Abstract
An evaluation of the specific activity concentrations associated with technologically enhanced naturally occurring radioactive materials (TENORM) and anthropogenic radionuclides has been undertaken, with particular focus on produced water from the Kuwait oil industry. This work is part of a systematic study to provide a radiological map of the outer boundary of the produced water lagoon located in the Minagish oil field in the south west region of the State of Kuwait. This particular lagoon contains material from the discharge of produced water which is a by-product of oil production in the region. The lagoon samples were prepared and placed into sealed, marinelli beakers for a full gamma-ray spectrometric analysis using a high-resolution, low-background, high-purity germanium detection systems at the University of Surrey Environmental Radioactivity Laboratory. Of particular interest are the calculation of the activity concentrations associated with members of the decay chains following decays of the primordial radionuclides of the 238U chain (226Ra, 214Pb, 214Bi) and the 232Th chain (228Ra, 228Ac, 212Pb, 212Bi, 208Tl), and the enhanced concentrations of radium isotopes. This thesis presents overview of the experimental samples which have been measured and the analysis techniques applied, including isotopic correlation plots across the sample region. The result shows the expected significant increase in 226Ra (and progeny) concentrations compared to the NORM values were taken from outside of the lagoon, with 226Ra activity concentrations ranging from approximately 10 Bq/kg to 2 kBq/kg from different samples. Radium equivalent and hazard indices are calculated for different regions of the pool boundary, with some regions have hardard indices greater than unity, and therefore constituting a potential radiological hazard. The analysis also investigates the correlations between members of the 232Th and 238U chain in these samples, and shows evidence for enhancement of radium isotopes (226Ra and 228Ra) in the lagoon produced water samples compared to the background levels.