Effective dose from external radiation and 222Rn exhalation of construction materials manufactured with carbonated alkaline waste materials
The use of alkaline waste in construction enables dual CO2 removal, both through carbonation processes employed to enhance their properties as construction materials and by substituting them in cement production. However, despite their environmental benefits and demonstrated properties such as stren...
| Autores: | , , , , , , |
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| Tipo de recurso: | artículo |
| Estado: | Versión publicada |
| Fecha de publicación: | 2026 |
| País: | España |
| Institución: | Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC) |
| Repositorio: | DIGITAL.CSIC. Repositorio Institucional del CSIC |
| OAI Identifier: | oai:dnet:digitalcsic_::780512aa2c4a052dfb6fccc816ddbab2 |
| Acceso en línea: | http://hdl.handle.net/10261/430346 https://api.elsevier.com/content/abstract/scopus_id/105036198445 |
| Access Level: | acceso abierto |
| Palabra clave: | 222Rn emanation Alkaline waste Biomass ash Gamma spectrometry Supplementary cementitious materials |
| Sumario: | The use of alkaline waste in construction enables dual CO2 removal, both through carbonation processes employed to enhance their properties as construction materials and by substituting them in cement production. However, despite their environmental benefits and demonstrated properties such as strength, water absorption, chemical reactivity, porosity, etc., these materials may contain natural radionuclides at elevated activity concentrations. Therefore, it is necessary to analyse these materials to ensure their safety from a radiological protection perspective for humans and the environment. The alkaline supplementary cementitious materials (SCMs) studied were a white steel slag (LFS), a biomass ash (BA), and a siliceous construction and demolition waste (CDW). This study presents the radiological characterisation via gamma spectrometry of the individual materials, hardened cement pastes fabricated with 80% ordinary Portland cement (OPC) and 20% of these alkaline SCMs, and ground hardened pastes. The alkaline residue BA exhibited high concentrations of 210Pb and 40K (around 5000 Bq kg−1), both with and without accelerated carbonation. However, the absorbed dose rates from external radiation of the final construction materials were lower than the natural background radiation level of 84 nGy h−1. On the other hand, the emanation and exhalation rates of 222Rn, both in the individual materials and in the cement pastes containing 20% of the SCMs, were equivalent to those obtained with OPC cement. |
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