Day One - Main ConferenceWednesday, 21 October 2026

You are radioactive right now. So is your coffee, your granite countertop, and the person sitting next to you. Naturally occurring radioactive material — NORM — has been part of life on Earth since the planet cooled, and for most of human history nobody lost sleep over it. Then came the shale boom, the investigative journalists, and a collective media decision to use the word radioactive as a headline without ever mentioning how much radioactivity was actually involved.

This presentation traces twenty-five years of NORM coverage — from the radioactive filter socks illegally dumped in North Dakota, to radium in Pennsylvania waterways, to the Texas whistleblower whose jaw allegedly dissolved from drilling mud exposure on a site that later became an elementary school playground — and asks the question almost none of the original stories asked: compared to what?

Attendees will leave with a clearer understanding of NORM's media history, practical tools for communicating radiation risk to general audiences, and a new appreciation for the banana — nature's most underused unit of radioactive measurement.

The Conference of Radiation Control Program Directors Part N working group finalized draft revisions to the suggested state regulations for licensure of NORM. The draft regulations are a stark departure from previous versions but should promote the regulatory flexibility required of states and stakeholders. This presentation will provide an overview of that regulatory framework, discuss feedback received from industry and where we go from here.

The N13.53 standard is intended to provide general guidance and normative criteria for the control and release of TENORM (e.g., U-238 series, Th-232 series, and K-40). The standard applies to industries or activities not already covered by existing regulations. Activities considered by the standard include mining and beneficiation of ores, processing ore materials, and feedstock used in manufacturing consumer and industrial products. Finally, the control of occupational exposures associated with TENORM is covered.

NORM/TENORM management in North America sits at the intersection of evolving regulation, operational risk, and legal exposure. This session brings together regulatory, legal, and compliance perspectives to examine recent state and federal developments, liability and litigation trends, and practical pathways to manage risk while maintaining workable, defensible compliance strategies for industry.

Key takeaways:

• Regulatory landscape—What’s changed and what’s coming:
• From regulation to liability:
  o Where compliance gaps turn into legal exposure
  o Worker, public, spill, and environmental liability considerations
  o Lessons learned from recent and legacy NORM/TENORM cases
• Understanding regulatory, operational, and reputational risk
• CERCLA, RCRA and radiation regulation—where they collide?
• Finding a reasonable path to compliance: Engaging regulators effectively

Explore the fundamentals of NORM in upstream operations, linking reservoir chemistry and brine composition to radium scale and sludge formation. Learn how to identify high‑risk assets, minimise scale at source, and balance treatment versus disposal. Gain practical strategies for regulatory compliance, operational safety, and cost control across asset lifecycles effectively.

Key takeaways:

• Reservoir chemistry and brine composition
• Factors driving radium scale and sludge formation
• Reducing scale build-up at source
• Treatment vs disposal decision-making and cost control

NORM in upstream oil and gas poses persistent HSE and compliance risks. This session provides a practical, ALARA-led framework to identify, assess, control and dispose of NORM across drilling, production, maintenance and decommissioning, aligning practice with regulatory requirements and cost/schedule realities.

Key takeaways:

• Where NORM forms and concentrates;
• Proportionate risk assessment, monitoring and clearance/action levels;
• Effective engineering and procedural controls, PPE/RPE and decontamination;
• Fit-for-purpose sampling, instrumentation and dosimetry;
• Compliant waste packaging, transport and disposal with full traceability;
• Management system essentials—procedures, training, contractor oversight, incident response and records;
• Implementation roadmap and kpis to embed compliance and performance.

Explore decommissioning via case study, highlighting NORM management insights, examining lessons learned, emerging challenges and innovative approaches. Gain practical, cost‑effective strategies and best practices for safely removing NORM from contaminated pipes, equipment and FPSO units, improving compliance, efficiency and outcomes across offshore oil assets.

Key Takeaways:

• Early characterisation and inventory of NORM hotspots on FPSOs reduces scope creep and schedule risk.
• ALARA-based radiation protection, continuous monitoring and competent crews are essential for safe execution.
• Segregation at source and targeted decontamination significantly cut waste volumes and disposal costs.
• Integrate NORM tasks into P&A and topsides removal to avoid critical-path delays and overruns.

Record U.S. oil and gas production is driving a parallel surge in produced water volumes, while tighter disposal capacity, induced seismicity concerns, and increasing pressure to conserve freshwater are accelerating the need for safe, economic beneficial reuse.

This presentation will quantify the scale of the produced water challenge, outline the key NORM management considerations that can affect reuse pathways, and provide a focused update on emerging regulatory frameworks and industry initiatives shaping practical reuse options.

Downstream refineries and pipeline operations face elevated NORM and mixed wastes. Licensed contractors, surveyors and cleaners must navigate regulatory oversight, with higher disposal costs and litigation exposure than the production side.

Key takeaways:

• Elevated NORM and mixed waste are increasingly identified in downstream pipelines and refineries, often trickier to manage than on the production side.
• Regulatory oversight drives stringent handling, higher disposal costs and heightened litigation risk, especially for mixed wastes.
• Licensed surveyors and site-wide cleaning programmes are essential; major operators require comprehensive downstream compliance.
• Case studies impacting service providers and waste generators.

This presentation examines the legal and regulatory framework governing TENORM in oil and gas operations, with a focus on personnel exposure, property contamination, and litigation risk. It explores the fragmented regulatory environment and why litigation has grown steadily since the 1990s. An overview of some recent cases, theories of liability and key defenses are presented. Risk-mitigation and due-diligence guidance for operators are recommended.

Accurate NORM/TENORM characterisation is essential for safe operations, compliant and cost‑effective transport/disposal. This session shows how to identify nuclides, align testing with regulatory thresholds and disposal criteria, and balance analytical rigour with turnaround times to support timely, defensible operational decisions.

Key takeaways:

• Linking characterisation scope directly to:
  • Waste classification
  • Transport rules & placarding thresholds
  • Disposal acceptance criteria
• Selecting nuclide suites by decision purpose (not analytical habit)
• Understanding what not to measure (cost control)
• Using realistic laboratory TATs to avoid operational delays
• Case examples across:
  • Oil & gas residues
  • Phosphogypsum
  • REE / mineral sands waste streams

Sample matrix drives measurement success for NORM and have significant effect on the way samples will be analysed. This technical session explores how laboratory methods deliver—or undermine—reliable NORM results. It compares gamma spectrometry and radiochemistry across complex matrices, explains practical limits such as self‑attenuation and equilibrium, and highlights factors driving MDAs, turnaround times, and inter‑laboratory variability in routine NORM analysis.

Key Takeaways:

• Matrix‑to‑method decision trees (scale vs sludge vs brine vs solids)
• Practical comparison:
  • Gamma spectrometry (geometry, equilibrium, attenuation limits)
  • Radiochemistry (separations, yields, interferences)
• What drives MDAs in the real world
• Typical and realistic turnaround times
• Understanding—and managing—lab‑to‑lab variability

Poorly designed NORM sampling and analysis programmes cause re‑sampling, delays, and regulatory challenges. This session distils common pitfalls and shows how to link decision objectives to sampling design, preservation, analytical methods, and QA/QC. Attendees gain practical guidance to deliver defensible data that withstands approvals and audits.

Key takeaways:

• Why NORM SAPs fail audits and approvals
• Common programme‑level mistakes:
  • Under‑sampling heterogeneous waste
  • Ignoring ingrowth timing
  • MDAs misaligned with action levels
  • Applying drinking‑water methods to industrial residues
• Translating decision objectives → sampling design → methods → QA/QC
• Pilot trials and method validation on real matrices
• Logistics, preservation, and scheduling realities

Effective radiation surveys depend on matching the right instrument and technique to the NORM/TENORM hazard. This session introduces common survey instruments used for NORM, explains their strengths and limitations, and outlines best‑practice survey techniques for complex environments. Attendees will learn how to avoid misinterpretation, recognise instrument limitations, and ensure surveys produce reliable, defensible results.

Key takeaways:

• Overview of handheld and portable survey instruments used in NORM/TENORM assessment (GM detectors, scintillation probes, dose‑rate meters, contamination monitors)
• Matching instrument type to radiation type, energy range, and field conditions typical of NORM wastes and facilities
• Understanding critical limitations such as energy response, sensitivity at low dose rates, dead time, and background influence
• Effective survey techniques: geometry control, scan speed, distance effects, and documentation of results
• Common survey errors in NORM environments and how to avoid false positives, under‑reporting, and misclassification

The session will host 6 roundtables with unique discussion topics. An industry moderator will facilitate each session, and attendees can join one session only. Discussions will run for 30 minutes, and the findings of the discussion will be summarized and presented by each moderator.