Radiation occurs naturally throughout our environment.
In addition to radiation originating from the sun and deep space, NORM originating on earth is found in our bodies, the food we eat, the places we live and work, and the ground we live on. Certain industrial processes, however, can cause NORM to accumulate at concentrations greater than natural background levels. The petroleum industry, for example, is one of several industries that generate large volumes of NORM-bearing wastes. The petroleum industry waste streams most likely to contain elevated radium concentrations include produced water, scale, and sludge. Radium, which is slightly soluble, can be mobilized in the liquid phases of a subsurface formation and transported to the surface in the produced water stream.