Radioactivity of waste materials coming from the largest power plants in Poland

Abstract

The Central Laboratory of Radiological Protection together with 30 other laboratories in Poland is involved in the analysis of radioactivity among indirect products of combustion (ashes and slags) coming from polish power plants and thermal power station. Systematic studies are conducted on the concentrations of natural radioactive isotopes in waste materials obtained from the power industry, and their results are recorded in a database. This database is supervised by the Central Laboratory for Radiological Protection. The database already contains 46300 by now and the oldest results come from the eighties. In this article the results of studies on radioactive concentration of natural radioisotopes 40K, 226Ra and 228Th in waste materials coming from the largest power plants in our country are presented. Furthermore an analysis was carried out on the possibility to use the selected waste materials (ashes and slags) in housing construction, road construction and in public facilities buildings, considering the values of activity indexes f1 and f2.