Cement-based concretes are suitable materials for use in a
construction of radiation shield against dangerous for human health form
of ionizing radiation. Concrete is not only economical, but it also has
the advantage of being a material that can be cast in any desired
shape. Concrete is now frequently used for shielding of atomic research
facilities and nuclear power plants. Portland cements are concerned as
the representative binder of commonly used binder for shielding
concretes together with other coarse aggregates. Nevertheless, in recent
years some alternative binder systems including barium silicate cement,
strontium silicate cement, high-alumina cement, gypsum aluminate
cement, high magnesia Portland cement, boron containing cement, boron
and iron containing phosphate cement, barium aluminate cement and
strontium aluminate cement are proposed for this special application.
This paper presents and experimental study on the performance of
shielding refractory concretes after molding, hardening and drying, and
next subjected to high temperature. Three concretes with corundum
aggregate and state-of-the-art Fe-containing, Ba-containing or
Sr-containing aluminous cements were tested. All prepared concrete
specimens are exposed to gamma radiation with 152Eu, 22Na, 133Ba, 137Cs,
and 60Co sources and the linear and mass attenuation coefficients were
determined. Some characteristics of the hydration process of
non-traditional aluminous binders i.e. Fe-doped CaO-Al2O3, Sr-doped
CaO-Al2O3-ZrO2, Ba-doped CaO-Al2O3-ZrO2 and SrO-Al2O3 were also
discussed.
Acknowledgement
This project was financed by the National Science Centre, Poland, project number 2017/26/D/ST8/00012 (Recipient: DM).
Presenter:
Dominika Madej
AGH
