What are the radioactive pollution and preventive measures in the oil and gas industry?

Some radioactive elements are sometimes used in the exploration and development of oil and gas fields. For example, in order to determine which strata in the well contain oil, gas or water, to measure the density of strata, and to track the flow direction and distribution of water injected into the well, radioactive logging is necessary. Therefore, radioactive substances should be used, such as americium beryllium (24 1Am-Be) neutron source that can radiate neutrons underground, and cesium (137Cs), radium (226Ra) and barium (13/kloc-0) that can radiate gamma rays underground. Among them, the half-life of cesium isotope (137Cs) radiating gamma rays is 3 1 year; The half-life of americium (24 1Am) in americium beryllium neutron source is 249 years. The half-life of barium isotope (13 1Ba) commonly used to trace the direction and distribution of injected water is 1 1.6 days. When these radioactive substances are stored and used, they will radiate neutron rays and gamma rays harmful to human body to the surrounding environment.

The pollution in the radioactive logging process is mainly caused by improper operation, such as: the prepared solution (activation solution) containing radioactive isotopes (such as barium) overflows; Radioactive iodine (13 1I) aerosol escapes during unpacking, packaging, dilution and stirring. In addition, in the process of oil and gas exploitation, trace radioactive elements (potassium, thorium, uranium, etc. ) may be dissolved by oil or water and deposited on the inner wall of oil pipeline, or radioactive pollution may occur.

In petrochemical production, nuclear radiation technology is also used for flaw detection, material level control, liquid level measurement, density determination, material consumption, chemical composition analysis, perspective, filming and disease treatment of pressure-bearing equipment (such as boiler tubes, liquefied gas spherical tanks, liquefied gas carriers, pressure-bearing containers, pipelines, etc.). Under normal working conditions, no matter the personnel engaged in industrial flaw detection or the operators of isotope instruments, their health will not be affected as long as they abide by the safety operation rules and pay attention to safety protection.

Radioactive pollution caused a frightening genetic mutation in this little pig (reprinted from the website of China Science City:)

The oil field attaches great importance to the safety of radioactive logging process. Various systems have been established to protect the environment and prevent pollution. According to national regulations, the storage and transportation of radioactive materials should have special source warehouses, source vehicles and source protection gas cylinders; Operators are equipped with special protective equipment, and even a special dining car is equipped for those engaged in radioactive operations. In addition, the selection of radioactive isotopes should try to use isotopes with short half-life and low radiation dose. For example, the half-life of indium isotope as logging tracer is 99.8 minutes. Because of its short half-life, it will not cause obvious radioactive pollution to the environment. Because of its stable chemical state, it is not easy to volatilize and the effective energy of radioactive substances is low, so it is not easy to cause harm to human body.