Quick answer to the question: Where does the radioactivity come from ? Basically, "radiobarite" ... (Reply #4)

In the discussion thread: 4 States Struggling to Manage Radioactive Fracking Waste [View all]

Mon Jun 27, 2016, 05:03 PM

4. Quick answer to the question: Where does the radioactivity come from ? Basically, "radiobarite" ...

I.e., barite (BaSO4, the major barium mineral) containing small amounts of radium as RaSO4. Both have extremely low solubility in water (under normal conditions), so any radium salt that gets dissolved quickly precipitates back out, together with the more abundant barium, as soon as it encounters sufficient sulfate ions in solution. Here's a 2010 post on that:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=115x249200

Scaly precipitates on oil industry equipment may show the radioactivity as high as 103 Bq/g.

http://www.mindat.org/min-7267.html

Note that's per gram, not per kilogram.

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4 replies	Author	Time	Post
4 States Struggling to Manage Radioactive Fracking Waste [View all]	arcane1	Jun 2016	OP
Yet the Democratic Platform committee failed to ban fracking.	ciaobaby	Jun 2016	#1
"We're just going to do some FRACKING, here."	DirkGently	Jun 2016	#2
It pollutes the air and water, so let's exempt it from air and water rules.	arcane1	Jun 2016	#3
Quick answer to the question: Where does the radioactivity come from ? Basically, "radiobarite" ...	eppur_se_muova	Jun 2016	#4

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