• Journal of Nuclear Fuel Cycle and Waste Technology(JNFCWT)
• /
• v.17 no.1
• /
• pp.59-73
• /
• 2019

A decontamination technology for radioactive liquid wastes was newly developed and hypothetically applied to the liquid waste management system (LWMS) of the nuclear power plant (NPP) to evaluate its decontamination efficacy for the purpose of the fundamental reduction of spent resins. The basic principle of the developed technology is to convert major radionuclide ions in the liquid wastes into inorganic crystal minerals via chemical or biological techniques. In a laboratory batch experiment, the biological method selectively removed more than 80% of cesium within 24 hours, and the chemical method removed more than 95% of cesium. Other major nuclides (Co, Ni, Fe, Cr, Mn, Eu), which are commonly present in nuclear radioactive liquid wastes, were effectively scavenged by more than 99%. We have designed a module including the new technology that could be hypothetically installed between the reverse osmosis (R/O) package and the organic ion-exchange resin in the LWMS of the APR1400 reactor. From a technical evaluation for the virtual installation, we found that more than 90% of major radionuclides in the radioactive liquid wastes were selectively removed, resulting in a large volume reduction of spent resins. This means that if the new technology is commercialized in the future, it could possibly provide drastic cost reduction and significant extension of the life of resins in the management of spent resins, consequently leading to delay the saturation time of the Wolsong repository.

• Proceedings of the Korean Radioactive Waste Society Conference
• /
• 2006.06a
• /
• pp.85-85
• /
• 2006

• Journal of Nuclear Fuel Cycle and Waste Technology(JNFCWT)
• /
• v.7 no.3
• /
• pp.175-182
• /
• 2009

The spent cationic exchange resins and anionic exchange resins were separated from mixed spent exchange resins by a fluidized bed gravimetric separator. The separated resins were identified by an elemental analysis and thermogravimetric analysis. The each test sample was prepared by diluting the slurry made by wet ball milling the cationic exchange resins and the anionic exchange resins separated as a spherical granular form for 24 hours. The resulting test samples showed a slurry form of less than $75{\mu}m$ of particle size and 25,000ppm of $COD_{cr}$. The decomposition conditions of each test samples from a thermal power plant were obtained with a lab-scale(reactor volume : 220mL) supercritical water oxidation(SCWO) facility. Then pilot plant(reactor volume : 24 L) tests were performed with the test samples from a thermal power plant and a nuclear power plant successively. Based on the optimal decomposition conditions and the operation experiences by lab-scale facility and the pilot plant, a commercial plant(capacity : 150kg/h) can be installed in a nuclear power plant was designed.

• Journal of Korean Society of Water and Wastewater
• /
• v.26 no.3
• /
• pp.409-421
• /
• 2012

Ethanolamine (ETA) is mainly used to prevent corrosion of pipe in secondary cooling system of nuclear power plant. Condensed ETA in wastewater could increase COD and T-N when it was emitted to natural water system. Compared to conventional treatments, electrochemical oxidation process using packed bed bipolar electrodes was adopted to treat COD and T-N. According to arrangement of feeder electrode, single packed bed bipolar electrode reactor and multi-paired packed bed bipolar reactor were developed and conventional zero-valent iron (ZVI) was selected as conducting bipolar electrode. Bipolar electrodes were coordinated three-dimensionally in the reactor. The experimental results showed that COD and T-N was little removed in unit system at different pH condition (pH 8 and 11) on 100V. However, in multi-paired system that applied 600V, COD was eliminated 80.85% (anode-cathode-anode, A-C-A) and 85.11% (cathode-anode-cathode, C-A-C), respectively. T-N was also removed 96.88% (A-C-A) and 90.63% (C-A-C), simultaneously. Current efficiency was estimated both single and multi-paired system. At unit bipolar packed bed reactor, current efficiency was almost zero, however in multi-paired system, current efficiency was 300~500% at A-C-A and 250~350% at C-A-C. Current efficiency was over 100% hence it was confirmed that this system is more effective than conventional electrochemical oxidation system.

• Economic and Environmental Geology
• /
• v.51 no.2
• /
• pp.177-183
• /
• 2018

This study assessed an application of electrocoagulation (EC) for the removal of cobalt (Co) in radioactive liquid waste from nuclear power plant. The EC process is an electrochemical means to remove a contaminant in wastewater and a novel process to complement the disadvantage of chemical treatment and membrane process. Radioactive liquid waste has been produced from washing process of radio nuclide power plant cooling system. The EC process eliminates Co from the electrolyte within 10 min; in addition, the dewatered sludge produced in EC process is only 0.2 g. Therefore, the EC process is a promising technique for the removal of Co in radioactive liquid waste and volume reduction of wastes.

• Journal of Nuclear Fuel Cycle and Waste Technology(JNFCWT)
• /
• v.5 no.3
• /
• pp.179-188
• /
• 2007

In this work $^{14}C\;and\;^3H$ distribution characteristics of spent resins from nuclear power plants(NPPs), pressurized water reactors(PWRs), was investigated. It was found that the recovery percent of $^{14}C$ by the wet oxidation-acid stripping was $81%{\sim}100%$ for the added activity range of $^{14}C,\;0.72\;Bq{\sim}460\;Bq$, and it was not affected by the kinds of stripping acids, 3N-HCl, $3\;N-HNO_3\;and\;3\;N-H_2SO_4$. And the recovery percent of $^3H$ by distillation using the same apparatus was $81%{\sim}101%$ for the added activity range of $^3H,\;0.60\;Bq{\sim}435\;Bq$. Among the tested stripping acids, 3\;N-HCl, $3\;N-HNO_3\;and\;3\;N-H_2SO_4$, only the trapped $^3H$ solution by distillation in $3\;N-H_2SO_4$ was compatible with the 3H scintillator, Ultimagold XR. Neither of the $^{14}C\;and\;^3H$ trapping solutions from the spent ion exchange resin samples by the wet oxidation-3 $N-H_2SO_4$ stripping contained gamma nuclides. However, some gamma nuclides, $^{60}Co,\;^{134}Cs,\;^{137}Cs\;and\;^{54}Mn$, were found in the trapped $^3H$ solutions of the spent resins by the wet oxidation-3 N-HCl stripping. It was the same for the $^3H$ trapping solutions of the spent resins by Sample Oxidizer(PACKARD MODEL 307). Meanwhile only two nuclides, $^{134}Cs,\;and\;^{134}Cs$, were found in the $^{14}C$ trapping solutions of the spent resins by Sample Oxidizer(PACKARD MODEL 307). It was found that most of the $^{14}C$ in the spent resins existed as inorganic carbon form, more than about 70% of the total $^{14}C$ content. Among the analyzed 30 spent ion exchange resin samples, the average concentration of $^{14}C$ and $^3C$ for the high radioactive samples, 8 samples, was $19000\;Bq/g{\pm}41000\;Bq/g,\;670\;Bq/g{\pm}460\;Bq/g$ and that for the low radioactive samples, 22 samples, was $4.2\;Bq/g{\pm}4.3\;Bq/g,\;6.0\;Bq/g{\pm}5.3\;Bq/g$, respectively. And the average $^{14}C/^3H$ ratio for the high radioactive samples, was higher, 28, than that of low radioactive samples, 0.70. Some linear relationship trend was found between the activity concentrations of $^{14}C\;and\;^3H$.

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
• /
• 2010.06a
• /
• pp.124.2-124.2
• /
• 2010

Generally, a coolant of the nuclear power plant is manufactured by electrolyzing the sea water near the plant for making the sodium hypochlorite(NaOCl), which is used for sterilizing the bacteria and the shellfishes sticking to the drains or the pumps at the outlet of the cooling system due to $8-10^{\circ}C$ warmer temperature than the inlet sea water. During manufacturing the sodium hypochlorite, the hydrogen with the high purity is also produced at the anode side of the electrolyzer. This paper describes a novel power plant system combined with the polymer electrolyte membrane(PEM) fuel cell, the wasted hydrogen from the sea water electrolyzer and the wasted heat of the nuclear power plant. The present status over the exhausted hydrogen at twenty nuclear power plants in Korea was investigated in this study, from which an available power generation is estimated. Furthermore, the economic feasibility of the PEM fuel cell power plant is also evaluated by a current regulations over the power production and exchange using a renewable energy shown in Korea Power Exchange(KRX).

• Economic and Environmental Geology
• /
• v.50 no.5
• /
• pp.341-352
• /
• 2017

Along with Cs-137 (half-life: 30.17 years), Sr-90 (half-life: 28.8 years) is one of the most important environmental monitoring radioactive elements. Rapid and easy monitoring method for Sr-90 using Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (LIBS) has been studied. Strontium belongs to a bivalent alkaline earth metal such as calcium and has similar electron arrangement and size. Due to these similar chemical properties, it can easily enter into the human body through the food chain via water, soil, and crops when leaked into the environment. In addition, it is immersed into the bone at the case of human influx and causes the toxicity for a long time (biological half-life: about 50 years). It is a very reductive and related with the specific reaction that makes wet analysis difficult. In particular, radioactive strontium should be monitored by nuclear power plants but it is very difficult to be analysed from high-cost problems as well as low accuracy of analysis due to complicated analysis procedures, expensive analysis equipment, and a pretreatment process of using massive chemicals. Therefore, we introduce the Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (LIBS) analysis method that analyzes the elements in the sample using the inherent spectrum by generating plasma on the sample using pulse energy, and it can be analyzed in a few seconds without preprocessing. A variety of analytical plates for samples were developed to improve the analytical sensitivity by optimizing the laser, wavelength, and time resolution. This can be effectively applied to real-time monitoring of radioactive wastewater discharged from a nuclear power plant, and furthermore, it can be applied as an emergency monitoring means such as possible future accidents at a nuclear power plants.