• Journal of Nuclear Fuel Cycle and Waste Technology(JNFCWT)
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• v.15 no.3
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• pp.257-264
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• 2017

For the safe disposal of intermediate level radioactive waste according to the Nuclear Safety and Security Commission's notice and KORAD's management plan for low and intermediate level radioactive waste, the disposal concentration limit was derived based on the IAEA methodology. The evaluation of the derived disposal concentration limit revealed that it is not suitable as a practical limit for intermediate level radioactive waste. This is because the disposal concentration limit according to the IAEA methodology is derived using a single value of radioactive waste density and the disposal facility's volume. The IAEA methodology is suitable for setting the concentration limit for vault type disposal, which consists of a single type of waste, whereas an underground silo type disposal facility is composed of several types of radioactive waste, and thus the IAEA methodology has limitations in determining the disposal concentration limit. It is necessary to develop and apply an improved method to derive the disposal concentration limit for intermediate level radioactive waste by considering the radioactivity of various types of radioactive waste, the corresponding scenario evaluation results, and the regulatory limit.

• Journal of Nuclear Fuel Cycle and Waste Technology(JNFCWT)
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• v.15 no.3
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• pp.265-279
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• 2017

The Gyeongju underground silo type disposal facility, approved for use in December 2014, is in operation for the disposal of low and very low-level radioactive wastes, excluding intermediate-level waste. That is why the existing low-level radioactive waste level has been subdivided and the concentration limit value for intermediate-level waste has been changed in accordance with Nuclear Safety Commission Notice 2014-003. For the safe disposal of intermediate-level wastes, new optimization methodology for calculating the concentration limit of intermediate radioactive level wastes at an underground silo type disposal facility was developed. According to the developed optimization methodology, concentration limits of intermediate-level wastes were derived and the inventory of radioactive nuclides was evaluated. The operation and post closure scenarios were evaluated for the derived radioactive nuclide inventory and the results of all scenarios were confirmed to meet the regulatory limit. However, in case of $^{14}C$, it was confirmed that additional radioactivity limitation through a well scenario was needed in addition to the limit of disposal concentration. It was confirmed that the derived intermediate concentration limit of radioactive waste can be used as the intermediate-level waste concentration limit for the underground disposal facility. For the safe disposal of intermediate-level wastes, KORAD plans to acquire additional data from the radioactive waste generator and manage the cumulative radioactivity of $^{14}C$.

• Journal of Nuclear Fuel Cycle and Waste Technology(JNFCWT)
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• v.15 no.3
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• pp.231-237
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• 2017

The present study researched and analyzed decontamination technology for decommissioning a nuclear power plant. The decision-making technique (EXPERT-CHOICE) was used to evaluate and select the optimal decontamination technology. In principle, this evaluation method is generally performed by a group of experts in the relevant field. The results of the weights were calculated by multiplying the weights with regard to each criterion and evaluation score. The evaluation scores were categorized into 3 ranges (high, medium, and low), and each range was weighted for differentiation. The level of the technology analysis was improved by additionally quantifying the weights with regard to each criterion and subdividing criteria into subcriteria. The basic assumption of the evaluation was that the weight values would decided on in an expert survey and assigned to each criterion. The evaluation criteria followed high weight for the 'High' range. Accordingly, H, M, and L were assigned weights of 10:5:1, respectively. This was based on the EXPERT-CHOICE optimal analysis. The minimum and maximum values were excluded, and the average value was used as the evaluation value for each scenario.

• Journal of Nuclear Fuel Cycle and Waste Technology(JNFCWT)
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• v.8 no.2
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• pp.123-133
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• 2010

A statistical evaluation methodology was developed to determine the compliance of candidate waste stream with clearance criteria based upon distribution of radionuclide in a waste stream at a certain confidence level. For the cases where any information on the radionuclide distribution is not available, the relation between arithmetic mean of radioactivity concentration and its acceptable maximum standard deviation was demonstrated by applying widely-known Markov Inequality and One-side Chebyshev Inequality. The relations between arithmetic mean and its acceptable maximum standard deviation were newly derived for normally or lognormally distributed radionuclide in a waste stream, using probability density function, cumulative density function, and other statistical relations. The evaluation methodology was tested for a representative case at 95% of confidence level and 100 Bq/g of clearance level of radioactivity concentration, and then the acceptable range of standard deviation at a given arithmetic mean was quantitatively shown and compared, by varying the type of radionuclide distribution. Furthermore, it was statistically demonstrated that the allowable range of clearance can be expanded, even at the same confidence level, if information on the radionuclide distribution is available.

• Journal of Nuclear Fuel Cycle and Waste Technology(JNFCWT)
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• v.8 no.3
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• pp.215-220
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• 2010

An experiment measuring the concentration ratios of $^{137}Cs$ and $^{85}Sr$ in fish as an index aquatic animal was performed. The species was Chinese minnow (Rhynchocypris Oxycephalus), a Korean native freshwater species. Chinese minnows were reared in acryl aquarium which was 45 cm wide, 85 cm long and 50 cm high. Water in the aquarium was successively purified using filtering devices attached on the floor and the wall. Fish powder in a particulate form was supplied twice a day for feeding. After a radioactive solution was added to make the initial water concentrations approximately $0.02\;{\mu}Ci/l$ and $0.1\;{\mu}Ci/l$ for $^{137}Cs$ and $^{85}Sr$, respectively, the fish and water were sampled 10 times for a month. The concentration ratios were measured to be $0.348lkg^{-1}\sim13.906lkg^{-1}$ for $^{137}Cs$ and $0.474lkg^{-1}\sim13.089lkg^{-1}$ for $^{85}Sr$.

• Journal of Nuclear Fuel Cycle and Waste Technology(JNFCWT)
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• v.8 no.2
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• pp.159-166
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• 2010

The block-scale groundwater flow system at Olkiluoto site in Finland was simulated. The heterogeneous and anisotropic hydraulic conductivity field for the domain was constructed from the discrete fracture network, which considered only the fractured zones identified in the deep boreholes installed in the study site. The groundwater flow model was calibrated by adjusting the recharge rate and the transmissivities of the fractured zones to fit the calculated hydraulic heads and into- and out-flow rates in the observation intervals of the boreholes with the observed ones. In the calibrated model, the calculated flow rates at some intervals were not in accordance with the observed ones although the calculated hydraulic heads fit well with the observed ones, which revealed that the number of the conduits for groundwater flow is insufficient in the conceptual model for groundwater flow modeling. Therefore, it was recommended that the potential local conduits such as background fractures should be added to the present conceptual model.

• Journal of Nuclear Fuel Cycle and Waste Technology(JNFCWT)
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• v.8 no.3
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• pp.189-199
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• 2010

In a high-level waste (HLW) repository, heat is generated by the radioactive decay of the waste. This can affect the safety of the repository because the surrounding environment can be changed by the heat transfer through the rock. Thus, it is important to determine the heat transfer coefficient of the atmosphere in the underground repository. In this study, the heat transfer coefficient was estimated by measuring the indoor environmental factors in the Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute Underground Research Tunnel (KURT) under forced convection. For the experiment, a heater of 5 kw capacity, 2 meters long, was inserted through the tunnel wall in the heating section of KURT in order to heat up the inside of the rock to $90^{\circ}C$, and fresh air was provided by an air supply fan connected to the outside of the tunnel. The results showed that the average air velocity in the heating section after the provision of the air from outside of the tunnel was 0.81 m/s with the Reynolds number of 310,000~340,000. The seasonal heat transfer coefficient in the heating section under forced convection was $7.68\;W/m^2{\cdot}K$ in the summer and $7.24\;W/m^2{\cdot}K$ in the winter.

• Journal of Nuclear Fuel Cycle and Waste Technology(JNFCWT)
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• v.8 no.3
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• pp.247-260
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• 2010

The developement of a HLW disposal canister is under way in KAERI using Cold Spray Coating technique. To estimate corrosion behavior of a cold sprayed copper, a creivice corrosion test was conducted at Southwest Research Institute(SWRI) in the United State. For the measurement of repassivation potential needed for crevice corrosion, three methods such as (1) ASTM G61-86 : Cyclic Potentiodynamic Polarization Measurements, (2) Potentiodynamic Polarization plus intermediate Potentiostatic Hold method, and (3) ASTM G192-08 (THE method) : Potentiodynamic- Galvanostatic-Potentiostatic Method, were introduced in this report. In the crevice corrosion test, the occurrence of corrosion at crevice area was optically determined and the repassivation potentials were checked for three kind of copper specimens in a simulated KURT underground water, using a crevice former dictated in ASTM G61-86. The applied electrochemical test techniques were cyclic polarization, potentiostatic polarization, and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy. As a result of crevice corrosion tests, every copper specimens including cold sprayed one did not show any corrosion figure on crevice areas. And the open-cell voltage, at which corrosion reaction initiates, was influenced by the purity of copper, but not their manufacturing method in this experiment. Therefore, it was convinced that there is no crevice corrosion for the cold sprayed copper in KURT underground environment.

• Journal of Nuclear Fuel Cycle and Waste Technology(JNFCWT)
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• v.8 no.3
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• pp.181-188
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• 2010

Metal surface decontamination characteristics were investigated by using a laser ablation method. A second harmonic generation of a Q-switched Nd:YAG laser with a wave length of 532 nm, a pulse energy of 150 mJ and a pulse width of 5 ns was employed to assess the decontamination performance for metal surfaces contaminated with $CsNO_3$, $Co(NH_4)_2(SO_4)_2$, $Eu_2O_3$ and $CeO_2$. The ablation behavior was investigated for the decontamination variables such as a number of laser shots, laser fluence and an irradiation angle. Their optimum values were found to be 8, 13.3 J/$cm^2$ and $30^{\circ}$, respectively. The decontamination efficiency was different depending on the kinds of the contaminated ions, due to their different melting and boiling points and was in the order: $CsNO_3>Co(NH_4)_2(SO_4)_2>Eu_2O_3>CeO_2$. We also evaluated a correlation between the metal ablation thickness and the number of laser shots for the different laser fluences.

• Journal of Nuclear Fuel Cycle and Waste Technology(JNFCWT)
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• v.8 no.3
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• pp.207-213
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• 2010

The effect of temperature on swelling pressure was observed with a Korean domestic Ca-bentonite which has been considered as a potential buffer material in the engineering barrier of a high level radioactive waste (HLW) disposal system. The Ca-bentonite was compacted to a dry density of 1.6 g/$cm^3$, and then de-ionized water was supplied into it with a constant pressure of 0.69 MPa. The equilibrium swelling pressures were measured with different temperatures of $25^{\circ}C$, $30^{\circ}C$, $40^{\circ}C$, $50^{\circ}C$, $60^{\circ}C$, $70^{\circ}C$, respectively. The Ca-bentonite showed a sufficiently high swelling pressure of 5.3 MPa at room temperatures. Then it was clearly showed that the equilibrium swelling pressure was decreased with an increase of temperature. Interestingly, there were some differences in temperature effect on the equilibrium swelling pressure when the environmental temperature is increasing or decreasing. For further clarifying the swelling behaviour of a Korea domestic Ca-bentonite, the change of a compaction level, and the composition variation of a supplied water would be needed to use in conceptual design of HLW disposal system.