The South African NORM Inventory and Management of Waste Material Above Release Limits

The paper provides a synopsis of the South African Naturally Occurring Radioactive Material (NORM) industry and inventories since the establishment of the National Nuclear Regulator (NNR) in the 1990s. The type of waste generated, their quantities and the activity concentration are discussed. Lastly, the paper discusses the state of waste storage facilities and some institutional control as provided by South African legislation. The occurrence of NORM in South Africa dates back to the 1915s when gold-bearing ores of the Witwatersrand basin was found to contain considerable quantities of uranium oxide. The large-scale uranium production in South Africa commenced in the 1950s and 1970s as a by-product of gold from the Witwatersrand basin and copper from the Phalaborwa carbonatite complex respectively. A growing number of Uranium plants led to the establishment of an independent regulatory body - The Council for Nuclear Safety (currently known as NNR). Apart from mining and processing of gold, copper, uranium, other NORM-bearing commodities such as phosphate rock, rare earth materials and heavy minerals are regulated. Other NORM regulated industries include fertilizer manufactures, scrap recyclers, laboratories conducting tests on NORM-bearing samples for resource estimation, recovery, grade and environmental verification of proposed and existing actions, and service providers such as storage warehouses and suppliers of clean-up services of radiologically contaminated sites. Industries are issued with two types of nuclear authorisation depending on the associated radiation risk, i.e. the Certificate of Registration (COR) and the Certificate of Exemption (COE) with further consideration. The amount of waste generated varies amongst the different industries with some of them generating insignificant amounts of waste (e.g. laboratories and services providers). The type of waste generated is broadly categorised into homogeneous and nonhomogeneous waste. Non - homogeneous waste includes scrap steel, plastic and equipment, which become contaminated on their surface during operations. Scrap steel is released mostly for local smelting but some can also be exported and scrap plastic that is released locally. Homogeneous waste includes tailings material (slurry) and waste rock that are processed and released in line with the release limits. The slurry is stored in the temporary storage areas called Tailings Storage Facilities (TSF) and waste rock is cleared for release, mostly for use in road construction or stored in heaps called Waste Rock Dumps (WRD). General waste is released to the general waste landfill after thorough clearance. The other type of homogeneous waste such as contaminated soil, sediments, scales and bricks that do not meet the regulatory release limits are stored in individual facilities. (author)