Production optimization of raw material-based radiation resistant concretes

Summary

The Egyptian government is planning to depend mainly on the nuclear power plants to generate the electrical energy in the coming decades. This would demand the use of high density, i.e., heavyweight, natural raw materials in building the concrete biological shields of these nuclear power plants. In Egypt, barite; serpentinite; hematite; magnetite, ilmenite and galena are all high-density natural resources available in the Eastern and Western Desert as well as Sinai. Some of these natural raw materials were previously characterized to produce heavyweight concrete. However, there is a lack of knowledge in both: (a) definition of the optimum characteristics and production conditions of the variously used heavyweight aggregates in biological shielding concrete in addition to (b) explanation the physico-mechanical failure behavior of the biological shielding concrete based on the mineralogical and microstructural drastic transformations induced by the nuclear radiation and thermal attack. Therefore, there is a demand driven need for further detailed studies regarding the different aspects of using the natural Egyptian raw materials as heavyweight concrete aggregates. Such studies will save lots of hard currency which would be directed to import such materials abroad.

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