Page 37 - European Energy Innovation - Spring 2015 publication
P. 37
Spring 2015 European Energy Innovation 37

BUILDING MATERIALS

occupants and on indoor
air quality. Several exposure
pathways must be investigated
to assess the impact of natural
radionuclides in buildings on
residents. In addition to direct
gamma radiation, an important
pathway of radiation exposure
comes from radon, originating
from building materials or the soil.

WHO (World Health Organisation) materials while considering involved in the technical working
and ICRP (International exposure to external gamma groups that are preparing the
Commission on Radiological radiation, the resulting indoor technical documents linked to the
Protection) studies have shown air quality and the lifetime of the implementation of the new EU-
that public is exposed to a non- building materials. Currently, BSS. We hope to provide support
negligible amount of radiation more than 95 researchers from 25 for researchers, legislators and
caused by radon. different European countries are companies to the safe reuse of
participating in the COST Action NORM in building materials. A lot
Introducing the new Euratom- and there is a strong involvement of the information can be found
Basic Safety Standards (EU-BSS, from industry representatives and on the website of this COST
December 2013) resulted into national and European legislators Action: www.NORM4Building.org.
new legislative requirements that are involved via discussion Results of the ‘NORM4Building’
that developers of new building via roundtable discussions. COST Action will be combined
materials have to meet. There are IAEA (International Atomic in a database of good practices
many comments and questions Energy Agency), US and Japan for the reuse of NORM residues
from industry on the EU-BSS representatives are keen on in building materials and in a
and on the options of recycling joining the Action as international book that will compile the most
of NORM residues in building participants. A first key publication outstanding findings of this
materials. More precisely, there (Nuccetelli, C. et al.), that deals Action network. l
is a need for more practical and with improved radiological
technical support and reliable impact models for building COST (European Cooperation in Science
research data on this topic. materials has been accepted and and Technology) is a pan-European
will be published in May 2015, intergovernmental organisation allowing
To deal with the lack of in the Journal of Environmental scientists, engineers and scholars to jointly
knowledge on the radiological Radioactivity1. develop their ideas and initiatives across all
aspects of the building scientific disciplines. It does so by funding
materials, the COST Action In three years’ time we hope to science and technology networks called COST
‘NORM4Building’ was launched have had a big impact on the Actions, which give impetus to research, careers
in January 2014. The main way that the new EU-BSS will be and innovation.
objective of this research implemented in the Member www.cost.eu
network is the exchange of States. COST Action members are
multidisciplinary knowledge
and experiences (radiological,
technical, chemical, economical,
legislative, ecological) to
stimulate the reuse of NORM
containing residues in new,
tailor-made sustainable building

1 The paper is already accessible online: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0265931X15000387

www.europeanenergyinnovation.eu
   32   33   34   35   36   37   38   39   40   41   42