• Title/Summary/Keyword: radiation accident

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Study on the Decommissioning of Small Nuclear Facility through Analyzing Foreign Decommissioning Practices (국외 해체 사례 분석을 통한 국내 소규모 방사선이용시설 해체에 관한 연구)

  • Kwon, Dayeong;Kim, Yongmin
    • Journal of the Korean Society of Radiology
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    • v.9 no.3
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    • pp.125-130
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    • 2015
  • RI & RG are used in various field such as medical field, industrial field, agricultural and food&life field. The number of small nuclear facilities is on the increase. We need to take an interest in decommissioning of small nuclear facility and predict the occurring problem from facility decommissioning. Because of the relatively low radiation risk, the preparation of the small nuclear facility dismantling is often neglected. As the accident in Goiania, Brazil showed, the impact of the decommissioning of small nuclear facilities is not less than the large nuclear facilities although it may seem dangerless. Therefore, we analyzed the each institutional characteristics of the decommissioning of small nuclear facilities through foreign case study on this research. Also, we proposed several considerations on decommissioning such as reuse of facility and source, lack of space, stakeholder involvement and failures of protection. Through these study, we tried to make guideline of the small nuclear facilities decommissioning.

Design Study of A Spent Fuel Shipping Cask for Korea Nuclear Unit-1 (고리 1호기의 기사용 핵연료 집합체 수송용기 설계에 관한 연구)

  • Moo Han Kim;Chang Sun Kang
    • Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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    • v.14 no.4
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    • pp.196-203
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    • 1982
  • To transport the spent fuel assemblies of Korea Nuclear Unit 1, which is a Westinghouse type two loop pressurized water reactor, it has been found that steel is the most appropriate material for the design of a shipping cask in comparison with lead and depleted uranium. The proposed shipping cask will transport nine fuel assemblies at the same time and is well within the weight limit of transportation by unrestricted rail car. The cask requires 33cm thick steel shield and 27cm thick water region to satisfy the 3 feet apart dose rate limit set forth in 10 CFR 71, and 1.27cm thick steel boron fuel basket to hold the fuel elements inside the cask and control the effective multiplication factor. As a safety analysis, the fuel cladding and centerline temperatures were calculated under the accident condition of complete loss of water coolant, and it was found that the temperature was much lower than the limit of the melting point. k$_{eff}$ was calculated with fresh fuel assemblies, which was found to be well lower than 0.95. For shielding computation, the multipurpose Monte Carlo code MORSE-CG and one dimensional discrete ordinates transport code ANISN were used, and the Monte Carlo codes KENO and MORSE-CG were used for criticality calculation. The radiation source terms were calculated using ORIGEN-79.9.

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A Survey of Medical Environments in Regional Public Hospitals Respond to Disasters (지역거점공공병원의 재난 대비 안전한 의료환경 실태조사 연구)

  • Lee, Hyunjin;Song, Sanghoon;Kim, Taeyun;Kim, Youngaee
    • Journal of The Korea Institute of Healthcare Architecture
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    • v.30 no.2
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    • pp.35-46
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    • 2024
  • Purpose: It is the responsibility of public healthcare to respond quickly to infectious disease outbreaks and disasters such as MERS, COVID-19, the Syrian earthquake, and the Miryang Sejong Hospital fire accident. It is very important to secure safe medical facilities and protect lives through emergency medical support and disaster response systems. The purpose of this study is to investigate the safety status of regional medical facilities that play a central role in the event of a disaster. Methods: The target was 41 local public hospitals, including 35 regional medical centers and 6 Red Cross hospitals nationwide. We delivered a questionnaire to 41 medical facilities and collected data from 32 regional public hospitals that received responses. Results: In order to respond to safety accidents, a survey was conducted on infections, falls, patient identification, and incorrect connections for medical accidents, and for in-hospital accidents, a survey was conducted on entrapment, collision, water leaks, falling objects, and crime prevention. For natural disasters, we investigated the response environment for typhoons, floods, and snow damage, and for social disasters, we investigated the response environment for fire, power outages, and radiation damage. Implications: We hope that it will be used as basic data for developing standards and creating hospital facilities and environments that are safe for everyone to respond to various disasters and prevent patient safety accidents in the future.

Development of Embedded Board for Integrated Radiation Exposure Protection Fireman's Life-saving Alarm (일체형 방사선 피폭 방호 소방관 인명구조 경보기의 임베디드 보드 개발)

  • Lee, Young-Ji;Lee, Joo-Hyun;Lee, Seung-Ho
    • Journal of IKEEE
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    • v.23 no.4
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    • pp.1461-1464
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    • 2019
  • In this paper, we propose the development of embedded board for integrated radiation exposure protection fireman's life-saving alarm capable of location tracking and radiation measurement. The proposed techniques consist of signal processing unit, communication unit, power unit, main control unit. Signal processing units apply shielding design, noise reduction technology and electromagnetic wave subtraction technology. The communication unit is designed to communicate using the wifi method. In the main control unit, power consumption is reduced to a minimum, and a high performance system is formed through small, high density and low heat generation. The proposed techniques are equipment operated by exposure to poor conditions, such as disaster and fire sites, so they are designed and manufactured for external appearance considering waterproof and thermal endurance. The proposed techniques were tested by an authorized testing agency to determine the effectiveness of embedded board. The waterproof grade has achieved the IP67 rating, which can maintain stable performance even when flooded with water at the disaster site due to the nature of the fireman's equipment. The operating temperature was measured in the range of -10℃ to 50℃ to cope with a wide range of environmental changes at the disaster site. The battery life was measured to be available 144 hours after a single charge to cope with emergency disasters such as a collapse accident. The maximum communication distance, including the PCB, was measured to operate at 54.2 meters, a range wider than the existing 50 meters, at a straight line with the command-and-control vehicle in the event of a disaster. Therefore, the effectiveness of embedded board for embedded board for integrated radiation exposure protection fireman's life-saving alarm has been demonstrated.

Comparison of Perception Differences About Nuclear Energy in 4 East Asian Country Students: Aiming at $10^{th}$ Grade Students who Participated in Scientific Camps, from Four East Asian Countries: Korea, Japan, Taiwan, and Singapore (동아시아 4개국 학생들의 핵에너지에 대한 인식 비교: 과학캠프에 참가한 한국, 일본, 대만, 싱가포르 10학년 학생들을 대상으로)

  • Lee, Hyeong-Jae;Park, Sang-Tae
    • Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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    • v.32 no.4
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    • pp.775-788
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    • 2012
  • This study was done at a scientific camp sponsored by Nara Women's University Secondary School, Japan. In this school, $10^{th}$ grade students from 4 East Asian countries: Korea, Japan, Taiwan, and Singapore, participated. We made a research on students' perceptions about nuclear energy. Sample populations include 77 students in total, with 12 Korean, 46 Japanese, 9 Taiwanese and 10 Singaporean students. Overall perceptions comparison about nuclear energy shows average values from the order of highest Korea, Taiwan, Singapore, and to lowest, Japan. We implemented a T-test to identify perception differences about nuclear energy, with one group that include 3 countries (Korea, Taiwan and Singapore) and another group that includes all the Japanese students. T-test results of perceptions about nuclear energy shows students from the 3 countries of Korea, Taiwan and Singapore having higher average than Japanese students. (p<.05). Korean average scores regarding overall perceptions about nuclear energy show as the highest in all 4 East Asian countries and also highest in all subcategories. On the contrary in Japan, they have lower and negative perceptions of nuclear energy. In spite of these facts, perceptions of Japanese students about nuclear energy seem lowest and negative mainly because of the recent Fukushima nuclear power plant disaster, caused by the tsunami and its subsequent damages and fears of radiation leaks, etc. This shows that negative information about future disasters and its resulting damages like the Chernobyl nuclear accident could influence more on people's risk perception than general information like nuclear energy-related technologies or the news that the plant is operating normally, etc. Even if the possibility of this kind of accident is very low, just one accident could bring abnormal risks to technology itself. This strong signal makes negative image and strengthens its perceptions to the people. This could bring a stigma about nuclear energy. This study shows that Government's policy about the highest priority for nuclear energy safety is most important. As long as such perception and decision are fixed, we found that it might not be easy to get changed again because they were already fortified and maintained.

[ 137Cs] and 40K Activities of Foodstuffs Consumed in Jeju (제주지역에서 소비되는 식품 중 137Cs과 40K 방사능 농도)

  • Kang, Tae-Woo;Hong, Kyung-Ae;Park, Won-Pyo;U., Zang-Kual
    • Korean Journal of Environmental Agriculture
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    • v.23 no.1
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    • pp.52-58
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    • 2004
  • This work was conducted to provide the reference data of radioactivity in the foodstuffs at a radiological emergency situation in Jeju Island The sampled foodstuffs were agricultural (31), livestock (6), marine (12) and forest products (4), and processed foods (3) consumed by Jeju Islanders. $^{137}Cs$ and $^{40}K$ activities were determined by HPGe r-ray spectromety. The activity ranges of $^{137}Cs$ was ${\sim}650\;mBq/kg$ fresh in the agricultural products, ${\sim}131\;mBq/kg$. fresh in the livestock, ${\sim}834\;mBq/kg$ fresh in the forest, ${\sim}253\;mBq/kg$ fresh in the marine and $32.0{\sim}483\;mBq/kg$. fresh in the processed foods (tea). In case of $^{40}K$ the activity was $16.6{\sim}542\;Bq/kg$. fresh in the agricultural products, $39.1{\sim}294\;Bq/kg$ fresh in the livestock, $85.5{\sim}116\;Bq/kg$ fresh in the forest, $50.1{\sim}657\;Bq/kg$ fresh in the marine, and $33.6{\sim}1,065\;Bq/kg$ fresh in the processed foods (tea). The highest activity of $^{137}Cs$, 834mBq/kg fresh was observed in oak mushroom and $^{40}K$ 1,065 Bq/kg fresh in coffee. Annual effective doses of $^{137}Cs$ and $^{40}K$ by intake of foodstuffs per capita were the following order; agricultural products (66,543 nSv) > livestock products (19,311 nSv) > processed foods (6,648 nSv) > marine products (6,579 nSv) > forest products (860 nSv). Therefore, total annual effective dose was summed 99,941 nSv which is quite low level comparing to the annual effective dose by external exposure, 2,400,000 nSv. The data obtained in this study can be useful for monitoring whether the foodstuffs are contaminated or not at an emergency radiation accident, and showed that the foodstuffs consumed in Jeju are safe in terms of annual effective dose of $^{137}Cs$ and $^{40}K$

Evaluation of Countermeasures Effectiveness in a Radioactively Contaminated Urban Area Using METRO-K : The Implementation of Scenarios Designed by the EMRAS II Urban Areas Working Group (METRO-K를 사용한 방사능으로 오염된 도시지역에서 대응행위효과 평가 : EMRAS II 도시오염평가분과 시나리오의 이행)

  • Hwang, Won-Tae;Jeong, Hae-Sun;Jeong, Hyo-Joon;Kim, Eun-Han;Han, Moon-Hee
    • Journal of Radiation Protection and Research
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    • v.37 no.3
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    • pp.108-115
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    • 2012
  • The Urban Areas Working Group within the EMRAS-2 ($\underline{E}$nvironmental $\underline{M}$odelling for $\underline{RA}$diation $\underline{S}$afety, Phase 2), which has been supported by the IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency), has designed some types of accidental scenarios to test and improve the capabilities of models used for evaluation of radioactive contamination in urban areas. For the comparison of the results predicted from the different models, the absorbed doses in air were analyzed as a function of time following the accident with consideration of countermeasures to be taken. Two kinds of considerations were performed to find the dependency of the predicted results. One is the 'accidental season', i.e. summer and winter, in which an event of radioactive contamination takes place in a specified urban area. Likewise, the 'rainfall intensity' on the day of an event was also considered with the option of 1) no rain, 2) light rain, and 3) heavy rain. The results predicted using a domestic model of METRO-K have been submitted to the Urban Areas Working Group for the intercomparison with those of other models. In this study, as a part of these results using METRO-K, the countermeasures effectiveness in terms of dose reduction was analyzed and presented for the ground floor of a 24-story business building in a specified urban area. As a result, it was found that the countermeasures effectiveness is distinctly dependent on the rainfall intensity on the day of an event, and season when an event takes place. It is related to the different deposition amount of the radionuclides to the surfaces and different behavior on the surfaces following a deposition, and different effectiveness from countermeasures. In conclusion, a selection of appropriate countermeasures with consideration of various environmental conditions may be important to minimize and optimize the socio-economic costs as well as radiation-induced health detriments.

The Study on the Countermeasure Plans about Leakage, Explosion and Fire Accidents of Atmospheric Storage Tank (옥외저장탱크 누출, 폭발 및 화재사고 대응방안에 관한 고찰)

  • Lee, Gab-Kyoo
    • Fire Science and Engineering
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    • v.30 no.6
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    • pp.48-56
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    • 2016
  • A crude oil leakage from a large atmospheric storage tank occurred on 4 April 2014 at 14:50 in Ulsan City, while storing the crude oil in the tank. Emergency Rescue Control Group was deployed in the scene. The company, Fire Service Headquarters and associated agencies got together in Command Post (CP) for discussing an effective corresponding strategy. Many solution plans were drafted in the debate such as power down, stopping the facilities, checking the density of inflammable gas, suppressing oil evaporation, moving the leaked crude oil to a nearby tank and a processing plant and avoiding marine pollution. All the solutions were carried out in cooperation with several agencies and partners. The oil leakage accident was successfully settled up within the process of responding, The Fire Service Headquarters and the company thought that the most important thing was the suppression of oil evaporation and the elimination of ignition source. With Fire Service Headquarters and several agencies' every effort, an explosion and a fire didn't occurred in the scene. This study suggest the improvement of the operating system in Emergency Rescue Control Group in case of petroleum leakage, explosion and fire accidents of atmospheric storage tank, different from a ordinary disaster. Assuming that petroleum leakage in atmospheric storage tank develop the explosion and fire accidents, the spreading speed of the flame and the burning time was experimented and compared with each other. Furthermore, this study concentrates on the effective field response plan prepared for the afterward explosion and fire accidents from petroleum leak in a storage tank, with the database experimented and analyzed in accordance with the angle of radiation in the foam nozzle and the pressure of pumping in a fire engine.

A Study of the Improvement Plan and Real Condition Estimation of Fire Protection Safety Management for Power Plants in Korea (국내발전소 소방안전관리 운영실태조사 및 개선방안에 관한 연구)

  • Kang, Gil-Soo;Choi, Jae-wook
    • Fire Science and Engineering
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    • v.31 no.2
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    • pp.61-73
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    • 2017
  • The Fukushima Nuclear Disaster in 2011 and California Power Failure in 2001 are examples of the importance of the power plant safety management that caused huge national loss with a power-related mass casualty incident. In a situation where humans cannot live without electricity, efforts to strengthen the systematic firefighting safety management in power plants that produce electricity with large amounts of hazardous materials as fuel, such as nuclear energy, coal and gas, are essential to protect life and prevent property loss and stable economic growth from fire explosion accident or radiation leak due to the negligence of safety management and natural disasters such as earthquakes, which has recently become an issue. This study examined the operating situation of firefighting safety management in power plants with firefighting officials employed by five power generation companies including Korea Southern Power Co., Ltd. and Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power Co. Ltd., which are in charge of the domestic power supply. As a result, for the systematic firefighting safety management of power plants, improvement plans were drawn, including the development of an effective business manual and a comprehensive management system, the substantiality of firefighting safety education, and the strengthening of seismic designs to prepare for earthquakes.

A Study on the Risk Assessment of River Crossing Pipeline in Urban Area (도심지 하천매설배관의 위험성 평가에 관한 연구)

  • Park, Woo-Il;Yoo, Chul-Hee;Shin, Dong-Il;Kim, Tae-Ok;Lee, Hyo-Ryeol
    • Journal of the Korean Institute of Gas
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    • v.24 no.2
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    • pp.22-28
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    • 2020
  • In this study, quantitative risk assessment was carried out for city gas high-pressure pipelines crossing through urban rivers. The risk assessment was performed based on actual city gas properties, traffic volume and population and weather data in the worst case scenario conditions. The results confirmed that the social and individual risks were located in conditionally acceptable areas. This can be judged to be safer considering that the risk mitigation effect of protecting the pipes or installing them in the protective structure at the time of the construction of the river buried pipe is not reflected in the result of the risk assessment. Also, SAFETI v8.22 was used to analyze the effects of wind speed and pasquil stability on the accident damage and dispersion distances caused by radiation. As a result of the risk assessment, the safety of the pipelines has been secured to date, but suggests ways to improve safety by preventing unexpected accidents including river bed changes through periodic inspections and monitoring.