A guilty pleasure during the pandemic has been reading ancient history. Much of what we think is unique to today – global climate change – pandemics – political unrest - globalization - economic dislocation and more – was just as prevalent hundreds of years ago.
Which got me thinking about the concrete building material that the Romans used 2,000 years ago and is still standing strong today. Modern science has found that sea water caused a chemical reaction and rare minerals to form that strengthened the concrete, yet nobody knows the exact recipe for how the concrete was made.
A recent study by Nagoya University found that the concrete walls at the decommissioned Hamaoka Nuclear Power Plant in Japan became stronger over their lifetime. Similar to Roman concrete, the original concrete mixture contained volcanic ash, and when saltwater dissolves that ash it creates aluminous tobermorite whose crystals made the power plant walls more than three times stronger than when first built.
Scientists hope the latest research will result in a new recipe to make an environmentally friendly and longer lasting concrete.