• Clean Technology
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• v.29 no.1
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• pp.1-9
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• 2023

Waste explosives such as useless ammunition discharged from the military and coproduced useless explosives during the manufacturers production process have been continuously produced. These are difficult to dispose with normal waste treatment facilities due to the dangers of fire and explosion. An open burning or an open detonation at military designated disposal facilities is a classical treatment method for the dangerous explosives. The classical method raises various environmental problems by the emission of hazardous materials. An air pollution by the emission of hazardous gases such as SO_x and NO_x, soil and water contaminations by the accumulation of non-biodegradable heavy metals, are representative pollution examples. To overcome these problems, various processes for eco-friendly waste treatment methods have been developed, and some processes have already been operated in some countries. In the current report, various eco-friendly disposal processes for waste explosives or harmful materials, and their advantages and disadvantages are documented to suggest future development directions for reducing the hazardous substances by the treatment processes.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Systems Engineering
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.65-75
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• 2021

When the decommissioning of South Korea nuclear power plants is promoted in earnest with the permanent shutdown of Kori Unit 1 in 2017, a large amount of various types of radioactive waste will be generated. For minimal generation and safe management of decommissioning waste, the waste should be made by appropriate classification of the dismantling waste characteristics in accordance with physical, chemical and radiological characteristics to meet the acceptance criteria of disposal facilities. Replacing the preliminary inspection at the site for the compliance of the waste acceptance criteria (WAC) of medium and low-level radioactive waste with the generator's own radioactive waste certification program (WCP), from the perspective of disposal, the optimization of waste management at the national level contributes to the efficient availability of disposal, such as the processing of non-conforming radioactive wastes at the site. To this end, it is important to evaluate radioactivity in each system and area such as nuclear reactors before decommissioning is carried out in earnest, and the prior removal of harmful wastes is important. From waste collection to waste disposal, decommissioning waste should be managed at each stage in consideration of the acceptance criteria of disposal facilities to minimize the generation of non-conforming waste.

• Journal of Nuclear Fuel Cycle and Waste Technology(JNFCWT)
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• v.10 no.3
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• pp.209-218
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• 2012

A pyroprocess is currently being developed by KAERI to cope with a highly accumulated spent nuclear fuel in Korea. The pyroprocess produces a certain amount of high-level radioactive waste (HLW), which is solidified by a ceramic binder. The produced ceramic waste will be confined in a secure disposal canister and then placed in a deep geologic formation so as not to contaminate human environment. In this paper, the development of a disposal canister was overviewed by discussing mainly its design premises, constitution, manufacturing methods, corrosion resistance in a deep geologic environment, radiation shielding, and structural stability. The disposal canister should be safe from thermal, chemical, mechanical, and biological invasions for a very long time so as not to release any kind of radionuclides.

• Journal of Soil and Groundwater Environment
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• v.20 no.7
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• pp.90-102
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• 2015

To understand the hyrogeochemical variation of bedrock aquifer during underground space construction, various graphical methods including multiple-component plots and chemical trends were used to estimate the mixing rate between seawater and freshwater and to investigate the evolution of water quality. The water chemistry and mixing rate between fresh and sea waters, which are generally localized in the construction area (MW-7, in land), shows typical characteristics of freshwater that doesn’t affect its validity as seawater intrusion. Especially, the water chemistry of a MW-4 (coastline) was classified as Na-Cl type, Na-HCO₃ type, and Ca-Cl type due to the influence of the seawater intrusion. And hydrogeochemical and isotopic data show that local freshwater is subjected to geochemical processes, such as reverse ion-exchange. Throughout the Chadha’s diagrams, four different case histories with the temporal and spatial variation of groundwaters in the study area were proposed, which is recommended to interpret the hydrogeochemical reactions effectively.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.55 no.4
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• pp.1495-1506
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• 2023

For the safe disposal of high-level radioactive waste using Engineered Barrier Systems (EBS), bentonite buffer is used by its high swelling capability and low hydraulic conductivity. When the bentonite buffer is contacted to heated pore water containing ions by radioactive decay, chemical alterations of minerals such as illitization reaction occur. Illitization of bentonite indicates the alteration of expandable smectite into non-expandable illite, which threatens the stability and integrity of EBS. This study intends to provide a thorough review on the information underlying in the illitization of bentonite, by covering basic clay mineralogy, smectite expansion, mechanisms and observation of illitization, and illitization in EBS. Since understanding of smectite illitization is crucial for securing the safety and integrity of nuclear waste disposal systems using bentonite buffer, this thorough review study is expected to provide essential and concise information for the preventive EBS design.

• Journal of Nuclear Fuel Cycle and Waste Technology(JNFCWT)
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• v.14 no.1
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• pp.11-19
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• 2016

This paper focuses on the estimation of durability and service-life of reinforced concrete structures in Wolsong Low- and intermediate-level wastes Disposal Center (WLDC) in Korea. There are six disposal silos located in the saturated environment. The silo concrete is degraded due to reactions with groundwater and chemical attacks, and finally it will lose its properties as a transport barrier. The infiltration of sulfate and magnesium, leaching of potassium hydroxide, and chlorine induced corrosion are the most significant factors for degradation of reinforced concrete structure in underground environment. From the result of evaluation of the degradation time for each factor, the degradation rate of the reinforced concrete due to sulfate and magnesium is $1.308{\times}10^{-3}cm/yr$, and it is estimated to take 48,000 years for full degradation while potassium hydroxide is leached in depth of less than 1.5 cm at 1,000 years after the initiation of degradation. In case of chlorine induced corrosion, it takes 1,648 years to initiate corrosion in the main reinforced bar and 2,288 years to reach the lifetime limit of the structural integrity, and thus it is evaluated as the most significant factor.

• Journal of Energy Engineering
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• v.27 no.1
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• pp.59-64
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• 2018

In this paper, we investigated the alternative sources of limestone. Oyster shell waste originated from aquaculture that causes a major disposal landfill problem in coastal sectors in southeast Korea. Their inadequate disposal causes a significant environmental problems araised. Bio mineralization leads to the formation of oyster shells and consists $CaCO_3$ as a major phase with a small amount of organic matter. It is a good alternative material source instead of natural lime stone. The utilization of oyster shell waste for industrial applications instead of natural limestone is major advantage for conservation of natural limestone. The present work describes the limestone and oyster shells hydraulic activity and chemical composition and characteristics are most similar for utilization of oyster shell waste instead of natural limestone.

• Hwankyungkyoyuk
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• v.11 no.2
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• pp.144-155
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• 1998

This research aims to perceive the present state of science experimental education practiced in middle school and also to improve the laboratorial environment. Accordingly, this study surveyed 297 middle school science teachers in Seoul to examine the risks and accidents occurred during lab sessions, the conditions of chemical waste disposal, and whether or not teacher's manual clearly states cautions on toxic chemicals. About 70%(69.6%) of science teachers were highly concerned about risks and toxicity of chemicals used in classes, 59.9% experienced actual accidents, and 83.2% were anxiety of incidents caused by chemicals. Besides, 55.2% of science teachers answered that they have little knowledge about caring noxious chemicals used in lab sessions. So it turns out that they need more specific education on handling toxic chemicals. More than one third(36.7%) answered that they disposed of chemical waste water without any special care or kept it in the lab after experiments. The number of chemicals as well used in middle school curriculum is increasing as grades gets higher toxic chemicals. However, there are few teachers' manual covering how to handle noxious chemicals. Therefore, in middle school curriculum the number of poisonous chemicals should be minimized as much as possible, and in case the toxic chemicals have to be used, teacher's guide book should state precautions on handling chemicals in detail. Also government should make it obligatory on schools to instate ventilator for chemical waste, or to transport the waste to proper disposal systems.

• Journal of the Korea Institute of Military Science and Technology
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• v.10 no.1
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• pp.116-122
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• 2007

A 2-step process for the safe disposal of chemical warfare agents(agent hydrolysis followed by incineration In the submerged-quench incinerator) was studied to obtain basic data for the design of pilot plant in the future. Sample materials used for the hydrolysis reaction were sarin(GB), sulfur mustard (HD), and methylphosphonic difluoride(DF). The hydrolysates of these materials were thermally destroyed in a submerged-quench incineration system. Experimental conditions for achieving destruction efficiency of 99.99% in both steps were established and phosphoric acid was recovered from the waste water when destroying DF hydrolysate in the incinerator. Treated water could be reused as process water for the agent hydrolysis.

• Journal of Nuclear Fuel Cycle and Waste Technology(JNFCWT)
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• v.17 no.2
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• pp.227-234
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• 2019

A user-friendly modeling interface is developed for a process-based total system performance assessment framework (APro) specialized for a generic geological disposal system for high-level radioactive waste. The APro modeling interface is constructed using MATLAB, and the operator splitting scheme is used to combine COMSOL for simulation of multiphysics and PHREEQC for the calculation of geochemical reactions. As APro limits the modeling domain to the generic disposal system, the degree of freedom of the model is low. In contrast, the user-friendliness of the model is improved. Thermal, hydraulic, mechanical and chemical processes considered in the disposal system are modularized, and users can select one of multiple modules: "Default process" and multi "Alternative process". APro mainly consists of an input data part and calculation execution part. The input data are prepared in a single EXCEL file with a given format, and the calculation part is coded using MATLAB. The final results of the calculation are created as an independent COMSOL file for further analysis.