Annual report and assessment of discharges of radionuclides from the non-nuclear sectors in 2019
Data are available on ODIMS via: https://odims.ospar.org/en/submissions/ospar_rnuclides_non_nuclear_2019_01/
Executive Summary
Annual data collection by OSPAR on discharges from the non-nuclear sector has only been taking place since 2006 (collecting data from 2005). Due to the incompleteness of datasets, no data were published until 2009.
RSC 2004 agreed that Contracting Parties should report the discharges from their non-nuclear sub-sectors annually using the agreed reporting template. The data for 2019 have been reported in accordance with the Revised Reporting Procedures for Discharges of Radioactive Substances from Non-Nuclear Sectors. Data have been collected since 2005. A number of Contracting Parties (CPs) have provided non-nuclear discharge data for 2019: 7 out of 7 CPs reported for oil/gas; 7 CPs reported on their university and research; and 7 CPs reported on their medical sector.
Full Report
There are sufficient data to make an assessment for 2019. The reports for produced water discharges from the oil/gas sub-sector cover the major contributions and, although incomplete, it is possible to judge the relative contribution from the medical sub-sector. Other sub-sectors are either well reported or make relatively insignificant contributions.
It has been necessary to estimate certain discharges from incomplete data – consequently care needs to be taken in using this assessment report for purposes other than those envisaged by OSPAR RSC. In this assessment report the term “total beta” means total beta (excluding tritium) – the full definition is used in headings, but the abbreviation is used in the text.