• Tunnel and Underground Space
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• v.34 no.2
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• pp.104-126
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• 2024

Buffer and backfill play an essential role in isolating high-level radioactive waste and retard the migration of leaked radionuclides in deep geological disposal system. A bentonite mixture, which exhibits a swelling property, is considered for buffer and backfill materials, and excessive groundwater inflow from surrounding rock mass may affect stability and efficiency of their role as an engineered barrier. Therefore, stringent quality control as well as in-situ installation management and inflow water constrol for buffer and backfill are required to ensure the safety of deep disposal facilities. In this study, we analyzed the design requirements of buffer and backfill by examining various laboratory tests and a field study of the Steel Tunnel Test at the Äspö Hard Rock Laboratory in Sweden. We introduced how to control the quality of buffer and backfill construction in-field, and also presented how to handle excessive groundwater inflow into disposal caverns, validating the groundwater retention capacity of bentonite pellets and the effectiveness of geotexile use.

• Journal of the Korean Ceramic Society
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• v.39 no.2
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• pp.204-209
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• 2002

In this study, $UO_4{\cdot}2NH_4F$, the precipitates which has low solubility, was obtained by chemical precipitation method to recover and reuse the trace uranium from the liquid waste producing in AUC process and for this compound it was characterized by means of chemical analysis, TG-DTA, XRD and FT-IR analyses. This compound was analyzed as $UO_4{\cdot}2NH_4F$ and shape of this precipitate was hexagonal type, having the size of 2∼3 ${\mu}m$. Also, the intermediates were obtained as $UO_4F,\;UO_4,\;UO_3,\;and\;U_3O_8$ by the thermal decomposition over the temperature of 220, 310, 515 and 640$^{\circ}C$, respectively. It is concluded that under the condition of a constant heating rate of 5$^{\circ}C$/min in air atmosphere range of between room temperature and 800$^{\circ}C$, thermal decomposition reaction mechanism of $UO_4{\cdot}2NH_4F$ is as follow; $UO_4{\cdot}2NH_4F{\rightarrow}UO_4F{\rightarrow}UO_4{\rightarrow}UO_3{\rightarrow}U_3O_8$.

• Journal of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.58 no.6
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• pp.590-599
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• 2014

Environmental education, effectively performed at school, is very important to solve the environmental problems. Moreover the survey for teacher's perception is essential. The purpose of the study was to investigate the perception of environmental problems of middle school teachers in Pusan. The survey was done twice in 2007 and 2012, and based on the time intervals, careers, and major of the teachers. 200 teachers were chosen in 2007 and 300 teachers in 2012. How many environmental problems occurred during this time period affected the 471 teachers' perception was investigated and analyzed. The results are as follows. First, the perception difference of environmental problems was meaningful between two time intervals (p<.01). Especially, the perception of modern environmental problems and carbon emission showed considerable increase in both science and non-science major teachers. This may be caused by the climate change and the severity of lifestyles of indiscriminate consumerism. Second, the perception difference of environmental problems by careers was also meaningful (p<.01). Overall, the perception was obvious on the aspects of modern environmental problems, carbon emission, destruction of ozone layers, nuclear wastes, environmental hormones, and red tides. Teachers, having more careers irrespective of their teaching subjects, showed higher perception on the seriousness of environmental pollution, the necessity of environmental conservation, and the importance of health. Third, the perception of environmental problems between science and non-science major teachers was meaningful (p<.01). Particularly, the perception in the broad environmental problems was distinctive between them.

• Journal of Radiation Protection and Research
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• v.24 no.2
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• pp.73-86
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• 1999

The ion-exchange method for the purification of primary coolant has been used broadly in PWR(pressurized water reactor)-type nuclear power plants due to its high decontamination efficiency, simple system, and easy operation. However, its non-selective removal of metal and non-radionuclides shortens its life, resulting in the generation of a large amount of waste ion-exchange resin. In this study, the feasibility of electrodeionization (EDI) was investigated for the purification of primary cooling water using synthetic solutions under various experimental conditions as an alternative method for the ion exchange. The results shows that as the feed flow-rate increased, the removal efficiency increased and the power consumption decreased. The removal rate was observed as a 1000 decontamination factor(DF) at a nearly constant level. For the synthetic solution of 3 ppm TDS (Total Dissolved Solid), the power consumption was 40.3 mWh/L at 2.0 L/min of feed flow rate. The higher removal rate of metal species and lower power consumption were obtained with greater resin volume per diluting compartment. However, the flow rate of the EDI process decreased with the elapsed time because of the hydrodynamic resistivity of resin itself and resin fouling by suspended solids. Thus, the ion-exchange resin was replaced by an ion-conducting spacer in order to overcome the drawback. The system equipped with the ion-conducting spacer resolved the problem of the decreasing flow rate but showed a lower efficiency in terms of the power consumption, the removal rate of metal species and current efficiency. In the repeated batch operation, it was found that the removal efficiency of metal species was stably maintained at DF 1000.

• Journal of Adhesion and Interface
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• v.19 no.3
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• pp.113-117
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• 2018

Boron carbide is lower in hardness than diamond or boron nitride but has a hardness of more than 30 GPa and is used for manufacturing tank armors and ammo shells due to its high hardness. It is also used as a neutron absorber due to its ability to absorb neutrons, which is increasing its use in nuclear power projects. Neutrons have no interaction with electrons and are known to pass through the material without interactions. Along with boron carbide, the atoms with high interaction with neutrons are hydrogen, and high hydrogen concentration polyesters and epoxy polymers including boron are used as materials for manufacturing products for nuclear power generation waste. In this paper, the surface of boron carbide is treated with iron oxide and tungsten to improve interaction between modified boron carbide and epoxy polymer. XRD and XPS were used to confirm that iron oxide and tungsten are well attached on the surface of boron carbide, respectively. The mechanical strength of the surface treated boron carbide was measured by a universal testing machine (UTM) and the dynamic characteristics of the cured product were observed by using a dynamic analyzer (DMA).

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.25 no.4
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• pp.539-547
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• 1993

A stochastic approach using continuous time Markov process is presented to model the one-dimensional nuclide transport in fractured rock media as a further extension for previous works［1-3］. Nuclide transport of decay chain of arbitrary length in the single planar fractured rock media in the vicinity of the radioactive waste repository is modeled using a continuous time Markov process. While most of analytical solutions for nuclide transport of decay chain deal with the limited length of decay chain, do not consider the case of having rock matrix diffusion, and have very complicated solution form, the present model offers rather a simplified solution in the form of expectance and its variance resulted from a stochastic modeling. As another deterministic way, even numerical models of decay chain transport, in most cases, show very complicated procedure to get the solution and large discrepancy for the exact solution as opposed to the stochastic model developed in this study. To demonstrate the use of the present model and to verify the model by comparing with the deterministic model, a specific illustration was made for the transport of a chain of three member in single fractured rock medium with constant groundwater flow rate in the fracture, which ignores the rock matrix diffusion and shows good capability to model the fractured media around the repository.

• Journal of Radiation Industry
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• v.17 no.4
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• pp.471-479
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• 2023

In In-situ radioactivity measurement techniques, efficiency calibration models use predefined models to simulate a sample's geometry and radioactivity distribution. However, simplified efficiency calibration models lead to uncertainties in the efficiency curves, which in turn affect the radioactivity concentration results. This study aims to develop an efficiency calibration optimization methodology to improve the accuracy of in-situ gamma radiation measurements for byproducts from industrial facilities. To accomplish the objective, a drive mechanism for rotational measurement of an byproduct simulator and a sample was constructed. Using ISOCS, an efficiency calibration model of the designed object was generated. Then, the sensitivity analysis of the efficiency calibration model was performed, and the efficiency curve of the efficiency calibration model was optimized using the sensitivity analysis results. Finally, the radiation concentration of the simulated subject was estimated, compared, and evaluated with the designed certification value. For the sensitivity assessment of the influencing factors of the efficiency calibration model, the ISOCS Uncertainty Estimator was used for the horizontal and vertical size and density of the measured object. The standard deviation of the measurement efficiency as a function of the longitudinal size and density of the efficiency calibration model decreased with increasing energy region. When using the optimized efficiency calibration model, the measurement efficiency using IUE was improved compared to the measurement efficiency using ISOCS at the energy of ²²⁸Ac (911 keV) for the nuclide under analysis. Using the ISOCS efficiency calibration method, the difference between the measured radiation concentration and the design value for each simulated subject measurement direction was 4.1% (1% to 10%) on average. The difference between the estimated radioactivity concentration and the design value was 3.6% (1~8%) on average when using the ISOCS IUE efficiency calibration method, which was closer to the design value than the efficiency calibration method using ISOCS. In other words, the estimated radioactivity concentration using the optimized efficiency curve was similar to the designed radioactivity concentration. The results of this study can be utilized as the main basis for the development of regulatory technologies for the treatment and disposal of waste generated during the operation, maintenance, and facility replacement of domestic byproduct generation facilities.

• Journal of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.37 no.9
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• pp.813-819
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• 1993

An ICP-AES system directly connected with a separation column was used in order to determine the trace elements in $UO_2$ powder promptly and reduce the volume of the waste solution. The outlet of a separation column, which was filled with Teflon powder ($330\;{\mu}m$) coated with tri-n-butyl phosphate (TBP) as extractant, was directly connected with sample injection tube of ICP-AES. Eleven elements including molybdenum in $UO_2$ powder were separated and determined simultaneously. Recoveries of these elements were $91{\sim}110%$ and these results were agreed with those of solvent extraction methods. This method was applicable to quality control in manufacturing nuclear fuel.

• Carbon letters
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• v.22
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• pp.81-88
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• 2017

In the present study, biomass-based lignin was extracted from industrial waste black liquor and the extracted lignin was characterized by means of attenuated total reflectance-Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy and $^1H-nuclear$ magnetic resonance spectroscopy. The extracted lignin was carbonized at different temperatures and then activated with steam at $850^{\circ}C$. The extracted lignin in powder state was transformed into a bulky carbonized lignin due to possible fusion between the lignin particles occurring upon carbonization. The carbonized and then pulverized lignin exhibits brittle surfaces, the increased thermal stability, and the carbon assay with increasing the carbonization temperature. The scanning electron microscopic images and the Brunauer-Emmett-Teller result indicate that the steam-activated carbon has the specific surface area of $1718m^2/g$, which is markedly greater than the carbonized lignin. This study reveals that biomass-based activated carbon with highly porous structure can be produced from costless black liquor via steam-activation process.

• Annals of Clinical Neurophysiology
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• v.6 no.2
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• pp.65-74
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• 2004

Limb-girdle muscular dystrophy (LGMD) is a heterogeneous group of inherited muscle disorders caused by the mutations of different genes encoding muscle proteins. In the past, when the molecular diagnostic techniques were not available, the subtypes of muscular dystrophies were classified by the pattern of muscle weakness and the mode of inheritance, and LGMD had been considered as a 'waste basket' of muscular dystrophy because many unrelated heterogeneous cases with 'limb-girdle' weakness were put into the category of LGMD. With the advent of molecular genetics at the end of the last century, it has been known that there are many subtypes of LGMD caused by the mutation of different genes, and now, LGMD is classified according to the results of the linkage analysis and the genes or proteins affected. Only small proportion (probably less than 10%) of LGMD is dominantly inherited, and autosomal dominant LGMD (AD-LGMD) consists of six subtypes (LGMD1A to 1F) so far. In autosomal recessive LGMD (AR-LGMD), more than 10 subtypes (LGMD2A to 2J) have been linked and most of the causative genes have been identified. Among AR-LGMDs, LGMD2A (calpain 3 deficiency), 2B (dysferlin deficiency), and sarcoglycanopathy (LGMD2C-2F) are major subtypes. The defective proteins in LGMDs are components of nuclear envelope, cytosol, sarcomere, or sarcolemma, and seem to play a different role in the pathogenesis of muscular dystrophy. It is notable that many causative genes of LGMDs are also responsible for other categories of muscular dystrophy or diseases affecting other tissue. However, by which mechanism they produce such a broad phenotypic variability is still unknown. The identification of mutation in the relevant gene is confirmative for the diagnosis, and is essential for genetic counseling and antenatal diagnosis of LGMD. Because many different genes are responsible for LGMD, differentiation of subtypes using immunohistochemistry and western blotting is the essential step toward the detection of mutation. For the effective research and medical care of the patients with muscular dystrophy in Korea, a research center with a medical facility supported by the government seems to be needed.