• Journal of Radiation Protection and Research
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• v.31 no.3
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• pp.141-148
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• 2006

Surveys of radioactive contamination were performed for imported foodstuffs in 2003. The following samples among imported foodstuffs were selected from markets and Korea Food and Drug Administration(KFDA); the imported samples from country associated with the Chernobyl nuclear accident, the samples produced around the nuclear power plants or nuclear tests, the foodstuffs reported as radioacitive contamination materials in foreign country. After pretreatments such as drying and homogenization, samples were analyzed. The $^{137}Cs$ radionuclide was only measured among the regulation radionuclides($^{137}Cs,\;^{134}Cs,\;^{131}I$) of food code. All foodstuffs except Inonotus Obliquus(Chaga mushooms) are less than 17.0 Bq/kg or below the minimum detectable activity(MDA). The activity concentrations of Chaga mushrooms from Russia ranged up to 131.25 Bq/ltg which is almost 35 % of the maximum permitted level of food code. The fraction of imported foodstuffs having meaningful radioactivity is small, however, the radioactive contamination survey of imported foodstuffs is still needed.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Radiology
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• v.5 no.1
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• pp.5-10
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• 2011

Based on basic concept of detection limit, sample measurement time & background measurement time was considered, and MDA values according to background measurement time and sample measurement time in land samples(river soil, surface soil, drinking water, underground water, surface water, pine leaf, mugwort) analysis among environmental samples were compared. Seeing the water sample analysis result, it was shown that most of the samples were not detected, and most of the samples in land specimen analysis showed to be below the detection limit of "Ministry of Education, Science and Technology Announcement Je-2008-28-ho", but $^{137}Cs$ which is one of artificial radioactive nuclide was detected in some samples. It can be traced back to 1950s and 1960s when nuclear tests were carried out in atmosphere and catastrophic Chernobyl atomic power station accident that caused fallouts in the sky, and this is common level of detection that can be observed worldwide. Seeing the result that the $^{134}Cs$(which is a isotope of $^{137}Cs$, and it has relatively short half life) was not detected in all samples, it can be considered it doesn't affect to the operation of atomic power station.

• Journal of Nuclear Fuel Cycle and Waste Technology(JNFCWT)
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• v.16 no.3
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• pp.301-308
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• 2018

Anthropogenic radioactive noble gases formed by nuclear fission are significant indicators used to monitor the nuclear activity of neighboring countries. In particular, radioactive xenon, owing to its abundant generation and short half-life, can be used to detect nuclear testing, and radioactive krypton has been used as a tracer to monitor the reprocessing of nuclear fuels. Released radioactive noble gases are in the atmosphere at infinitesimal amounts due to their dilution in the air and their short half-life decay. Therefore, to obtain reliable and significant data when performing measurement of noble gases in the atmosphere, the minimum detectable activity (MDA) for noble gases should be defined as low as possible. In this study, the MDA values for radioactive xenon and krypton were theoretically obtained based on the BfS-IAR system by collecting both noble gases simultaneously. In addition, various MDA methods, confidence level and analysis conditions were suggested to reduce and optimize MDA with an assessment of the factors affecting MDA. The current investigation indicated that maximizing the pretreatment efficiency and performance maintenance of the counter were the most important aspects for Xe. In the case of Kr, since sample activities are much higher than those of Xe, it is possible to change the target MDA or to simplification of the analysis system.

• Proceedings of the Korean Nuclear Society Conference
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• 1997.05b
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• pp.421-426
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• 1997

'96년 중반 포괄적 핵실험 금지조약(Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty:CTBT)의 체결이후 전세계적으로 핵실험 감시장치망을 구축하고 있는데, 이에 대응하여 한국원자력연구소에서는 국제기술사양에 만족하는 원거리 대기핵종 감시 시스템을 개발하였다. 본 시스템은 원거리에서 날라온 공기중 부유입자를 포집하여 핵실험시 누출될 수 있는 방사성 핵종의 농도를 측정하는 장치이다. 그 운용을 위해서는 포집 및 분석능력의 척도라고 할 수 있는 시스템의 최소검출 방사능농도 (minimum detectable concentration:MDC)의 결정이 필요하다. 따라서 본 연구에서는 최적화된 시료붕괴시간(decay time)에서의 MDC값을 결정하기 위하여 sampling time을 48시간, counting time을 6시간으로 하고, 6시간의 다른 decay time에 따라 실험을 수행하였다. 국제기술사양에서 요구하는 13개 핵종에 대해 decay time에 따른 각각의 MDC값을 구하였으며, 국제기술사양 권고치와 비교하였다. 비교결과 decay time이 12시간일 때 가장 국제기술사양 권고치를 만족한다는 것을 확인하였다.

• Analytical Science and Technology
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• v.24 no.6
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• pp.414-420
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• 2011

In this study, radiation measurement system has been investigated to set up for the radioisotopes analysis in the radioactive waste samples after selecting the radiation counters of alpha beta and gamma nuclides. The counting efficiencies for alpha, beta and gamma measurement systems were calibrated. To obtain stability of the radiation detectors, quality control program has been established. Also, minimum detectable activities (MDAs) depending on the type of samples were calculated for increasing the confidence level for analytical result.

• Clean Technology
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• v.22 no.2
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• pp.122-131
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• 2016

Caesium radioisotopes, ¹³⁴Cs and ¹³⁷Cs which come from the atmospheric nuclear tests and discharges from nuclear power plants, are very important to study artificial radioactivity. In this work, in order to lower the minimum detection activity (MDA) we investigated environmental radioactivity according to the Environment Measurement Laboratory procedure by ¹³⁷Cs and ¹³⁴Cs which is similar to chemical and environmental behaviors of ¹³⁷Cs. The environmental soils in high mountain areas near nuclear power plant were collected, and an Ammonium Molybdophosphate (AMP) precipitation method, which showed high selectivity toward Cs⁺ ions, was applied to chemically extract and concentrate Caesium radioisotopes. Radioactivity was estimated by a gamma-ray spectrometry. In gamma energy spectrum, with an increasing of ⁴⁰K radioactivity, it increased the MDA of ¹³⁴Cs and ¹³⁷Cs. Therefore, if the natural radionuclides were removed from the soil samples, the MDA of Caesium may be reduced, and the contents of ¹³⁷Cs of in the environmental soils can effectively be estimated. In the standard soil sample of Korea Institute of Nuclear Safety, radioactivity of ⁴⁰K was removed more than 84% on average, and the MDA of ¹³⁴Cs was reduced 2 times. The content of ¹³⁷Cs was recovered over 84%. On the other hand, in environmental soils, AMP precipitation method showed removal ratio of ⁴⁰K up to 180 times, which reduced the MDA about 5 times smaller than those of Direct method. ¹³⁷Cs recovery ratio showed from 54.54% to 70.06%. When considering the MDA and recovery ratio, AMP precipitation method is effective for detection of Caesium radioisotopes in low concentration.

• Analytical Science and Technology
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• v.9 no.3
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• pp.262-269
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• 1996

The muiltiwire proportional counter for the measurement of low-level and environmental $\alpha$ particles emitting nuclides was developed. External dimension of the devloped multiwire proportional counter is $350{\times}290{\times}30mm$ and the sensitivity area is $250{\times}200mm$. The wall material of the detector was selected the stainless steel to prevent the deformation by external impact and to obtain minimum background. The anode and cathode wires were used the stainless steel material of diameter $50{\mu}m$. The spacing of each wires are 10.0mm, 5.0mm and the numbers of total wire are 21, 42 lines, respectively. The multiwire proportional counter was designed that the measurement source is placed within the detector to prevent the wall absorption effect and the efficiency variation by various source heights. The characteristics of the developed detector have been investigated to obtain the plateau, operating voltage, background, counting efficiency, position sensitivity and energy resolution etc. For the $^{241}Am$ nuclide, the calculated LLD(Lower Limit of Detection) is 5.0mBq/L which is lower than 40mBq/L of recommended LLD value by ISO(International Organization for Standardization).

• Proceedings of the Korean Nuclear Society Conference
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• 1996.05c
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• pp.526-531
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• 1996

국내의 방사성 동위원소 (Radioisotope; RI) 사용기관에서 발생, 수거되어 현재 원자력연구소 저장고 내에 보관중인 폐기물중 가연분을 대상으로 소각실증실험을 수행하였다. 폐기물 발생일을 기준하여 최소 2년이상이 경과한 RI 폐기물을 소각한 결과 폐기물의 부피와 무게를 각각 약 1/250, 1/30로 줄일 수 있었으며, 소각운전중 배출기체의 농도는 환경관련법상의 배출허용기준치 이하, 배출방사선량은 검출기의 측정한계 이하였다. 방사성동위원소 추적자로 I-131 ($Na^{131}$ I형태, 총 2mCi)을 사용한 모의 폐기물을 소각한 결과 대부분의 방사능은 소각재에 잔존하기 보다는 휘발되어 배기체와 함께 거동하며 주로 포대여과기의 여과층에서 잡히는 것으로 나타났다.

• Proceedings of the Korean Nuclear Society Conference
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• 1997.05b
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• pp.451-456
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• 1997

각 사업소의 교정용 팬톰에 대한 유효성 여부를 판정하고, 측정결과의 정확도와 조직적 오차의 발생여부를 확인할 목적으로 현재 국내 원전에서 사용중인 In Vivo 시스템에 대한 성능 시험을 수행하였다. 성능시험의 내용과 절차는 미국의 관련 지침인 ANSI N13.30에 기초를 두었다. 전신 측정에 대한 성능시험 결과, 시험핵종의 편중, 정밀도 및 최소검출방사능은 ANSI N13.30에서 정한 용인한도 이내로 나타났으며, 또 폐, 하복부 및 갑상선 측정에 대한 성능시험결과에 있어서도 성능평가 항목의 값은 모두 용인한도 이내였다. 각 사업소의 교정용 팬톰과 성능시험용 팬톰이 기하학적 구조에서 다소 차이가 있다 할지라도 측정결과의 편중이 용인한도 이하였다는 사실로부터 각 사업소에서 보유하고 있는 교정용 팬톰의 유효성을 간접적으로 입증할 수 있었다.

• Journal of radiological science and technology
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• v.40 no.4
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• pp.605-611
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• 2017

The structure of the actual detector was computed using the code of the PENELOPE. Using the standard mixed sources (450, 1,000 ml), compare the effectiveness of each energy according to various densities and height of the PENELOPE computer simulation, and calculate the effectiveness of the various environmental specimens and apply them to various environmental specimens to determine the lower limit. The values obtained by the obtained value were obtained by applying the obtained efficiency to the actual environmental specimens and obtaining the lower limit values. The density correction factor is 1.155 g of the density correction factor of $0.4g/cm^3$ (59.54keV), 1.153 (661 keV), $1.06g/cm^3$ 1.064 (1,836.04keV), 1.03, and 1.033. It was confirmed that the radioactivity concentration of environmental samples decreased as the amount of specimen was measured increases, and the MDA value decreased as time measured increases.