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Radioactive Isotopes in Industry

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Prof. Ahmed El-Kamash AEAE Email:Kamash20_at_yahoo.com Insect control Increasing genetic variability Food preservation Medicine 1) Radioisotope tracing 2) Radiography 3 ... – PowerPoint PPT presentation

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Title: Radioactive Isotopes in Industry


1
Radioactive Isotopes in Industry
  • Prof. Ahmed El-Kamash
  • AEAE
  • EmailKamash20_at_yahoo.com

2
Technical Applications of Radioactive Materials
  • Insect control
  • Increasing genetic variability
  • Food preservation
  • Medicine
  • 1) Radioisotope tracing
  • 2) Radiography
  • 3) Gauging
  • 4) Smoke detectors

3
Radioisotope tracing
  • Environmental tracers
  • Water resources
  • Fertilizers
  • Industrial tracers

4
Industrial tracing
  • Solids (powder and granular forms), liquids and
    gases to investigate or trace the movement of
    other materials, even within closed and sometimes
    inaccessible pipework and vessels
  • Most of these radiotracers can be detected and/or
    measured easily by their emissions

5
Tracing in Oil Industry
  • Unsealed sources used in radiotracer and marker
    studies
  • To indicate the flow rate of the well fluids,
    radiotracer spikes, comprising 99Tcm and 131I
    solutions, are released from logging tools into
    production wells and the time taken for them to
    traverse the known distance between two radiation
    detectors is determined

6
Radiography
  • Non-destructive testing (NDT) is commonly
    performed to provide quality assurance during
    engineering projects
  • Gamma-emitting radioisotopes can be used to check
    welds of new gas and oil pipeline systems, with
    the radioactive source being placed inside the
    pipe and the film outside the welds.
  • Other forms of radiography (neutron radiography/
    autoradiography) that can be used to gauge the
    thickness and density of materials, or to locate
    components that are not visible by other means

7
Radiography In Oil Industry
  • In oil and gas industry gamma radiography, and to
    a lesser extent X radiography are used to ensure
    that all constructions and fabrications are
    completed to the required standard.
  • It is essential that all components and
    connections, particularly welds in the plant and
    equipment, withstand the very high physical
    forces (for example, forces generated by
    hydrostatic pressures) associated with oil and
    gas production.

8
Gauging
  • Gauges containing radioactive sources are in wide
    use in all industries where levels of gases,
    liquids and solids must be checked.
  • These gauges are most useful where heat, pressure
    or corrosive substances, such as molten glass or
    molten metal, make it impossible or difficult to
    use direct contact gauges.
  • Radioisotope thickness gauges are used in the
    making of continuous sheets of material including
    paper, plastic film, metal, etc, when it is
    desirable to avoid contact between the gauge and
    the material

9
Gauging in Oil Industry
  • Installed Gauges Used to monitor or control
  • 1 ) Density of fluid flowing through pipelines,
    for example on lines carrying cement slurry to
    grout in (to cement with liquid mortar) a
    casing string, and on crude oil export lines.

Installed density gauge (courtesy National
Radiological Protection Board, UK).
10
Oil Industry
  • Installed Gauges used to
  • Fluid levels in vessels and to detect the
    interface between fluids of different densities,
  • a) such as the water, oil and gas interfaces in
    separators.
  • B) as mud tanks,
  • C) flare knockout drum,
  • D) export gas scrubbers and vent headers of
    storage tanks.
  • Level gauges are installed in locations which
    render the gauges irretrievable, such as in the
    jacket legs of offshore platforms to indicate, as
    the legs are grouted into the seabed, that the
    cement slurry has risen to the required level in
    the outside portion of the leg. Their use is
    equally common downstream in oil refineries and
    petrochemical facilities.

11
Oil Industry
  • Mobile gauging
  • Fire protection equipment use hand-held level
    gauges to determine the fluid level in fire
    extinguisher bottles and cylinders.

Mobile gauge for detecting the level of liquids
in closed fire extinguisher cylinders (courtesy
National Radiological Protection Board, UK).
12
Smoke detectors
  • One of the most common uses of radioisotopes is
    in smoke detectors. These contain a small amount
    of americium-241, which is a decay product of
    plutonium-241 originating in nuclear reactors.
    The americium-241 emits alpha particles which
    ionize the air and allow a current to flow
    between two electrodes. If smoke enters the
    detector it absorbs the alpha particles and
    interrupts the current, setting off the alarm

13
Oil Industry
  • Well Logging
  • logging tools are placed in the well to measure
    physical parameters in the well, the geological
    properties of the rocks around the well, and the
    presence of elements in the rocks

Radioactive sealed sources incorporated in a
pipeline pig (courtesy Scotoil Group plc).
14
Well Logging
  • Among the many types of tool are means to measure
    fluid temperature, pressure, density and flow
    rates detect casing corrosion, wear and other
    damage and measure rock density, porosity and
    isotope content.
  • Some of the tools contain one or more radiation
    detectors and radioactive sources or a machine
    that generates ionizing radiation

15
Well Logging
  • nuclear logging techniques
  • 1) gamma measurement technique, simply measures
    and identifies the gamma rays emitted by
    naturally occurring radionuclides in rocks to
    help distinguish the shale content of sedimentary
    rocks and aid lithological identification. The
    log records the uranium, thorium and potassium
    content of the rocks.

16
Well Logging
  • neutronneutron or compensated neutron log,
    demands a radioactive source of up to several
    hundred GBq of AmBe or PuBe in the tool to emit
    45 MeV neutrons.
  • An elongated skid hydraulically presses the tool
    against the wall of the well and two radiation
    detectors, located at different distances from
    the source in the tool, measure the neutrons
    backscattered by the rock formation. The
    relationship between the two readings provides a
    porosity index for the rock. This indicates how
    porous the rock is and whether it is likely to
    contain hydrocarbons or water

17
Well Logging
  • gammagamma or density tool, which contains two
    detectors and a 137Cs source, usually of up to 75
    GBq. The amount of gamma backscatter from the
    formation provides the density log that, together
    with the porosity log, is a valuable indicator of
    the presence of gas. A brand name may refer to
    this technique

18
Well Logging
  • neutrongamma logging, employs a tool that houses
    a miniature linear accelerator. It contains up to
    several hundred GBq of tritium (3H), a very low
    energy beta particle emitter. When a high voltage
    (typically 80 kV) is applied to the device, it
    accelerates deuterium atoms (2H) that bombard the
    tritium target and generate a large number of
    very high energy (1415 MeV) neutrons in pulses
    lasting a few microseconds. Certain nuclides
    become radioactive when hit by this neutron flux,
    and their subsequent radioactive decay within the
    next few milliseconds can be monitored when the
    process is repeated a great number of times per
    second. Either the gamma radiation emitted as the
    activated atoms decay or the thermal neutron
    decay characteristics are measured to identify
    the activated species of atoms. The chlorine or
    salt water content of the rocks is of particular
    interest. A brand name may refer to this
    technique.

19
NORM In Oil Industry
  • Produces water,
  • Sludge and scales,
  • Contaminated items,
  • Waste arising from waste treatment activities,
    and
  • Waste arising from decommissioning activates.
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