International Conference on the Management of Naturally Occurring Radioactive Materials (NORM) in Industry

Challenging issues associated with the regulation of NORM in Industries

Not scheduled

5m

IAEA Headquarters, Vienna, Austria

Poster NORM Policy, Strategy and Regulations Session I - NORM National Policies and Strategies

Speaker

Dr Sami Alharbi (School of Physics and Chemical Science, Queensland University of Technology, 2 George Street, Brisbane Qld 4000, Australia. - King Saud bin Abdulaziz University for Health Sciences)

Description

Abstract
The main goal of the field of radiation protection is to protect humans and environments from the harm of ionising radiation, regardless of its size and origin. However, NORM has received less attention than other sources of ionising radiation, although the resultant exposure from NORM can be significant. The regulation of NORM did not attract the attention of the radiological protection community until the 1980’s, when the enhanced level of NORM was identified in the petroleum industry. Soon after, the presence of NORM has been observed in a number of other industries involving exploration, processing and production of minerals and raw materials. Although, over the past two decades, considerable efforts have been devoted by national and international regulatory bodies to adequately control exposure to NORM in industries, there still remain challenging issues in establishing and implementing a protection regime for NORM. These issues were identified and discussed in this paper on the light of best available knowledge.