Cleaner, sustainable, and safer: Green potential of alkali-activated materials in current building industry, radiological good practice, and a few tips

Alkali-activated materials were prepared from four typical precursors (coal fly ash, granulated blast furnace slag, metakaolin, and brick waste powder) characterized for granulometry, elemental composition, and microstructure. High-resolution gamma-ray spectrometry was used to determine the activity concentration of Naturally Occurring Radioactive Materials (NORM) in all the materials to assess their radiological impact. All the investigated materials have been found to comply with the European dosimetric index (I) according to Directive 2013/59/Euratom. The results suggest the need for an accurate check of radioactivity throughout the mixing phases to prevent I exceedances. The productive chains were also evaluated by principal component analysis.