Annual report and assessment of discharges of radionuclides from the non-nuclear sectors in 2018
Data are available on ODIMS via: https://odims.ospar.org/documents/1722
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.
A number of Contracting Parties(CP) reported non-nuclear discharge data for 2018: 7 out of 7 CPs with an oil and gas industry reported discharge data for this sector, 6 CPs reported university and research data; and 7 CPs reported data from the medical sector. There were sufficient data to make an assessment for 2018.
Full Report
Produced water discharges from the oil/gas sub-sector were the major contributions. The radionuclides reported from the offshore oil and gas industry are Ra-226, Ra-228, Pb-210, discharged via produced water. The levels are comparable to discharges for recent years; however, levels of Ra-isotopes are slightly lower and levels of Pb is slightly higher than 2017.
Although incomplete, it is possible to judge the relative contribution from the medical sub-sector where the total reported discharge of iodine-131 for 2018 was 14.6 TBq, which was slightly higher compared to 2017 (13 TBq). Other sub-sectors are well reported and make relatively insignificant contributions.