• 대한방사선기술학회지:방사선기술과학
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• 제43권2호
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• pp.123-128
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• 2020

Radiation Following the 2011 Fukushima nuclear accident in Japan, public interest and anxiety about radiation safety increased, and vague anxiety about commonly exposed living radiation was generated. The Atomic Energy Safety Commission has been conducting a survey of processed products that advertise "negative ions" and "far-infrared" emissions under the Living Radiation Safety Management Act. In this study, in-depth analysis was performed from a statistical point of view using the measurement data presented in the Nuclear Safety Committee's actual survey analysis report as secondary data. As a result, there was a statistically significant difference (p<0.005) between latex and civil affairs products. There were also statistically significant differences (p<0.05) in the results of testing whether there were significant differences in the annual exposure dose between groups after categorizing 71 civil products, including radon beds, into bed, bedding, and living and other categories. The correlation analysis results also confirm that, as is commonly known, the annual doses received from processed products are associated with radon derived from U-238 and Th-232.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• 제49권6호
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• pp.1287-1300
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• 2017

Based on the observation that ignoring the angle dependency of multigroup resonance cross sections within a fuel pellet would result in nontrivial underestimation of the spatial self-shielding of flux, a parametrized spectral superhomogenization (SPH) factor library (PSSL) method is developed as a practical means of resolving the problem. Region-wise spectral SPH factors are calculated by the normal and transport corrected SPH iterations after ultrafine group slowing down calculations over various light water reactor pin-cell configurations. The parametrization is done with fuel temperature, U-238 number density, fuel radius, moderator source represented by ${\Sigma}_{mod}V_{mod}$, and the number density ratio of resonance nuclides to that of U-238 in a form of resonance interference correction factors. The parametrization is successful in that the root mean square errors of the interpolated SPH factors over the fuel regions of various pin-cells are within 0.1%. The improvement in reactivity error of the PSSL method is shown to be superior to that by the original SPH method in that the reactivity bias of -200 pcm to -300 pcm vanishes almost completely. It is demonstrated that the environment effect takes only about 4% in the reactivity improvement so that the pin-cell based PSSL method is effective in the assembly problems.

• Environmental Engineering Research
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• 제23권4호
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• pp.462-473
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• 2018

The uranium ore residues from the legacies of past uranium mining and milling activities that resulted from the less stringent environmental standards along with the uranium residues from the existing nuclear power plants continue to be a cause of concern as the final uranium residues are not made safe from radiological and general safety point of view. The deposition of uranium in ponds increases the risk of groundwater getting contaminated as these residues essentially leach through the upper unsaturated geological formation. In this context, a numerical model has been developed in order to forecast the $^{238}U$ and its progenies concentration in an unsaturated soil. The developed numerical model is implemented in a hypothetical uranium tailing pond consisting of sandy soil and silty soil types. The numerical results show that the $^{238}U$ and its progenies are migrating up to the depth of 90 m and 800 m after 10 y in silty and sandy soil, respectively. Essentially, silt may reduce the risk of contamination in the groundwater for longer time span and at the deeper depths. In general, a coupled effect of sorption and hydro-geological parameters (soil type, moisture context and hydraulic conductivity) decides the resultant uranium transport in subsurface environment.

• 한국대기환경학회:학술대회논문집
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• 한국대기환경학회 2002년도 춘계학술대회 논문집
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• pp.299-300
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• 2002

현재 우리가 살고 있는 지구에는 인공적 또는 자연적으로 생성된 많은 방사성 핵종이 혼재하고 있으며 인간은 이러한 자연환경에 항상 노출되어 있다. 우라늄(U)과 토륨(Th)은 자연계에 존재하는 $\alpha$입자를 방출하는 방사성 원소이며 이들의 연속적인 $\alpha$ 및 $\beta$붕괴에 의하여 많은 방사성 핵종이 생성된다. 특히 대기중이나 토양, 암석에 함유되어 있는 U-238은 자발 붕괴하여 라돈(Rn-222)이 되고 라돈에 의하여 생성된 딸 핵종들이 호흡을 통하여 흡수되어 방사선 피폭을 유발한다고 알려져 있다. (중략)

• 암석학회지
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• 제26권1호
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• pp.73-82
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• 2017

평창지역에 분포하는 시대미상 방림층군의 퇴적시기를 한정하기 위하여 쇄설성 저어콘의 SHRIMP U-Pb 연대측정을 수행하였다. 그 결과 일치곡선상에 놓이는 최소연령 집단의 $^{206}Pb/^{238}U$ 연령은 $450.3{\pm}4.2Ma$(n=3)으로 구해졌으며, 퇴적시기는 후기 오르도비스기 이후임을 지시한다. 따라서 방림층군은 선캠브리아기 지층이 아님이 명백하며, 태백산분지의 하부고생대 조선누층군의 하부 지층인 묘봉층 보다도 젊은 층이어야 한다. 이러한 퇴적시기는 구조적으로 위에 놓인 장산규암층과 방림층군과의 관계가 단층이어야 함을 의미한다. 따라서 인접하여 분포하는 조선누층군의 하부 멤버들인 장산규암층과 묘봉층 및 풍촌석회암층이 방림층군 위로 오버트러스트한 것으로 추정된다. 방림층군의 저어콘들이 보이는 연대분포 양상은 태백산분지의 하부고생대층인 묘봉층과 삼방산층, 그리고 중부고생대층으로 판단되는 대향산규암층 및 태안층 등과는 매우 유사하다. 이에 반해 상부고생대인 평안누층군의 것들과는 뚜렷하게 차이가 난다. 이는 쇄설성 저어콘 근원지가 평안누층군 퇴적이전과 이후에 확실하게 달라졌음을 의미한다. 따라서 방림층군은 평안누층군 보다 이전에 퇴적된 것으로 추정된다.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• 제56권6호
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• pp.2239-2246
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• 2024

The present study aimed to assess the radioactive hazards associated with the application of granitoid rocks in building materials. An HPGe spectrometer was used to detect the levels of the radioactive elements uranium-238, thorium-232, and potassium-40 in the granitoid rocks. The results showed that the levels of these elements were lower (38.32 < 33 Bq kg^-1), comparable (47.19-45 Bq kg^-1) and higher (992.26 ≫> 412 Bq kg^-1) than the worldwide limits for ²³⁸U, ²³²Th, and ⁴⁰K concentration, respectively. The exposure to gamma radiation of granitoid rocks was studied by various radiological hazard variables like the absorbed dose rate (D_air), the outdoor and indoor annual effective dose (AED_out and AED_in), and excess lifetime cancer risk (ELCR). A variety of statistical methods, including Pearson correlation, principal component analysis (PCA), and hierarchical cluster analysis (HCA) was used, to study the relationship between the radioactive elements and the radiological hazards. According to statistical analysis, the main radioactive risk of granitoid rocks is contributed to by the elements uranium-238, thorium-232, and potassium-40. Granitoid rocks can be applied in building materials, but under control to prevent risk to the public.

• Journal of Radiation Protection and Research
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• 제40권4호
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• pp.216-222
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• 2015

천연방사성물질을 취급하는 산업시설의 종사자들은 공정에서 발생하는 공기 중 입자의 흡입에 의해 만성적인 내부피폭을 받을 수 있다. 방사성 물질을 함유한 공기 중 입자 흡입에 의한 내부피폭은 입자의 크기, 모양, 밀도, 흡수형태에 따라 달라진다. 본 연구에서는 공기 중 부유 입자의 물리화학적 특성에 따른 피폭방사선량 민감도를 평가하였다. 흡입에 의한 내부피폭선량 평가는 국제방사선방호위원회 66 인체호흡기모델을 이용하였다. 일반적으로 입자의 크기가 감소할수록 예탁유효선량은 증가하는 경향을 보였으며, 입자 크기 $0.01{\mu}m$와 $100{\mu}m$ 에서의 피폭방사선량은 $^{238}U$ 의 경우 약 100 배, $^{230}Th$ 의 경우 약 50 배 차이를 보였다. 모양인자가 작을수록 피폭방사선량은 높게 나타났으며, 모양인자가 1 일 때 피폭방사선량은 모양인자가 2 일 때 보다 18% 높았다. 입자의 밀도가 증가할수록 피폭방사선량은 높게 나타났으며, 입자 밀도가 $11g{\cdot}cm^{-3}$ 인 경우 피폭방사선량은 밀도가 $0.7g{\cdot}cm^{-3}$ 인 경우에 비해 60% 높게 나타났다. $^{238}U$ 의 경우 피폭방사선량은 흡수형태 S, M, F 순으로 높게 나타났으며, 흡수형태 S 의 경우 F 에 비해 피폭방사선량이 약 9 배 높게 나타났다. $^{230}Th$ 의 경우 피폭방사선량은 흡수형태 F, M, S 순으로 높게 나타났으며, 흡수형태 F 의 경우 S 에 비해 피폭방사선량이 약 16 배 높게 나타났다. 민감도 평가에서 나타난 것처럼 입자의 물리화학적 특성을 고려하지 않고 피폭방사선량을 평가하는 경우 평가값은 실제값에 비해 수십 혹은 수백 배 이상 왜곡 될 수 있다. 천연방사성물질을 취급하는 작업장에서 종사자의 정확한 피폭방사선량 평가를 위해서는 취급하는 물질, 작업환경 등을 고려하고 입자의 물리화학적 특성값을 실측하여 실시하는 것이 바람직하다.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• 제48권3호
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• pp.778-784
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• 2016

HyperGam-U was recently developed to determine uranium enrichment based on ${\gamma}$- and X-ray spectroscopy analysis. The $XK_{\alpha}$ region of the uranium spectrum contains 13 peaks for $^{235}U$ and $^{238}U$ and is used mainly for analysis. To describe the X-ray peaks, a Lorentzian broadened shape function was used, and methods were developed to reduce the number of fitting parameters for decomposing the strongly overlapping peaks using channel-energy, energy-width, and energy-efficiency calibration functions. For validation, eight certified reference material uranium samples covering uranium enrichments from 1% to 99% were measured using a high-resolution planar high-purity germanium detector and analyzed using the HyperGam-U code. When corrections for the attenuation and true coincidence summing were performed for the detection geometry in this experiment, the goodness of fit was improved by a few percent. The enrichment bias in this study did not exceed 2% compared with the certified values for all measured samples.

• 한국경영과학회지
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• 제37권4호
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• pp.225-238
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• 2012

The purpose of this study is to examine the factors influencing usage intention of u-Healthcare with voluntariness in long-term care hospitals. This model tests various theoretical research hypotheses relating to u-Healthcare, UTAUT theory and voluntariness. The proposed model is analyzed to target long-term care hospitals. Questionnaires have been collected during two months of 2010 and total 142 has been considered to be valid. Smart PLS (partial least square) 2.0 and SPSS 15.0 have been utilized for deriving the study results. The results of hypothesis testing are as follows. First, performance expectance, effort expectancy and social influence positively influence usage intention. Second, facilitation not influence usage intention. Still due to lack of technical infrastructure to promote conditions of use u-Healthcare in long-care hospitals for u-Healthcare system also considered to be not significantly affected. Finally, performance expectance to usage intention for low voluntariness group is significantly larger than those for high voluntariness group. In addition, social influence to usage intention for high voluntarines group is significantly larger than those for low voluntariness group.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• 제50권6호
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• pp.929-936
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• 2018

A basic characterization of uranium samples was performed using gamma- and X-ray spectroscopy. The studied uranium samples were eight types of certified reference materials with $^{235}U$ enrichments in the range of 1-97%, and the measurements were performed over 24 h using a high-resolution and high-purity planar germanium detector. A general peak analysis of the spectrum and the $XK_{\alpha}$ region of the uranium spectra was carried out by using HyperGam and HyperGam-U, respectively. The standard reference sources were used to calibrate the spectroscopy system. To obtain the absolute detection efficiency, an effective solid angle code, EXVol, was run for each sample. Hence, the peak activities and isotopic activities were determined, and then, the total U content and $^{234}U$, $^{235}U$, and $^{238}U$ isotopic contents were determined and compared with those of the certified reference values. A new method to determine the model age based on the ratio of the activities of $^{223}Ra$ and $^{235}U$ in the sample was studied, and the model age was compared with the known true age. In summary, the present study developed a method for basic characterization of uranium samples by nondestructive gamma-ray spectrometry in 24 h and to obtain information on the sample age.