• Economic and Environmental Geology
• /
• v.29 no.2
• /
• pp.215-225
• /
• 1996

All the radionuclides in high-level nuclear waste will decay to harmless levels eventually but for some radionuclides decay is so slow that their radiation remains dangerous for times on the order of tens or hundreds of thousands of years. At the present time, the most favorite disposal plan for high-level radioactive waste is a mined geological disposal in which canister enclosing stable solid form of radioactive waste is placed in mined cavities locating hundred meters below the surface. The chief hazard in such disposal is dissolution of radionuclides from the waste in the groundwater that will eventually carry the dissolved radionuclides to surface environments. The hazard from possible escape of the radionuclides through groundwater can be delayed by engineered and geologic barriers. The engineered barriers can become useless by unexpected geologic catastrophe such as volcanism, earthquake, and tectonic movement and by fraudulent work such as careless construction, improperly welded canisters within the first few decades or centuries. As a result, dangerously radioactive waste which is still intensively radioactive is directly exposed to attack by moving groundwater. All the more, it is almost impossible to control repositories for times more than 10,000 years. Therefore, naturally controlled geologic, barriers whose properties will not be changed within 10,000 years are important to guarantee the safety of repositories of high-level radioactive waste. In Sweden and France, the suitability of granite for the mined geological disposal of high-level waste has been studied intensively. According to the research in Sweden and France, granites has the following physio-chemical characteristics which can delay the transportation of radionuclide by groundwater. First, the permeabilities of granites decreases as the depth increases and is $10^{-8}{\sim}10^{-12}m/s$ at depth below 300 m. Second, groundwater at depth below 300 m has pH=7-9 and reducing condition (Eh=-0.1~0.4). This geochemical condition is desirable to prevent both canister and solid waste from corrosion. Third most radionuclides are not transported by low solubilities and some radionuclide with high solubility such as Cs and Sr are retarded by absorption of geologic media through which ground water flows. Therefore, if high-level waste is disposed at depth below 300 m in the granite body which has a low permeability and is geologically stable more than 10,000 years, the safety of repositories from the hazard due to radionuclide escape can guaranteed for more than 10,000 years.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Landscape Architecture
• /
• v.39 no.2
• /
• pp.65-72
• /
• 2011

Since walking and physical activity are critical for older adults to maintain their health, it is important to provide neighborhood environments which encourage their walking in daily life. The purposes of the present study were to investigate walking activity patterns of older people in an urban setting and to identify environmental correlates with walking of older adults. This study examined spatial and temporal patterns of physical activities, environmental barriers and motivations, satisfaction levels and demands on the physical environment. In-depth interviews with older adults over age sixty residing in Seoul metropolitan areas revealed that most respondents have a positive perception on walking in daily life, and many of them walk regularly for their health. A primary purpose of walking for older adults was exercise for health rather than transportation. The study result demonstrated that parks and trails were the most preferred places for walking by older adults, and there is an association between frequency of walking participation and access or convenience to parks, traffic safety, and street lights. Most respondents were concerned about traffic safety when they walk in their neighborhoods due to traffic speeds and unsafe streets. Lack of separate sidewalks or benches, stairs and slopes were barriers to older adults' walking habits. This data suggests that the promotion of walking behavior among older adults, some level of public health action, and community support are needed to ensure safe physical environments within communities.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
• /
• v.38 no.2
• /
• pp.163-169
• /
• 2005

Objectives: Pedestrian traffic injuries have been an important cause of childhood mortality and morbidity for decades. The aim of this study was to describe the epidemiological characteristics of child pedestrian traffic injuries that occurred during 2000 in one metropolitan city and its school-zones, and to determine the factors associated with those accidents. Methods: A cross-sectional study was performed in 2001. Police records were used to identify the cases of pedestrian injury. Children aged between 6 and 15 years, injured during road walking, were included in this study. A direct survey of the environmental factors within the school-zones in study area (n=116) was also performed. Self-administered questionnaires, via mail and telephone surveys, were used to assess the safety education programmes. The schools were divided into two groups according to the occurrence of pedestrian traffic injuries in their school-zone. Results: Pedestrian injuries (n=597) were found to account for 3.2% of all traffic injuries in the subject area. The epidemiological characteristics were not significantly different between genders. There were some significant risk factors within the environmental factors, such as local road (OR: 2.3, 95% CI=1.05-5.35), heavy traffic volume (OR: 2.2, 95% CI=1.00-5.04), poor visibility of speed-limit signs (OR: 2.8, 95% CI=1.25-6.42), no separation of pedestrian routes from cars (OR: 2.6, 95% CI=1.02-6.75) and barriers on the pedestrian routes (OR: 2.2, 95% CI=1.01-5.08). Only one factor, that of education in a safety-park (OR: 0.3, 95% CI=0.09-0.96), was significantly associated in the traffic and pedestrian safety education factors. Conclusion: Significant associations with pedestrian injury risk were identified in some of the modifiable environmental factors than in the educational factors.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
• /
• v.90 no.6
• /
• pp.531-542
• /
• 2024

This study proposes a ground anchor using electromagnetic induction and utilizes an extended structure using hinges and links and mounting and sensing using electromagnets. The aim is to secure the anchor force, excluding grout, and to secure various sensing capabilities, including ground behavior. We propose a design based on the drilling diameter of 150 mm, and the materials used were STS304 and Aluminum 6061-T6. Computerized analysis was performed to confirm structural safety and functional implementation. The pull-out experiment was conducted by simulating the bedrock environment on a model earthwork as an experiment to check whether anchor force was generated by the insertion and tension of the anchor. The environmental pollution of grout, the difficulty of removing strands, and the inability to check whether the anchor is seated, which were pointed out as disadvantages of the existing ground anchor, were solved. Therefore, this study suggest that it can be effectively utilized as a secure and monitored anchoring solution in eco-friendly construction practices, including the installation of landslide prevention barriers.

• Wind and Structures
• /
• v.31 no.3
• /
• pp.185-196
• /
• 2020

A method to reduce the wind pressure at the leading edge of a noise barrier was investigated by gradually lowering the height of a member added to the end of the noise barrier. The shape of the lowered height of the added member was defined by its length and slope, and the optimal variable was determined in wind tunnel testing via the boundary-layer wind profile. The goal of the optimal shape was to reduce the wind pressure at the leading edge of the noise barrier to the level suggested in the Eurocode and to maintain the base-bending moment of the added member at the same level as the noise-barrier section. Using parametric wind tunnel investigation, an added member with a slope of 1:2 that protruded 1.2 times the height of the noise barrier was proposed. This added member is expected to simplify, or at least minimize, the types of column members required to equidistantly support both added members and noise barriers, which should thereby improve the safety and construction convenience of noise-barrier structures.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
• /
• v.42 no.1
• /
• pp.1-8
• /
• 2010

Geological disposal is designed to provide safe containment of radioactive waste for very long times, with the containment provided by a combination of engineered and geological barriers. In the extreme long term, after many thousands of years or longer, residual amounts of long-lived radionulides such as Cl-36, but also radionuclides in the natural decay chains, may be released into the environment normally accessed and used by humans, termed here, the biosphere. It is necessary to ensure that any such releases meet radiation protection objectives through the development of a safety case, which will include assessment of radiation doses to humans. The design of such dose calculations over such long timeframes is not straightforward, because of the range of potentially relevant assumptions which could be made, concerning environmental change and changes in human behavior. These conceptual uncertainties are additional to those that more typically arise, for example, in the assessment of present day situations, but which also have to be addressed. The issue has therefore been subject to international cooperation for many years. This paper summarizes the evolution and results of that collaboration leading up to the present day, taking account of developments in international recommendations on radiation protection objectives and the more recent greater focus on preparation of site specific safety cases.

• Journal of The Korea Institute of Healthcare Architecture
• /
• v.22 no.4
• /
• pp.29-36
• /
• 2016

Purpose: Considering the proportion of the population such as the elderly, pregnant women, infants companion and constantly increasing foreign tourists, there is a high need for implementing an environment without barriers. In terms of policy and institutional aspects, Jeju Special Self-Governing Province is striving to create an environment without barriers and to promote the safety and convenience of Vulnerable Pedestrians. But it is not enough to create a viable barrier-free environment. Methods: Method of this research is to analyze the general population status and installed facilities status for the disabled in Jeju. And analysis of policy research needs and level of barrier-free. By applying the barrier-free environment certification standards should conduct an assessment of the level of the current public office buildings in Jeju. It presents the environmental improvement of public office buildings for barrier-free environment. Result: Barrier-free environment status of the five public office buildings research surveyed all buildings have shown low levels of installed facilities for the disabled. In particular, it was analyzed that represents a very low level in the intermediate facilities and other facilities. The development of a specific installation manual for the facilities for the disabled is required to improve public office buildings. And barrier-free criteria need to reflect on the implementation of regulations. Implications: Through continuous research to analyze the barrier-free level and problems of public office buildings, it will be made to improve the comprehensive and reasonable alternative.

• Safety and Health at Work
• /
• v.14 no.2
• /
• pp.201-206
• /
• 2023

Background: Despite workplaces having policies on fire evacuation, many employees still fail to evacuate when there is a fire alarm. The Reasoned Action Approach is designed to reveal the beliefs underlying people's behavioral decisions and thus suggests causal determinants to be addressed with interventions designed to facilitate behavior. This study is a uses a Reasoned Action Approach salient belief elicitation to identify university employees' perceived advantages/disadvantages, approvers/disapprovers, and facilitators/barriers toward them leaving the office building immediately the next time they hear a fire alarm at work. Methods: Employees at a large public United States Midwestern university completed an online cross-sectional survey. A descriptive analysis of the demographic and background variables was completed, and a six-step inductive content analysis of the open-ended responses was conducted to identify beliefs about leaving during a fire alarm. Results: Regarding consequence, participants perceived that immediately leaving during a fire alarm at work had more disadvantages than advantages, such as low risk perception. Regarding referents, supervisors and coworkers were significant approvers with intention to leave immediately. None of the perceived advantages were significant with intention. Participants listed access and risk perception as significant circumstances with the intention to evacuate immediately. Conclusion: Norms and risk perceptions are key determinants that may influence employees to evacuate immediately during a fire alarm at work. Normative-based and attitude-based interventions may prove effective in increasing the fire safety practices of employees.

• Journal of Auto-vehicle Safety Association
• /
• v.15 no.2
• /
• pp.42-48
• /
• 2023

In recent years, automated vehicles have garnered attention in the multidisciplinary research field, promising increased safety on the road and new opportunities for passengers. High-Definition (HD) maps have been in development for many years as they offer roadmaps with inch-perfect accuracy and high environmental fidelity, containing precise information about pedestrian crossings, traffic lights/signs, barriers, and more. Demonstrating autonomous driving requires verification of driving on actual roads, but this can be challenging, time-consuming, and costly. To overcome these obstacles, creating HD maps of real roads in a simulation and conducting virtual driving has become an alternative solution. However, existing HD maps using high-precision data are expensive and time-consuming to build, which limits their verification in various environments and on different roads. Thus, it is challenging to demonstrate autonomous driving on anything other than extremely limited roads and environments. In this paper, we propose a new and simple method for implementing HD maps that are more accessible for autonomous driving demonstrations. Our HD map combines the CARLA simulator and OpenStreetMap (OSM) data, which are both open-source, allowing for the creation of HD maps containing high-accuracy road information globally with minimal dependence. Our results show that our easily accessible HD map has an accuracy of 98.28% for longitudinal length on straight roads and 98.42% on curved roads. Moreover, the accuracy for the lateral direction for the road width represented 100% compared to the manual method reflected with the exact road data. The proposed method can contribute to the advancement of autonomous driving and enable its demonstration in diverse environments and on various roads.

• The Journal of Sustainable Design and Educational Environment Research
• /
• v.14 no.2
• /
• pp.26-36
• /
• 2015

The new town was assumed that there is a difference between the country's elementary school environment. First, given the important elements of the school safety plan in order to verify this, and we plan to set up each of these elements by safety criteria. In the second chapter in order to achieve the objective of this study was to develop indicators to evaluate the safety of the school environment influences the safety of the school environment through the theoretical consideration. In Chapter 3, the difference in safety through the new elementary school survey of metropolitan areas was given a score per item per item depending on the evaluation criteria. The fourth section is the difference between safety school environment can be summarized as the following analytical results that the difference between the new city. The results of this study as follows: First, the characteristics of the elementary school environment showed a significant difference between the new town. Second, school location, terrain characteristics, bike paths and pedestrian to the installation, the safety of landscape installations, installing median barriers, traffic safety facilities, speed bumps, separation of pedestrian and vehicle circulation in the front door, scores of elements of the plan such as parking scheme there is a difference between the new town. Third, the introduction of elements of the plan such as Traffic calming or Traffic Island installation techniques was found lacking.