• 한국압력기기공학회 논문집
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• 제16권2호
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• pp.18-24
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• 2020

When a damage occurs in the nuclear fuel burning in the reactor, fission products that should be in the nuclear fuel rod are released into the reactor coolant. In this case, sipping test, a series of non-destructive inspection methods, are used to find leakage in nuclear fuel assemblies during the power plant overhaul period. In addition, the sipping test is also used to check the integrity of the spent fuel for moving to an intermediate dry storage, which is carried out as the first step of nuclear decommissioning, . In this paper, the principle and characteristics of the sipping test are described. The structure of the sipping inspection equipment is largely divided into a suction device that collects fissile material emitted from a damaged assembly and an analysis device that analyzes their nuclides. In order to make good use of the sipping technology, the radioactive level behavior of the primary system coolant and major damage mechanisms in the event of nuclear fuel damage are also introduced. This will be a reference for selecting an appropriate sipping method when dismantling a nuclear power plant in the future.

• 방사성폐기물학회지
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• 제20권2호
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• pp.231-241
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• 2022

Several countries, including Korea, are considering the direct disposal of spent nuclear fuels. The radiological safety assessment results published after a geological repository closure indicate that the instant release is the main radiation source rather than the congruent release. Three Safety Case reports recently published were reviewed and the IRF values of seven long-lived radionuclides, including relevant experimental results, were compared. According to the literature review, the IRF values of both the CANDU and low burnup PWR spent fuel have been experimentally measured and used reasonably. In particular, the IRF values of volatile long-lived nuclides, such as ¹²⁹I and ¹³⁵Cs, were estimated from the FGR value. Because experimental leaching data regarding high burnup spent nuclear fuels are extremely scarce, a mathematical modelling approach proposed by Johnson and McGinnes was successfully applied to the domestic high burnup PWR spent nuclear fuel to derive the IRF values of iodine and cesium. The best estimate of the IRF was 5.5% at a discharge burnup of 55 GWd tHM^-1.

• 방사성폐기물학회지
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• 제20권1호
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• pp.99-110
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• 2022

In decommissioning a nuclear power plant, numerous concrete structures need to be demolished and decontaminated. Although concrete decontamination technologies have been developed globally, concrete cutting remains problematic due to the secondary waste production and dispersion risk from concrete scabbling. To minimize workers' radiation exposure and secondary waste in dismantling and decontaminating concrete structures, the following conceptual designs were developed. A micro-blast type scabbling technology using explosive materials and a multi-dimensional contamination measurement and artificial intelligence (AI) mapping technology capable of identifying the contamination status of concrete surfaces. Trials revealed that this technology has several merits, including nuclide identification of more than 5 nuclides, radioactivity measurement capability of 0.1-10⁷ Bq·g^-1, 1.5 kg robot weight for easy handling, 10 cm robot self-running capability, 100% detonator performance, decontamination factor (DF) of 100 and 8,000 cm²·hr^-1 decontamination speed, better than that of TWI (7,500 cm²·hr^-1). Hence, the micro-blast type scabbling technology is a suitable method for concrete decontamination. As the Korean explosives industry is well developed and robot and mapping systems are supported by government research and development, this scabbling technology can efficiently aid the Korean decommissioning industry.

• 한국표면공학회지
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• 제56권1호
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• pp.84-93
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• 2023

The spent nuclear fuel is burned during the planned cycle in the plant and then generates elements such as actinide series, fission products, and plutonium with a long half-life. An 'interim storage' step is needed to manage the high radioactivity and heat emitted by nuclides until permanent-disposal. In the case of Korea, there is no space to dispose of high-level radioactive waste after use, so there is a need for a period of time using interim storage. Therefore, the intensity of neutrons and gamma-ray must be determined to ensure the integrity of spent nuclear fuel during interim storage. In particular, the most important thing in spent nuclear fuel is burnup evaluation, estimation of the source term of neutrons and gamma-ray is regarded as a reference measurement of the burnup evaluation. In this study, an analysis of spent nuclear fuel was conducted by setting up a virtual fuel burnup case based on CE16×16 fuel to check the total amount and spectrum of neutron, gamma radiation produced. The correlation between BU (burnup), IE (enrichment), and CT (cooling time) will be identified through spent nuclear fuel burnup calculation. In addition, the composition of nuclide inventory, actinide and fission products can be identified.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• 제55권1호
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• pp.190-200
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• 2023

As the field of application of in-situ gamma spectroscopy is diversified, proficiency is required for consistent and accurate analysis. In this study, a program was developed to virtually create gamma energy spectra of artificial nuclides, which are difficult to obtain through actual measurements, for training. The virtual spectrum was created by synthesizing the spectra of the background radiation obtained through actual measurement and the theoretical spectra of the artificial radionuclides obtained by a Monte Carlo simulation. Since the theoretical spectrum can only be obtained for a given geometrical structure, representative major geometries for in-situ measurement (ground surface, concrete wall, radioactive waste drum) and the detectors (HPGe, NaI(Tl), LaBr₃(Ce)) were predetermined. Generated virtual spectra were verified in terms of validity and harmonization by gamma spectrometry and energy calibration. As a result, it was confirmed that the energy calibration results including the peaks of the measured spectrum and the peaks of the theoretical spectrum showed differences of less than 1 keV from the actual energies, and that the calculated radioactivity showed a difference within 20% from the actual inputted radioactivity. The verified data were assembled into a database and a program that can generate a virtual spectrum of desired condition was developed.

• 방사성폐기물학회지
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• 제21권4호
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• pp.451-463
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• 2023

With South Korea increasingly focusing on nuclear energy, the management of spent nuclear fuel has attracted considerable attention in South Korea. This study established a novel procedure for selecting safety-relevant radionuclides for long-term safety assessments of a deep geological repository in South Korea. Statistical evaluations were performed to identify the design basis reference spent nuclear fuels and evaluate the source term for up to one million years. Safety-relevant radionuclides were determined based on the half-life criteria, the projected activities for the design basis reference spent nuclear fuel, and the annual limit of ingestion set by the Nuclear Safety and Security Commission Notification No. 2019-10 without considering their chemical and hydrogeological properties. The proposed process was used to select 56 radionuclides, comprising 27 fission and activation products and 29 actinide nuclides. This study explains first the determination of the design basis reference spent nuclear fuels, followed by a comprehensive discussion on the selection criteria and methodology for safety-relevant radionuclides.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• 제56권4호
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• pp.1513-1525
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• 2024

An improved mitigation system for thermally-induced steam generator tube rupture accidents was introduced to prevent direct environmental release of fission products bypassing the containment in the OPR1000. This involves injecting bypassed steam into the containment, cooling, and decontaminating it using a water coolant tank. To evaluate its performance, a severe accident analysis was performed using the MELCOR 2.2 code for OPR1000. Simulation results show that the proposed system sufficiently prevented the release of radioactive nuclides (RNs) into the environment via containment injection. The pool scrubbing system effectively decontaminated the injected RN and consequently reduced the aerosol mass in the containment atmosphere. However, the decay heat of the collected RNs causes re-vaporization. To restrict the re-vaporization, an external water source was considered, where the decontamination performance was significantly improved, and the RNs were effectively isolated. However, due to the continuous evaporation of the feed water caused by decay heat, a substantial amount of steam is released into the containment. Despite the slight pressurization inside the containment by the injected and evaporated steam, the steam decreased the hydrogen mole fraction, thereby reducing the possibility of ignition.

• 터널과지하공간
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• 제11권1호
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• pp.42-58
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• 2001

지하 공간시설로부터 나오는 오염물질의 유출량이나 유출경로를 예측하려는 일은 인간이 건설한 각종 시설로부터 환경을 보호하려는 노력의 일환이다. 특히 방사성폐기물의 핵종이 심부처분장으로부터 생태계로 도달하기까지의 이동경로 및 소요시간을 예측하는 것은 처분장의 안전성을 평가하는데 기본적인 요소가 된다. 오염물질은 암반 불연속면 내의 지하수를 통하여 이동하게 되므로 지하 암반에서의 불연속면을 통한 지하수의 흐름을 파악하는 것은 처분장의 부지선정이나 안전성을 평가하는데 중요한 요소 중의 하나이다. 본 연구에서는 유류비축기지가 건설될 부지를 연구대상으로 선정하고 풍부한 현장 조사자료를 근거로 기하학적 및 수리학적으로 일치하는 3차원 균열망 모델을 구축하고 이를 근거로 계산된 이방성 수리전도도를 복잡한 산악지형을 반영한 3타원 다공성 연속체모델에 입력하여 지하수의 유동경로 및 유동시간을 계산하였다. 본 연구를 통한 여러 가지 결과로부터 여기서 제시한 지하시설물로부터 유출된 지하수의 유동경로 및 생태계 도달 소요시간을 예측하는 방법이 보다 합리적이면서 타당하다는 결론을 내릴 수 있었으며, 방사성폐기물 처분장의 안전성을 평가하는데 본 연구에서 제시한 방법과 절차를 적용할 필요가 있다고 판단된다.

• Journal of Radiation Protection and Research
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• 제41권4호
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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.

• 한국방사선학회논문지
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• 제14권7호
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• pp.857-862
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• 2020

2011년 3월 일본 앞바다의 쓰나미 피해로 인하여 후쿠시마 원전 사고로 바다에 스며든 방사능 물질은 태평양까지 흘러 바다 생물에 오염을 일으켰다. 물 시료를 채취하여 전처리하였다. 방사성 물질의 방출에 의한 원전부지 주변 지역과의 비교평가를 위해 긴급보호 조치계획구역(20 ~ 30 km) 떨어진 지역으로 기상상태, 인구분포 등을 고려하여 비교지점으로 선정하였다. 또한 원전주변 주민들이 받게 되는 최소검출방사능을 분석하고 유효선량을 평가하고자 한다. 물 시료의 삼중수소 방사능 분석결과 대부분 시료에서 불검출로 나타났으며, 일반인에 대한 연간 법적 기준치 1 mSv의 0.0014 % ~ 0.777 % 로 인체에 미치는 영향은 거의 없는 것을 알 수 있다. 따라서 원전부지 주변의 물 시료 측정과 분석을 통해 방사능 방출로 인한 주변주민, 그리고 일반대중의 피폭상황 등 불안감해소에 도움이 될 것으로 사료된다.