• The Science & Technology
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• v.9 no.8 s.87
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• pp.23-27
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• 1976

우리나라에서 본격적으로 물리탐사를 시도한것은 1958~1960년에 실시한 항공자력탐사로서 그후 현재까지 불과 20년이 지나지 않았다. 그간 물리탐사의 기술발전으로 자원탐사분야에 많은 공헌이 있었다. 현재까지 주로 적용된 분야는 철자원탐사를 위한 자력탐사, 지하수조사를 위한 전기비저항탐사동, 연등의 통화금속광물탐사를 위한 각종 전기탐사, 제3기층 지질구조와 땜공사, 공업단지조성등의 기반암조사, 그리고 광산의 갱내 출수조사등을 위한 탄성파탐사, 우라늄자원을 위한 방사능탐사, 그리고 해저지질 및 자원조사를 위한 해상물리탐사등이다. 이와 동시에 석탄층조사를 위한 전기탐사 및 Model연구자력탐사의 전산처리 적용, 그리고 광물 및 암석의 물리적 성질등 학술분야에 대한 기초연구도 계속하여 왔다. 우리나라에 있어 물리탐사의 적용조건은 비교적 험악한 지형, 복잡한 지질구조, 광상의 불규칙 또는 소규모의 발달과 산재등이다. 이와 같은 특징은 탐사해석의 정도를 높이기 위하여 보다 고도의 과학기술문제의 해결을 요구하고 있으며 이와 동시에 현대적 탐사방법과 연구개발로 대상자원의 탐사지역확대와 지하심부 탐사등이 당면과제이다. 기술과제로서는 석탄 및 기타자원에 대한 물리검층탐사, 경상계 지질구조구명을 위한 탄성파탐사 및 동력탐사의 적용, 항공자력, 전자 및 방사능탐사 및 해양의 각종물리탐사의 기술개발이 있으며 그외 탐사자료의 전산처리기술 및 지구과학의 기초연구등이 있다.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• v.50 no.4
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• pp.696-701
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• 2012

Non-aqueous processes have been developed for stable management and reuse of spent fuels. Nowadays, a plan for the management of spent fuel is being sought focusing on a non-aqueous process in Korea. Named as pyroprocessing, it includes an electrolytic reduction process using molten salt at high temperature for the spent fuels, which provides metallic product for a following electro-refining process. The electrolytic reduction process utilizes electrochemical reaction producing Li to convert oxides into metals in high temperature LiCl medium. Various kinds of elements in the spent fuels would be distributed in the system according to their respective reactivity with the reductant, Li, and the medium, LiCl. This study elucidates the reactions of the elements to understand the behavior of composite elements on the spent fuels by thermodynamic calculations. Uranium and transuranic are reduced into their metallic forms while rare-earth oxides, except for Eu, are stable against the reaction at a process temperature. This study also covers the tendency of reactions with respect to the temperature and, finally, estimates radioactivity and heat load on the distributed phases based on the reference spent fuel characteristics.

• Analytical Science and Technology
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• v.11 no.2
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• pp.112-119
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• 1998

A Siemens SemiQuant (SSQ) 3000 program, a precalibrated 'standardless' analytical program handling up to 90 elements, was evaluated for the fast analysis of various types of reference materials using a wavelength dispersive X-ray spectrometer. Various types of standard reference materials such as metal discs, metal chips, and geological materials in powder form were analysed and it took 23 minutes of measuring time for 75 elements. Measurements of geological reference materials using different sampling methods were carried out and their data were interactively evaluated. The analysis of materials of a known matrix concentration such as stainless steels provided higher precision value compared to totally unknown samples. The analyses of materials prepared as pressed pellets or fused glass beads provided higher precision values compared to the measurement of loose powders with a foil on the sample surface and helium operation, though their sampling procedures were more complicate and took more time. Since very light elements such as boron, carbon, and oxygen have a strong influence on the matrix effects and also on the calculation of effective matrix corrections, the rhodium Compton check was applied to verify the reliability of the defined light element concentrations of light matrix materials and the defined major sample compounds. Failure of defining correct matrix resulted in an unoptimized matrix correction and therefore in the wrong calculation of the element concentration.

• Economic and Environmental Geology
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• v.56 no.6
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• pp.847-870
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• 2023

The safe disposal of high-level radioactive waste requires accurate predictions of the long-term geochemical behavior of radionuclides. To achieve this, the present study was conducted to model geochemical behaviors of uranium (U), plutonium (Pu), and palladium (Pd) under different hydrogeochemical conditions that represent deep groundwater in Korea. Geochemical modeling was performed for five types of South Korean deep groundwater environment: high-TDS saline groundwater (G1), low-pH CO₂-rich groundwater (G2), high-pH alkaline groundwater (G3), sulfate-rich groundwater (G4), and dilute (fresh) groundwater (G5). Under the pH and Eh (redox potential) ranges of 3 to 12 and ±0.2 V, respectively, the solubility and speciation of U, Pu, and Pd in deep groundwater were predicted. The result reveals that U(IV) exhibits high solubility within the neutral to alkaline pH range, even in reducing environment with Eh down to -0.2 V. Such high solubility of U is primarily attributed to the formation of Ca-U-CO₃ complexes, which is important in both G2 located along fault zones and G3 occurring in granitic bedrocks. On the other hand, the solubility of Pu is found to be highly dependent on pH, with the lowest solubility in neutral to alkaline conditions. The predominant species are Pu(IV) and Pu(III) and their removal is predicted to occur by sorption. Considering the migration by colloids, however, the role of colloid formation and migration are expected to promote the Pu mobility, especially in deep groundwater of G3 and G5 which have low ionic strengths. Palladium (Pd) exhibits the low solubility due to the precipitation as sulfides in reducing conditions. In oxidizing condition, anionic complexes such as Pd(OH)₃^-, PdCl₃(OH)₂^-, PdCl₄^2-, and Pd(CO₃)₂^2- would be removed by sorption onto metal (hydro)oxides. This study will improve the understanding of the fate and transport of radionuclides in deep groundwater conditions of South Korea and therefore contributes to develop strategies for safe high-level radioactive waste disposal.

• Transactions of the Korean hydrogen and new energy society
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• v.26 no.6
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• pp.541-546
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• 2015

Global energy shortage problem is expected to increase driven by strong energy demand growth from developing countries. Nuclear fusion power offers the prospect of an almost infinite source of energy for future generations. Hydrogen isotope storage and delivery system is a important subsystem of a nuclear fusion fuel cycle. Metal hydride is a method of the high-density storage of hydrogen isotope. For the safety storage of hydrogen isotope, depleted uranium (DU) has been widely proposed. But DU needs a safe test because It is a radioactive substance. The authors studied a small-scale DU bed and a medium-scale DU bed for the safety test. And then we made a large-scale DU bed and stored hydrogen isotopes in the bed. Before the hydriding/dehydriding, we tested it's heating and cooling properties and carried out an activation procedure. As a result, Reaction rate of DU-$H_2$ is more rapid than the other metal hydride ZrCo. Through the successful storage result of our large bed, the development possibility of the hydrogen isotope storage technology seems promising.

• Economic and Environmental Geology
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• v.41 no.1
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• pp.151-163
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• 2008

Since the country's opening to the world, China's rapid economic growth has resulted in strong demand for a wide variety of mineral commodities. During the same period, China's mineral production increased sharply. China's increased mineral production and demand affected the worldwide availability of minerals and metals, the market prices, and trade. Ministry of Land and Resources of China (MLR) planned to build as many as 10 strategic mineral reserve, including reserves of aluminium, copper, manganese, uranium, and other mineral that the country urgently needed. In white paper of China's mineral resources, China is planning the mineral resources conservation and its reasonable utilization, domestic supply increase of resources, activation of cooperative development with foreign partners, balance in resources development and environment conservation, and sustainable resources management as the mineral resources policies for the China's economic development.

• Proceedings of the Korean Radioactive Waste Society Conference
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• 2003.11a
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• pp.351-357
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• 2003

Transuranic elements such as Pu, Am and Cm in synthetic solution of spent nuclear fuel samples were determined by electrodeposition followed by alpha-spectrometry after separation using anion exchange and extraction chromatography in order to determine the transuranic elements in radwaste samples from nuclear power plants. Plutonium was separated by 12M HC1-0.1M HI as an eluent on anion exchange column. As a second step Am and Cm were separated in a group by DTPA-Lactic acid as the eluent on HDEHP coated column. The nuclides of $^{239}Pu$, $^{241}Am$및 $^{244}Cm$ separated were determined by alpha-spectrometry after electrodeposition in 0.1M $NaHSo_4$-0.53M $Na_2SO_4$buffer solution as an electrolyte. The recovery yields of $^{239}Pu$, $^{241}Am$및 $^{244}Cm$ were 83.8%, 85.2% and 86.3%, respectively, from the synthetic solution containing uranium and non-radioactive metal elements.

• Analytical Science and Technology
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• v.11 no.6
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• pp.421-428
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• 1998

A method has been studied to separate Zr from various fission products in PWR spent nuclear fuels. A solution containing metal ions in place of radioactive fission products was prepared. The Zr was separated with 5 M HCl followed by eluting metal ions such as Ce, Nd, Cs, Rb, Ba, Sr, Ru, Rh, Pd, Ag and Cd with 12 M HCl on Dowex $1{\times}8$, anion exchange resin. The recovery of Zr was more than 95%. The purification of Zr was carried out on anion exchange resin, Dowex $1{\times}8$, in 5 M HCl in order to remove Mo causing isobaric effect during mass spectrometry. The method was applied to separate Zr from a spent PWR fuel. From mass spectrometric measurement, the purified Zr portion was not showed the isobars from other elements such as Mo and Sr.

• 한국지구물리탐사학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2008.10a
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• pp.13-20
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• 2008

Magnetic method is rapid, cheap and simple geophysical exploration technique, and has wide range of applications such as resources prospecting, geological structure investigation and even geotechnical and environmental problems. Documents during Japanese occupation says that magnetic method was used for exploring metallic ore deposits and hot spring, and that a geomagnetic observatory was operated. From mid 1950's, magnetic explorations for natural resources such as metallic ore, uranium, coal, and groundwater were intensively executed for industrialization. Magnetic survey techniques were rapidly advanced during 1970's and 1980's with improvements of instruments, growth of geophysical manpower, and availability of computers. Decline of mining industry since mid 1980's moved the exploration objects from traditional resources to new ones such as groundwater and geothermal resources. Recently appeared applications such as natural hazard assessment, and engineering and environmental studies increased the magnetic method's utility in the realm of exploration.

• Korean Journal of Microbiology
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• v.38 no.2
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• pp.133-138
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• 2002

Microbial Fe (III) reduction is important for the biogeochemical cycle in the sediment of freshwater system. Also, the Fe (III) reducing mechanism make a model of oxidizing organic compounds and reducing toxic heavy metals, such as chrome or uranium. Thirty-seven strains which have Fe (III) reducing activity were isolated from sediments in lake Soyang and Chunho reservoir. The initial concentration of Fe (II) was the highest in sediments of lake Soyang. However, the highest Fe (III) reducing activity was shown in Chunho reservoir. All isolates were tested for Fe (III) reducing activity. Strains C2 and C3, which were isolated from sediments of Chunho reservoir, showed the highest activity. These strains were tested to see if they utilize various electron donors such as glucose, yeast extract, acetate, ethanol and toluene. Significantly, glucose and yeast extract were used as electron donors. Also these strains were conformed to use humid acid and nitrate as electron accepters. The 16S rRNA sequences of strains C2 and C3 were closely related to Aeromonas hydrophila with 95% similarity.