• Journal of Radiation Protection and Research
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• v.40 no.3
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• pp.155-161
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• 2015

Radon is a naturally occurring radioactive gas and a major indoor contribution of exposure to ionizing radiation in dwellings. $^{222}Rn$ is a health hazard gas what is responsible for thousand lung cancer deaths every year. In this study, indoor radon concentrations present in thirty representative houses in Mahallat city, Iran, were determined in order to estimate lung cancer risk associated with residential radon exposure. Long-term passive method, using CR-39, was used to measure the radon concentration. The results showed an association between the age of the dwellings and the indoor radon concentration that was found, in that the concentration of radon tended to increase as the age of the dwelling also increased. The indoor radon concentrations were calculated to be within the range of $23{\pm}2$ to $350{\pm}26Bq{\cdot}m^{-3}$, with an average of $158Bq{\cdot}m^{-3}$. The annual effective dose from inhaled radon and its decay products was calculated between $0.8{\pm}0.1$ and $12.3{\pm}0.9mSv{\cdot}y^{-1}$, with an average of $5.5mSv{\cdot}y^{-1}$. By taking into consideration the EPA recommendation and ICRP statement, the average annual risk of lung cancer from inhaled radon was calculated as 0.09%, 0.06%, 0.01%, and 0.03% for current smokers (CS), those who had ever smoked (ES), never smokers (NS) and the general population, respectively.

• Journal of Korean Society for Atmospheric Environment
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• v.24 no.5
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• pp.538-550
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• 2008

Radon is an invisible, odorless, and radioactive gas. It is formed by the disintegration of radium, which is a decay product of uranium. Some amounts of radon gas and its products are present ubiquitously in the soil, water, and air. Particularly high radon levels occur in regions of high uranium content. Although radon is permeable into indoor environment not only through geological features (bed rock and permeability) but also through the construction materials and underground water, the radiation from the geological features is generally main exposure factor. So there can be a problem in a certain space such as the underground and/or relatively poor ventilation condition. In this study, a GIS technique was used in order to investigate spatial distribution of radon measured from sub- way stations of 1 thru 8 in Seoul, Korea in 1991, 1998, 2001, and 2006. Spatial analysis was applied to reproduce the radon distribution. We utilized spatial analysis techniques such as inverse distance weighted averaging (IDW) and kriging techniques which are widely used to relate between different spatial points. To validate the results from the analyses, the jackknife technique for an uncertainty test was performed. When the number of measuring sites was less than 100 and also when the number of omitted sites increased, the kriging technique was better than IDW. On the other hand, when the number of sites was over 100, IDW technique was better than kriging technique. Thus the selection of analytical tool was affected sensitives by the analysis based on the number of measuring sites.

• Journal of Nuclear Fuel Cycle and Waste Technology(JNFCWT)
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• v.18 no.3
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• pp.383-393
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• 2020

The corrosion behavior of Hastelloy C-276 was investigated to identify its applicability for carbon-anode-based oxide reduction (OR), in which Cl₂ and O₂ are simultaneously evolved at the anode. Under a 30 mL·min^-1 Cl₂ + 170 mL·min^-1 Ar flow, the corrosion rate was less than 1 g·m^-2·h^-1 up to 500℃, whereas the rate increased exponentially from 500 to 700℃. The effects of the Cl₂-O₂ composition on the corrosion rate at flow rates of 30 mL·min^-1 Cl₂, 20 mL·min^-1 Cl₂ + 10 mL·min^-1 O₂, and 10 mL·min^-1 Cl₂ + 20 mL·min^-1 O₂ with a constant 170 mL·min^-1 Ar flow rate at 600℃ was analyzed. Based on the data from an 8 h reaction, the fastest corrosion rate was observed for the 20 mL·min^-1 Cl₂ + 10 mL·min^-1 O₂ case, followed by 30 mL·min^-1 Cl₂ and 10 mL·min^-1 Cl₂ + 20 mL·min^-1 O₂. The effects of the chlorine flow rate on the corrosion rate were negligible within the 5-30 mL·min^-1 range. A surface morphology analysis revealed the formation of vertical scratches in specimens that reacted under the Cl₂-O₂ mixed gas condition.

• Mass Spectrometry Letters
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• v.2 no.1
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• pp.1-7
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• 2011

China's rapid economic growth has resulted in significant environmental side effects. Therefore, China has been interested in reducing her dependence on foreign oil and gas by developing technologies needed for hydrogen, in addition to her increasing energy mix of nuclear and renewable energy form, such as solar and wind power. There are three isotopes of hydrogen, i.e. protium (P or H), deuterium (D), and tritium (T). Both deuterium and tritium are important materials in nuclear fuel cycle industry. Tritium is one of the critical radioactive nuclides. Planning for and implementing contamination control as a part of normal operation and maintenance activities is an important function in any hydrogen facility, especially tritium facility. The development of hydrogen isotopes analysis is the key issues in this area. Mass spectrometry (MS) with medium (about 600) and high resolution (> 1,400) is commercially available; however, the routine analysis of hydrogen isotopes is done with low-resolution MS (< 200) in China. This paper summarizes the progress of MS measurement technology for hydrogen isotope abundance in China, focusing on our lab's research program and technical status. An analyzing method has been introduced for accurate measurement of tritium abundance in the H.D.T system by low resolution MAT-253 MS. The quotient of compression ratio coefficient is determined by building up equipment for laboratory-scale preparation of secondary standard gases and by considering the difference in sensitivity between hydrogen isotopes. The results show that the measured value is reproducible within the relative error range of 0.8% for gas samples of different tritium abundance.

• Particle and aerosol research
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• v.13 no.2
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• pp.87-95
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• 2017

Radon ($Rn^{222}$) is a radioactive gas and is found at high concentrations underground. Investigations were done in many years specifically on public transportations such as in the subway stations, concourses and platforms for these are located underground areas. This study correlates the $Rn^{222}$ concentrations with the Particulate Matter (PM) concentration for the gas could be attached or trapped inside these particles. It was done on the opening subway tunnel of Miasageori Station going to Mia Station (Line 4) last August 2016. Based on the result, the $Rn^{222}$ were more influenced on the mass ratio (%) of PM present in the air instead of its mass concentration (${\mu}g/m^3$). As the $PM_{10}$ mass ratio increases ($42.32{\pm}1.03%$) during morning rush-hours, radon starts to increase up to $0.97{\pm}0.03pCi/L$. But during the afternoon $Rn^{222}$ concentrations decreased while the composition were stable at $22.96{\pm}3.0%$, $39.04{\pm}0.6%$ and $38.01{\pm}0.3%$ in $PM_1$, $PM_{2.5}$ and $PM_{10}$ respectively. It was then assumed that it could be the composition of the morning hours of the station were influencing the concentration of the radon.

• Journal of Nuclear Fuel Cycle and Waste Technology(JNFCWT)
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• v.9 no.3
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• pp.121-129
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• 2011

The effects of the applied current density, the $AgNO_3$ concentration, the scrubbing liquid flow rate and the NO-air mixed gas flow rate on the NO removal efficiency were investigated by using $Ag^{2+}$ mediated electrochemical oxidation (MEO). Results showed that the NO removal efficiency increased with increasing the applied current density. The effect of the $AgNO_3$ concentration on the NO removal efficiency was negligibly small in the concentration of $AgNO_3$ above 0.1 M. When the scrubbing liquid flow rate increased, the NO removal efficiency was gradually increased. On the other hands, the NO removal efficiency decreased with increasing the NO-air mixed gas flow rate. As a result of the treatment of NO-air mixed gas by using the MEO process with the optimum operating condition and the chemical absorption process using 3 M $HNO_3$ solution as a scrubbing liquid, the removal efficiency of NO and $NO_x$ was achieved as 95% and 63%, respectively.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2013.02a
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• pp.243-244
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• 2013

Over the past 15 years, several groups have incorporated radio-frequency quadrupole (RFQ) based instruments before the accelerator in accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) systems for ion-gas interactions at low kinetic energy (＜40 eV). Most AMS systems arebased on a tandem accelerator, which requires negative ions at injection. Typically, AMS sensitivity abundance ratios for radioactive-to-stable isotope are limited to Xr/Xs ＞10^-15, and the range of isotopes that can be analyzed is limited because of theneed to produce rather large negative ion beams and the presence of atomic isobaric interferences after stripping. The potential of using low-kinetic energy ion-gas interactions for isobar suppression before the accelerator has been demonstrated for several negative ion isobar systems with a prototype RFQ system incorporated into the AMS system at IsoTrace Laboratory, Canada (Ontario, Toronto). Requisite for any such RFQ system applied to very rare isotope analysis is large transmission of the analyte ion. This requires proper phase-space matching between the RFQ acceptance and the ion beam phase space (e.g. 35 keV, ${\varphi}3mm$, +-35 mrad), and the ability to control the average ion energy during interactions with the gas. A segmented RFQ instrument is currently being designed at Korea Institute for Science and Technology (한국과학기술연구원, KIST). It will consist of: a) an initial static voltage electrode deceleration region, to lower the ion energy from 35 keV down to ＜40 eV at injection into the first RFQ segment; b) the segmented quadrupole ion-gas interaction region; c) a static voltage electrode re-acceleration region for ion injection into a tandem accelerator. Design considerations and modeling will be discussed. This system should greatly lower the detection limits of the 6 MV AMS system currently being commissioned at KIST. As an example, current detection sensitivity of 41Ca/Ca is limited to the order of 10^-15 while the 41Ca/Ca abundance in modern samples is typically 41Ca/Ca~10^-14 - 10^-15. The major atomic isobaric interference in AMS is 41K. Proof-of-principal work at IsoTrace Lab. has demonstrated that a properly designed system can achieve a relative suppression of KF3-/41CaF3- ＞4 orders of magnitude while maintaining very high transmission of the 41CaF3- ion. This would lower the 41Ca detection limits of the KIST AMS system to at least 41Ca/Ca~10^-19. As Ca is found in bones and shells, this would potentially allow direct dating of valuable anthropological archives and archives relevant to our understanding of the most pronounced climate change events over the past million years that cannot be directly dated with the presently accessible isotopes.

• Economic and Environmental Geology
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• v.31 no.6
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• pp.527-534
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• 1998

Excavation of underground openings changes stress distribution around the opening. The survey of this disturbed zone in excavation is very important to design and construct underground facilities, such as tunnel, gas and oil storage, power plant and disposal site of high- and low-level radioactive wastes. This paper presents a zoning of rock masses with tunnel excavation using PS logging. Compressional and shear wave velocities are measured in boreholes drilled in the tunnel wall, which was constructed with blasting and/or machine excavation. The disturbed zone in excavation can be estimated by comparing PS logging data with a tomographic image of compressional wave velocity and compressional and shear wave velocities of core samples. In the side wall of tunnel, the disturbed zone reaches 1.5 m and 1.0 m in thickness for blocks of blasting and machine excavations, respectively. In the roof of tunnel, however, the disturbed zone is 1.0 m and 0.75 m thick for the two blocks. These results show that the width of the disturbed zone is larger in the side wall of tunnel than in the roof, and 1.3 to 1.5 times larger for the blasting excavation than for the machine excavation.

• IE interfaces
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• v.24 no.3
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• pp.187-195
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• 2011

The automatic radiopharmaceutical module consists of several 2-way valves, couple of syringes, gas supply unit, heating(cooling) unit and sensors to control the chemical reagents as well as to help the chemical reaction. In order to control the actuators of radiopharmaceutical module, the process is tabulated using spread sheet as like excel. Unlike the common program, a trivial error is too critical to allowed in the process because the error can lead to leak the radioactive reagent and to cause the synthesis equipment failure during synthesizing. Hence, the synthesis process has been validated using graphic simulation while the operator checks the whole process visually and undergoes trial and error. The verification of the synthesis process takes a long time and has a difficulty in finding the error. This study presents a methodology to verify the process algebraically while the radiopharmaceutical module is converted to the network model. The proposed method is validated using actual synthesis process.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.52 no.6
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• pp.1289-1296
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• 2020

The estimation of radioactivity level is vital for population health risk assessment and geological point of view and can be evaluated as rate of exhalation and source concentration (²²⁶Ra, ²³²Th and ⁴⁰K). The present study deals with the soil samples for investigation of radionuclides content and exhalation rates of radon -thoron gas from different sites in northern Haryana, India. Absorbed dose and associated index estimated in the present study are the measures of environmental radioactivity to inhalation dose. Effective doses received by different tissues and organs by considering different occupancy and conditions are also measured. Exhalation rates of radon and thoron are measured with active scintillation monitors based on alpha spectroscopy namely scintillation radon (SRM) and thoron (STM) monitors respectively. Sample height was optimized before measurement of thoron exhalation rate using STM. Average values of radon and thoron exhalation are found 16.6 ± 0.7 mBqkg^-1h^-1 and 132.1 ± 2.6 mBqm^-2s^-1 respectively. Also, a simple approach was also adopted, to evaluate the thoron exhalation which accomplished a lot of challenges, the results are compared with the data obtained experimentally. The study is useful in the nationwide mapping of radon and thoron exhalation rates for understanding the environmental radioactivity status.