• Proceedings of the Korean Radioactive Waste Society Conference
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• 2009.06a
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• pp.73-73
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• 2009

There are many factors to evaluate nuclear fuel cycle such as safety, public acceptance, economics, etc.. Transparency, proliferation, environment issues, public acceptance and safety are essential to expansion of nuclear industry and proliferation resistance is one of key constraints in the deployment of advanced nuclear energy systems. Proliferation resistance is being considered as one of the most important factors in assessing advanced and innovative nuclear systems. IAEA defmes proliferation resistance as characteristics of nuclear energy system that impedes the diversion or undeclared production of nuclear material [1]. Barriers to proliferation is consist of intrinsic and extrinsic barriers(institutional measures). Intrinsic barriers are characterized in material barriers and technical barriers in general. Material barriers is intrinsic, or inherent, qualities of materials that reduce the inherent desirability or attractiveness of the material as an explosive. Isotopic, chemical, radiological, mass and bulk, detectability barriers are considered as material barriers attributes [2]. Proliferation resistance is examined for several nuclear fuel cycles based on previous study which is focused on the intrinsic barriers [3-4]. Pyroprocessing and DUPIC are considered as reprocessing technologies in Korea and the PWR direct disposal is considered. Comparative assessments of the proliferation attributes and merits of different fuel cycle systems will be performed and the optimal back-end fuel cycle and strategy will be proposed.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.39 no.2
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• pp.149-160
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• 2007

The IAEA launched the International Project on Innovative Nuclear Reactors and Fuel Cycles (INPRO) and developed the INPRO Methodology to provide guidelines and to assess the characteristics of a future innovative nuclear energy system in areas such as safety, economics, waste management, and proliferation resistance. The proliferation resistance area of the INPRO Methodology is reviewed here, and modifications for further improvements are proposed. The evaluation metrics including the evaluation parameters, evaluation scales and acceptance limits are developed for a practical application of the methodology to assess the proliferation resistance. The proliferation resistant characteristics of the DUPIC fuel cycle are assessed by applying the modified INPRO Methodology based on the developed evaluation metrics and acceptance criteria. The evaluation procedure and the metrics can be utilized as a reference for an evaluation of the proliferation resistance of a future innovative nuclear energy system.

• The Korean Journal of Nuclear Medicine
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• v.38 no.2
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• pp.198-204
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• 2004

Tumor cell proliferation is considered to be a useful prognostic indicator of tumor aggressiveness and tumor response to therapy but in vitro measurement of individual proliferation is complex and tedious work. PET imaging provides a noninvasive approach to measure tumor growth rate in situ. Early approaches have used $^{18}F$-FDG or methionine to monitor proliferation status. These 2 tracers detect changes in glucose and amino acid metabolism, respectively, and therefore provide only an indirect measure of proliferation status. More recent studies have focused on DNA synthesis itself as a marker of cell proliferation. Cell lines and tissues with a high proliferation rate require high rates of DNA synthesis. $[^{11}C]Thymidine$ was the first radiotracer for noninvasive imaging of tumor proliferation. The short half-life of $^{11}C$ and rapid metabolism of $[^{11}C]Thymidine$ in vivo make the radiotracer less suitable for routing use. Halogenated thymidine analogs such as 5-iodo-2-deoxyuridine (IUdR) can be successfully used as cell proliferation markers for in vitro studies because these compounds are rapidly incorporated into newly synthesized DNA. IUdR has been evaluated as a potential in vivo tracer in nuclear medicing but the image qualify and the calculation of proliferation rates are impaired by its rapid in vivo degradation. Hence, the thymidine analog $3'-deoxy-3'-^{18}F-fluorothymidine$ (FLT) was recently introduced as a stable proliferation marker with a suitable nuclide half-life and stable in vivo. $[^{18}F]FLT$ is phosphorylated to 3-fluorothymidine monophosphate by thymidine kinase 1 and reflects thymidine kinase 1 activity in proliferating cell. $[^{18}F]FLT$ PET is feasible in clincal use and well correlates with cellular proliferation. Choline is a precursor for the biosynthesis of phospholipids (in particular, phosphatidylcholine), which is the essential component of all eukaryotic cell membranes and $[^{11}C]choline$, which is a new marker for cellular proliferation.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.42 no.3
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• pp.231-236
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• 2010

The growth in global energy demand and the increased recognition of the impacts of carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuel plants have aroused a renewed interest on nuclear energy. Many countries are looking afresh at building more nuclear power stations to deal with the twin problems of global warming and the need for more generating capacity. Many in the nuclear community are also anticipating a significant growth of new nuclear generation in the coming decades. If there is a nuclear renaissance, will the expansion of nuclear power be compatible with global non-proliferation and security? or will it add to the environmental burden from the large inventory of spent nuclear fuel already produced in existing nuclear power reactors? We learn from past peaceful nuclear activities that significant concerns associated with nuclear proliferation and spent-fuel management have resulted in a decrease in public acceptance for nuclear power in many countries. The terrorist attack in the United States (US) on September 11, 2001 also raised concern for security and worry that nuclear materials may fall into the wrong hands. As we increase the use of nuclear power, we must simultaneously reduce the proliferation, security and environmental risks in managing spent-fuel below where they are today.

• Proceedings of the Korean Radioactive Waste Society Conference
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• 2009.11a
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• pp.53-54
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• 2009

The preliminary quantitative analysis of proliferation resistance for the five nuclear fuel cycles demonstrated that the thermal MOX fuel cycle is most vulnerable to proliferation due to the presence of pure $PuO_2$ in the fuel cycle, while the once-through fuel cycle has the highest proliferation resistance. The innovative next generation fuel cycles such as Pyro-SFR and Wet-SFR were found to have similar levels of proliferation resistance to that of the DUPIC fuel cycle which is believed to have proliferation resistance strong enough for commercial deployment. The sensitivity analysis also demonstrated the effectiveness of the proposed methodology in applying to existing and/or newly developing nuclear fuel cycles so as to improve the proliferation resistance characteristic of the fuel cycle systems.

• Molecules and Cells
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• v.24 no.3
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• pp.424-430
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• 2007

The biological effects of low-dose radiation have been investigated and debated for more than a century, but its cellular effects and regulatory mechanisms remain poorly understood. This study shows the human cellular responses to low-dose radiation in CCD-18 Lu cells, which are derived from normal human lung fibroblasts. We examined a colony-forming assay for cell survival by ionizing radiation. Live cell counting and cell cycle analysis were measured for cell proliferation and cell cycle progression following low-dose irradiation. We examined Raf and Akt phosphorylation to determine the proliferation mechanism resulting from low-dose radiation. We also observed that p53 and p21 were related to cell cycle response. We found that 0.05 Gy of ionizing radiation enhanced cell proliferation and did not change the progression of the cell cycle. In addition, 0.05 Gy of ionizing radiation transiently activated Raf and Akt, but did not change phospho-p53, p53 and p21 in CCD-18 Lu cells. However, 2 Gy of ionizing radiation induced cell cycle arrest, phosphorylation of p53, and expression of p53 and p21. The phosphorylation of Raf and Akt proteins induced by 0.05 Gy of ionizing radiation was abolished by pre-treatment with an EGFR inhibitor, AG1478, or a PI3k inhibitor, LY294002. Cell proliferation stimulated by 0.05 Gy of ionizing radiation was blocked by the suppression of Raf and Akt phosphorylation with these inhibitors. These results suggest that 0.05 Gy of ionizing radiation stimulates cell proliferation through the transient activation of Raf and Akt in CCD-18 Lu cells.

• Proceedings of the Korean Radioactive Waste Society Conference
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• 2017.05a
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• pp.27-28
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• 2017

• The Korean Journal of Nuclear Medicine
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• v.36 no.4
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• pp.209-223
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• 2002

By considering the biological properties of a tumor, it should be possible to realize better results in cancer therapy. PET imaging offers the opportunity to measure tumor growth non-invasively and repeatedly as an early assessment of response to cancer therapy. Measuring cellular growth instead of energy metabolism showed offer significant advantages in evaluating therapy. Thymidine and its derivative nucleoside compounds can be changed to mono, di- and tri- phosphate compounds by thymidine kinase and then be incorporated into DNA. Their bindings are increased in highly proliferating cells due to the high DNA synthesis rate. To evaluate cell proliferation, many kinds of thymidine and uridine derivatives have been labeled with positron emitter and radioactive iodine. Compared to radiopharmaceuticals which have radioisotope labeled base ring such as pyirmidine, the radiopharmacuticals which have radioisotope labeled sugar ring are more stable in vivo and have metabolic resistance. The biological properties such as DNA incorporation ratios are highly dependent on their chemical structures and metabolic processes. This overview describes synthesis of radiopharmaceuticals and their biological properties for imaging of tumor cell proliferation.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.51 no.2
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• pp.510-517
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• 2019

Increasing proliferation resistance of plutonium by way of increased $^{238}Pu$ content is of interest to the nuclear nonproliferation and international safeguards community. Considering the high alpha decay heat of $^{238}Pu$, increasing the isotopic fraction leads to a noticeably higher amount of heat generation within the plutonium. High heat generation is especially unattractive in the scenario of weaponization. Upon weaponization of the plutonium, the plutonium may generate enough heat to elevate the temperature in the high explosives to above its self-explosion temperature, rendering the weapon useless. In addition, elevated temperatures will cause thermal expansion in the components of a nuclear explosive device that may produce thermal stresses high enough to produce failure in the materials, reducing the effectiveness of the weapon. Understanding the technical limit of $^{238}Pu$ required to reduce the possibility of weaponization is key to reducing the current limit on safeguarded plutonium (greater than 80 at. % $^{238}Pu$). The plutonium vector evaluated in this study was found by simulating public information on Lightbridge's fuel design for pressurized water reactors. This study explores the temperature profile and maximum stress within a simple (first generation design) hypothetical nuclear explosive device of four unique scenarios over time. Analyzing the transient development of both the temperature profile and maximum stress not only establishes a technical limit on the $^{238}Pu$ content, but also establishes a time limit for which each scenario would be useable.

• Proceedings of the Korean Nuclear Society Conference
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• 1998.10a
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• pp.379-379
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• 1998