• Journal of Nuclear Fuel Cycle and Waste Technology(JNFCWT)
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• v.15 no.2
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• pp.161-172
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• 2017

To evaluate radiological impact from the operation of a low- and intermediate-level radioactive waste disposal facility, a logical presentation and explanation of expected accidental scenarios is essential to the stakeholders of the disposal facility. The logical assessment platform and procedure, including analysis of the safety function of disposal components, operational hazard analysis, operational risk analysis, and preparedness of remedial measures for operational safety, are improved in this study. In the operational risk analysis, both design measures and management measures are suggested to make it possible to connect among design, operation, and safety assessment within the same assessment platform. For the preparedness of logical assessment procedure, classification logic of an operational accident is suggested based on the probability of occurrence and consequences of assessment results. The improved assessment platform and procedure are applied to an operational accident analysis of the Korean low- and intermediate-level radioactive waste disposal facility and partly presented in this paper.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.55 no.6
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• pp.1959-1965
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• 2023

The objective of this study was the establishment of clearance method that can ensure radiological safety and reasonably minimize radioactive waste when demolishing contaminated buildings at KRR-1&2. By reviewing Korean and international laws related to decommissioning, the method for clearance of contaminated buildings presented in this study is to first decontaminate the building and then conduct a radiological safety assessment, such as measuring residual radioactivity, to determine whether the radiation dose criteria for clearance are satisfied. The measurement results meet the radiation dose criteria, the contaminated buildings are regarded as clearance and can be converted into the general buildings. The demolition of the cleared buildings is carried out using conventional demolition methods. The waste generated during the demolition is classified as general construction waste and is disposed of according to relevant laws. The proposed method significantly optimized the number of samples analyzed and reduced the time and cost associated with the decommissioning. The established method will be applied to the ongoing decommissioning of contaminated buildings at KRR-1&2, and its application will be verified by regulatory bodies. The study suggests that this method could be used for the decommissioning of contaminated buildings at other Korean nuclear facilities in the future.

• Progress in Medical Physics
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• v.27 no.3
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• pp.139-145
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• 2016

With the development in field of industry and medicine, new machines and techniques are being launched. Moreover, the complexity of the techniques is associated to an increasing risk of incident. Especially, a small error in radiotherapy can lead to a serious patient-related incident, risk management is necessary in radiotherapy in order to reduce the risk of incident. However, in field of radiotherapy, there are no legally binding clauses for risk management and there is an absence of risk management systems at an institutional level. Therefore, we analyzed institutional status of risk management, reporting & classification systems, and risk assessment & analysis in 31 countries. For risk management and reporting systems, 65% of countries investigated had legislation or regulations; however, only 35% of countries used classification systems. It was found that 43% more countries had legislation for risk management in healthcare than those for radiotherapy; 19% more countries had reporting systems for healthcare than those for radiotherapy. For classification systems, 60% more countries had legislation, recommendation, and guidelines in the field of radiotherapy than those for healthcare. Recently, international institutes have published several reports for risk management and patient safety in radiotherapy, owing to which, countries adopting risk management for radiotherapy will gradually increase. Before adopting risk management in Korea, we should precisely understand the procedures and functions of risk management, in order to increase efficiency of risk management because classification & reporting system and risk assessment & analysis are connected organically, and institutional management is needed for high quality of risk management in Korea.

• Journal of the Korea Safety Management & Science
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• v.17 no.4
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• pp.207-212
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• 2015

When performing Chest x-ray examination to pregnant woman, normally we shield back side of abdomen. In this situation, scattered rays made by equipment and surrounding structure can enter front side of abdomen. Therefore, in this study, we evaluate suitability of abdomen shield especially to pregnant woman. In case of One shielding material placed back of abdomen, the measured value is $0.676{\pm}0.19uSv/hr$. Two shielding material is $0.764{\pm}0.04uSv/hr$. Three is $0.685{\pm}0.16uSv/hr$. The exposure dose inferred in this study does not excess annual effective dose limit. But It is not mean absolute safety. So we have to minimize occurrence of stochastic effect of radiosensitivity by shielding front side of abdomen of pregnant woman in clinic.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.50 no.5
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• pp.806-813
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• 2018

$^{222}Rn$ exists in nature in the form of a rare radioactive gas. In terms of environmental radiation, issues regarding $^{222}Rn$ have persisted because of its radiological hazardousness. Ulju County is one of the regions of Ulsan metropolitan city, with a population of 227,699. Ulju County has the highest density of industrial complexes in Korea. In this study, $^{222}Rn$ radioactivity concentration was measured and analyzed in 57 schools in Ulju County using 114 passive LR-115 type detectors to secure radiological safety and confirm basic information for reduction of resident exposure to $^{222}Rn$. The effective dose of $^{222}Rn$ was assessed to find the actual risk of the concentration surveyed in schools to human beings. The dose depended on four factors: subjects, $^{222}Rn$ concentration, dose coefficient, and time. The individuals subjected to dose estimation were classified into three types: students, teachers, and office workers. The subjects had different dwelling locations and times. The findings demonstrate that the radiological hazard to students and workers at schools in Ulju County owing to $^{222}Rn$ is negligible in terms of $^{222}Rn$ activity recommendation level.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.56 no.6
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• pp.2317-2323
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• 2024

Medical linear accelerators with an energy of 8 MV or higher are radiated owing to photonuclear reactions and neutron capture reactions. It is necessary to quantitatively evaluate the concentration of radioactive isotopes when replacing or disposing them. HPGe detectors are commonly used to identify isotopes and measure radioactivity. However, because the detection efficiency is generally calibrated using a standard material with a density of 1.0 g/cm³, a self-absorption effect occurs if the density of the measured material is high. In this study, self-absorption correction factors were calculated for tungsten, lead, copper, and SUS-303, which are the main materials of medical linear accelerator head parts, for each gamma-ray energy using MCNP 6.2 code. The self-absorption effect was more pronounced as the energy of the emitted gamma rays decreased and the density of the measured materials increased. These correction factors were applied to the radioactivity measurements of the in-built and portable HPGe detectors. Furthermore, compared to the surface dose rate measured by the survey meter, the accuracy of the measurements of radioactivity improved by an average of 124.31 and 100.53 % for inbuilt and portable HPGe detectors, respectively. The results showed a good agreement, with an average difference of 3.70 and 5.24 %.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.33 no.2
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• pp.156-165
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• 2001

A radiological safety assessment was performed for a hypothetical near-surface radioactive waste repository as a simple screening calculation to identify important nuclides and to provide insights on the data needs for a successful demonstration of compliance. Individual effective doses were calculated for a conservative ground water pathway scenario considering well drilling near the site boundary. Sensitivity of resulting ingestion dose to input parameter values was also analyzed using Monte Carlo sampling. Considering peak dose rate and assessment time scale, C-14 and T-129 were identified as important nuclides and U-235 and U-238 as potentially important nuclides. For C-14, the dose was most sensitive to Darcy velocity in aquifer The distribution coefficient showed high degree of sensitivity for I-129 release.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.34 no.4
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• pp.406-414
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• 2002

In TSPA of long-term post closure radiological safety on permanent disposal of HLW in Korea, appropriate management of input and output data through QA is necessary. The robust QA system is developed using the T2R3 principles applicable for five major steps in R&D＇s. The proposed system is implemented in the web-based system so that all participants in TSPA are able to access the system. In addition, the internet based input database for TSPA is developed. Currently data from literature surveys, domestic laboratory and field experiments as well as expert elicitation are applied for TSPA.

• Journal of Radiopharmaceuticals and Molecular Probes
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• v.8 no.2
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• pp.77-85
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• 2022

The Td05 and Sgc8c, DNA-based aptamers, are well-known to target internalized surface markers (IGHM and PTK7) of Burkitt's lymphoma and acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL). Thus, Td05 and Sgc8c labeled with metallic radioisotope ⁶⁴Cu can be evaluated as potential diagnostic PET imaging agents. In this study, we modified the carbon chain length of the last adenosine of aptamer (n = 3, 6, 12) to increase tumor cell uptake and select the best candidate among six types of aptamer analogues and one adenosine of aptamer. After labeling of ⁶⁴Cu, [⁶⁴Cu]Cu-DOTA-aptamer analogues were evaluated in vitro studies (serum stability, Log P values, cell uptake, biodistribution). Then, we evaluate in vivo PET imaging study for two candidates (⁶⁴Cu-DOTA-C12-Sgc8c, ⁶⁴Cu-DOTA-C6-Td05). PET images clearly visualize tumors at 24 h post-injection rather than at an early time point and the tumor-to-background ratio also increases at the delay time point. ⁶⁴Cu-DOTA-C12-Sgc8c and ⁶⁴Cu-DOTA-C6-Td05 could be used as potential radiotracers for lymphoma.

• Journal of Radiation Protection and Research
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• v.45 no.3
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• pp.101-107
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• 2020

Background: An important lesson learned from the Fukushima accident is that the transition to the mid- and long-term phases from the emergency-response phase requires less than a year, which is not very long. It is necessary to know how much radioactive material has been deposited in an urban area to establish mid- and long-term countermeasures after a radioactive accident. Therefore, an urban deposition model that can indicate the site-specific characteristics must be developed. Materials and Methods: In this study, the generalized urban deposition velocity and the subsequent variation in radionuclide contamination were estimated based on the characteristics of the Korean urban environment. Furthermore, the application of the obtained generalized deposition velocity in a hypothetical scenario was investigated. Results and Discussion: The generalized deposition velocities of ¹³⁷Cs, ¹⁰⁶Ru, and ¹³¹I for each residence type were obtained using three-dimensional (3D) modeling. For all residence types, the deposition velocities of ¹³¹I are greater than those of ¹⁰⁶Ru and ¹³⁷Cs. In addition, we calculated the generalized deposition velocities for each residential types. Iodine was the most deposited nuclide during initial deposition. However, the concentration of iodine in urban environment drastically decreases owing to its relatively shorter half-life than ¹⁰⁶Ru and ¹³⁷Cs. Furthermore, the amount of radioactive material deposited in nonresidential areas, especially in parks and schools, is more than that deposited in residential areas. Conclusion: In this study, the generalized urban deposition velocities and the subsequent deposition changes were estimated for the Korean urban environment. The 3D modeling was performed for each type of urban residential area, and the average deposition velocity was obtained and applied to a hypothetical accident. Based on the estimated deposition velocities, the decision-making systems can be improved for responding to radioactive contamination in urban areas. Furthermore, this study can be useful to predict the radiological dose in case of large-scale urban contamination and can support decision-making for long-term measurement after nuclear accident.