• Journal of Radiation Protection and Research
• /
• v.35 no.1
• /
• pp.12-20
• /
• 2010

In a primary system at nuclear power plants (NPPs), various radionuclides including fission products and corrosion products are generated due to the complex water conditions. Particularly, $^3H,\;^{14}C,\;^{58}Co,\;^{60}Co,\;^{137}Cs,\;and^{131}I$ are important radionuclides in respect of dose assessment for radiation workers and management of radioactive effluents. In this paper, the dominant contributors of radiation exposure for radiation workers and the member of public adjacent to NPPs were reviewed and the process of dose assessment attributable to those contributors were introduced. Furthermore, the analysis for some examples of radiation exposure to radiation workers and the public during the NPP operation was carried out. This analysis included the notable precedents of internal radiation exposure and contamination of demineralized water occurred in Korean NPPs. Particularly, the potential issue about the dose assessment of tritium and carbon-14 was also reviewed in this paper.

• Journal of Radiation Protection and Research
• /
• v.25 no.2
• /
• pp.81-87
• /
• 2000

XOQ_DW code is currently used to assess the atmospheric dispersion fur the routine releases of radioactive gaseous effluents at Yonggwang nuclear power plants. This code was developed based on XOQDOQ code and an additional code is required to assess the atmospheric dispersion for potential accidental releases. In order to assess the atmospheric dispersion fer the accidental releases, XOQAR code has been developed by using PAVAN code that is based on Reg. Guide 1.145. The terrain data of XOQ_DW code inputs and the relative concentrations (X/Q) of XOQ_DW code outputs are used as the inputs of the XOQAR code through the interface with XOQ_DW code. By using this code, the maximum values of X/Q at exclusion area and low population zone boundaries except for sea areas were assessed as $1.33{\times}10^{-4}$ and $7.66{\times}10^{-6}$ sec/$m^3$, respectively. Through the development of this code, a rode system is prepared for assessing the atmospheric dispersion for the accidental releases as well as the routine releases. This developed code ran be used for other domestic nuclear power plants by modifying the terrain input data.

• Journal of the Korea institute for structural maintenance and inspection
• /
• v.5 no.2
• /
• pp.147-154
• /
• 2001

The prestressed concrete containment is one of the most important structures in nuclear power plants, which is required to prevent release of radioactive or hazardous effluents to the environment even in the case of a severe accident. Numerical analyses are carried out by using the ABAQUS finite element program to assess the ultimate pressure capacity of the Y prestressed concrete containment with light water reactor at design criteria condition and aging condition considering varied properties of time-dependant materials respectively. From the results, it is verified that the structural capacity of the Y prestressed concrete containment building under the present, aging condition is still robust. In addition, the parameter studies for the reduction of the ultimate pressure capacity of containment building according to the degradation levels of the main structural materials are carried out. The results show that when the degradations of each materials are considered as individual and combined forms, the influence is large in the order of tendon, rebar and concrete degradation, and tendon-rebar, tendon-concrete and rebar-concrete degradation respectively.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
• /
• v.17 no.4
• /
• pp.267-278
• /
• 1985

Some kinds of methods have been applied to regulate the exposure doses by the radioactive effluents from nuclear power plants. The essential one is primary dose equivalent limit recommended by the ICRP. When the primary limit cannot be applied directly for regulation, there have been dose equivalent index in case of external exposure, or maximum permissible concentration, annual limit on intake, derived air concentration and maximum permissible body burden in case of internal exposure. But the derived limit is required from the viewpoint of discharge, for those values are inadequate to control discharge rate directly. This study was carried out to derive the release limit for the Wolsung nuclear power plant by the concentration factor method. This method is based on the assumption of steady state transfer between environment compartments.

• Journal of Radiation Protection and Research
• /
• v.23 no.2
• /
• pp.103-107
• /
• 1998

The influence of calm conditions on the atmospheric dispersion analyses at KAERI site, which is located at a complex inland basin, was investigated. The U. S. NRC's computer programs XOQDOQ and PAVAN were used to estimate dispersion factors for routine and postulated accidental releases from nuclear facilities, respectively. The joint frequency distribution was obtained from the annual meteorological data measured in 1997 and used as input data of the computer programs. When the definition of calm is changed from 0.5 m $sec^{-1}$ to 0.21 m $sec^{-1}$, the maximum sector dispersion factor becomes 1.62 and 2.16 times higher for routine and postulated accidental releases, respectively.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
• /
• v.54 no.2
• /
• pp.627-636
• /
• 2022

In nuclear power plants and other nuclear facilities the removal of cobalt from radioactive liquid waste is needed to reduce the radioactivity concentration in effluents. In liquid wastes containing strong organic complexing agents such as EDTA cobalt removal can be problematic due to the high stability of the Co-EDTA complex. In this study, the removal of cobalt from NaNO₃ solutions using antimony oxide (Sb₂O₃) synthesized from potassium hexahydroxoantimonate was investigated in the absence and presence of EDTA. The uptake studies on the ion exchange material were conducted both in the dark (absence of UV-light) and under UV-C irradiation. Ca²⁺ or Ni²⁺ were included in the experiments as competing cations to test the selectivity of the ion exchanger. Results show that UV-C irradiation noticeably enhances the cobalt sorption efficiency on the antimony oxide. It was shown that nickel decreased the sorption of cobalt to a higher extent than calcium. Finally, the sorption data collected for Co²⁺ on antimony oxide was modeled using six different isotherm models. The Sips model was found to be the most suitable model to describe the sorption process. The Dubinin-Radushkevich model was further used to calculate the adsorption energy, which was found to be 6.2 kJ mol^-1.

• Journal of Korean Society for Atmospheric Environment
• /
• v.5 no.1
• /
• pp.33-42
• /
• 1989

Nowadays, nuclear power production plays a principal role in the electrical energy supply. However, a nuclear power plants emit small amounts of radio-activity due to mostly fission product gases to the local environment during their normal operation. They may release considerably more radioactivity when accidents occur. It is quite necessary to be able to calculate the radiation doses to the general public from such radioactivity releases in order to evaluate the environmental impact of the normally operating nuclear power plant, to assure that this is within acceptable radiation standards, and to ascertain the radiological consequences of nuclear reactor accidents. Such computations also play an important role in determining the acceptability of a proposed nuclear reactor site. Before radiation dose calculations can be carried out, therefore, it is necessary to determine how the concentration of the radioactive effluents is distributed in the environment following their emissions into the atmosphere. This matter is considered and radiation dose calculations are mentioned in conclusions.

• Journal of Radiation Protection and Research
• /
• v.48 no.2
• /
• pp.77-83
• /
• 2023

Background: The purpose of this study is to purify uranium (U[VI])-contaminated soil-flushing effluent using the precipitation-distillation process for clearance. Precipitation and distillation are commonly used techniques for water treatment. We propose using a combination of these methods for the simple and effective removal of U(VI) ions from soil-flushing effluents. In addition, the U concentration (Bq/g) of solid waste generated in the proposed treatment process was analyzed to confirm whether it satisfies the clearance level. Materials and Methods: Uranium-contaminated soil was decontaminated by soil-flushing using 0.5 M sulfuric acid. The soil-flushing effluent was treated with sodium hydroxide powder to precipitate U(VI) ions, and the remaining U(VI) ions were removed by phosphate addition. The effluent from which U(VI) ions were removed was distilled for reuse as a soil-flushing eluent. Results and Discussion: The purification method using the precipitation-distillation process proposed in this study effectively removes U(VI) ions from U-contaminated soil-flushing effluent. In addition, most of the solid waste generated in the purification process satisfied the clearance level. Conclusion: The proposed purification process is considered to have potential as a soil-flushing effluent treatment method to reduce the amount of radioactive waste generated.

• Journal of Radiation Protection and Research
• /
• v.26 no.1
• /
• pp.19-26
• /
• 2001

In order to assess the atmospheric dispersion for the accidental releases of nuclear power plants, in calculating X/Q values in the XOQAR and PAVAN codes which are based on Reg. Guide 1.145, the X/Q and frequency values are plotted on log-normal paper. Starting with the highest X/Q value of this plot, the codes compare the slope of the line drawn from this point to every other point within an increment containing ten X/Q values. If there are fewer than ten values, only the number available are used. The coefficients that produce the line with the least negative slope are saved. The end point of this line is used as the next starting point, from which slopes to the points within the next increment, containing ten X/Q values, are compared. The X/Q values corresponding to the cumulative frequency values 0.5%, 5% or 50% are calculated to search for the $0{\sim}2$ hour X/Q value that tends to be a very conservative value. In this work, a fuzzy logic inference method is used for nonlinear interpolation of the X/Q values versus the cumulative frequency. The fuzzy logic inference method is known to be a food technique for nonlinear interpolation. The proposed method was applied to a potential accidential radioactive release of the Yonggwang nuclear power plant, which gives more realistic X/Q values.

• Journal of Nuclear Fuel Cycle and Waste Technology(JNFCWT)
• /
• v.17 no.1
• /
• pp.107-120
• /
• 2019

The decommissioning of one nuclear power plant in a multi-unit nuclear power plant (multi-unit NPP) site may pose radiation exposure risk to decommissioning workers. Thus, it is essentially required to evaluate the exposure dose of decommissioning workers of operating multi-unit NPPs nearby. The ENDOS program is a dose evaluation code developed by the Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute (KAERI). As two sub-programs of ENDOS, ENDOS-ATM to anticipate atmospheric transport and ENDOS-G to calculate exposure dose by gaseous radioactive effluents are used in this study. As a result, the annual maximum individual dose for decommissioning workers is estimated to be $2.31{\times}10^{-3}mSv{\cdot}y^{-1}$, which is insignificant compared with the effective dose limit of $1mSv{\cdot}y^{-1}$ for the public. Although it is revealed that the exposure dose of operating multi-unit NPPs does not result in a significant impact on decommissioning workers, closer examination of the effect of additional exposure due to actual demolition work is required. The calculation method of this study is expected to be utilized in the future for planned decommissioning projects in Korea. Because domestic NPPs are located in multi-unit sites, similar situations may occur.