Design-experimental assessment of radiological hazards in residential and industrial premises

Abstract

Construction of residential and industrial buildings is associated with a wide application of both traditional and new structural and finishing materials. Radiological conditions in buildings are determined radiation of natural radionuclides contained in structural and finishing materials of buildings. Mostly around the world national criteria are used governing the content of natural radionuclides in building materials, based on the recommendations of international regulatory bodies. In Russia in order to justify admissibility of structural and finishing building materials in housing construction people use experimental methods. In European Union countries government suggests calculating estimation for assessment of the applicability different materials in various areas of housing and civil construction. Earlier, the authors established the fact of possible inconsistencies between Russian and European standards in different classes of materials. In order to compare the applicability of different approaches were held complex researches including experimental determination content of natural radionuclides in materials, calculation of dose rate in specific rooms and direct measurements of dose rates. As basic model authors used approach applied in the European Union countries. Experimental studies were performed using methods scintillation spectrometry and radiometry. The objects of research were premises with bearing and enclosing concrete structures faced with tiles. Experimental dose rate values were determined after deduction of the radiation background on the terrain. The conducted studies showed that the application of the computational model with the use of experimental values of the activity of natural radionuclides leads in some cases to incorrect values of dose rate in the premises, which is associated with the accepted value of the radiation background. Despite the simplicity of the proposed approach and its direct use can lead to unreliable results. So the coincidence of the calculated and experimental data is irregular. Obtained results allow to make the main conclusion about the limited application of the estimated approach to evaluation of radiological hazard in living quarters. The most reliable are the experimental approach, despite its great labor intensity. Calculate approach should be applied at the preliminary stage of rejection of materials.