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Usability of clay mixed red mud in Hungarian building material production industry

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Abstract

The naturally occurring radionuclide (226Ra, 232Th and 40K) content of building Materials (NORM) contributes to the total radiation dose experienced by humans. In this survey 27 clay and 68 red mud samples were surveyed with gamma spectrometry and screened according to European Basic Safety Standards (BSS) I-index. It was found that average I-index of clays was 0.6 (0.4–0.8) less than the I-index of 1, which makes them suitable for building material production. The average I-index of red mud 2.3 (1.3–3.0). The maximal mixing ratio of red mud was calculated, varied between 12 and 39 %, with 23 % average.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the Hungarian State and the European Union projects Grant No. TÁMOP-4.2.2.A-11/1/KONV-2012-0071and the European Union and the State of Hungary, co-financed by the European Social Fund in the framework of TÁMOP 4.2.4. A/2-11-1-2012-0001 ‘National Excellence Program. “The author(s) would like to acknowledge the contribution of the COST Action TU1301. www.norm4building.org”.

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Correspondence to Zoltán Sas.

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Sas, Z., Somlai, J., Szeiler, G. et al. Usability of clay mixed red mud in Hungarian building material production industry. J Radioanal Nucl Chem 306, 271–275 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10967-015-3966-z

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