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While
many may be fretting about rising gas prices, certain domestic
industries are ramping up efforts to increase the supply of the nation’s
domestic reserves. The oil and gas industry rely on many devices
containing radioactive material in order to get the job done. The
well-logging industry is at the front and center of those efforts.
Once
a geologic deposit is identified as potentially having vast oil and/or
gas reserves, these NRC licensees known as well-loggers are called upon
to provide a detailed underground three-dimensional map of the deposit.
In
order to create these 3D maps, well-loggers use a well-logging tool
that can be lowered into holes drilled up to a few thousand feet below
the Earth’s surface, in search of natural gas and oil reserves trapped
below the land and water.
How
does it work? The device houses thimble-sized sealed radioactive
sources and detectors to determine what is underneath the ground.
Depending on the element, the radioactive material emits gamma rays or
neutrons into the rock or sediment below and then the radiation reflects
off the rocks or water or oil or gas like ping pong balls. As that
radiation bounces back, the detector calculates density and porosity.
The
engineers use these measurements to identify the depth and width of the
land beneath that will provide the optimal locations for oil and gas
extraction. The oil and gas that they pull from these sites can then be
used in the petroleum industry and in energy production, just to name a
few. The technology has been used as far back as the late 1930s.
The
earth and soil never becomes radioactive and does not remain
radioactive after the sealed radioactive source is removed. There are
multiple safety barriers to ensure the source sealed inside the
well-logging tool is not compromised. NRC materials inspectors regularly
inspect licensees to ensure they are safely storing and using nuclear
materials in this way.
Jason Razo
Region IV
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