• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Building Construction Conference
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• 2019.11a
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• pp.160-161
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• 2019

Recently, a bed company's product has detected a certain level of radon or higher, making it a popular search word on portal sites. Because of this problem, people are becoming more interested in radon. The government plans to support the establishment of a radon alert system for households through a radon concentration survey of 10,000 households. The use of palm charcoal as an indoor finishing material will reduce the risk of lung cancer through radon reduction. The experiment used a method of replacing palm activated carbon with blast furnace slag, and the adsorption performance of radon tends to increase as the replacement rate of palm activated carbon increases.

• Journal of Soil and Groundwater Environment
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• v.22 no.5
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• pp.105-111
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• 2017

In this study, the variation of indoor and soil radon concentrations were measured at a test bed (detached house), and correlation analysis was performed using linear regression. The results showed that the average concentration of indoor radon was increased by about 20% when the heater was operated in the house, but it was decreased by 15% when the ventilation system was on. In the changes of seasonal radon concentrations, soil and indoor radon concentrations in winter were higher than in summer. Statistical analysis showed a weak correlation between the soil radon and indoor radon, but the correlation (R=0.852, $R^2=0.726$) was relatively high at exhaust condition in the winter. It is difficult to extrapolate the results of the study to the general cases because radon distribution is highly site-specific, but the result of this study could be used as a reference for radon management and reduction of detached house in the future investigations.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Building Construction Conference
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• 2019.05a
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• pp.27-28
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• 2019

Recently, a bed company detected a radon more than Red Politics and became a hot topic of conversation. This has led to increased interest in radon, and a number of free-of-charge bodies have also been established to recognize the dangers of radon. In addition, the Korean Institute of Geological and Resource Research is planning to assist the installation of radon alarm systems in 10,000 households nationwide, free of charge. Since radon is a colorless, odorless and tasteless gas that causes lung cancer, it aims to reduce lung cancer incidence by absorbing radon using bamboo activated carbon as a way to reduce it. Due to the use of bamboo activated carbon, radon concentration per hour tends to decrease as substitution rate increases, and table flow tends to decrease as substitution rate increases. Through this experiment, 30% of the replacement rate of bamboo activated carbon is judged to be the most suitable replacement rate.

• Journal of Korea Water Resources Association
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• v.53 no.7
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• pp.507-519
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• 2020

This study developed the radon measurement system that can be used for crustal movement monitoring and seismic occurrence and prediction, and compared and analyzed the results of test-operated radon measurement system and observed seismic occurrence cases. First, the developed radon measurement system consists of an NB-IoT radon measurement device, data center, data analysis, and data supply server. Because the measured radon data can be remotely trasmitted by using NB-IoT, this system is very suitable for installation and operation in unmaaned groundwater station. Second, the developed radon measurement device was test-operated at two groundwater stations in Gimpo from May to July 2019. The measured radon data was compared with the groundwater-level and electrical conductivity measurement data, and it was confirmed that the radon measurement device developed in this study has some potential for commercialization. Finally, from November 2019 to February 2020, three observed seismic cases and daily measured radon, groundwater-level, electrical conductivity data by the NB-IoT radon measurement device installed at three groundwater stations in Pohang, which is a test-bed, were compared and analyzed. As a result of the analysis, it was confirmed that the seismic occurrence correlated with radon, groundwater level, and electrical conductivity and all of these measured data will be able to provide basic data to help in seismic monitoring and prediction in the future.

• The Journal of Engineering Geology
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• v.10 no.2
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• pp.189-214
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• 2000

Three study areas of Kwanak campus(Seoul National University), Gapyung and Boeun were selected and classified according to bedrock types in order to investigate soil-gas radon concentrations. Several soil-gas samples showed relatively high radon concentrations in the residual soils which derived from granite bedrock. It also showed that water content of soil and the degree of radioactivity disequilibrium was a secondary factor governing radon emanation and distribution of radon radioactivity. The results of radon concentrations and working levels for forty rooms in Kwanak campus, Seoul National University, showed that indoor basement rooms under poor ventilation condition can be classified as high radon risk zone having more than EPA guideline(4 pCi/L). Some results of section analysis which was surveyed in the fault zone of Kyungju and Gapyung area confirmed the existence of fault-associated radon anomalies with a meaning of radon risk zone.

• Journal of radiological science and technology
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• v.43 no.2
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• pp.123-128
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• 2020

Radiation Following the 2011 Fukushima nuclear accident in Japan, public interest and anxiety about radiation safety increased, and vague anxiety about commonly exposed living radiation was generated. The Atomic Energy Safety Commission has been conducting a survey of processed products that advertise "negative ions" and "far-infrared" emissions under the Living Radiation Safety Management Act. In this study, in-depth analysis was performed from a statistical point of view using the measurement data presented in the Nuclear Safety Committee's actual survey analysis report as secondary data. As a result, there was a statistically significant difference (p<0.005) between latex and civil affairs products. There were also statistically significant differences (p<0.05) in the results of testing whether there were significant differences in the annual exposure dose between groups after categorizing 71 civil products, including radon beds, into bed, bedding, and living and other categories. The correlation analysis results also confirm that, as is commonly known, the annual doses received from processed products are associated with radon derived from U-238 and Th-232.

• 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 Environmental Health Sciences
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• v.48 no.1
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• pp.19-27
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• 2022

The industrial development and socioeconomic structures of a society are inextricably linked to occupational accidents and diseases. Since the 1970s, a series of major occupational diseases have occurred in South Korea, such as mercury poisoning in Munsong-myeon, carbon disulfide poisoning at Wonjin Rayon, and leukemia at Samsung Electronics. These incidents have caused us to take a critical look at the level of worker safety and health management within companies and the government. These serve as symbolic and representational events. Doctors, lawyers, and labor activists concerned about employee safety and lives came together for years to struggle with the government and industry in order to determine what caused the diseases and to obtain compensation for victims. They finally achieved recognition for occupational diseases and recompense for losses. It is difficult to find similar cases to the baby powder asbestos talc cases and the radon bed case internationally, or there is no case where such a large number of consumers have been potentially harmed. It is also difficult to prove that the damage took place due to the victims' diverse geographic locations and ages, as well as the disease's long incubation period. Based on this premise, businesses and the government have been apathetic in acknowledging these diseases and compensating for damages, with few practical outcomes. Furthermore, unlike the large-scale occupational disease cases, only a few people including expert groups were organized and actively participated in the settlement of these issues, so it remains unfinished business for our society to address.

• Journal of Soil and Groundwater Environment
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• v.15 no.6
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• pp.9-16
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• 2010

Groundwater sampling was performed at 38 wells where they are located in the areas with high uranium and radon (marked as A and B, respectively) concentrations, which were based on the previous research results. In-situ parameters (temperature, pH, EC, Eh, DO) and natural radionuclides (uranium and radon) were analyzed to figure out the characteristics of groundwater environments. In-situ data did not show any relations to natural radionuclide data, which could be caused by groundwater mixing, depths of wells, and geological settings, etc. But the highest radon well presented relatively low temperature value and the highest uranium well presented relatively low pH values The highest uranium concentration ranging $1.14{\sim}188.19{\mu}g/L$ showed in the area of A region consisted of Jurassic two-mica granite. The areas of Jurassic biotite granite and Cretaceous granite in the A region have the uranium concentrations ranging $0.10{\sim}49.78{\mu}g/L$ and $0.36{\sim}3.01{\mu}g/L$, respectively. The uranium values from between wells of community water systems (CWSs) penetrating fractured bed-rock aquifers and personal boreholes settled in shallow aquifers near the wells of CWSs show big differences. It implies that the groundwaters of the two areas have evolved from different water-rock interaction paths that may caused by various types of wells having different aquifers. High radon activities in the area of B region composed of Precambrian gneiss showed ranging from 6,770 to 64,688 pCi/L. Even though the wells are located in the same geological settings, their rodon concentration presented different according to depth and distance.

• Journal of Radiation Industry
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• v.18 no.3
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• pp.183-193
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• 2024

As part of the social response to the radon bed incident in 2018, the Nuclear Safety and Security Commission took measures to collect and dispose of all radon beds. The Waste Management Act provides landfill disposal as one of the disposal methods for natural radioactive product waste, which is one of the NORM wastes. When NORM wastes are landfilled, workers and the public at the landfill site are exposed to radiation through various pathways, such as leaching of radionuclides through soil and groundwater, and multiple exposure factors are involved simultaneously. In order to improve the reliability of radiological impact assessment, the values of main exposure factors should be selected more accurately. Therefore, before developing the main exposure factors for site characteristics, it is necessary to prioritize main exposure factors reflecting domestic characteristics of NORM waste landfills. Therefore, in this study, the main exposure factors for NORM waste landfill were derived using NDD analysis. To derive the main exposure factors, the analysis tool was first selected as RESRAD-ONSITE computer code, and the exposure scenarios were mainly selected as a resident farmer and suburban resident scenario, recreation scenario, and industrial worker scenario. Then, the priority 1 and 2 factors were selected for sensitivity analysis, and a Korean standard model was established to reflect Korean characteristics. Finally, the sensitivity analysis was conducted through NDD, and the main exposure factors were derived based on this. In the resident farmer scenario, the contaminated zone distribution coefficients of ²²⁶Ra, ²¹⁰Pb, ²³²Th, ²²⁸Ra, ²³⁴U, and ²³⁸U, as well as precipitation and evapotranspiration factors, were derived as the main exposure factors. In the suburban resident scenario, the contaminated zone distribution coefficients of ²²⁶Ra, ²¹⁰Pb, ²³²Th, ²²⁸Ra, ²³⁴U, and ²³⁸U, as well as precipitation and evapotranspiration coefficients, were derived as the main exposure factors. In the recreation scenario, the contaminated zone distribution coefficient of ²³²Th was derived as the main exposure factor. For the industrial worker scenario, the erosion rate was derived as the main exposure factor. The main exposure factors for each scenario were analyzed to be different depending on the scenario characteristics. The results of this study can be utilized as a basis for radiological environmental impact assessment of NORM waste landfill in Korea.