UTILIZING RADIOACTIVE WATER LEACH PURIFICATION (WLP) IN SELF COMPACTING CONCRETE (SCC)

Environmental issues aroused due to the concrete production have alarmed the world concerned into producing a novel concrete technology that is more environmental friendly. The performance of concrete is expected to be risen with the advancement of concrete technology in order to satisfy the increasing social demands. Currently, the production rate of cement in the world is approximated to be 1.2 billion tonnes per year in 2001 and this figure is expected to grow exponentially at about 3.5 billion tonnes per year in 2015. However, each tonne of Portland cement clinker production is associated with a similar amount of CO2 emission that is released into the air. Water leach purification (WLP), the by-products of mining industries has attracted the attention of many parties due to the environmental issues its caused. Disposal of WLP has become a serious problem since it possesses radioactive material. Nevertheless, besides having disadvantages, WLP has its own beneficial properties which can be used in construction industry as an advancement of concrete technology based on its cementations properties. Thus, to study the effect of WLP, this project is conducted by focusing on WLP as an aggregate.WLP as aggregate is tested based on its physical properties, chemical properties and also mechanical properties / durability. The effect of WLP as CRM is conducted by performing several processes such as burning and grinding. For burning process, the dry WLP is burned into three different temperatures which are 300°C, 500°C and 700°C. X-Ray Diffraction (XRD) and X-Ray Fluorescence (XRF) analysis are conducted to analyze the chemical compositions of water leach purification (WLP). Later, WLP is used to replace 25%, 50%, 75% and 100% of cement content in concrete. After casting process, the sample is tested to determine its compressive strength As a result from this test, the strength development of WLP concrete is indeed comparable to normal OPC concrete with 62% and 86% strength at 7 & 14 days respectively.