• Korean Journal of Clinical Laboratory Science
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• v.50 no.3
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• pp.359-369
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• 2018

An essential measure to prevent healthcare-associated infections (HAI) is to develop a consistent system of surveillance, thereby promoting a reliable situation diagnosis to perform efficient control for the problem. Patient-to-patient transmission of pathogens within the hospital plays a substantial role in the epidemiology of HAIs. Contamination of healthcare environments commonly occurs, including facilities surfaces (e.g., bed rails, bedside tables), drinking water, cooling tower water, endoscopic instruments, food, airborne, endotoxin test, sterile test and medical equipment, with pathogenic organisms. In addition, epidemiological analysis is performed by multi locus sequence tying, pulsed-field gel electrophoresis for active surveillance. Therefore, an environmental surveillance culture test for prevention improves patient safety and blocks infection agents. Effective infection control and increased safety are possible by controlling the national infection control system. In conclusion, this study contributes to an effective infection control system through the standardization of active surveillance culture laboratory and secure expertise as infection control specialist. The primary objective of the standardization is to improve the safety of the nation's healthcare system by reducing the rates of HAIs.

• Journal of Radiation Industry
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• v.9 no.4
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• pp.217-221
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• 2015

When reactor coolant leaks occur due to cracks of a steam generator's tube, radioactive materials contained in the primary cooling water in nuclear power plant are forced out toward the secondary systems. At this time the secondary water purification resin in the ion exchange resin tower of the steam generator blowdown system is contaminated by the radioactivity of the leaked radioactive materials, so we pack this in special containers and store temporarily because we could not dispose it by ourselves. If steam generator tube leakage occurs, it produces contaminated spent resins annually about 5,000~7,000 liters. This may increase the amount of nuclear waste productions, a disposal working cost and a unit price of generating electricity in the plant. For this reasons, it is required to develop a decontamination process technique for reducing the radioactive level of these resins enough to handle by the self-disposal method. In this research, First, Investigated the structure and properties of the ion exchange resin used in a steam generator blowdown system. Second, Checked for a occurrence status of contaminated spent resin and a disposal technology. Third, identified the chemical characteristics of the waste radionuclides of the spent resin, and examined ionic bonding and separation mechanism of radioactive nuclear species and a spent resin. Finally, we carried out the decontamination experiment using chemicals, ultrasound, microbubbles, supercritical carbon dioxide to process these spent resin. In the case of the spent resin decontamination method using chemicals, the higher the concentration of the drug decontamination efficiency was higher. In the ultrasound method, foreign matter of the spent resin was removed and was found that the level of radioactivity is below of the MDA. In the microbubbles method, we found that the concentration of the radioactivity decreased after the experiment, so it can be used to the decontamination process of the spent resin. In supercritical carbon dioxide method, we found that it also had a high decontamination efficiency. According to the results of these experiments, almost all decontamination method had a high efficiency, but considering the amounts of the secondary waste productions and work environment of the nuclear power plant, we judged the ultrasound and supercritical carbon dioxide method are suitable for application to the plant and we established the plant applicable decontamination process system on the basis of these two methods.

• Journal of Environmental Health Sciences
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• v.47 no.5
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• pp.472-478
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• 2021

Background: The Legionella case detection and notification rate have increased in public artificial water environments where people visit, including large buildings, public baths, and hospitals. Objectives: In this study, the distribution of Legionella and its epidemiologic characteristics were analyzed in the water systems of public facilities in Chungcheongnam-do Province in South Korea. Methods: Culture and PCR analysis were performed on 2,991 environmental water system samples collected from 2017 to 2019, and associations with year, facilities, seasons, and temperature of water system were statistically analyzed by using R-Studio for Windows. Descriptive data was compared using chi-square tests and independent t-tests. Results: The detection rate of Legionella increased from 3.1% in 2017 to 10.3% in 2019, appearing most frequently in the order of public baths, large-scale buildings, hospitals, and apartments. It was detected mainly in summer from June to August, over 1.0×10³ CFU/L on average in 133 cases (66.5%). Lots of germs were detected in bathtub water, cooling tower water, and warm water (p<0.001), and it was detected at higher rates in the cities where multipurpose facilities were concentrated than in rural areas (p=0.018). Conclusions: This study suggests that continuous monitoring and control are required for Legionella in the water system environment of high risk facilities. Moreover, these results will be helpful to prepare efficient management plans to prevent the Legionellosis that occurs in Chungcheongnam-do Province.

• Applied Chemistry for Engineering
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• v.27 no.4
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• pp.391-396
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• 2016

The absorption efficiency of amine $CO_2$ absorbent (KoSol-5) developed by KEPCO research institute was evaluated using a 0.1 MW test bed. The performance of post-combustion technology to capture two tons of $CO_2$ per day from a slipstream of the flue gas from a 500 MW coal-fired power station was first confirmed in Korea. Also the analysis of the absorbent regeneration energy was conducted to suggest the reliable data for the KoSol-5 absorbent performance. And we tested energy reduction effects by improving the absorption tower inter-cooling system. Overall results showed that the $CO_2$ removal rate met the technical guideline ($CO_2$ removal rate : 90%) suggested by IEA-GHG. Also the regeneration energy of the KoSol-5 showed about $3.05GJ/tonCO_2$ which was about 25% reduction in the regeneration energy compared to that of using the commercial absorbent MEA (Monoethanolamine). Based on current experiments, the KoSol-5 absorbent showed high efficiency for $CO_2$ capture. It is expected that the application of KoSol-5 to commercial scale $CO_2$ capture plants could dramatically reduce $CO_2$ capture costs.