• Journal of Radiation Protection and Research
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• v.42 no.4
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• pp.222-228
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• 2017

Background: On June 18, 2017, Korea's first commercial nuclear reactor, the Kori Nuclear Power Plant No. 1, was permanently suspended, and the capacity of nuclear power generation facilities will be adjusted according to the governments denuclearization policy. In these circumstances, it is necessary to assess the quality of radiation safety management in nuclear power plants in Korea by evaluating the radiation dose associated with them. Materials and Methods: The average annual radiation dose per unit, the annual radiation dose per person, and the annual dose distribution were analyzed using the radiation dose database of nuclear reactors for the last 5 years. The results of our analysis were compared to the specifications of the Nuclear Safety Act and Medical Law in Korea. Results and Discussion: The annual average per unit radiation dose of global major nuclear power generation was 720 man-mSv, while that of Korea's nuclear power plants was 374 manmSv. No workers exceeded 50 mSv per year or 100 mSv in 5 years. The individual radiation dose according to occupational exposure was 0.59 mSv for nuclear workers, 1.77 mSv for non-destructive workers, and 0.8 mSv for diagnostic radiologists. Conclusion: The radiation safety management of nuclear power plants in Korea has achieved the best outcomes worldwide, which is considered to be the result of the as-low-as-reasonably-achievable (ALARA) approach and strict radiation safety management. Moreover, the occupational exposures were also very low.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.49 no.3
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• pp.598-608
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• 2017

A new radiation scale is proposed. With empathy toward the vast majority of people who are not well versed in radiation and related matters, and thus suffering from misunderstanding that breeds unnecessary fear of radiation, the aim of proposing a new radiation scale, radiation index (RAIN), is to put the general public at ease with the concept of radiation. RAIN is defined in dimensionless numbers that relate any specific radiation dose to a properly defined reference level. As RAIN is expressed in plain numbers without an attached scientific unit, the public will feel comfortable with its friendly look, which in turn should help them understand radiation dose levels easily and allay their anxieties about radiation. The expanded awareness and proper understanding of radiation will empower the public to feel that they are not hopeless victims of radiation. The correspondence between RAIN and the specific accumulated dose is established. The equivalence will allow RAIN to serve as a common language of communication for the general public with which they can converse with radiation experts to discuss matters related to radiation safety, radiation diagnosis and therapy, nuclear accidents, and other related matters. Such fruitful dialogues will ultimately enhance public acceptance of radiation and associated technologies.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.56 no.5
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• pp.1874-1879
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• 2024

Owing to strict radiation safety management in Korean nuclear power plants (NPPs), most radiation workers receive very low radiation doses, even lower than the annual dose limit for the general public. However, the occupational dose distribution indicates that some Korean NPP workers receive a relatively higher dose than the average dose. This inequity in radiation exposure could be reduced by providing customized radiation protection measures, such as dose constraints, to workers receiving relatively higher doses. In this study, dose normalization was performed to identify the highest radiation exposure work in Korean pressurized water reactors (PWRs). The results show that most of the occupational exposure in Korean PWRs occurs during the planned maintenance period. Finally, the three highest radiation exposure tasks in Korean PWRs were identified: nozzle dam installation and removal, eddy current testing, and man-way opening and closing.

• Journal of Radiation Industry
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• v.5 no.3
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• pp.191-196
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• 2011

The economic scale of nuclear application is a good indicator to show how the radiation technology is useful and contribute to improve public welfare and living standard. Recent research in Japan shows that the economic scale of nuclear field was 4,112 B¥ for radiation application(46%) and 4,741 B¥ for nuclear energy (54%) playing a role of "two wheels of one cart" in nuclear field and the total 8,853 B¥ constitutes 1.8% of gross domestic products (GDP). The radiation application consisted of 2,295 B¥ (56%) in industry (semiconductor, sterilization, nondestructive testing, radiation processing of tires, etc.), 1,538 B¥ (37%) in medicine (therapy and diagnosis such as X-ray, nuclear medicine, computed tomography, etc.) and 279 B¥ (7%) in agriculture (mutation breeding, food irradiation, sterile insect technique, etc.). Radiation application by ${\gamma}$-ray, electron beam and ion beam is steadily increasing in Japan.

• 대한방사선방어학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2009.11a
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• pp.42-43
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• 2009

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.56 no.10
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• pp.4227-4236
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• 2024

Nuclear energy is used more and more widely as a clean energy source, but nuclear energy facilities are risky, and when a nuclear leak occurs, it is necessary to detect equipment in a nuclear radiation environment. In the nuclear radiation environment, due to the impact of high-energy particles on the camera sensor, the collected image contains a lot of radiation noise, which greatly reduces the visual perception of the image. Aiming at the problem that radiation noise reduces image quality, a radiation image compound filtering algorithm combining median filtering and multi-frame average filtering is proposed based on radiation noise characteristics. Compared with several common filtering algorithms, the radiation noise image is filtered under the same radiation dose and achieve the highest Peak Signal Noise Rate (PSNR) and Structural Similarity (SSIM), and compared with the multi-frame average filtering method, the number of image frames required by the algorithm in this paper is greatly reduced. Experimental results show that the algorithm can effectively eliminate radiation noise and is more suitable for image filtering in radiation environment.

• Journal of Radiation Protection and Research
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• v.40 no.3
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• pp.132-146
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• 2015

To develop tailored elementary, middle, and high school textbooks suitable for understanding the nuclear energy and radiation, quantitative and qualitative research was carried out in parallel, which included nine steps to ensure the validity of content and structure. The elementary, middle, and high school students wanted to acquire information used in their daily lives, including the definition of nuclear energy and radiation, principles and status of nuclear power generation, and information about irradiated food, medical radiation, and radiation in life. In the evaluation of the effects of textbook contents according to the educational requirements of each school level, high suitability frequencies (>80%) were shown for the human character, education goals, curriculum goals, evaluation method, and education time. At some levels, the high suitability frequencies (>70%) were shown for the education grade, education type, and textbook type.

• Journal of Nuclear Fuel Cycle and Waste Technology(JNFCWT)
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• v.20 no.4
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• pp.523-531
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• 2022

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) entails independent decision-making for the safety supervision of civil nuclear facilities. To evaluate and review the safety of nuclear facilities, the national regulatory body usually consults independent institutions or external committees. Technical Support Organizations (TSOs) include national laboratories, research institutions, and consulting organizations. Support from professional organizations in other countries may also be required occasionally. Most of the world's major nuclear power countries adopt an independent nuclear safety supervision model. Accordingly, China has continuously improved upon the construction of such a system by establishing the National Nuclear Safety Administration (NNSA) as the decision-making department for nuclear and radiation safety supervision, six regional safety supervision stations, the Nuclear and Radiation Safety Center (NSC), a nuclear safety expert committee, and the National Nuclear and Radiation Safety Supervision Technology R&D Base, which serves as the test, verification, and R&D platform for providing consultation and technical support. An R&D system, however, remains to be formed. Future endeavors must focus on improving the technical support capacity of these systems. As an enhancement from institutional independence to capability independence is necessary for ensuring the independence of China's nuclear safety regulatory institution, its regulatory capacity must be improved in the future.

• The Korean Journal of Nuclear Medicine Technology
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• v.21 no.2
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• pp.86-93
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• 2017

Purpose In this study, radiation workers who work in nuclear medicine department were analyzed to find the cause of differences of radiation exposure from General Characteristic, Knowledge, Recognition and Conduct, especially females working on nuclear medicine radiation, in order to pave the way for positive defense against radiation exposure. Materials and Methods The subjects were 106 radiation workers who were divided into two groups of sixty-four males and forty-two females answered questions about their General Characteristic, Knowledge, Recognition, Conduct, and radiation exposure dose which was measured by TLD (Thermo Luminescence Dosimeter). Results The results of the analysis revealed that as the higher score of knowledge and conduct was shown, the radiation exposure decreased in female groups, and as the higher score of conduct was shown, the radiation exposure decreased in male groups. In the correlation analysis of female groups, the non-experienced in pregnancy showed decreasing amount of radiation exposure as the score of knowledge and conduct was higher and the experienced in pregnancy showed decreasing amount of radiation exposure as the score of recognition and conduct was higher. In the regression analysis on related factors of radiation exposure dose of nuclear medicine radiation workers, the gender caused the meaningful result and the amount of radiation exposure of female groups compared to male groups. In the regression analysis on related factors of radiation exposure dose of female groups, the factor of conduct showed a meaningful result and the amount of radiation exposure of the experienced in pregnancy was lower compared to the non-experienced. Conclusion The conclusion of this study revealed that radiation exposure of female groups was lower than that of male groups. Therefore, male groups need to more actively defend themselves against radiation exposure. Among the female groups, the experienced in pregnancy who have an active defense tendency showed a lower radiation exposure. Thus, those who have never been pregnant need to have a more active defensive conduct for the future possibility of pregnancy.

• Journal of Radiation Industry
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• v.17 no.3
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• pp.239-256
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• 2023

The classification of the radiation work performed in Korean nuclear power plants (NPPs) must be understood to provide workers with more comprehensive radiation protection. This study used annual reports on occupational exposure to investigate and analyze the similarities and differences in the radiation work performed in Korean NPPs with pressurized water reactors (PWRs) and pressurized heavy water reactors (PHWRs). The results showed that the radiation work performed in Korean NPPs could be classified into three categories. Category 1 contains work at the highest level. This work can be divided into individual tasks belonging to Category 2, which enables the evaluation of the radiation dose during the work. The work in Category 2 consists of tasks from Category 3, which contains basic detailed tasks that are not further subdivided. This study emphasized the need for the systematic management of the radiation work performed in both Korean PWRs and PHWRs, such as the tasks in Category 3, which are similar, with similar working conditions, for PWRs and PHWRs. It also suggested the need to establish a list of radiation work for decommissioning because Kori Unit 1 and Wolsong Unit 1 are currently in permanent shutdown and preparations are being made for their decommissioning.