Naturally occurring radioactive material (NORM) from a former phosphoric acid processing plant

210Pb and 210Po in Geological and Related Anthropogenic Materials: Implications for Their Mineralogical Distribution in Base Metal Ores

“…The risks associated with mining, milling and manufacturing of phosphoric acid and phosphate fertilizers have been widely documented at different sites around the world. Solid waste products of the phosphate industry, notably gypsum (CaSO 4 ·2H 2 O), termed phosphogypsum, but also dusts generated during milling, can carry particularly high concentrations of 226 Rn, 210 Pb and 210 Po (e.g., [74,[98][99][100][101][102][103][104][105][106][107][108][109]. Although waste from the phosphate industry has, in some cases, been disposed of in the marine environment (e.g., [101]), elsewhere, most spectacularly in Florida, where the World's largest phosphoric acid industry is centred, huge waste piles (gypstacks) have been generated, creating serious waste management issues.…”

Radionuclide concentrations in raw and purified phosphoric acids from Brazil and their processing wastes: implications for radiation exposures

“…As already indicated in studies elsewhere by Rutherford et al (1996), Poole et al (1995), Singh et al (2001), Crockett et al (2003), and Beddow et al (2006), since radionuclides can migrate to different phases, causing disequilibrium in natural decay series, it is important to measure natural radioactivity, not only in phosphoric acid but also in different types of industrial (by-)products. Unfortunately, there are no studies related to phosphoric acids and their industrial by-products produced in Brazil.…”

“…Considering these annual additions of 238 U, 226 Ra, 232 Th and 40 K, and since these radionuclide should be homogeneously distributed in the upper 10 cm of soils with an assumed apparent density of 1.5 g/cm 3 , a maximum increase of 0.19 ± 0.03 Bq kg -1 of soil is expected for 238 U and 234 U. Thus, the addition of solid waste as phosphate fertilizers to Brazilian agricultural soils Introduction Naturally occurring radioactive materials (NORM) are ubiquitous; the term NORM refers to materials containing radionuclides of natural origin, which may result in the radiological exposure of workers or the public (Beddow et al 2006;El Afifi et al 2006;Michalik 2008;Bolívar et al 2009). Phosphate rocks can be classified as NORM, possessing relative high concentrations of uranium and thorium (Menzel 1968;Sam et al 1999;Mazzilli et al 2000;Khater et al 2001;Saueia and Mazzilli 2006;Conceição and Bonotto 2006a;Conceição et al 2009a).…”

“…The liquid waste is sent to a chicken feed factory. Schrodter (1998) and Beddow et al (2006) give more details of the purification process.…”

Radiological impact of phosphogypsum surface application in a no-till system in Southern Brazil

“…Both Ra elements have a biological behavior similar to Ca deposited in mammal bones (Choppin & Rydberg, 1980) The presence of radionuclides has generated discussions on the impact of PG on human health (Ettenhuber & Lehmann, 1986), and its use in agriculture is restricted by certain countries. In the USA, the maximum limit of 226 Ra in PG was set as 370 Bq kg -1 (United States Environmental Protection Agency, 1998 Despite the various studies found in the literature on the use of PG in agriculture (Hull & Burnett, 1996;Burnett & Elzerman, 2001;Beddow et al, 2006;Papastefanou et al, 2006;Abril et al, 2008Abril et al, , 2009, there are only few studies on the presence of radionuclides in PG produced in Brazil (Silva, 2001;Silva et al, 2001;Saueia et al, 2005;Santos et al, 2006;Jacomino et al, 2009). Moreover, there is very little information available on the addition of radionuclides through PG application in Brazilian agriculture (Parreira et al, 2001;Dias et al, 2010), mainly in the regions where the no-till farming predominates, as the South of Brazil.…”