Fracking Radioactivity

[eridani]

http://www.nationofchange.org/fracking-radioactivity-1352562120

The Marcellus Shale region which covers much of upstate New York is seen as loaded with gas that can be released through the fracking process. It involves injecting fluid and chemicals under high pressure to fracture shale formations and release the gas captured in them.

But also released, notes the report, is radioactive material in the shale ­including Radium-226 with a half-life of 1,600 years. A half-life is how long it takes for a radioactive substance to lose half its radiation. It is multiplied by between 10 and 20 to determine the “hazardous lifetime” of a radioactive material, how long it takes for it to lose its radioactivity. Thus Radium-226 remains radioactive for between 16,000 and 32,000 years.

“Horizontal hydrofracking for natural gas in the Marcellus Shale region of New York State has the potential to result in the production of large amounts of waste materials containing Radium-226 and Radium-228 in both solid and liquid mediums,” states the report by E. Ivan White. For 30 years he was a staff scientist for the Congressionally-chartered National Council on Radiation Protection.

[limpyhobbler]

1. "various disposal methods…contemplated”

The disposal is to truck it to Ohio and inject it under protected lakes and streams.

[Nihil]

2. I gather that there's a rather large underground repository in Nevada that's sitting there empty ...

... thanks to the efforts of a bunch of natural gas supporters so it would be completely appropriate
to store the byproducts from their "cleaner, greener" fuel there ... No?