• Title/Summary/Keyword: Nuclear Safety Analysis

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The Cytotoxic Effect of Oral Wet Wipes on Gingival Cells (시판 중인 구강청결티슈의 세포 독성 관찰)

  • Jung, Im-hee;Park, Ji Hyeon;Lee, Min Kyeng;Hwang, Young Sun
    • Journal of dental hygiene science
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    • v.18 no.2
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    • pp.76-84
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    • 2018
  • Wet wipes are being increasingly used because of their convenience. Particularly, oral wet wipes are useful for regular cleaning of a baby's mouth after birth. Therefore, the consumption of oral wet wipes has increased over the past few years and a variety of products are commercially available. However, product information on safety is not sufficiently provided and still raises doubts regarding adverse effects. To confirm the safety of wet wipes as an oral hygiene item and provide information for their use, we investigated the cytotoxicity of oral wet wipes and verified the underlying mechanism. The anti-bacterial effect of oral wet wipes was analyzed using the disk diffusion method. The cytotoxic effects of oral wet wipes were observed based on morphological changes using microscopy and determined using a 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide (MTT) assay in gingival epithelial cells and gingival fibroblasts. Evaluation of apoptosis by oral wet wipes was explored using propidium iodide flow cytometric analysis and a terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase (TdT)-mediated deoxyuridine triphosphate (dUTP) nick-end labeling (TUNEL) assay. Apoptosis-related molecules were also analyzed using western blotting. Five types of oral wet wipes were tested, and two products from Fisher-Price and Dr. Kennedy revealed strong cytotoxic effects on gingiva epithelial cells and gingiva fibroblasts, although they also showed intense anti-bacterial effects on oral bacteria. Cell cycle arrest in the G2/M phase and apoptosis were observed based on treatment of extracts from Fisher-Price and Dr. KENNEDY. Relatively high TUNEL levels, reduction of proliferating cell nuclear antigen and cyclin-dependent kinase 4 expression, and fragmentation of poly (ADP-ribose) polymerase were also elucidated. These results suggest that commercial oral wet wipes could exert cytotoxic influences on oral tissue, although there are anti-bacterial effects, and careful attention is required, especially for infants and toddlers.

A Prediction of Specific Heat Capacity for Compacted Bentonite Buffer (압축 벤토나이트 완충재의 비열 추정)

  • Yoon, Seok;Kim, Geon-Young;Baik, Min-Hoon
    • Journal of Nuclear Fuel Cycle and Waste Technology(JNFCWT)
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    • v.15 no.3
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    • pp.199-206
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    • 2017
  • A geological repository for the disposal of high-level radioactive waste is generally constructed in host rock at depths of 500~1,000 meters below the ground surface. A geological repository system consists of a disposal canister with packed spent fuel, buffer material, backfill material, and intact rock. The buffer is indispensable to assure the disposal safety of high-level radioactive waste, and it can restrain the release of radionuclides and protect the canister from the inflow of groundwater. Since high temperature in a disposal canister is released to the surrounding buffer material, the thermal properties of the buffer material are very important in determining the entire disposal safety. Even though there have been many studies on thermal conductivity, there have been only few studies that have investigates the specific heat capacity of the bentonite buffer. Therefore, this paper presents a specific heat capacity prediction model for compacted Gyeongju bentonite buffer material, which is a Ca-bentonite produced in Korea. Specific heat capacity of the compacted bentonite buffer was measured using a dual probe method according to various degrees of saturation and dry density. A regression model to predict the specific heat capacity of the compacted bentonite buffer was suggested and fitted using 33 sets of data obtained by the dual probe method.

Rapid Screening of Naturally Occurring Radioactive Nuclides (238U, 232Th) in Raw Materials and By-Products Samples Using XRF

  • Park, Ji-Young;Lim, Jong-Myoung;Ji, Young-Yong;Lim, Chung-Sup;Jang, Byung-Uck;Chung, Kun Ho;Lee, Wanno;Kang, Mun-Ja
    • Journal of Radiation Protection and Research
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    • v.41 no.4
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    • pp.359-367
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    • 2016
  • Background: As new legislation has come into force implementing radiation safety management for the use of naturally occurring radioactive materials (NORM), it is necessary to establish a rapid and accurate measurement technique. Measurement of $^{238}U$ and $^{232}Th$ using conventional methods encounter the most significant difficulties for pretreatment (e.g., purification, speciation, and dilution/enrichment) or require time-consuming processes. Therefore, in this study, the applicability of ED-XRF as a non-destructive and rapid screening method was validated for raw materials and by-product samples. Materials and Methods: A series of experiments was conducted to test the applicability for rapid screening of XRF measurement to determine activity of $^{238}U$ and $^{232}Th$ based on certified reference materials (e.g., soil, rock, phosphorus rock, bauxite, zircon, and coal ash) and NORM samples commercially used in Korea. Statistical methods were used to compare the analytical results of ED-XRF to those of certified values of certified reference materials (CRM) and inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS). Results and Discussion: Results of the XRF measurement for $^{238}U$ and $^{232}Th$ showed under 20% relative error and standard deviation. The results of the U-test were statistically significant except for the case of U in coal fly ash samples. In addition, analytical results of $^{238}U$ and $^{232}Th$ in the raw material and by-product samples using XRF and the analytical results of those using ICP-MS ($R^2{\geq}0.95$) were consistent with each other. Thus, the analytical results rapidly derived using ED-XRF were fairly reliable. Conclusion: Based on the validation results, it can be concluded that the ED-XRF analysis may be applied to rapid screening of radioactivities ($^{238}U$ and $^{232}Th$) in NORM samples.

Sampling-based Approach for Seismic Probabilistic Risk Assessment (지진 확률론적 리스크 평가를 위한 샘플링기반 접근법)

  • Kwag, Shinyoung;Eem, Seunghyun;Park, Junhee;Choi, In-Kil
    • Journal of the Computational Structural Engineering Institute of Korea
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    • v.33 no.2
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    • pp.129-136
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    • 2020
  • In this study, we develop a sampling-based seismic probabilistic risk assessment (SPRA) quantification technique that can accurately consider a partially dependent condition of component seismic fragility information. Specifically, the SPRA quantification method is proposed by combining the advantages of two representative methodologies: EPRI seismic fragility and JAERI seismic fragility input-based quantification. The most important feature of the proposed method is that it performs a SPRA using a sampling technique by transforming the EPRI seismic fragility input into JAERI seismic fragility input. When the proposed sampling-based approach was applied to an example of simple system and to a SPRA problem of a nuclear power plant, it was observed that the proposed method yields approximately similar system seismic fragility and seismic risk results as those of the exact solution. Therefore, it is believed that the approach proposed in this study can be used as a useful tool for accurately assessing seismic risks, considering the partial seismic dependence among the components; the existing SPRA method cannot handle such partial dependencies.

Review on Rock-Mechanical Models and Numerical Analyses for the Evaluation on Mechanical Stability of Rockmass as a Natural Barriar (천연방벽 장기 안정성 평가를 위한 암반역학적 모델 고찰 및 수치해석 검토)

  • Myung Kyu Song;Tae Young Ko;Sean S. W., Lee;Kunchai Lee;Byungchan Kim;Jaehoon Jung;Yongjin Shin
    • Tunnel and Underground Space
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    • v.33 no.6
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    • pp.445-471
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    • 2023
  • Long-term safety over millennia is the top priority consideration in the construction of disposal sites. However, ensuring the mechanical stability of deep geological repositories for spent fuel, a.k.a. radwaste, disposal during construction and operation is also crucial for safe operation of the repository. Imposing restrictions or limitations on tunnel support and lining materials such as shotcrete, concrete, grouting, which might compromise the sealing performance of backfill and buffer materials which are essential elements for the long-term safety of disposal sites, presents a highly challenging task for rock engineers and tunnelling experts. In this study, as part of an extensive exploration to aid in the proper selection of disposal sites, the anticipation of constructing a deep geological repository at a depth of 500 meters in an unknown state has been carried out. Through a review of 2D and 3D numerical analyses, the study aimed to explore the range of properties that ensure stability. Preliminary findings identified the potential range of rock properties that secure the stability of central and disposal tunnels, while the stability of the vertical tunnel network was confirmed through 3D analysis, outlining fundamental rock conditions necessary for the construction of disposal sites.

An Activation Analysis of Target("used H218O") for 18FDG Synthesis (18FDG 생산용 타겟("사용 후 H218O")의 방사화 분석)

  • Kang, Bo Sun
    • Journal of the Korean Society of Radiology
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    • v.7 no.3
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    • pp.213-219
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    • 2013
  • Currently, about 35 cyclotrons have been operating in South Korea. Most of them are mainly used for the synthesis of radiopharmaceuticals such as $^{18}FDG$, which is a cancer tracer for nuclear medicine. Highly enriched $H_2{^{18}}O$ containing up to 98% of $^{18}O/O$ isotope ratio is used as the target for $^{18}F$ production. The price of the highly enriched $H_2{^{18}}O$ ranges 60~70 USD/g, and all of them have been imported from foreign country in spite of the very expensive price. The target (enriched $H_2{^{18}}O$) is non-radioactive before the proton beam irradiation. But, the post-irradiation target (used $H_2{^{18}}O$) must be managed following the National Radiation Safety Regulations, because it turns into radioactive by the radioactivation of the impurities within the target. Recently, nevertheless of the fast increasing amount of used $H_2{^{18}}O$ in accordance with the increasing number of nuclear medicine cases, any activation analysis on the used $H_2{^{18}}O$ have been conducted yet in Korea. In this research, activation analysis have been conducted to confirm the specific radioactivity(Bq/g) of each radioisotopes within the used $H_2{^{18}}O$. The analysis have been done on the 3 of 20g samples collected from the used $H_2{^{18}}O$ storages at different cyclotron centers. Based on the results, it was confirmed that the "used $H_2{^{18}}O$" contains gamma emitters such as $^{56}Co$, $^{57}Co$, $^{58}Co$, and $^{54}Mn$ as well as the considerable amount of beta emitter $^3H$. It was also confirmed that the only one sample contained over exemption level of gamma emitters while the specific activity of tritium was lower than the exemption level in all samples. The specific activity of radioisotopes were measured different levels in the samples depending on the elapsed time after irradiation. Further study on the activation of the "used $H_2{^{18}}O$" is definitely necessary, nevertheless the as-is results of this research must be useful in establishing a rational "used $H_2{^{18}}O$" management protocol.

Petrological and Mineralogical Characteristics and Firing Temperature of Pottery in the 5-6th Century from Changnyeong, Gyeongsangnamdo (경상남도 창녕에서 출토된 5-6세기 토기의 암석광물학적 특성 연구 및 소성온도 추정)

  • Woo, Hyeon Dong;Kim, Ok Soon;Jang, Yun Deuk
    • Journal of the Mineralogical Society of Korea
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    • v.27 no.2
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    • pp.63-72
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    • 2014
  • This study is conducted to investigate mineralogical characteristics and estimate firing temperature and condition of earthenwares in the 5-6th Century which are found at ancient tombs in Gyo-dong, Gyo-ri, Changnyeong-eup, Changnyeong-gun, Gyeongsangnam-do, TKorea by applying petrological methods. For this study, mineralogical analysis, microtexture observation and chemical analysis were conducted. According to observations using a polarization microscope, the potshreds are mainly composed of quartz and feldspar and consist of some felsic volcanics, tempers, opaques and mullite, hematite and spinel were found under XRD and FTIR analysis. The flow pastes are observed in many potshreds, and it indicate that this textures made by the mixing process or the pottery made from the mixture of 2 sorts of clays at least. They dose not show the features of the potshreds firing under temperature of $1,200-1,300^{\circ}C$ rather than the earthenware firing under relatively low temperature of $1,000^{\circ}C$ approximately because of the existence of a number of pores and the crystals of the specific minerals. The growths mostly of mullite on the surface and into the cracks of the potshreds indicate that the firing condition was not uniform to make even temperature and oxidation. Most of the pottery shreds have felsic volcanic fragments and some of them have cristobalite which is formed at the temperature of more than 1,470^{\circ}C$. But considering the estimated firing temperature, these are not formed during firing but included in the original clay.

Analysis on the Source Characteristics of the Recent Five-year Earthquakes Occurred in the Central and Western Areas of the Korean Peninsula (최근 5년간 한반도 중서부 지역에서 발생한 지진의 진원 특성 분석)

  • Back, Jin-Ju;Kyung, Jai-Bok;Choi, Ho-Seon
    • Journal of the Korean earth science society
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    • v.32 no.2
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    • pp.161-169
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    • 2011
  • Focal mechanism solutions in the central and western areas of the Korean Peninsula (36-37.8$^{\circ}N$, 126-128$^{\circ}E$) were obtained from the analysis of the recent seventeen earthquakes (M${\geq}$2.2) which occurred from January, 2005 to May, 2010. The spatial differences between the epicenters recalculated by this study and those announced by the Korea Meteorological Administration are less than $0.03^{\circ}$, indicating a small deviation. Focal mechanism solutions were obtained from the analysis of P wave polarities, SH wave polarities and SH/P amplitude ratios. The focal mechanism solutions show dominant strike-slip faulting or oblique slip faulting with strike-slip components. The P-axes trends are mainly ENE-WSW or E-W directions. The direction of fault plane and auxillary fault plane with NNE-SSW and WNW-ESE are almost parallel to the general trends of lineaments in the study area. The results also show that focal mechanism solutions and the main axis of stress field in the Kyonggi massif and Okchon belt are almost same.

Source Parameters of Two Moderate Earthquakes at the Yellow Sea Area in the Korean Peninsula on March 22 and 30, 2003 (한반도 황해 해역에서 발생한 2003년 3월 23일, 3월 30일 중규모 지진의 지진원 상수)

  • Choi, Ho-Seon
    • Geophysics and Geophysical Exploration
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    • v.13 no.3
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    • pp.235-242
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    • 2010
  • Two moderate earthquakes with local magnitude 4.9 and 5.0 at the Yellow Sea area occurred successively around Hong island on March 22, 2003 and Baengnyeong island on March 30, 2003, respectively, close to the Korean Peninsula. Focal mechanisms by the waveform inversion analysis are strike slip faulting with a thrust component for the March 22 event, and normal faulting for the March 30 event. The direction of P-axes of two events were ENE-WSW which were similar to previous studies on that of P-axes in and around the Korean Peninsula. Moment magnitudes determined by the waveform inversion analysis were 4.7 and 4.5, respectively, whereas those determined by spectral analysis were 4.8 and 4.6, respectively. As regards the March 22 event, regional stress by combined tectonic forces from compressions of plates colliding to the Eurasian plate, rather than mere local stress, was indicated. However, it was estimated that the March 30 event took place when the weak zone generated from the existing collision zone was reactivated when subjected to local stress in the tensile direction. This seismological observation indirectly supports the idea that the collision zone may extend to the Korean Peninsula.

Spectral Infrared Signature Analysis of the Aircraft Exhaust Plume (항공기 배기 플룸의 파장별 IR 신호 해석)

  • Gu, Bonchan;Baek, Seung Wook;Yi, Kyung Joo;Kim, Man Young;Kim, Won Cheol
    • Journal of the Korean Society for Aeronautical & Space Sciences
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    • v.42 no.8
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    • pp.640-647
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    • 2014
  • Infrared signature of aircraft exhaust plume is the critical factor for aircraft survivability. To improve the military aircraft survivability, the accurate prediction of infrared signature for the propulsion system is needed. The numerical analysis of thermal fluid field for nozzle inflow, free stream flow, and plume region is conducted by using the in-house code. Weighted Sum of Gray Gases Model based on Narrow Band with regrouping is adopted to calculate the spectral infrared signature emitted from aircraft exhaust plume. The accuracy and reliability of the developed code are validated in the one-dimensional band model. It is found that the infrared radiant intensity is relatively more strong in the plume through the analysis, the results show the different characteristic of the spectral infrared signature along the temperature, the partial pressure, and the species distribution. The continuous spectral radiant intensity is shown near the nozzle exit due to the emission from the nozzle wall.