• Economic and Environmental Geology
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• v.51 no.5
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• pp.455-461
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• 2018

The purpose of this study is to compare the expert group's recognition with general people's recognition about the image of the future on geo-technoloies. The survey targeting to 215 experts and to 598 people had been completed from July to August, 2017 by a research firm. The research result showed that energy was selected as the first priority by expert group and climate environment, geologic environment, mineral resources and material, living place, space-earth research, and the fourth industrial revolution were sequence ranked by experts. Also, it was analyzed that climate environment was recognized as the first priority and geologic environment, energy, mineral resources and material, living place, space-earth research, the fourth industrial revolution were ranked in sequence by general people group.

• Journal of Nuclear Fuel Cycle and Waste Technology(JNFCWT)
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• v.10 no.3
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• pp.209-218
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• 2012

A pyroprocess is currently being developed by KAERI to cope with a highly accumulated spent nuclear fuel in Korea. The pyroprocess produces a certain amount of high-level radioactive waste (HLW), which is solidified by a ceramic binder. The produced ceramic waste will be confined in a secure disposal canister and then placed in a deep geologic formation so as not to contaminate human environment. In this paper, the development of a disposal canister was overviewed by discussing mainly its design premises, constitution, manufacturing methods, corrosion resistance in a deep geologic environment, radiation shielding, and structural stability. The disposal canister should be safe from thermal, chemical, mechanical, and biological invasions for a very long time so as not to release any kind of radionuclides.

• Journal of Soil and Groundwater Environment
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• v.23 no.2
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• pp.23-29
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• 2018

This study explored secondary effects of the residual hydrofluoric acid (HF) after a hypothetical acid spill accident by investigating the long-term dissolution of minerals and leaching of pre-existing arsenic (As) from two soil samples (i.e., KBS and KBM) through batch and column experiments. An increase in the HF concentration in both soil samples resulted in a dramatic increase in the release of major cations, especially Si. However, the amounts of mineral dissolved were dependent on the soil type and mineral characteristics. Compared to the KBM soil, relatively more Ca, Mg and Si were dissolved from the KBS soil. The column experiment showed that the long-term dissolution rates of the minerals are closely associated with the acid buffering capacity of the two soils. The KBM soil had relatively higher effluent pH values compared to the KBS soil. Also, more As was leached from the KBM soil, with a more amorphous hydrous oxide-bound As fraction. These results suggest that the potential of heavy metal leaching by the residual acid after an acid spill will be influenced by heavy metal speciation and mineral structure in the affected soil.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.25 no.1
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• pp.154-165
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• 1993

A stochastic method using continuous time Markov process is presented to model the one-dimensional convective nuclide transport in geologic media, which have usually heterogeneous feature in physical/geochemical parameters such as velocity, dispersion coefficient, and retardation factor resulting poor description by conventional deterministic advection-dispersion model. The primary desired quantities from a stochastic model are the mean values and variance of the state variables as a function of time. The time-dependent probability distributions of nuclides are presented for each discretized compartment given the volumetric groundwater flux and the intensity of transition. Since this model is discrete in medium space, physical/geochemical parameters which affect nuclide transport can be easily incorporated for the heterogeneous media as well as remarkably layered media having spatially varied parameters. Even though the Markov process model developed in this study was shown to be sensitive to the number of discretized compartments showing numerical dispersion as the number of compartments are increased, this could be easily calibrated by comparing with the analytical deterministic model.

• The Journal of Engineering Geology
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• v.26 no.1
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• pp.101-115
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• 2016

We carried out laboratory material tests on two cements (KS-1 ordinary Portland and Class G) with changing W/S (Water/Solid) and the content of fly ash in order to evaluate their physical and mechanical properties. The specimens of KS-1 ordinary Portland cement were prepared with varying W/S (Solid=cement) in weight, while those of Class G cement were prepared with changing the content of fly ash in volume but maintaining W/S (Solid=cement+fly ash). The results of the material tests show that as the W/S in KS-1 ordinary Portland cement and the content of fly ash in Class G cement increase, the properties (density, sonic wave velocity, elastic constants, compressive and tensile strengths, thermal conductivity) decrease, but porosity and specific heat increase. In addition, an increase in confining pressure and in the content of fly ash leads to plastic failure behavior of the cements. The laboratory data were then used in a stability analysis of cement sheath for which an analytical solution for computing the stress distribution induced around a cased, cemented well was employed. The analysis was carried out with varying the injection well parameters such as thickness of casing and cement, injection pressure, dip and dip direction of injection well, and depth of injection well. The analysis results show that cement sheath is stable in the cases of relatively lower injection pressures and inclined and horizontal wells. However, in the other cases, it is damaged by mainly tensile failure.

• The Journal of Engineering Geology
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• v.26 no.1
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• pp.117-128
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• 2016

Chemical reaction tests were performed to assess the properties of hardened specimens of cement pastes (KS-1 Portland and Class G) exposed to supercritical CO₂ for 1, 10, and 100 days. After exposure, the samples' measured permeability and strength were compared with values measured for pristine samples. The pristine cements had permeabilities of 0.009~0.025 mD, which increased by one order of magnitude after 100 days of exposure (to 0.11~0.29 mD). The enhancement of permeability is attributed to the stress release experienced by the samples after removal from the pressure vessel after exposure. Despite its enhancement, the measured permeability mostly remained lower than the API (American Petroleum Institute) recommended maximum value of 0.2 mD. The degradation of the cement samples due to exposure to supercritical CO₂ led to a layer of altered material advancing inwards from the sample edges. The Vickers hardness in the altered zone was much higher than that in the unaltered zone, possibly owing to the increase in density and the decrease in porosity due to the carbonation that occurred in the altered zone. Hardness close to the edge within the altered zone was found to have decreased significantly, which is attributed to the conversion of C-S-H into less-strong amorphous silica.

• The Journal of Engineering Geology
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• v.19 no.1
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• pp.99-108
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• 2009

Since the preexisting evaluation methods of landslide susceptibility take somehow long time to determine the slope stability based on the field survey and laboratory analysis, there are several problems to acquire immediate evaluation results in the field. In order to overcome the previously mentioned problems and incorrect evaluation results induced by some subjective evaluation criteria and methods, this study tried to develop a method of landslide susceptibility by a quantitative and objective evaluation approach based on the field survey. Therefore, this study developed an evaluation chart for landslide susceptibility on natural terrain using the AHP analysis method to predict landslide hazards on the field sites. The AHP analysis was performed by a questionnaire to several specialists who understands mechanism and influential factors of landslide. Based on the questionnaire, weighting values of criteria and alternatives to influence landslide triggering were determined by the AHP analysis. According to the scoring results of the analysed weighting values, slope angle is the most significant factor. Permeability, water contents, porosity, lithology, and elevation have the significance to the landslide susceptibility in a descending order. Based on the assigned scores of each criterion and alternatives of the criteria, an evaluation chart for landslide susceptibility was suggested. The evaluation chart makes it possible for a geologist to evaluate landslide susceptibility with a total score summed up each alternative score.

• Economic and Environmental Geology
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• v.38 no.1
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• pp.1-22
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• 2005

Carbon dioxide ($CO_2$) is the greatest contributor among the major greenhouse gases covered by the Kyoto Protocol. Therefore, substantial efforts for the control and reduction of $CO_2$ emissions, including increased efficiency of fossil fuel energy usage, development of energy sources with lower carbon content, and increased reliability on alternative energy sources, are being performed worldwide. However, development and industrial application of $CO_2$ sequestration techniques are needed to meet the requirements of the Kyoto Protocol. Among the $CO_2$ sequestration methods developed, geological sequestration methods such as the storage in deep aquifers, deep coal seams and oil and gas reservoirs and the mineral carbonation is considered most favorable because of its stability and environmental effectiveness. In this review, geochemical concepts and technologic development of geologic sequestration technology, especially the storage in deep aquifers and the mineral carbonation, are discussed. The weakness and strengths for each of geologic sequestration methods, are also reviewed.

• Tunnel and Underground Space
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• v.30 no.6
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• pp.509-518
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• 2020

This study constructed a new simulation platform, including mesh generation process, numerical simulation, and post-processing for results analysis based on exploration data to perform real-scale numerical analysis considering the actual geological structure efficiently. To build the simulation platform, we applied for open-source programs. The source code is open to be available for code modification according to the researcher's needs and compatibility with various numerical simulation programs. First, a three-dimensional model(3D) is acquired based on the exploration data obtained using a drone. Then, the domain's mesh density was adjusted to an interpretable level using Blender, the free and open-source 3D creation suite. The next step is to create a 3D numerical model by creating a tetrahedral volume mesh inside the domain using Gmsh, a finite element mesh generation program. To use the mesh information obtained through Gmsh in a numerical simulation program, a converting process to conform to the program's mesh creation protocol is required. We applied a Python code for the procedure. After we completed the stability analysis, we have created various visualization of the study using ParaView, another open-source visualization and data analysis program. We successfully performed a preliminary stability analysis on the full-scale Dokdo model based on drone-acquired data to confirm the usefulness of the proposed platform. The proposed simulation platform in this study can be of various analysis processes in future research.

• Tunnel and Underground Space
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• v.30 no.4
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• pp.335-358
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• 2020

We present a numerical model to simulate coupled hydro-mechanical behavior of fault using TOUGH-FLAC simulator. This study aims to develop a numerical method to estimate fluid injection-induced fault reactivation in low permeability rock and to access the relevant hydro-mechanical stability in rock as part of DECOVALEX-2019 Task B. A coupled fluid flow and mechanical interface model to explicitly represent a fault was suggested and validated from the applications to benchmark simulations and the field experiment at Mont Terri underground laboratory in Switzerland. The pressure build-up, hydraulic aperture evolution, displacement, and stress responses matched those obtained at the site, which indicates the capability of the model to appropriately capture the hydro-mechanical processes in rock fault.