Disposal of Norm-Contaminated Oil Field Wastes in Salt Caverns

摘要

In 1995, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), Office of Fossil Energy, asked211u001eArgonne National Laboratory (Argonne) to conduct a preliminary technical and 211u001elegal evaluation of disposing of nonhazardous oil field waste (NOW) into salt 211u001ecaverns. That study concluded that disposal of NOW into salt caverns is feasible 211u001eand legal. If caverns are sited and designed well, operated carefully, closed 211u001eproperly, and monitored routinely, they can be a suitable means of disposing of 211u001eNOW (Veil et al. 1996). Considering these findings and the increased U.S. 211u001einterest in using salt caverns for NOW disposal, the Office of Fossil Energy 211u001easked Argonne to conduct further research on the cost of cavern disposal compared 211u001ewith the cost of more traditional NOW disposal methods and on preliminary 211u001eidentification and investigation of the risks associated with such disposal. The 211u001ecost study (Veil 1997) found that disposal costs at the four permitted disposal 211u001ecaverns in the United States were comparable to or lower than the costs of other 211u001edisposal facilities in the same geographic area. The risk study (Tomasko et al. 211u001e1997) estimated that both cancer and noncancer human health risks from drinking 211u001ewater that had been contaminated by releases of cavern contents were 211u001esignificantly lower than the accepted risk thresholds. Since 1992, DOE has funded 211u001eArgonne to conduct a series of studies evaluating issues related to management 211u001eand disposal of oil field wastes contaminated with naturally occurring 211u001eradioactive material (NORM). Included among these studies were radiological dose 211u001eassessments of several different NORM disposal options (Smith et al. 1996). In 211u001e1997, DOE asked Argonne to conduct additional analyses on waste disposal in salt 211u001ecaverns, except that this time the wastes to be evaluated would be those types of 211u001eoil field wastes that are contaminated by NORM. This report describes these 211u001eanalyses. Throughout the remainder of this report, the term 'NORM waste' is used 211u001eto mean 'oil field waste contaminated by NORM'.