COMPARISON OF RADIOACTIVITY IN CEMENTS WITH REGULATORY LIMITS FOR NATURAL RADIOACTIVITY IN BUILDINGMATERIALS IN THE EUROPEAN UNION

ABSTRACT

All building materials contain more or less natural radioactivity. The recycling of waste by-products, nowadays, gaining more and more importance, research on that kind of materials is being carried out and such materials are utilized as additives in the production of special mortars in many countries. As radiation of terrestrial origin in buildings does not only originate from the soil, but also from the used building materials, a greater absorbed dose rate can be measured within buildings. EU technical guidance details radiation protection principles whereas recommends that controls should be based on dose criterion, which was established considering the overall national circumstances within the EU. In this study, the radioactivity of cement materials was measured and compared with the EU technical guidance. The findings revealed that composite samples of this study recommended safety limits, showing that these building materials do not pose any significant radiation hazard.

Keywords: radioactivity, cement, EU, criterion