[Radioactivity monitoring of steel processing in Croatian steel mills and foundries].

The last twenty years have seen a number of cases of radioactive pollution in metallurgical industry. Therefore many metal producers have implemented systematic monitoring of radioactivity in their production processes, especially in steel processing, steel being the most applied construction material with the annual world output of over billion tonnes. Learning from the experience of the best known steel producers in Europe and the world Croatian steel mills have introduced radioactivity surveillance and control systems for radioactive elements in steel scrap, semi-finished and finished products. This paper argues in favour of radioactivity surveillance and control systems in steel and steel castings production in Croatia, and describes current systems and solutions available. Since we lack our own standards and regulations to control both domestic and imported steel scrap, semi-finished products (crude steel, hot and cold rolled strip) and finished products, we need to start implementing radioactivity surveillance and control systems in our steel and steel castings production applying the current international recommendations and guidelines, until we build up our own monitoring system and adopt legislation on the national level. This paper gives an overview of the basic types of radioactivity surveillance and control systems, the most frequent requirements to be met, as well as of the measurement and information flow in their application in steel and steel castings production.