• Journal of the Korean Society of Radiology
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• v.16 no.2
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• pp.185-194
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• 2022

The decommission of nuclear legacy sites, which have been contaminated by previous activities such as uranium mining & milling as well as nuclear tests, has started to gain global attention. Within the Korean peninsula, Republic of Korea(ROK)has had experience in dismantling research reactors. For the Democratic People's Republic of Korea(DPRK), the possibility of nuclear activities being implemented and operations records being managed without consideration of the latest nuclear safety regulations are high. Hence, the chances of DPRK's sites remaining as nuclear legacy is also high. This study investigates approaches and considerations that needs to be taken in account in the event of a nuclear legacy site occurrence, reviewing its international cases for the solution of the legacy sites. The regulation, process of optimization, and stakeholder engagement for a nuclear legacy site should be considered in such an event. Developing legacy site response plans can be used to prevent future legacy site occurrences.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.55 no.6
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• pp.2018-2025
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• 2023

In our previous study, we proposed an integrated PG-PET-based imaging method to increase the prediction accuracy for patient dose distributions. The purpose of the present study is to experimentally validate the feasibility of the PG-PET system. Based on the detector geometry optimized in the previous study, we constructed a dual-head PG-PET system consisting of a 16 × 16 GAGG scintillator and KETEK SiPM arrays, BaSO₄ reflectors, and an 8 × 8 parallel-hole tungsten collimator. The performance of this system as equipped with a proof of principle, we measured the PG and positron emission (PE) distributions from a 3 × 6 × 10 cm³ PMMA phantom for a 45 MeV proton beam. The measured depth was about 17 mm and the expected depth was 16 mm in the computation simulation under the same conditions as the measurements. In the comparison result, we can find a 1 mm difference between computation simulation and measurement. In this study, our results show the feasibility of the PG-PET system for in-vivo range verification. However, further study should be followed with the consideration of the typical measurement conditions in the clinic application.

• Journal of Radiation Protection and Research
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• v.40 no.1
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• pp.1-9
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• 2015

Compton cameras overcome several limitations of conventional mechanical collimation based gamma imaging devices, such as pin-hole imaging devices, due to its electronic collimation based on coincidence logic. Especially large-scale Compton camera has wide field of view and high imaging sensitivity. Those merits suggest that a large-scale Compton camera might be applicable to monitoring nuclear materials in large facilities without necessity of portability. To that end, our research group have made an effort to design a large-scale Compton camera for safeguard application. Energy resolution or position resolution of large-area detectors vary with configuration style of the detectors. Those performances directly affect the image quality of the large-scale Compton camera. In the present study, a series of Geant4 Monte Carlo simulations were performed in order to examine the effect of those detector parameters. Performance of the designed large-scale Compton camera was also estimated for various monitoring condition with realistic modeling. The conclusion of the present study indicates that the energy resolution of the component detector is the limiting factor of imaging resolution rather than the position resolution. Also, the designed large-scale Compton camera provides the 16.3 cm image resolution in full width at half maximum (angular resolution: $9.26^{\circ}$) for the depleted uranium source considered in this study located at the 1 m from the system when the component detectors have 10% energy resolution and 7 mm position resolution.

• Journal of Intelligence and Information Systems
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• v.20 no.3
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• pp.109-131
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• 2014

As the demand of nuclear power plant equipment is continuously growing worldwide, the importance of handling nuclear strategic materials is also increasing. While the number of cases submitted for the exports of nuclear-power commodity and technology is dramatically increasing, preadjudication (or prescreening to be simple) of strategic materials has been done so far by experts of a long-time experience and extensive field knowledge. However, there is severe shortage of experts in this domain, not to mention that it takes a long time to develop an expert. Because human experts must manually evaluate all the documents submitted for export permission, the current practice of nuclear material export is neither time-efficient nor cost-effective. Toward alleviating the problem of relying on costly human experts only, our research proposes a new system designed to help field experts make their decisions more effectively and efficiently. The proposed system is built upon case-based reasoning, which in essence extracts key features from the existing cases, compares the features with the features of a new case, and derives a solution for the new case by referencing similar cases and their solutions. Our research proposes a framework of case-based reasoning system, designs a case-based reasoning system for the control of nuclear material exports, and evaluates the performance of alternative keyword extraction methods (full automatic, full manual, and semi-automatic). A keyword extraction method is an essential component of the case-based reasoning system as it is used to extract key features of the cases. The full automatic method was conducted using TF-IDF, which is a widely used de facto standard method for representative keyword extraction in text mining. TF (Term Frequency) is based on the frequency count of the term within a document, showing how important the term is within a document while IDF (Inverted Document Frequency) is based on the infrequency of the term within a document set, showing how uniquely the term represents the document. The results show that the semi-automatic approach, which is based on the collaboration of machine and human, is the most effective solution regardless of whether the human is a field expert or a student who majors in nuclear engineering. Moreover, we propose a new approach of computing nuclear document similarity along with a new framework of document analysis. The proposed algorithm of nuclear document similarity considers both document-to-document similarity (${\alpha}$) and document-to-nuclear system similarity (${\beta}$), in order to derive the final score (${\gamma}$) for the decision of whether the presented case is of strategic material or not. The final score (${\gamma}$) represents a document similarity between the past cases and the new case. The score is induced by not only exploiting conventional TF-IDF, but utilizing a nuclear system similarity score, which takes the context of nuclear system domain into account. Finally, the system retrieves top-3 documents stored in the case base that are considered as the most similar cases with regard to the new case, and provides them with the degree of credibility. With this final score and the credibility score, it becomes easier for a user to see which documents in the case base are more worthy of looking up so that the user can make a proper decision with relatively lower cost. The evaluation of the system has been conducted by developing a prototype and testing with field data. The system workflows and outcomes have been verified by the field experts. This research is expected to contribute the growth of knowledge service industry by proposing a new system that can effectively reduce the burden of relying on costly human experts for the export control of nuclear materials and that can be considered as a meaningful example of knowledge service application.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.47 no.4
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• pp.479-487
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• 2015

The thallium-doped sodium iodide [NaI(Tl)] scintillation detector is preferred as a gamma spectrometer in many fields because of its general advantages. A silicon photomultiplier (SiPM) has recently been developed and its application area has been expanded as an alternative to photomultiplier tubes (PMTs). It has merits such as a low operating voltage, compact size, cheap production cost, and magnetic resonance compatibility. In this study, an array of SiPMs is used to develop an NaI(Tl) gamma spectrometer. To maintain detection efficiency, a commercial NaI(Tl) $2^{\prime}{\times}2^{\prime}$ scintillator is used, and a light guide is used for the transport and collection of generated photons from the scintillator to the SiPMs without loss. The test light guides were fabricated with polymethyl methacrylate and reflective materials. The gamma spectrometer systems were set up and included light guides. Through a series of measurements, the characteristics of the light guides and the proposed gamma spectrometer were evaluated. Simulation of the light collection was accomplished using the DETECT 97 code (A. Levin, E. Hoskinson, and C. Moison, University of Michigan, USA) to analyze the measurement results. The system, which included SiPMs and the light guide, achieved 14.11% full width at half maximum energy resolution at 662 keV.

• Journal of Radiation Protection and Research
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• v.45 no.3
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• pp.117-129
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• 2020

Background: Radiation portal monitors (RPMs) involving plastic scintillators installed at the border inspection sites can detect illicit trafficking of radioactive sources in cargo containers within seconds. However, RPMs may generate false alarms because of the naturally occurring radioactive materials. To manage these false alarms, we previously suggested an energy-weighted algorithm that emphasizes the Compton-edge area as an outstanding peak. This study intends to evaluate the identification of radioactive sources using an improved energy-weighted algorithm. Materials and Methods: The algorithm was modified by increasing the energy weighting factor, and different peak combinations of the energy-weighted spectra were tested for source identification. A commercialized RPM system was used to measure the energy-weighted spectra. The RPM comprised two large plastic scintillators with dimensions of 174 × 29 × 7 ㎤ facing each other at a distance of 4.6 m. In addition, the in-house-fabricated signal processing boards were connected to collect the signal converted into a spectrum. Further, the spectra from eight radioactive sources, including special nuclear materials (SNMs), which were set in motion using a linear motion system (LMS) and a cargo truck, were estimated to identify the source identification rate. Results and Discussion: Each energy-weighted spectrum exhibited a specific peak location, although high statistical fluctuation errors could be observed in the spectrum with the increasing source speed. In particular, ¹³⁷Cs and ⁶⁰Co in motion were identified completely (100%) at speeds of 5 and 10 km/hr. Further, SNMs, which trigger the RPM alarm, were identified approximately 80% of the time at both the aforementioned speeds. Conclusion: Using the modified energy-weighted algorithm, several characteristics of the energy weighted spectra could be observed when the used sources were in motion and when the geometric efficiency was low. In particular, the discrimination between ⁶⁰Co and ⁴⁰K, which triggers false alarms at the primary inspection sites, can be improved using the proposed algorithm.

• Journal of radiological science and technology
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• v.39 no.4
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• pp.571-575
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• 2016

Monte Carlo simulations are widely used as the most accurate technique for dose calculation in radiation therapy. In this paper, the GATE6(Geant4 Application for Tomographic Emission ver.6) code was employed to calculate the dosimetric performance of the photon beams from a linear accelerator(LINAC). The treatment head of a Varian 21EX Clinac was modeled including the major geometric structures within the beam path such as a target, a primary collimator, a flattening filter, a ion chamber, and jaws. The 6 MV photon spectra were characterized in a standard $10{\times}10cm^2$ field at 100 cm source-to-surface distance(SSD) and subsequent dose estimations were made in a water phantom. The measurements of percentage depth dose and dose profiles were performed with 3D water phantom and the simulated data was compared to measured reference data. The simulated results agreed very well with the measured data. It has been found that the GATE6 code is an effective tool for dose optimization in radiotherapy applications.

• Korean Journal of Remote Sensing
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• v.37 no.5_1
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• pp.1083-1094
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• 2021

In order to monitor nuclear activity in inaccessible areas, it is necessary to establish a methodology to analyze changesin nuclear activity-related objects using high-resolution satellite images. However, traditional object detection and change detection techniques using satellite images have difficulties in applying detection results to various fields because effects of seasons and weather at the time of image acquisition. Therefore, in this paper, an object of interest was detected in a satellite image using a deep learning model, and object changes in the satellite image were analyzed based on object detection results. An initial training of the deep learning model was performed using an open dataset for object detection, and additional training dataset for the region of interest were generated and applied to transfer learning. After detecting objects by multitemporal and multisensory satellite images, we tried to detect changes in objects in the images by using them. In the experiments, it was confirmed that the object detection results of various satellite images can be directly used for change detection for nuclear activity-related monitoring in inaccessible areas.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Radiology
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• v.12 no.6
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• pp.719-725
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• 2018

After 9/11 attacks in the U.S, Terrorism has increased the number of unspecified casualties through multi-use facility terror attacks compared to the past. The subsequent London bombings and the self-destruction of Pakistan increased people's fear and social anxiety. As international events have been held in Korea recently, awareness and concern over radioactive terrorism and security management of radioactive materials are increasing. In this paper, we compared the results of different meteorological conditions using HotSpot Code. After creating a possible terror scenario in Korea, sources likely to be use in RDD and Dirty bomb were investigated. The meteorological condition was selected by comparing the Pasquill-Gifford stability class with the most stable condition F and the most unstable condition A. The result value of the A and F condition through simulation were shown not to cause citizens to die from acute effects due to radiological effects. The range of radioactivity is different according to the wind speed and the meteorological stability, and the degree of radioactivity dilution is different according to meteorological conditions. Analysis results are expected to be used for initial response in the event of a radioactive terrorist attack.

• Journal of Public Diplomacy
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• v.3 no.1
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• pp.43-63
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• 2023

Objectives: Nuclear security and atomic energy industry have always been the domain of political and economical diplomatic affairs. The issue of nuclear proliferation must be resolved politically or militarily given the importance of the problem, the impact it has on global security, the influence of major powers, and non-proliferation regimes. Considering scope of the budget, manpower, and scale of the project, the atomic energy issue was also viewed from an economic perspective. Therefore, the goal of this study is to depart from the conventional viewpoint and investigate if public diplomacy may be extended to a new issue domain of nuclear security and atomic energy. Methods: In order to determine whether there are any areas that overlap, the uniqueness of Korea's position in the nuclear security and atomic power domains is evaluated and compared with the traits of public diplomacy. Results: It seems plausible to broaden the scope and function of public diplomacy in that field given Korea's uniqueness in nuclear security and atomic energy issue and overlap with public diplomacy. This is especially true given that the state must take the leading role and that ongoing policy demands are made in light of Korea's security and economic structure. In reality, it is assessed that the Summer Fellows Program, run by the KAIST Nuclear Nonproliferation Education and Research Center (KAIST NEREC), has had a considerable impact on public diplomacy in the area of nuclear security and atomic energy. Conclusions: Nuclear security and atomic energy issues have traditionally been handled from the perspectives of political diplomacy, summit diplomacy, and economic diplomacy. However, this paper evaluate that the possibility of enhancing the role of public diplomacy in this issue area is high and underscore that the budget support, programs, and manpower for similar public diplomacy activities are needed. Through this, South Korea's nuclear security policy and atomic energy industry could be supported from international community and it will advance national interest.