• 한국지하수토양환경학회지:지하수토양환경
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• 제13권5호
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• pp.8-19
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• 2008

우라늄 함량이 높은 흑색 셰일 및 점판암이 주요 기반암인 괴산군 청천면 덕평리 일대 토양의 물리/화학적 특성을 규명하였고, 토양으로부터 우라늄을 제거하기위한 다양한 세척용액 및 세척조건을 적용한 실내 세척 실험을 실시하여, 토양 세척법이 우라늄 함량이 높은 토양으로부터 우라늄을 제거하는데 효과적인 방법임을 입증하였다. 총 8지점 토양 시료의 우라늄 농도를 분석하여 인공강우 용출실험(SPLP), 독성물질 용출실험(TCLP)을 실시한 결과 가장 우라늄함량이 높은 S2 토양의 경우 SPLP 용출 농도가 USEPA 음용수 기준치(30 ${\mu}g$/L)를 초과하여 토양으로부터 주변수계로의 지속적인 오염 가능성이 있는 것으로 나타났으며, 연속추출실험(SEP) 결과 약산 강우에 의해 토양으로부터 우라늄 용출이 발생할 수 있는 것으로 판단되었다. 토양으로부터 우라늄을 제거하기위하여 다양한 세척액과 세척조건을 적용하여 토양 세척 실험을 실시한 결과, pH 1인 산성용액, 염산 0.1 M 용액, 황산 0.05 M 용액, 구연산 0.5M 용액을 세척액으로 사용하는 경우 우라늄 제거 효율이 80% 이상이었으며, 아세트산과 EDTA 용액의 경우 30%이하의 낮은 제거율을 나타내었다. 토양/세척액 비율은 1 : 3, 세척 시간을 30분, 토양 당 반복 세척 회수를 2회로 설정하여 위의 세척용액들을 이용하는 경우, 실제 우라늄 함량이 매우 높은 S2 토양 주변 현장에서 토양 세척법이 우라늄 제거에 효과적으로 적용될 수 있을 것으로 판단되었다. 세척 전/후 토양의 총유기탄소함량(TOC), 양이온 교환 능력(CEC)을 측정하였고, X-선형광분석(XRF)과 X-선회절분석(XRD)을 실시하여 비교함으로써 세척 후 토양 특성 변화를 규명하였다. 세척 후 토양의 TOC와 CEC가 각각 55%, 66%까지 감소하여 세척한 토양을 작물재배용으로 재사용할 경우 적절한 개량제를 첨가하는 것이 바람직할 것으로 나타났다. 세척 전/후 토양의 XRF 및 XRD 분석 결과, 산세척에 의한 토양의 주요 성분과 광물 구조 변화는 심각하지 않은 것으로 나타나 pH 회복을 위한 추가 물 세척 후 세척 토양을 재활용 할 수 있을 것으로 판단되었다.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• 제52권2호
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• pp.328-336
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• 2020

Cesium is a major product of uranium fission, which is the most commonly existed radionuclide in radioactive wastes. Various technologies have been applied to separate radioactive cesium from radioactive wastes, such as chemical precipitation, solvent extraction, membrane separation and adsorption. Crown ethers and calixarenes derivatives can selectively coordinate with cesium ions by ion-dipole interaction or cation-π interaction, which are promising extractants for cesium ions due to their promising coordinating structure. This review systematically summarized and analyzed the recent advances in the crown ethers and calixarenes derivatives for cesium separation, especially focusing on the adsorbents based on extractants for cesium removal from aqueous solution, such as the grafting coordinating groups (e.g. crown ether and calixarenes) and coordinating polymers (e.g. MOFs) due to their unique coordination ability and selectivity for cesium ions. These adsorbents combined the advantages of extraction and adsorption methods and showed high adsorption capacity for cesium ions, which are promising for cesium separation The key restraints for cesium separation, as well as the newest progress of the adsorbents for cesium separation were also discussed. Finally, some concluding remarks and suggestions for future researches were proposed.

• 공업화학
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• 제9권2호
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• pp.232-237
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• 1998

본 연구에서는 19계 성분 원소들이 함유된 모의 방사성 용액으로부터 미량 잔존하고 있는 U을 분리하기 위한 최적 조건 설정 및 연속공정으로의 구성을 최적화하기 위한 공정 평가를 수행하였다. 실험은 TBP에 의한 용매추출 공정을 선정하여 총 18단 2조의 연속식 용매추출 장치인 혼합정치조를 이용하였다. U, Np, 및 Tc의 추출율은 각각 99.2%, 32.1%, 및 99.9%이며, 기타 원소들은 1~4% 전도가 추출되었다. U의 경우 다성분계 회분식에서 얻어진 Nd나 Fe와 같은 공존원소의 영향으로 인하여 U이 약 80% 정도만이 추출된다는 기존 보고를 능가하는 것으로, 이는 다단 연속추출 장치의 특성에 기인하는 것 같다. 그리고 Np의 추출율 감소는 질산용액에 존재하는 다양한 산화가 상태에 기인하며, Tc의 경우는 Tc과 공존하고 있는 Zr 또는 U과의 착물 형성에 의해 추출율이 증가된 것으로 사료된다. 한편 유기상으로 추출된 모든 원소들은 0.01M의 질산에 의해 99% 이상이 수용상으로 역추출되었다. 이상의 결과로부터 TBP에 의한 잔존 U 제거 공정은 별 문제가 없다. 다만 Np이 추잔상과 U 생성물로 각각 분배되어 있으므로 방사성 핵종의 확산방지 측면에서 이를 한 공정에서 총괄 처리할 수 있는 공정 개발이 요구된다.

• 방사성폐기물학회지
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• 제21권3호
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• pp.383-395
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• 2023

Since 1997, the Republic of Korea (ROK) has been developing pyro-processing (Pyro) technology to reduce the disposal burden of high-level radioactive waste by recycling spent nuclear fuel (SNF). Compared to plutonium and uranium extraction process, Korean Pyro technology has relatively excellent proliferation resistance that cannot separate pure plutonium owing to its intrinsic characteristics. Regarding Pyro technology development of ROK, the Bush administration considered that Pyro is not reprocessing under the Global Nuclear Energy Partnership, whereas the Obama administration considered that Pyro is subject to reprocessing. However, the Bush and Obama administrations did not allow ROK to conduct full Pyro activities using SNF, even though ROK had faithfully complied with international nonproliferation obligations. This is because the US nuclear nonproliferation policy to prevent the spread of sensitive technologies, such as enrichment and reprocessing, has a strong effect on ROK, unlike Japan, on a bilateral level beyond the NPT regime for non-proliferation of nuclear weapons.

• Journal of Radiation Protection and Research
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• 제41권2호
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• pp.117-121
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• 2016

Background: Definition and grouping of initiating events (IEs) are important basics for probabilistic safety assessment (PSA). An IE in a spent fuel reprocessing plant (SFRP) is an event that probably leads to the release of dangerous material to jeopardize workers, public and environment. The main difference between SFRPs and nuclear power plants (NPPs) is that hazard materials spread diffusely in a SFRP and radioactive material is just one kind of hazard material. Materials and Methods: Since the research on IEs for NPPs is in-depth around the world, there are several general methods to identify IEs: reference of lists in existence, review of experience feedback, qualitative analysis method, and deductive analysis method. While failure mode and effect analysis (FMEA) is an important qualitative analysis method, master logic diagram (MLD) method is the deductive analysis method. IE identification in SFRPs should be consulted with the experience of NPPs, however the differences between SFRPs and NPPs should be considered seriously. Results and Discussion: The plutonium uranium reduction extraction (Purex) process is adopted by the technics in a model reprocessing plant. The first extraction cycle (FEC) is the pivotal process in the Purex process. Whether the FEC can function safely and steadily would directly influence the production process of the whole plant-production quality. Important facilities of the FEC are installed in the equipment cells (ECs). In this work, IEs in the FEC process were identified and categorized by FMEA and MLD two methods, based on the fact that ECs are containments in the plant. Conclusion: The results show that only two ECs in the FEC do not need to be concerned particularly with safety problems, and criticality, fire and red oil explosion are IEs which should be emphatically analyzed. The results are accordant with the references.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• 제55권10호
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• pp.3913-3923
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• 2023

Todays, medium energy resolution detectors are preferably used in radioisotope identification devices(RID) in nuclear and radioactive material categorization. However, there is still a need to develop or enhance « automated identifiers » for the useful RID algorithms. To decide whether any material is SNM or NORM, a key parameter is the better energy resolution of the detector. Although masking, shielding and gain shift/stabilization and other affecting parameters on site are also important for successful operations, the suitability of the RID algorithm is also a critical point to enhance the identification reliability while extracting the features from the spectral analysis. In this study, a RID algorithm based on Bayesian statistical method has been modified for medium energy resolution detectors and applied to the uranium gamma-ray spectra taken by a LaBr3:Ce detector. The present Bayesian RID algorithm covers up to 2000 keV energy range. It uses the peak centroids, the peak areas from the measured gamma-ray spectra. The extraction features are derived from the peak-based Bayesian classifiers to estimate a posterior probability for each isotope in the ANSI library. The program operations were tested under a MATLAB platform. The present peak based Bayesian RID algorithm was validated by using single isotopes(²⁴¹Am, ⁵⁷Co, ¹³⁷Cs, ⁵⁴Mn, ⁶⁰Co), and then applied to five standard nuclear materials(0.32-4.51% at.²³⁵U), as well as natural U- and Th-ores. The ID performance of the RID algorithm was quantified in terms of F-score for each isotope. The posterior probability is calculated to be 54.5-74.4% for ²³⁸U and 4.7-10.5% for ²³⁵U in EC-NRM171 uranium materials. For the case of the more complex gamma-ray spectra from CRMs, the total scoring (ST) method was preferred for its ID performance evaluation. It was shown that the present peak based Bayesian RID algorithm can be applied to identify ²³⁵U and ²³⁸U isotopes in LEU or natural U-Th samples if a medium energy resolution detector is was in the measurements.

• 한국방사성폐기물학회:학술대회논문집
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• 한국방사성폐기물학회 2004년도 Proceedings of the 4th Korea-China Joint Workshop on Nuclear Waste Management
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• pp.150-164
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• 2004

According to the Korean long-term plan for nuclear technology development, KAERI is conducting a few R&D projects related to the proliferation-resistant back-end fuel cycle. The R&D activities for the back-end fuel cycle are reviewed in this work, especially focusing on the study of the partitioning and transmutation(P&T) of long-lived radionuclides. The P&T study is currently being carried out in order to develop key technologies in the areas of partitioning and transmutation. The partitioning study is based on the development of pyroprocessing such as electrorefining and electrowinning because they can be adopted as proliferation-resistant technologies in the fuel cycle. In this study, various behaviors of the electrodeposition of uranium and rare earth elements in the LiCl-KCl electrorefining system have been examined through fundamental experimental work. As for the transmutation system, KAERI is studying the HYPER (HYbrid Power Extraction Reactor), a kind of subcritical reactor which will be connected with a proton accelerator. Up to now, a conceptual study has been carried out for the major elemental systems of the subcritical reactor such as core, transuranic fuel, long-lived fission product target, and the Pb-Bi cooling system, etc. In order to enhance the transmutation efficiency of the transuranic elements as well as to strengthen the reactor safety, the reactor core was optimized by determining its most suitable subcriticality, the ratio of height/diameter, and by introducing the concepts of optimum core configuration with a transuranic enrichment as well as a scattered reloading of the fuel assemblies.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• 제48권3호
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• pp.727-732
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• 2016

A simple and rapid spectrophotometric method has been developed to enable the determination of plutonium concentration in an irradiated fuel solution in the presence of all fission products. An excess of ceric ammonium nitrate solution was employed to oxidize all the valence states of plutonium to +6 oxidation state. Interference due to the presence of fission products such as ruthenium and zirconium, and corrosion products such as iron in the envisaged concentration range, as in the irradiated fuel solution, was studied in the determination of plutonium concentration by the direct spectrophotometric method. The stability of plutonium in +6 oxidation state was monitored under experimental conditions as a function of time. Results obtained are reproducible, and this method is applicable to radioactive samples resulting before the solvent extraction process during the reprocessing of fast reactor spent fuel. An analysis of the concentration of plutonium shows a relative standard deviation of <1.2% in standard as well as in simulated conditions. This reflects the fast reactor fuel composition with respect to uranium, plutonium, fission products such as ruthenium and zirconium, and corrosion products such as iron.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• 제41권1호
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• pp.99-106
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• 2009

The contents of transuranic elements ($^{237}Np$, $^{238}Pu$, $^{239}Pu$, $^{240}Pu$, $^{241}Am$, $^{244}Cm$, and $^{242}Cm$) in high-burnup spent fuel samples ($35.6{\sim}53.9\;GWd/MtU$) were determined by alpha spectrometry. Anion exchange chromatography and diethylhexyl phosphoric acid extraction chromatography were applied for the separation of these elements from the uranium matrix. The measured values of the nuclides were compared with ORIGEN-2 calculations. For plutonium, the measurements were higher than the calculations by about $2.6{\sim}32.7%$ on average according to each isotope, and those for americium and curium were also higher by about $35.9{\sim}63.1%$. However, for $^{237}Np$, the measurements were lower by about 52% on average for the samples.

• Journal of Radiation Protection and Research
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• 제24권4호
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• pp.187-193
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• 1999

국내 석탄화력발전소에서 발생되는 비산석탄회의 방사능 농도 분석을 수행하였고 재활용을 위한 방사능 함량의 유해도를 평가하였다. TBP 용매추출법과 알파스펙트로베타를 사용하여 비산석탄회에 존재하는 우라늄 동위원소($^{238}U,\;^{235}U,\;^{234}U$)의 방사능 농도를 측정하였으며, 감마스펙트로메타를 사용하여 $^{226}Ra,\;^{232}Th,\;^{40}K$ 등의 방사능 농도를 결정하였다. 우라늄 동위원소의 농도측정 결과 $^{238}U,\;^{235}U,\;^{234}U$의 방사능 농도는 평균적으로 각각 116.1, 5.01, 및 121.2 Bq $kg^{-1}$으로 나타났으며, $^{234}U/^{238}U$의 방사능 농도비는 $1.04\;{\pm}\;0.03$ 로서 자연상태의 토양중 방사능 농도 비인 1.14 와 유사하였다. 동일시료에 대한 감마측정 결과 $^{226}Ra,\;^{292}Th$ 및 $^{40}K$의 방사능 농도는 각각 $101.7\;{\sim}\;113.9,\;39.5\;{\sim}\;54.2$, 및 $315.0\;{\sim}\;990.6$ Bq $kg^{-1}$ 으로 나타났다. $^{226}Ra,\;^{292}Th$ 및 $^{40}K$ 동위원소의 농도를 사용하여 재활용 목적으로서의 비산석탄회의 방사능 함량 유해도를 평가하였고, 그 결과 본 연구의 대상물질인 비산석탄회의 방사능 함량은 허용기준치 이하로 나타났다.