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Assessment of radiological hazards and chemical composition of cement produced in South Korea

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Abstract

Natural radioactivity and chemical composition of different cement samples produced in South Korea were investigated using gamma-ray and X-ray fluorescence spectrometers. The absolute detector efficiency was determined using voluminous radioactive source and EFFTRAN program. Analytical methodologies for the determination of the chemical composition and specific activity of radionuclides were validated using NIST and IAEA reference materials. Radiological indices and parameters were calculated to estimate the radiological risk from the building materials. The results demonstrate that the natural radioactivity levels in cement are lower than the critical values and global mean values. The approximate source apportionment of NORs is also discussed.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by KAERI through the Korea government project No. MSIT/1711078081, 2021. This work was also supported by KRISS under the project, “Establishment of Measurement Standards for Inorganic Analysis” Grant No. 21011058, 2021.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. HANARO Utilization Division, Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute, Daejeon, 34057, Republic of Korea

    Kishore B. Dasari & Gwang-Min Sun

  2. Inorganic Metrology Group, Division of Chemical and Biological Metrology, Korea Research Institute of Standards and Science, Daejeon, 34113, Republic of Korea

    Hana Cho

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  1. Kishore B. Dasari
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Correspondence to Hana Cho.

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Dasari, K.B., Sun, GM. & Cho, H. Assessment of radiological hazards and chemical composition of cement produced in South Korea. J Radioanal Nucl Chem 330, 315–323 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10967-021-07936-0

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