• Tunnel and Underground Space
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• v.23 no.1
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• pp.1-12
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• 2013

Enhanced oil recovery (EOR) technology coupled with underground carbon dioxide sequestration is introduced. $CO_2$ can be injected into an oil reservoir in order to enhance oil production rate and $CO_2$ EOR can be turned into CCS in a long term sense. Coupling $CO_2$ EOR with CCS may secure a large scale and consistent $CO_2$ source for EOR, and the $CO_2$ EOR can bring an additional economic benefit for CCS, since the benefit from enhanced oil production by $CO_2$ EOR will compensate costs for CCS implementation. In this paper, we introduced the characteristics of $CO_2$ EOR technology and its market prospect, and reviewed the Weyburn $CO_2$ EOR project which is the first large-scale $CO_2$ EOR case utilizing an anthropogenic $CO_2$ source. We also introduced geotechnical elements for a successful and economical implementation of $CO_2$ EOR with CCS and they were a miscroseismic monitoring during and after injection of $CO_2$, and determination of minimum miscible pressure (MMP) and maximum injection pressure (MIP) of $CO_2$.

• The Journal of Engineering Geology
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• v.10 no.2
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• pp.18-35
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• 2000

The most dominant type of landslide in Korea is debris flows which mostly take place along mountain slopes during the rainy season, July to August. The landslides have been reported to begin activation when rainfall is more than 200mm within 2days. The debris flows are usually followed by translational slips which occur upper part of mountain slopes and they transit to debris flow as getting down to the valleys. Lithology, location, slope inclination, grain size distribution of soil, permeability, dry density and porosity have been proved as triggering factor causing translational slides. The triggering data taken from mapping are statistically analysed to get landslide potential quantitatively. Rock mass creeps mostly occur on well bedded sedimentary rocks in Kyeongsang Basin. Although the displacement of rock mass creep is relatively small about 1m, the creep can cause severe hazards due to relatively large volume of the involved rock mass. Examples are rock mass creep occurred in the mouth of Hwangryongsan Tunnel, in Chilgok and in Sachon in 1999. Although the direct factor of the creeps are due to slope cutting at the foot area, more attention is required A rotational slide occurring within thick soil formation or weathered rock is also closely related to bottom part of slope cutting. It is propagated circular or semi-circular type. Especially in korea, the rotational slide may be frequently occurred in Tertiary tuff area. Because they are mainly composed of volcanic ash and pyroclastic materials, well developed joints and high degree of swelling and absorption can easily cause the slide. The landslide among the Pohang-Guryongpo national road is belong to this type of slide.

• Tunnel and Underground Space
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• v.11 no.1
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• pp.42-58
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• 2001

In order to protect the environment from waste disposal activities, the prediction of the flux and flow paths of the contaminants from underground facilities should be assessed as accurately as possible. Especially, the prediction of the pathways and travel times of the nuclides from high level radioactive wastes in a deep repository to biosphere is one of the primary tasks for assessing the ultimate safety and performance of the repository. Since the contaminants are mainly transported with groundwater along the discontinuities developed within rock mass, the characteristics of groundwater flow through discontinuities is important for the prediction of contaminant fates as well as safety assessment of a repository. In this study, the actual fracture network could be effectively generated based on in situ data by separating geometric parameter and hydraulic parameter. The calculated anisotropic hydraulic conductivity was applied to a 3D porous medium model to calculate the path flow and travel time of the large studied area with the consideration of the complex topology in the area. Using the model, the pathways and travel times for groundwater were analyzed. From this study, it was concluded that the suggested techniques and procedures for predicting the pathways and travel times of groundwater from underground facilities to biosphere is acceptable and those can be applied to the safety assessment of a repository for radioactive wastes.

• Tunnel and Underground Space
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• v.21 no.1
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• pp.11-19
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• 2011

Geothermal energy is believed to be an important source among the renewable energy sources to provide the base load electricity. Although there has been a drastic increase in the use of geothermal heat pump in Korea, there is no geothermal power plant in operation in Korea. Fortunately, the first EGS (Enhanced Geothermal System) Project in Korea has started in Dec 2010. This five year project is divided into two stages; two years for exploration and drilling of 3 km depth to confirm the minimum target temperature of 100 degrees, and another three years composed drilling 5 km doublet, hydraulic stimulation of geothermal reservoir with expected temperature of 180 degrees (40 kg/s) and construction of MW geothermal power plant in the surface. This EGS project would be a landmark effort that invited a consortium of industry, research institutes and university with expertises in the fields of geology, hydrogeology, geophysics, geomechanics and plant engineering.

• Tunnel and Underground Space
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• v.28 no.6
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• pp.609-619
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• 2018

This study was carried out at a local limestone mine to analyze the ventilation efficiency of the shaft equipped with a main fan. The results show that its ventilation efficiency is clearly verified for the natural as well as the mechanical ventilation. The airflow rate of $11.7m^3/s$ was induced by the natural ventilation force and the maximum quantity is almost same as the airflow rate estimated by monitoring the average temperatures in the upcast and downcast air columns. Meanwhile, the airflow rate exhausted by the main fan through the shaft was $20.3{\sim}24.8m^3/s$; variation of the quantity was caused by the upward shift of the mine ventilation characteristic curve due to the frequent movement of the equipment. This indicates efforts are required to reduce the ventilation resistance and raise the quantity supplied by the main fan. The turbulent diffusion coefficients along the 1912 m long airway from the portal to the shaft bottom was estimated to be $15m^2/s$ and $18m^2/s$. Since these higher coefficients imply that contaminants will be dispersed at a faster velocity than the airflow, prompt exhaust method should be planned for the effective air quality control. The ventilation shaft and main fan are definitely what local limestone mines inevitably need for better working environment and sustainable development.

• Journal of Nuclear Fuel Cycle and Waste Technology(JNFCWT)
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.75-94
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• 2019

As the present single-layer repository concept requires too large an area for the site of the repository, a multi-layer repository concept has been suggested to improve the disposal density. The effects of the excavation damaged zone around the multi-layer repository constructed in the deep host rock on the temperature distribution in the repository were analyzed. For the thermal analysis of the multi-layer repository, the hydrothermal model was used to consider the resaturation process occurring in the buffer, backfill and rock. The existence of an excavation damaged zone has a significant effect on the temperature distribution in the repository, and the maximum peak temperatures of double-layer and triple-layer repositories can rise to $7^{\circ}C$ and $12^{\circ}C$, respectively depending on the size of the excavation damaged zone and the degree of decrease of the thermal conductivity. The dominant factor affecting the peak temperature in the multi-layer repository is the decrease of thermal conductivity in the excavation damaged zone, and the excavation damaged zone formed around the deposition hole has more significant effects on the peak temperature than does the excavation damaged zone formed around the disposal tunnel.

• Tunnel and Underground Space
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• v.30 no.6
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• pp.559-572
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• 2020

This paper performs laboratory experiments for borehole stability considering temperature and true triaxial stress condition, and observes a thermo-mechanical behavior of the rock under stress and temperature conditions of deep underground. China yellow sandstone and Hwangdeung granite specimens were used to perform a true triaxial compression test. Mechanical tests were carried out under nine confining pressure conditions, and thermo-mechanical tests using granite samples were carried out under six confining pressure conditions at 60-100℃. In the mechanical tests, maximum principal stress at borehole breakout was proportional to intermediate principal stress. In the thermo-mechanical tests, it was confirmed that thermal stress is added to the stress field of the borehole with the increase in temperature, resulting in additional breakout progress. To analyze the results of the laboratory experiment, Mogi-Coulomb failure criterion was used. The results of traditional triaxial compression test on cylindrical specimens and borehole breakout under true triaxial compressions matched well with Mogi-Coulomb failure criterion.

• Tunnel and Underground Space
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• v.31 no.1
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• pp.41-51
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• 2021

The hydraulic fracturing developed to improve permeability of tight reservoir is one of key stimulation technologies for developing unconventional resources such as shale gas and deep geothermal energy. The experimental study was conducted to improve disadvantage of hydraulic fracturing which has simple fracture pattern and poor fracturing efficiency. The fracturing experiments was conducted for tight rock using various fracturing fluids, water, N2, and CO2 and the created fracture pattern and fracturing efficiency was analyzed depending on fracturing fluids. The borehole pressure increased rapidly and then made fractures for hydraulic fracturing with constant injection rate, however, gas fracturing shows slowly increased pressure and less fracture pressure. The 3D tomography technic was used to generate images of induced fracture using hydraulic and gas fracturing. The stimulated reservoir volume (SRV) was estimated increment of 5.71% (water), 12.72% (N2), and 43.82% (CO2) respectively compared to initial pore volume. In addition, permeability measurement was carried out before and after fracturing experiments and the enhanced permeability by gas fracturing showed higher than hydraulic fracturing. The fracture conductivity was measured by increasing confining stress to consider newly creating fracture and closing induced fracture right after fracturing. When the confining stress was increased from 2MPa to 10MPa, the initial permeability was decreased by 89% (N2) and 50% (CO2) respectively. This study shows that the gas fracturing makes more permeability enhancement and less reduction of induced fracture conductivity than hydraulic fracturing.

• Journal of Nuclear Fuel Cycle and Waste Technology(JNFCWT)
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• v.6 no.3
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• pp.217-224
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• 2008

In deep geological disposal system, the integrity of a disposal canister having spent fuels is very important factor to assure the safety of the repository system. This disposal canister is one element of the engineered barriers to isolate and to delay the radioactivity release from human beings and the environment for a long time so that the toxicity does not affect the environment. The main requirement in designing the deep geological disposal system is to keep the buffer temperature below 100$^{\circ}C$ by the decay heat from the spent fuels in the canister in order to maintain the integrity of the buffer material. Also, the disposal canister can endure the hydraulic pressure in the depth of 500 m and the swelling pressure of the bentonite as a buffer. In this study, new concept of the disposal canister for the CANDU spent fuels which were considered to be disposed without any treatment was developed and the thermal stability and the structural integrity of the canister were analysed. The result of the thermal analysis showed that the temperature of the buffer was 88.9$^{\circ}C$ when 37 years have passed after emplacement of the canister and the spacings of the disposal tunnel and the deposition holes were 40 m and 3 m, respectively. In the case of structural analysis, the result showed that the safety factors of the normal and the extreme environment were 2.9 and 1.33, respectively. So, these results reveal that the canister meets the thermal and the structural requirements in the deep geological disposal system.

• Tunnel and Underground Space
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• v.32 no.5
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• pp.285-297
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• 2022

We report results of Extended Leak-Off Test (XLOT) conducted in a large diameter borehole, which is drilled for installation of deep borehole geophysical monitoring system to monitor micro-earthquakes and fault behavior of major fault zones in the southeastern Korean Peninsula. The borehole was planned to secure a final diameter of 200 mm (or more) at a depth of ~1 km, with 12" diameter wellbore to intermediate depths, and 7-7/8" (~200 mm) to the bottom hole depth. We drilled first the 12" borehole to approximately 504 m deep and installed American Petroleum Institute standard 8-5/8" casing, then annulus between the casing and bedrock was fully cemented. XLOT was carried out for several purposes such as confirming casing and cementing integrity, measuring rock stress states. To that end, we drilled additional 4 m long open hole interval to directly inject water and pressurize into the rock mass using the upper API casings. During the XLOT, flow rates and interval pressures were recorded in real time. Based on the logs we tried to analyze hydraulic conductivity of the test interval.