USER GUIDE TO THE DATABASE "NORM INDUSTRIES"

The database “NORM Industries” (Figure 1) can firstly be accessed by selecting the industrial sector of interest (Figure 2); for each sector, the type of material can be chosen: first, by selecting the category within the industrial process (raw material, final product, residue, effluent, intermediate products) (Figure 3) and then, by selecting the material (water, clay, rock, ash, cement etc.) (Figure 4); it is possible, but not mandatory, to select a country of origin for the data (Figure 5). Once all the fields are completed, the value in parentheses indicates the number of entries available for each item.

Figure 1. “NORM industries” database	FI Figure 2. Selection of industrial s ector	Figure 3. Selection of category of material

Figura 4. Scelta del tipo di materiale	Figure 5. Optional selection of country	Figure 6. Data extraction

Figure 7 shows an example of a search result. The first table presents the mean activity concentration value for each radionuclide. The mean values are calculated as a weighted average on the number of samples indicated, for each radionuclide, in the third row of the table.

Figure 7. Example of search results

A second table follows where the rows show individual data referring to a sample, or set of samples, together with the bibliography; if the reference document doesn’t specify one or more information relevant to the Database, it is followed by a * referring to the note in Figure 8. This invites the user to address the Measurement Sheet for further details.

Figure 8. Warning note.

By clicking on the reference, the corresponding Measurement Sheet is accessed (Figure 9). There, the authors and the title of the reference are provided, together with the year and place of publication. Activity concentration data and any “annotation” are also shown here. In particular, when the reference did not specify the number of samples to which radiometric data were referred to, this was set at 2 by default. In other cases, if the reference only provided the maximum and minimum value for the activity concentration of each radionuclide, the Database also contains the mean value (calculated as an arithmetic mean).

Figure 9. Measurement sheet.