissioning Centre, Aberdeen, UK.) for comments and support to the project team; and, Sam Jarvis (National Environment Resources Australia), Professor Peter Macreadie, Dr Rick Tinker, and the industry partners of the National Decommissioning Research Initiative for helpful comments to this project. Funding This research was funded by the Australian Government{\textquoteright}s Industry Growth Centre National Energy Resources Australia (NERA) through a National Decommissioning Research Initiative (NDRI) grant to Curtin University. The NDRI project was funded by eight industry partners including Shell Australia, Esso Australia, Chevron Australia, BHP Petroleum, Woodside Energy, Santos Limited, ConocoPhillips Pipeline Australia, and Vermilion Oil and Gas Australia. AH is partly funded by the National Decommissioning Centre, Scotland, and the University of Aberdeen. ",

year = "2023",

month = mar,

language = "English",

volume = "258",

journal = "Journal of environmental radioactivity",

issn = "0265-931X",

publisher = "Elsevier Limited",

}

TY - JOUR

T1 - Threshold values for the protection of marine ecosystems from NORM in subsea oil and gas infrastructure

AU - Koppel, Darren J.

AU - Cresswell, Tom

AU - Macintosh, Amy

AU - von Hellfeld, Rebecca

AU - Hastings, Astley

AU - Higgins, Stuart

N1 - Acknowledgements The authors thank Professor Claus Otto (Curtin University) and Professor Richard Neilson (National Decommissioning Centre, Aberdeen, UK.) for comments and support to the project team; and, Sam Jarvis (National Environment Resources Australia), Professor Peter Macreadie, Dr Rick Tinker, and the industry partners of the National Decommissioning Research Initiative for helpful comments to this project. Funding This research was funded by the Australian Government’s Industry Growth Centre National Energy Resources Australia (NERA) through a National Decommissioning Research Initiative (NDRI) grant to Curtin University. The NDRI project was funded by eight industry partners including Shell Australia, Esso Australia, Chevron Australia, BHP Petroleum, Woodside Energy, Santos Limited, ConocoPhillips Pipeline Australia, and Vermilion Oil and Gas Australia. AH is partly funded by the National Decommissioning Centre, Scotland, and the University of Aberdeen.

PY - 2023/3

Y1 - 2023/3

N2 - Naturally occurring radioactive materials (NORM) may contaminate some oil and gas infrastructure. The risk of these NORM contaminants to the marine ecosystem must be assessed to determine appropriate decommissioning options, particularly where in situ decommissioning options are permitted. This is challenging because in these decommissioning scenarios, contaminants may be isolated from the marine environment until containing infrastructure corrodes, and there are limited data and guidelines describing how to assess radionuclide risk in a manner consistent with international recommendations.This modelling study uses the ERICA approach to derive threshold values assessing the dose rate from NORM-contaminated products found in subsea oil and gas infrastructure to marine organisms.Products include unsupported: (1) radium (226Ra and 228Ra) contaminated scales, (2) 210Pb films, and (3) 210Po films. Threshold values are calculated as the activity of the products’ head of chain radionuclide (i.e. 226Ra and 228Ra, 210Pb and 210Po, respectively) that will increase radiation dose rates in sediments by 10 µGy/h to the most exposed organism at a given release time.To account for temporal variability in radioactivity of NORM-contaminated products due to ingrowth and decay, threshold values were also calculated at different ages of NORM-contaminated products allowing for age-dependent threshold values. The lowest values (corresponding to peak radiation dose rates from the ingrowth of progeny) were for radium-contaminated scales which were 0.009 Bq 226Ra/g, 0.029 Bq/g 228Ra (in the absence of 226Ra) or 0.14 Bq 228Ra/g (in the presence of 226Ra), 0.015 Bq/g for 210Pb films, and 1.6 Bq/g for 210Po films. These may be used as default threshold values and when added to background radionuclide activities after determining appropriate mixing and dilution, can provide a default screening value for generic assessments. Added activities of the NORM contaminated products to marine sediments below these threshold values implies a negligible doserate risk to organisms while exceedances imply that further investigation is necessary.

AB - Naturally occurring radioactive materials (NORM) may contaminate some oil and gas infrastructure. The risk of these NORM contaminants to the marine ecosystem must be assessed to determine appropriate decommissioning options, particularly where in situ decommissioning options are permitted. This is challenging because in these decommissioning scenarios, contaminants may be isolated from the marine environment until containing infrastructure corrodes, and there are limited data and guidelines describing how to assess radionuclide risk in a manner consistent with international recommendations.This modelling study uses the ERICA approach to derive threshold values assessing the dose rate from NORM-contaminated products found in subsea oil and gas infrastructure to marine organisms.Products include unsupported: (1) radium (226Ra and 228Ra) contaminated scales, (2) 210Pb films, and (3) 210Po films. Threshold values are calculated as the activity of the products’ head of chain radionuclide (i.e. 226Ra and 228Ra, 210Pb and 210Po, respectively) that will increase radiation dose rates in sediments by 10 µGy/h to the most exposed organism at a given release time.To account for temporal variability in radioactivity of NORM-contaminated products due to ingrowth and decay, threshold values were also calculated at different ages of NORM-contaminated products allowing for age-dependent threshold values. The lowest values (corresponding to peak radiation dose rates from the ingrowth of progeny) were for radium-contaminated scales which were 0.009 Bq 226Ra/g, 0.029 Bq/g 228Ra (in the absence of 226Ra) or 0.14 Bq 228Ra/g (in the presence of 226Ra), 0.015 Bq/g for 210Pb films, and 1.6 Bq/g for 210Po films. These may be used as default threshold values and when added to background radionuclide activities after determining appropriate mixing and dilution, can provide a default screening value for generic assessments. Added activities of the NORM contaminated products to marine sediments below these threshold values implies a negligible doserate risk to organisms while exceedances imply that further investigation is necessary.

KW - TENORM

KW - risk assessment

KW - Rigs to reef

KW - decommissioning

KW - radium

M3 - Article

SN - 0265-931X

VL - 258

JO - Journal of environmental radioactivity

JF - Journal of environmental radioactivity

M1 - 107093

ER -

Threshold values for the protection of marine ecosystems from NORM in subsea oil and gas infrastructure

Abstract

Bibliographical note

Data Availability Statement

Keywords

UN SDGs

Access to Document

Fingerprint

Activities

Mercury in the North Sea

Cite this