BP’s Crude Oil May Be Radioactive
by ilene - August 31st, 2010 5:10 pm
BP’s Crude Oil May Be Radioactive
Courtesy of Washington’s Blog
New Orleans attorney Stuart Smith knows something about radiation from oil drilling:
Smith is well known for his role as lead counsel in an oilfield radiation case that resulted in a verdict of $1.056 billion against ExxonMobil for contaminating land it leased from the Grefer family in Harvey, Louisiana –– and attempting to cover it up.
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The court stated that from June 1986 to March 1987, “Exxon officials intentionally withheld information,” and that the company “knew the [radioactive] scale posed a direct danger to the physical health of those workers.” Oilfield waste, or TERM, is primarily composed of radium, a highly radioactive chemical element. Exposure to radium is known to cause a variety of devastating illnesses, including cancer. Radium’s impact on the human body is particularly acute because it is similar chemically to calcium –– and as such is frequently absorbed into bones after entering the body.
But at least there’s no radiation being released from BP’s oil spill in the Gulf, right?
Well, as Smith wrote on August 4th:
This is directly from the EPA website discussing oil drilling activity:
“These processes may leave behind waste containing concentrations of naturally-occurring radioactive material (NORM) from the surrounding soils and rocks. Once exposed or concentrated by human activity, this naturally-occurring material becomes Technologically-Enhanced NORM or TENORM. Radioactive materials are not necessarily present in the soils at every well or drilling site. However in some areas of the country, such as the upper Midwest or Gulf Coast states, the soils are more like to contain radioactive material.”
“Radioactive wastes from oil and gas drilling take the form of produced water, drilling mud, sludge, slimes, or evaporation ponds and pits. It can also concentrate in the mineral scales that form in pipes (pipe scale), storage tanks, or other extraction equipment. Radionuclides in these wastes are primarily radium-226, radium-228, and radon gas. The radon is released to the atmosphere, while the produced water and mud containing radium are placed in ponds or pits for evaporation, re-use, or recovery.”
“The people most likely to be exposed to this source of radiation are workers at the site. They may inhale radon gas which is released during drilling and produced by the decay of radium, raising their risk of lung cancer. In addition, they are
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Oil Spew Update: Where’s The Doom?
by ilene - July 16th, 2010 9:38 pm
Karl Denninger separates fact and fiction in the Gulf Oil Spill story.
Oil Spew Update: Where’s The Doom?
I was promised an earth-shattering ka-doom!
Well, not really.
And the spew is not, in fact, funny.
But what’s even less funny is the number of people who have come completely unhinged with their "imminent death of everything and everyone" nonsense.
Let’s go down the list of the some of the better ones:
Everyone who worked on the Exxon Valdez spill is dead (or alternatively, that across the entire population of those who worked on the Valdez spill, the average age of death is 51.)
Really? Can you source that? I’ve been trying. Yeah, I’ve found the claim – 10 seconds with Google finds it. It’s been repeated everywhere. CNN had an alleged "expert" on who made the 51 year life expectancy claim – "almost all who worked on the Exxon Valdez cleanup are now dead."
Can I find an actual documented source for the claim? Nope. And I’ve tried to find it. No luck.
The same interviewee claimed that the components of the dispersent, Corexit, were not disclosed. This we know to be false; there are two formulations and we know what’s in them. The nastiest component is called "Butyl Cellusolve", and is indeed a nasty chemical solvent. The question is concentration; incidentally, you can buy cleaning solutions containing butyl cellusolve at Home Depot, among other places. I don’t recommend drinking it.
All of these claims appear to be traceable to one so-called self-identified "expert." If she has actual evidence, such as a roster of all the people who worked on the Exxon Valdez, their ages, and the disposition of their health (and death, as she alleges) then let’s have it. This sort of extreme claim requires strict proof. Period.
There is a second well that BP (and/or Diamond Offshore) is hiding that is the real leak that is five (or alternatively seven) miles away; this is a sideshow and they can’t plug either. The pressures are off the charts, never encountered before.
Really? Then how come they just did plug the well? Off the charts? About two weeks ago there was a pressure gauge on one of the downhole lines, and it read 7,000 psi. The water at that depth exerts ~2,000 psi. If this was an absolute gauge (probably true) then the in-bore relative pressure (relative to the sea floor) was…
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Philip R. Davis is a founder Phil's Stock World, a stock and options trading site that teaches the art of options trading to newcomers and devises advanced strategies for expert traders...
Ilene is editor and affiliate program
coordinator for PSW. She manages the site