• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.36 no.4
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• pp.304-315
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• 2004

The ageing effects of radionuclides in radioactive soil on remediation using the electrokinetic method were analyzed. Comparative experiments were conducted for the reactive soil around a TRIGA research? reactor contaminated with $^{137}Cs\;and\;^{60}Co$ for 15 years and the non-reactive soil that was intentionally contaminated with $Cs^+\;and\;Co^{2+}$ for 3 days. It was observed that because of an aging effect on $^{137}Cs$, the efficiency of removing it decreased. $H_{2}SO_4$ used as an additive to increase the removal efficiency showed a higher removal capability than other chemicals for both $^{137}Cs\;and\;^{60}Co$. The efficiency of removing radionuclides from the radioactive soil in the column was proportional to the capability of the added chemical to extract radionuclides. It took 10 days to achieve a $54\%$ removal of $^{137}Cs$ and a $97\%$ removal of $^{60}Co$ from the soil. The volume of the soil wastewater discharged from the soil column by the electrokinetic method was $20\%$ below that for soil washing.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.54 no.6
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• pp.1991-2003
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• 2022

The problem of water contamination by long-living cesium and strontium radionuclides is an urgent environmental issue. The development of facile and efficient technologies based on nanostructured adsorbents is a perspective for selective radionuclides removal. In this regard, current work aimed to obtain the nanostructured magnetic zeolite composites with high adsorption performance to cesium and strontium ions. The optimal conditions of hydrothermal synthesis were established based on XRD, SEM-EDX, N₂ adsorption-desorption, VSM, and batch adsorption experiment data. The role of chemical composition, textural characteristics, and surface morphology was demonstrated. The monolayer ionexchange mechanism was proposed based on adsorption isotherm modeling. The highest Langmuir adsorption capacity of 229.6 and 105.1 mg/g towards cesium and strontium ions was reached for composite obtained at 90 ℃ hydrothermal treatment. It was shown that magnetic characteristics of zeolite composites allowing to separate spent adsorbents by a magnet from aqueous solutions.

• Journal of Soil and Groundwater Environment
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• v.28 no.4
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• pp.1-5
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• 2023

In the fabrication of magnetic adsorbent by incorporating iron species on base materials with layered structure, there can be a potential loss of adsorption capacity from the penetration of dissolved iron species into the structure. This work newly synthesized a magnetic adsorbent by incorporating nano magnetite and glucose into layered metal sulfide via hydrothermal treatment, and tested the removal efficiencies of cesium ions (Cs⁺) by the adsorbents fabricated under different conditions (final temperature and glucose mass ratio). As a result, the optimal fabrication condition was found to be mass ratio of 1 (layered metal sulfide): 0.1 (nano magnetite): 0.4 (glucose) and final temperature of 160℃. As-prepared adsorbent possessed good adsorption ability of Cs⁺ (54.8 mg/g) without a significant loss of adsorption capacity from attaching glucose and nano magnetite onto the surface.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.51 no.1
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• pp.125-137
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• 2019

The purpose of this paper is to study the source term behavior after severe accidents by using a semi-kinetic model for simulation and calculation of in-containment activity. The reactor containment specification and the safety features of the containment under different accident conditions play a great role in evaluating the in-containment activity. Assuming in-vessel and instantaneous release of radioactivity into the containment, the behavior of in-containment isotopic activity is studied for noble gasses (Kr and Xe) and the more volatile elements of iodine, cesium, and aerosols such as Te, Rb and Sr as illustrative examples of source term release under LOCA conditions. The results of the activity removal mechanisms indicates that the impact of volumetric leakage rate for noble gasses is important during the accident, while the influence of deposition on the containment surfaces for cesium, mainly iodine isotopes and aerosol has the largest contribution in removal of activity during evolution of the accident.

• Proceedings of the Korean Radioactive Waste Society Conference
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• 2017.05a
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• pp.327-328
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• 2017

• Applied Chemistry for Engineering
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• v.33 no.1
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• pp.38-43
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• 2022

The effect of introducing oxygen functional groups by oxygen plasma treatment of activated carbon on adsorption properties of cesium ions was investigated. During the oxygen plasma treatment, the frequency, power, and oxygen gas flow rates were fixed at 100 kHz, 80 W, and 60 sccm, respectively, while the reaction time was varied. Under the experimental conditions, the amount of cesium ion adsorption increased as the content of oxygen groups on C-O-C and O=C-O bonds increased when the reaction time with oxygen gas was 10 minutes. However, when the reaction time increased to 15 minutes, the oxygen functional group content decreased resulting in the decrease of the adsorbed cesium ion amount. On the other hand, unlike the oxygen content of the surface-treated activated carbon, the specific surface area and pore properties were hardly affected by the oxygen plasma reaction time. As a result, the oxygen plasma-treated activated carbon improved the cesium ion removal rate by up to 97.3% compared to that of the untreated activated carbon. This is considered to be due to the content of oxygen groups on C-O-C and O=C-O bonds introduced on the surface of the activated carbon through oxygen plasma treatment.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.41 no.8
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• pp.1079-1086
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• 2009

A great volume of radioactive concrete is generated during the operation and the decommissioning of nuclear facilities. The washing-electrokinetic technology in this study, which combined an electrokinetic method and a washing method, was developed to decontaminate the concrete generated in nuclear facilities. The results of only an electrokinetic decontamination for the concrete showed that cobalt was removed to below 1% from the concrete due to its high pH. Therefore, the washing-electrokinetic technology was applied to lower the pH of the concrete. Namely, when the concrete was washed with 3 M of hydrochloric acid for 4 hours (0.17 day), the $CaCO_3$ in the concrete was decomposed into $CO_2$ and the pH of the concrete was reduced to 3.7, and the cobalt and cesium in the concrete were removed by up to 85.0% and 76.3% respectively. Next, when the washed concrete was decontaminated by the electrokinetic method with 0.01M of acetic acid in the 1L electrokinetic equipment for 14.83 days, the cobalt and the cesium in the concrete were both removed by up to 99.7% and 99.6% respectively. The removal efficiencies of the cobalt and cesium by 0.01M of acetic acid were increased more than those by 0.05M of acetic acid due to the increase of the concrete zeta potential. The total effluent volume generated from the washing-electrokinetic decontamination was 11.55L (7.2ml/g).

• Journal of Korean Society of Water and Wastewater
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• v.32 no.5
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• pp.399-409
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• 2018

Prussian blue is known as a superior material for selective adsorption of radioactive cesium ions; however, the separation of Prussian blue from aqueous suspension, due to particle size of around several tens of nanometers, is a hurdle that must be overcome. Therefore, this study aims to develop granule type adsorbent material containing Prussian blue in order to selectively adsorb and remove radioactive cesium in water. The surface of granular activated carbon was grafted using a covalent organic polymer (COP-19) in order to enhance Prussian blue immobilization. To maximize the degree of immobilization and minimize subsequent detachment of Prussian blue, several immobilization pathways were evaluated. As a result, the highest cesium adsorption performance was achieved when Prussian blue was synthesized in-situ without solid-liquid separation step during synthesis. The sample obtained under optimal conditions was further analyzed by scanning electron microscope-energy dispersive spectrometry, and it was confirmed that Prussian blue, which is about 9.7% of the total weight, was fixed on the surface of the activated carbon; this level of fixing represented a two-fold improvement compared to before COP-19 modification. In addition, an elution test was carried out to evaluate the stability of Prussian blue. Leaching of Prussian blue and cesium decreased by 1/2 and 1/3, respectively, compared to those levels before modification, showing increased stability due to COP-19 grafting. The Prussian blue based adsorbent material developed in this study is expected to be useful as a decontamination material to mitigate the release of radioactive materials.

• Proceedings of the Korean Radioactive Waste Society Conference
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• 2019.05a
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• pp.299-300
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• 2019

• Proceedings of the Korean Radioactive Waste Society Conference
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• 2017.10a
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• pp.241-242
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• 2017