IAEA-TECDOC-1660 Exposure of the Public from Large Deposits of Mineral Residues INTERNATIONAL ATOMIC ENERGY AGENCY VIENNA ISBN 978–92–0–116410–0 ISSN 1011–4289 IAEA SAFETY RELATED PUBLICATIONS IAEA SAFETY STANDARDS Under the terms of Article III of its Statute, the IAEA is authorized to establish or adopt standards of safety for protection of health and minimization of danger to life and property, and to provide for the application of these standards. The publications by means of which the IAEA establishes standards are issued in the IAEA Safety Standards Series. This series covers nuclear safety, radiation safety, transport safety and waste safety. The publication categories in the series are Safety Fundamentals, Safety Requirements and Safety Guides. Information on the IAEA’s safety standards programme is available at the IAEA Internet site http://www-ns.iaea.org/standards/ The site provides the texts in English of published and draft safety standards. 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Exposure of the Public from Large Deposits of Mineral Residues The following States are Members of the International Atomic Energy Agency: AFGHANISTAN GHANA NORWAY ALBANIA GREECE OMAN ALGERIA GUATEMALA PAKISTAN ANGOLA HAITI PALAU ARGENTINA HOLY SEE PANAMA ARMENIA HONDURAS PARAGUAY AUSTRALIA HUNGARY PERU AUSTRIA ICELAND PHILIPPINES AZERBAIJAN INDIA POLAND BAHRAIN INDONESIA PORTUGAL BANGLADESH IRAN, ISLAMIC REPUBLIC OF QATAR BELARUS IRAQ REPUBLIC OF MOLDOVA BELGIUM IRELAND ROMANIA BELIZE ISRAEL RUSSIAN FEDERATION BENIN ITALY SAUDI ARABIA BOLIVIA JAMAICA BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA JAPAN SENEGAL BOTSWANA JORDAN SERBIA BRAZIL KAZAKHSTAN SEYCHELLES BULGARIA KENYA SIERRA LEONE BURKINA FASO KOREA, REPUBLIC OF SINGAPORE BURUNDI KUWAIT SLOVAKIA CAMBODIA KYRGYZSTAN SLOVENIA CAMEROON LATVIA SOUTH AFRICA CANADA LEBANON SPAIN CENTRAL AFRICAN LESOTHO SRI LANKA REPUBLIC LIBERIA SUDAN CHAD LIBYAN ARAB JAMAHIRIYA SWEDEN CHILE LIECHTENSTEIN SWITZERLAND CHINA LITHUANIA SYRIAN ARAB REPUBLIC COLOMBIA LUXEMBOURG TAJIKISTAN CONGO MADAGASCAR THAILAND COSTA RICA MALAWI THE FORMER YUGOSLAV CÔTE D’IVOIRE MALAYSIA REPUBLIC OF MACEDONIA CROATIA MALI TUNISIA CUBA MALTA TURKEY CYPRUS MARSHALL ISLANDS UGANDA CZECH REPUBLIC MAURITANIA UKRAINE DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC MAURITIUS UNITED ARAB EMIRATES OF THE CONGO MEXICO UNITED KINGDOM OF DENMARK MONACO GREAT BRITAIN AND DOMINICAN REPUBLIC MONGOLIA NORTHERN IRELAND ECUADOR MONTENEGRO EGYPT MOROCCO UNITED REPUBLIC EL SALVADOR MOZAMBIQUE OF TANZANIA ERITREA MYANMAR UNITED STATES OF AMERICA ESTONIA NAMIBIA URUGUAY ETHIOPIA NEPAL UZBEKISTAN FINLAND NETHERLANDS VENEZUELA FRANCE NEW ZEALAND VIETNAM GABON NICARAGUA YEMEN GEORGIA NIGER ZAMBIA GERMANY NIGERIA ZIMBABWE The Agency’s Statute was approved on 23 October 1956 by the Conference on the Statute of the IAEA held at United Nations Headquarters, New York; it entered into force on 29 July 1957. The Headquarters of the Agency are situated in Vienna. Its principal objective is “to accelerate and enlarge the contribution of atomic energy to peace, health and prosperity throughout the world’’. IAEA-TECDOC-1660 EXPOSURE OF THE PUBLIC FROM LARGE DEPOSITS OF MINERAL RESIDUES INTERNATIONAL ATOMIC ENERGY AGENCY VIENNA, 2011 COPYRIGHT NOTICE All IAEA scientific and technical publications are protected by the terms of the Universal Copyright Convention as adopted in 1952 (Berne) and as revised in 1972 (Paris). The copyright has since been extended by the World Intellectual Property Organization (Geneva) to include electronic and virtual intellectual property. Permission to use whole or parts of texts contained in IAEA publications in printed or electronic form must be obtained and is usually subject to royalty agreements. Proposals for non-commercial reproductions and translations are welcomed and considered on a case-by-case basis. Enquiries should be addressed to the IAEA Publishing Section at: Sales and Promotion, Publishing Section International Atomic Energy Agency Vienna International Centre PO Box 100 1400 Vienna, Austria fax: +43 1 2600 29302 tel.: +43 1 2600 22417 email: [email protected] http://www.iaea.org/books For further information on this publication, please contact: Radiation Safety and Monitoring Section International Atomic Energy Agency Vienna International Centre PO Box 100 1400 Vienna, Austria email: [email protected] EXPOSURE OF THE PUBLIC FROM LARGE DEPOSITS OF MINERAL RESIDUES IAEA, VIENNA, 2011 IAEA-TECDOC-1660 ISBN 978-92-0-116410-0 ISSN 1011-4289 © IAEA, 2011 Printed by the IAEA in Austria June 2011 FOREWORD All minerals and raw materials contain radionuclides of natural origin. In most situations, the exposure of humans to such radionuclides is considered to be part of the normal natural radiation background and is not generally of concern. In some cases, however, the radionuclide concentrations are elevated above normal levels or become elevated as a result of mineral processing activities, and measures for protecting against exposure to the material involved may need to be considered. The mineral or raw material is then treated as radioactive material for the purposes of radiation protection and falls within the definition of naturally occurring radioactive material (NORM). The IAEA has developed criteria for determining which materials need to be considered for regulatory control. For materials containing only radionuclides of natural origin, the criteria are an activity concentration of 1 Bq/g for 238U, 235U, 232Th and their decay progeny and an activity concentration of 10 Bq/g for 40K. These values were determined on the basis of the activity concentrations of these radionuclides in normal rocks and soil, and represent the (rounded) upper bounds of the ranges of such concentrations as determined by the United Nations Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation (UNSCEAR). The values are intended to apply to all solid materials except foodstuffs, material in transport and radioactive residues in the environment (for which separate criteria apply) and 40K in the body (which is excluded entirely from regulatory requirements). While the radiation dose was not a consideration in the determination of the above-mentioned regulatory criteria, the IAEA has noted that doses received by individuals as a consequence of the use of these criteria are unlikely to exceed about 1 mSv in a year, excluding the emanation of radon. However, in the case of bulk volumes of material contaminating water pathways, such as large deposits of NORM residues from mining and mineral processing, it has been suggested that case by case evaluation of the dose may be required. It was therefore decided to conduct further investigations of the doses expected to be received as a result of exposure of members of the public to a large NORM residue deposit, with consideration being given to all potentially significant exposure pathways including those involving contamination of water. The investigations were conducted using an evidence based approach involving the review of available information from real world examples of actual NORM residue deposits, as well as a calculation approach involving the modelling of radionuclide migration from a ‘representative’ large NORM residue deposit. The investigations were carried out during 2009 under contract to the IAEA by a Canadian consulting company, SENES Consultants Limited. This report gives the results of those investigations. The IAEA Officer responsible for the preparation of this report was D.G. Wymer of the Division of Radiation, Transport and Waste Safety. EDITORIAL NOTE The use of particular designations of countries or territories does not imply any judgement by the publisher, the IAEA, as to the legal status of such countries or territories, of their authorities and institutions or of the delimitation of their boundaries. The mention of names of specific companies or products (whether or not indicated as registered) does not imply any intention to infringe proprietary rights, nor should it be construed as an endorsement or recommendation