• Journal of Radiation Protection and Research
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• v.48 no.1
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• pp.52-57
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• 2023

Background: Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute (KAERI) operates several nuclear research facilities licensed by Nuclear Safety and Security Commission (NSSC). The emergency preparedness requirements, GSR Part 7, by International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) request protection strategy based on the hazard assessment that is not applied in Korea. Materials and Methods: In developing the protection strategy, it is important to consider an accident scenario and its consequence. KAERI has tried the hazard assessment based on a hypothesis accident scenario for the major nuclear facilities. During the assessment, the safety analysis report of the related facilities was reviewed, the simulation using MELCOR, MACCS2 code was implemented based on a considered accident scenario of each facility, and the international guidance was considered. Results and Discussion: The results of the optimized protective actions were 300 m evacuation and 800 m sheltering for the High-Flux Advanced Neutron Application Reactor (HANARO), the evacuation to radius 50 m, the sheltering 400 m for post-irradiation examination facility (PIEF), 100 m evacuation or sheltering for HANARO fuel fabrication plant (HFFP) facility. Conclusion: The results of the optimized protective actions and its distances for the KAERI facilities for the maximum postulated accidents were considered in establishing the emergency plan and procedures and implementing an emergency exercise for the KAERI facilities.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.35 no.5
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• pp.471-481
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• 2003

In order to evaluate the microstructural characteristics of irradiated fuel claddings (Zircaloy-4), two irradiated specimens having different burnups (18 GWD/MTU and 42 GWD/MTU) were prepared from the G23-M4 fuel rods, which were loaded in Kori Unit 1 for 4 fuel cycles. The oxide thickness, hydride morphology and hardness change were characterized by an optical microscope and a micro-hardness tester after preparing the irradiated specimens in the PIE (Post Irradiation Examination) facilities. The dislocation loops and the amorphous transformation of precipitates induced by the neutron irradiation in the nuclear plant were also examined by a TEM. As the burnup increased from 18 GWD/MTU to 42 GWD/MTU, the oxide thickness increased from $6.0{\mu}m\;to\;25.3{\mu}m$ and the contents of hydrogen pick-up in the Zr matrix also greatly increased. In the comparison of the hardness of the unirradiated fuel cladding, the amount of hardness increase was nearly $9.3\%\;and\;24.2\%$ for the irradiated samples of 18 and 42 GWD/MTU, respectively. Both -type dislocation loops and -type dislocation components were observed simultaneously in the irradiated specimens and the densities of the dislocation was increased by increasing the burnup. The precipitates in both the irradiated specimens were amorphously transformed by the neutron irradiation and the trend of the amorphous transformation of the precipitates was enhanced at a higher burnup.

• Progress in Medical Physics
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• v.32 no.4
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• pp.83-91
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• 2021

Various types of high-precision radiotherapy, such as intensity-modulated radiation therapy (IMRT), tomotherapy (Tomo), and stereotactic body radiation therapy have been available since 1997. After being covered by insurance in 2015, the number of IMRT cases rapidly increased 18-fold from 2011 to 2018 in Korea. IMRT, which uses a high-beam irradiation monitor unit, requires higher shielding conditions than conventional radiation treatments. However, to date, research on the shielding of facilities using IMRT and the current understanding of its status are insufficient, and detailed safety regulation procedures have not been established. This study investigated the recommended criteria for the shielding evaluation of facilities using medical linear accelerators (LINACs), including 1) the current status of safety management regulations and systems in domestic and international facilities using medical LINACs and 2) the current status of the recommended standards for safety management in domestic and international facilities using medical LINACs. It is necessary to develop and introduce a safety management system for facilities using LINACs for clinical applications that is suitable for the domestic medical environment and corresponds to the safety management systems for LINACs used overseas.

• Applied Chemistry for Engineering
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• v.10 no.6
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• pp.838-842
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• 1999

In order to reclaim the effluent discharged from sewage treatment facilities application of an irradiation technique was investigated in this study for industrial water reuse. Samples were filtered using a sand filter to remove particles. Co-60 was used as an irradiation source and the irradiation dose was varied from 0.1 kGy to 15 kGy. The major source of colour in secondary treatment effluent was humic substances, which could be easily removed by irradiation with a dose 5 kGy. Bacteria could be also disinfected even at low doses. It was possible to get high quality water for industrial water reuse. But the effluent still contained a small amount of organic compounds. Further treatment, of residual organic compounds will be necessry if the higher quality water is required.

• Proceedings of the KSME Conference
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• 2004.04a
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• pp.444-449
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• 2004

The design modification of bottom guide structures of the instrumented capsule, which is used for the irradiation test in the HANARO reactor, was required because of the trouble of the bottom guide arm's pin during irradiation. The previous structure with 3-pin arms was changed into the cone shape of one body. The specimens of the bottom end cap ring with three different sizes (${\Phi}68/70/72mm$) were designed and manufactured. The out-pile tests for the capsule with previous and new three bottom guide structures were performed in the one-channel flow test facilities. In order to evaluate the compatibility with HANARO and the structural integrity of the capsule, a loading/unloading, a pressure drop, a thermal performance, a vibration, and an endurance test were conducted. From out-pile test results, the capsule with the cone shape bottom guide structures was found to be more stable than the previous structure and the optimized size of the bottom guide structure selected was 70mm in diameter. It is expected that the new bottom guide structures will be applicable to all material and special capsules which will be designed and manufactured for the irradiation tests in the future.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.55 no.6
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• pp.2147-2157
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• 2023

The aggregate-forming minerals in concrete undergo volume swelling and microstructure change under neutron irradiation, leading to degradation of physical and mechanical properties of the aggregates and concrete. A comprehensive investigation of volume change and elastic property variation of major aggregate-forming minerals is still lacking, so molecular dynamics simulations have been employed in this paper to improve the understanding of the degradation mechanisms. The results demonstrated that the densities of the selected aggregate-forming minerals of similar atomic structure and chemical composition vary in a similar trend with deposited energy due to the similar amorphization mechanism. The elastic tensors of all silicate minerals are almost isotropic after saturated irradiation, while those of irradiated carbonate minerals remain anisotropic. Moreover, the elastic modulus ratio versus density ratio of irradiated minerals is roughly following the density-modulus scaling relationship. These findings could further provide basis for predicting the volume and elastic properties of irradiated concrete aggregates in nuclear facilities.

• Journal of IKEEE
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• v.15 no.2
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• pp.143-148
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• 2011

MOS (Metal-Oxide Semconductor) devices among the most sensistive of all semiconductors to radiation, in particular ionizing radiation, showing much change even after a relatively low dose. The necessity of a radiation dosimeter robust enough for the working environment has increased in the fields of aerospace, radio-therapy, atomic power plant facilities, and other places where radiation exists. The power MOSFET (Metal-Oxide Semiconductor Field-Effect Transistor) has been tested for use as a gamma radiation dosimeter by measuring the variation of threshold voltage based on the quantity of dose, and a maximum total dose of 30 krad exposed to a $^{60}Co$ ${\gamma}$-radiation source, which is sensitive to environment parameters such as temperature. The gate oxide structures give the main influence on the changes in the electrical characteristics affected by irradiation. The variation of threshold voltage on the operating temperature has caused errors, and needs calibration. These effects can be overcome by adjusting gate oxide thickness and implanting impurity at the surface of well region in MOSFET.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.56 no.7
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• pp.2704-2710
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• 2024

Nuclear archaeology research provides scientific methods to reconstruct the operating histories of fissile material production facilities to account for past fissile material production. While it has typically focused on analyzing material in permanent reactor structures, spent fuel or high-level waste also hold information about the reactor operation. In this computational study, we explore a Bayesian inference framework for reconstructing the operational history from measurements of isotope ratios from a sample of nuclear waste. We investigate two different inference models. The first model discriminates between three potential reactors of origin (Magnox, PWR, and PHWR) while simultaneously reconstructing the fuel burnup, time since irradiation, initial enrichment, and average power density. The second model reconstructs the fuel burnup and time since irradiation of two batches of waste in a mixed sample. Each of the models is applied to a set of simulated test data, and the performance is evaluated by comparing the highest posterior density regions to the corresponding parameter values of the test dataset. Both models perform well on the simulated test cases, which highlights the potential of the Bayesian inference framework and opens up avenues for further investigation.

• Journal of Food Hygiene and Safety
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• v.1 no.1
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• pp.57-66
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• 1986

Campylobacter jejuni has been recognized as one of the causes of human gastroenteritis. The feces of a variety of reservoir animals contain c. jejuni as commensals in the intestinal tracts, and are fundamental source of contamination. The intestinal organisms contaminate carcasses, equipment tools hands of the processing line workers and air of the processing facility. Once the contamination happens in the slaughterhouses or the meat processing facilities, it is very difficult to keep the carcasses free from the infection of c. jejuni. Various disinfectants are effective in minimizing the number of Campylobacter infections in the processing facilities by washing contaminated carcasses, tools, and hands. Direct contact with infected animals has been incriminated in transmission of infection caused by C. jejuni. Freezing, cooling with dry air and gamma irradiation are an effective way for preserving the meat and eliminating the transmission, but broad and enforced studies are needed for the practical use.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Medical Physics Conference
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• 2002.09a
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• pp.267-268
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• 2002

Microbeam is a new avenue of radiation research especially in radiation biology and radiation protection. Selective irradiation of an ionizing particle to a targeted cell organelle may disclose such mechanisms as signal transaction among cell organelles and cell-to-cell communication in the processes toward an endpoint observed. Bystander effect, existence of which is clearly evidenced by application of the particle microbeam to biological experiments, suggests potential underestimation in the conventional risk estimation at low particle fluence rates, such as environment of space radiations in ISS (International Space Station). To promote these studies we started the construction of our microbeam facility (named as SPICE) to our HVEE Tandem accelerator (3.4 MeV proton and 5.1 MeV $^4$He$\^$2+/). For our primary goal, "irradiation of single particle to cell organelle within a position resolution of 2 micrometer in a reasonable irradiation time", special features are considered. Usage of a triplet Q magnet for focussing the beam to submicron of size is an outstanding feature compared to facilities of other institutes. Followings are other features: precise position control of cell dish holder, design of the cell dish, data acquisition of microscopic image of a cell organelle (cell nucleus) and data processing, a reliable particle detection, soft and hard wares to integrate all these related data, to control and irradiate exactly determined number of particles to a targeted spot.