• Economic and Environmental Geology
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• v.55 no.6
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• pp.727-736
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• 2022

Ice wedges are subsurface ice mass structures that formed mainly by freezing precipitation with airborne dust and surrounding soil particles flowed through the active layer into the cracks growing by repeating thermal contractions in the deeper permafrost layer over time. These ice masses characteristically contain high concentrations of solutes and solids. Because of their unique properties and distribution, the possibility of harnessing ice wedges as an alternative archive for reconstructing paleoclimate and paleoenvironment has been recently suggested despite limited studies. It is imperative to preserve the physicochemical properties of the ice wedge (e.g., solute concentration, mineral particles) without any potential alteration to use it as a proxy for reconstructing the paleo-information. Thawing the ice wedge samples is prerequisite for the assessment of their physicochemical properties, during which the paleo-information could be unintentionally altered by any methodological artifact. This study examined the effect of thawing conditions and procedures on the physicochemical properties of solutes and solid particles in ice wedge samples collected from Cyuie, East Siberia. Four different thawing conditions with varying temperatures (4 and 23℃) and oxygen exposures (oxic and anoxic) for the ice wedge sample treatment were examined. Ice wedge samples thawed at 4℃ under anoxic conditions, wherein biological activity and oxidation were kept to a minimum, were set as the standard thawing conditions to which the effects of temperature and oxygen were compared. The results indicate that temperature and oxygen exposure have negligible effects on the physicochemical characteristics of the solid particles. However, the chemical features of the solution (e.g., pH, electric conductivity, alkalinity, and concentration of major cations and trace elements) at 4℃ under oxic conditions were considerably altered, compared to those measured under the standard thawing conditions. This study shows that the thawing condition of ice wedge samples can affect their chemical features and thereby the geochemical information therein for the reconstruction of the paleoclimate and/or paleoenvironment.

• 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.

• Journal of the Korea Organic Resources Recycling Association
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• v.32 no.3
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• pp.5-18
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• 2024

Chemical oxygen demand (COD), an organic material measurement index, has a limit to the management of the total amount of all organic materials including non-degradable organic materials due to low oxidation rate. So total organic carbon (TOC) that can measure organic materials more accurately is introduced and used as a measurement index. Several environmental companies including company A in Gyeonggi-do dilute raw wastewater first and then treats it with chemicals. And an activated carbon is used at the rear stage to treat total organic carbon even though various treatment processes can be applied to reduce TOC in wastewater. There are some problems such as use of a lot of diluting water and generation of an excessive amount of sludge, so it is urgent to come up with an alternative plan. Therefore, in this study, an application experiment was conducted on two different methods for improving the TOC reduction efficiency of waste water from Company A. The first method is the evaluation of the substitution potential of powered activated carbon(PAC), an adsorbent currently used, by manufacturing cellulose-based graphene like carbon (CGLC). This first study showed that CGLC had about 10% higher TOC adsorption efficiency than commercial PAC, showing the possibility of being applied as an alternative adsorbent for PAC in water treatment sites. The second method relates to the removal of TOC by sulfate radials produced by persulfate (PS) activation. Two activation methods were applied: using CGLC and PAC as carbon-based catalyst and using the high temperature of wastewater for PS activation. As a result of using PAC and CGLC as PS activation materials, the TOC removal rate was lower than the adsorption amount of TOC by CGLC and PAC due to excessive chlorine ions present in the real wastewater. However, as a result of using the high water temperature (55~60℃) of the field wastewater for PS activation, it showed a much greater TOC removal efficiency than PAC alone, CGLC alone, and using a carbon-based catalyst for PS activation. When PS was injected more than 0.5%, it showed a TOC removal efficiency of 95% or more within 24 hr. In addition, when PS was injected more than 0.3%, the TOC concentration could be lowered to less than 75 ppm, which is the wastewater discharge standard applied to company A. When these results were summarized, raw wastewater of high temperature can be treated with a simple process of only adding of PS and discharged by treating TOC below the wastewater discharge standard applied to company A.

• The Korean Journal of Nuclear Medicine
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• v.38 no.4
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• pp.325-329
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• 2004

Purpose: Usefulness of mouse liver S9 fraction was evaluated for the measurement of the metabolites in the in vitro metabolism study of $^{18}F$-labeled radiotracers. Materials and Methods: Mouse liver S9 fraction was isolated at au early step in the course of microsome preparation. The in vitro metabolism studies were tarried out by incubating a mixture containing the radiotracer, S9 fraction and NADPH at $37^{\ciirc}C$, and an aliquot of the mixture was analyzed at the indicated time points by radio-TLC. Metabolic defluorination was further confirmed by the incubation with calcium phosphate, a bone mimic. Results: The radiotracer $[^{18}F]1$ underwent metabolic defluorination within 15 min, which was consistent with the results of the in vivo method and the in vitro method using microsome. Radiotracer $[^{18}F]2$ was metabolized to three metabolites including $4-[^{18}F]fluorobenzoic$ acid within 60 min. It is likely that the one of these metabolites at the origin of radio-TLC was identical with the one that obtained from the in vivo and in vitro (microsome) method. Compared with the in vitro method using microsome, the method using S9 fraction gave a similar pattern of the metabolites but with a different ratio, which can be explained by the presence of cytosol in the S9 fraction. Conclusion: These results suggest that the findings of the in vitro metabolism studies using S9 fraction can reflect the in vivo metabolism of novel radiotracers in the liver. Moreover, this method can be used as a tool to determine metabolic defluorination along with calcium phosphate absorption method.

• Journal of the Mineralogical Society of Korea
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• v.20 no.1 s.51
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• pp.47-60
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• 2007

While sedimentological researches on Western coastal tidal flats of Korea have been much pelformed previously, mineralogical and biogeochemical studies are beginning to be studied. The objectives of this study were to investigate mineralogical characteritics of the inter-tidal flat sediments and to explore phase transformation of iron(oxyhydr)oxides and biomineralization by metal-reducing bacteria enriched from the inter-tidal flat sediments from Muan, Jeollanam-do, Korea. Inter-tidal flat sediment samples were collected in Chungkye-myun and Haeje-myun, Muan-gun, Jeollanam-do. Particle size analyses were performed using the pipette method and sedimentation method. The separates including sand, silt and clay fractions were examined by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) with energy dispersive X-ray (EDX) analysis, transmission electron microscopy (TEM), and X-ray diffiaction (XRD). After enriching the metal-.educing bacteria from the into,-tidal flat sediments, the bacteria were used to study phase transformation of the synthesized iron (oxyhydr)oxides and iron biomineralization using lactate or glucose as the electron donors and Fe(III)-containing iron oxides as the electron accepters. Mineralogical studies showed that the sediments of tidal flats in Chung]rye-myun and Haeje-myun consist of quartz, plagioclase, microcline, biotite, kaolinite and illite. Biogeochemical researches showed that the metal-reducing bacteria enriched from the inter-tidal flat sediments reduced reddish brown akaganeite and mineralized nanometer-sized black magnetite. The bacteria also reduced the reddish brown ferrihydrite into black amorphous phases and reduced the yellowish goethite into greenish with formation of nm-sized phases. These results indicate that microbial Fe(III) reduction may play one of important roles in iron and carbon biogeochemistry as well as iron biomineralization in subsurface environments.