• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Soil and Groundwater Environment Conference
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• 2004.04a
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• pp.318-322
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• 2004

Arsenic is a toxic and carcinogenic metalloid, whose sources in nature include mineral dissolution and volcanic eruption. Abandoned mines and hazardous waste disposal sites are another major source of arsenic contamination of soil and aquatic systems. To predict concentrations of the toxic inorganic arsenic in aqueous phase. the biogeochemical redox processes and transport behavior need to be studied together and be coupled in a reactive transport model. A new reaction module describing the fate and transport of inorganic arsenic species (As(II)), dissolved oxygen, nitrate, ferrous iron, sulfate, and dissolved organic carbon are developed and incorporated into the RT3D code.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.56 no.8
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• pp.3242-3254
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• 2024

With the increasing usage of nuclear energy, how to properly dispose nuclear waste becomes a critical issue. In this study, a multiscale modeling approach combining the experimental findings is presented to address the illitization process, its impact on transport properties, and system behavior of bentonite buffer in engineered barrier systems (EBS). Through the pore-scale modeling, reactive transport properties such as illite generation rate and effective diffusion coefficient of potassium ion as a function of porosity and temperature are quantified by employing the findings of hydrothermal reaction experiments of Bentonil-WRK. The capability of pore-scale modeling has been developed based on the Darcy-Brinkmann-Stokes equation, involving the processes of smectite illitization and clay swelling. Obtained reactive transport properties are utilized as input parameters for the macroscale modeling to predict the long-term behavior of bentonite buffer in EBS. As such, this study involves the whole workflow of quantifying the reaction parameters of smectite illitization through the hydrothermal reaction experiments, and numerically modeling the reactive transport process of smectite illitization in bentonite buffer of EBS from pore-scale to macroscale. The presented multiscale modeling findings are expected to provide reliable solution for safe nuclear waste disposal with EBS.

• Journal of Soil and Groundwater Environment
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• v.21 no.6
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• pp.101-113
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• 2016

To properly manage and remediate groundwater contaminated with chlorinated hydrocarbons such as trichloroethylene (TCE), it is necessary to assess natural attenuation processes of contaminants in the aquifer along with investigation of contamination history and aquifer characterization. This study evaluated natural attenuation processes of TCE at an industrial site in Korea by delineating hydrogeochemical characteristics along the flow path of contaminated groundwater, by calculating reaction rate constants for TCE and its degradation products, and by using geochemical and reactive transport modeling. The monitoring data showed that TCE tended to be transformed to cis-1,2-dichloroethene (cis-1,2-DCE) and further to vinyl chloride (VC) via microbial reductive dechlorination, although the degree was not too significant. According to our modeling results, the temporal and spatial distribution of the TCE plume suggested the dominant role of biodegradation in attenuation processes. This study can provide a useful method for assessing natural attenuation processes in the aquifer contaminated with chlorinated hydrocarbons and can be applied to other sites with similar hydrological, microbiological, and geochemical settings.

• Journal of Soil and Groundwater Environment
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• v.26 no.6
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• pp.74-81
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• 2021

A simple and efficient scheme is presented that attempts to implement the site-specific denitrification rate in the reactive transport modeling for the nitrate in groundwater. A series of correlation analyses were conducted using 133 datasets obtained from different nitrate-contaminated sites to find the empirical relationships between denitrification rates and various subsurface properties. Based on Pearson's correlation analysis, the soil organic carbon concentrations showed a statistically significant correlation (r = 0.75, p < 0.05) with the denitrification rates. A linear regression was performed, which could be utilized to effectively determine the site-specific denitrification rate based on the soil organic carbon concentration of a site. The proposed method is expected to effectively replace the conventional methods which either were too complicated for practical application or impose large uncertainties that might end up with unreliable results.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.56 no.9
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• pp.3942-3949
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• 2024

This study focuses on investigating the chemical degradation characteristics of cementitious barriers used in low-and intermediate-level radioactive waste repository by reactive transport modeling. The impact of the blending with supplementary cementitious materials (SCMs) in the barriers on the chemical degradation was evaluated to find the optimum barrier design. A number of different barrier designs were examined by replacing ordinary Portland cement (OPC) by SCMs (i.e., fly ash, silica fume, and blast-furnace slag). The simulation results showed that silica fume blended barrier has better durability against chemical degradation by rainwater compared to fly ash or blast-furnace slag blended barriers. In addition, the chemical durability of silica fume-based barrier increased with increasing replacement level up to about 20 %. It seems that the amount of formed calcium silicate hydrate (CSH) in the initial cement-based barrier highly affects the overall chemical durability. The newly developed reactive transport model demonstrated its capability for understanding the barrier performance and investigating the optimal design of the barrier system.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Soil and Groundwater Environment Conference
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• 2002.04a
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• pp.62-65
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• 2002

Permeable reactive barriers (PRBs) are in-situ barriers constructed in a subsurface to treat contaminated groundwater using various reactive media. The common reactive medium used in PRB is zero-valent iron, which has been widely used to treat chlorinated solvents (i.e., PCE, TCE). A disadvantage of iron media is high cost. In this study, waste foundry sands were tested to determine the feasibility of their use as a low cost reactive medium. Batch and column tests were conducted with TCE to determine transport parameters and reactivity of the foundry sands. The reactivities of foundry sands for common groundwater contaminants are comparable to or slightly higher than those for Peerless iron, a common medium used in PRBs. In addition, the TOC and clay in foundry sands can significantly retard the movement of target contaminant, which may result in lower effluent concentration of contaminant due to biodegradation. In general, PRBs 1-m thick can be constructed with many foundry sands to treat TCE provided the zero-valent iron content in the foundry sand is higher than 1%.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.18 no.5
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• pp.143-157
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• 2002

Batch and column tests were conducted with common groundwater contaminants (i.e., trichloroethylene) to determine transport parameters and reactivity of the foundry sands. The reactivities of foundry sands for common groundwater contaminants are comparable to or slightly higher than those for Peerless iron a common medium used in permeable reactive barriers. In addition, the TOC and clay in foundry sands can significantly retard the movement of target contaminants, which may result in lower effluent concentrations of contaminants due to biodegradation. In general, permeable reactive barriers with the thickness of 1m can be constructed with many foundry sands to treat typical groundwater comtaminants provided the zero-valent iron content in the foundry sand is higher than 1%.

• KOREAN JOURNAL OF CROP SCIENCE
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• v.54 no.sup1
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• pp.11-11
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• 2009

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Soil and Groundwater Environment Conference
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• 2002.04a
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• pp.122-126
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• 2002

Contaminant transport in porous media is characterized by solving an advection-dispersion equation(ADE). The ADE can cover equilibrium phenomena of interest, which include sorption, decay, and chemical reactions. Among these phenomena, sorption mechanism is described by several types of sorption isotherm. If we assume the sorption isotherm as linear, the solution of ADE can be easily procured. However, if we consider the sorption isotherm as non-linear isotherm like a Dual Reactive Domain Model (DRDM), the resulting differential equation becomes non-linear. In this case, the solution of ADE cannot be easily acquired by an analytic method. In this paper, we present the numerical analysis of ADE using a DRDM. The results reveal that even if sorption data may be fitted well using linear or non-linear isotherm, the characteristics of contaminant transport of the two cases are different from each other. To be concrete, the retardation of linear isotherm has stronger effect than that of the DRDM. As the non-linearity of sorption isotherm increases, the difference of retardation effects of the two cases becomes larger. For a pulse source, the maximum concentration of the linear model is higher than that of the DRDM, but the plume of the DRDM moves faster than that of the linear model. Behaviors of contaminant transport using the DRDM are consistent with common features of a linear model. For instance, biodegradation effect becomes larger as time goes by The faster the seepage velocity is, the faster the plume of contaminant moves. The plume of the contaminant is distributed evenly over overall domain in the event of high dispersion coefficient.

• Journal of Nuclear Fuel Cycle and Waste Technology(JNFCWT)
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• v.6 no.1
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• pp.35-44
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• 2008

Long-term degradation of coment barrier by diffusion was studied with reactive transport modeling. The result of modeling showed that cement barrier was altered about 30cm thickness after 50,000 years. The pH decreased from 13.0 to 11.9 because of depletion of alkali ions, and dissolution/precipitation of portlandite and CSH (Calcium Silicate Hydrate). In addition, porosity increased about 0.3 because of dissolution of portlandite and $CSH2.0(Ca_2SiO_3(OH)_2:0.17H_2O)$. The solubility of uranium also increased with the increase of pe value The results of this study indicate that long-term degradation of comet can enhance the transport of nuclide by changing pH, pe, porosity in barrier.