Assessment of Natural Radioactivity Levels of Cements and Cement Composites in the Slovak Republic

Abstract

The radionuclide activities of 226Ra, 232Th and 40K and radiological parameters (radium equivalent activity, gamma and alpha indices, the absorbed gamma dose rate and external and internal hazard indices) of cements and cement composites commonly used in the Slovak Republic have been studied in this paper. The cement samples of 8 types of cements from Slovak cement plants and five types of composites made from cement type CEM I were analyzed in the experiment. The radionuclide activities in the cements ranged from 8.58–19.1 Bq·kg−1, 9.78–26.3 Bq·kg−1 and 156.5–489.4 Bq·kg−1 for 226Ra, 232Th and 40K, respectively. The radiological parameters in cement samples were calculated as follows: mean radium equivalent activity Raeq = 67.87 Bq·kg−1, gamma index Iγ = 0.256, alpha index Iα = 0.067, the absorbed gamma dose rate D = 60.76 nGy·h−1, external hazard index Hex = 0.182 and internal hazard index Hin was 0.218. The radionuclide activity in composites ranged from 6.84–10.8 Bq·kg−1 for 226Ra, 13.1–20.5 Bq·kg−1 for 232Th and 250.4–494.4 Bq·kg−1 for 40K. The calculated radiological parameters of cements were lower than calculated radiological parameters of cement composites.

210Pb and 210Po in Geological and Related Anthropogenic Materials: Implications for Their Mineralogical Distribution in Base Metal Ores

“…Lightweight building blocks may contain both slag and fly-ash. Several publications detail representative 210 Pb and 210 Po activity concentration data for building materials, focussing on eastern European countries where the practice of adding smelter slags and fly-ash was commonplace [130][131][132]. The environmental impact of radionuclide release during processing of granite rock for ornamental stone has also been explored [133].…”

Uran, thorium a draslík v krystaliniku a paleozoických sedimentech na mapovém listu 14-33 Polička – laboratorní gamaspektrometrie a parciální chemické složení variských plutonitů

“…Tyto parametry byly z výsledků gamaspektrometrických analýz vypočteny pomocí vztahů a m [Bq.kg (Beretka -Matthew 1985;UNSCEAR 1988;Matolín -Chlupáčová 1997;Ngachin et al 2007;Eštoková -Palaščáková 2013).…”

Measurement of radioactivity in building materials in Serbia

“…The internal exposure to radon and its daughter products is quantified by the internal hazard index H ex which is given by the following equation [4]:…”

“…The excess alpha radiation due to the radon inhalation originating from the building materials is assessed through alpha index which has to be less than 1 and is calculated according to the following equation [4]:…”