Occupational, public and environmental radiological impact caused by the phosphoric acid industry: the case of Huelva (Spain)

The production of phosphate fertilizers usually uses as raw material sedimentary phosphate rock, which contains enhanced concentrations from U‐series radionuclides about 10–100 times higher than unperturbed soils. This fact implies the need for evaluating the radiologi‐cal implications of this activ...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores: Guerrero Márquez, José Luís, Mosqueda Peña, Fernando, Mantero, Juan, Manjón, Guillermo, García-Tenorio García-Balmaseda, Rafael, Bolívar, Juan Pedro
Tipo de recurso: capítulo de libro
Estado:Versión publicada
Fecha de publicación:2017
País:España
Institución:Universidad de Sevilla (US)
Repositorio:idUS. Depósito de Investigación de la Universidad de Sevilla
OAI Identifier:oai:idus.us.es:11441/99750
Acceso en línea:https://hdl.handle.net/11441/99750
https://doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.68567
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:NORM
Radiation doses
Phosphogypsum
Radioecological impact
Descripción
Sumario:The production of phosphate fertilizers usually uses as raw material sedimentary phosphate rock, which contains enhanced concentrations from U‐series radionuclides about 10–100 times higher than unperturbed soils. This fact implies the need for evaluating the radiologi‐cal implications of this activity. In our case, the study has been performed in a large fertilizer industrial complex located at Huelva town (SW of Spain), where sedimentary phosphate rock has been processed since 1965 to 2010, generating annually an average of about 2.5 million tons of a by‐product called phosphogypsum (PG), which has been stored in big stacks 1 km away from Huelva city, covering 1000 ha. The fluxes of the radionuclides of interest along the production process and the effective doses received by the workers have been deter‐mined. In addition, the radioecological impact associated to the waste management strategy followed has been evaluated.