• Title/Summary/Keyword: Chernobyl

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A Study on the Measurement of Activity Concentrations of Pu and Am and Their Isotopic Ratios in the Radioactively Contaminated Soil (방사능으로 오염된 토양에 대한 Pu 및 Am 방사능 농도 및 동위원소비 측정에 대한 연구)

  • Lee, Myung Ho;Song, Byoung Chul;Park, Young Jai;Kim, Won Ho
    • Analytical Science and Technology
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    • v.17 no.6
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    • pp.514-519
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    • 2004
  • Soil samples collected from around the BOMARC Missile Site were measured for their activity concentrations and isotopic ratios of Pu and Am isotopes with particle sizes. The activity concentrations of Pu and Am in the BOMARC soil were remarkably higher than the fallout levels, and the activities decreased nearly exponentially with an increasing particle size of the soil due to a decreasing surface area. The activity ratios of Pu-238 / Pu-239, 240, Pu-241 / Pu-239, 240 and Am-241 / Pu-239, 240 observed in the BOMARC soil were much lower than those attributed to the nuclear reprocess plants and the Chernobyl fallout. Also, the atomic ratio of Pu-240 / Pu-239 in the BOMARC soil was remarkably lower than the fallout value influenced by the nuclear weapons testing and the Chernobyl accident. The atomic ratio of Pu-240 / Pu-239 was so close to the value of the weapons grade Pu released from the crash of a B52 plane in the Thule of the Greenland, such that the Pu isotopes detected in the BOMARC soil could have originated from the weapons grade plutonium.

The Impact of the Great East Japan Earthquake and Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Accident on People's Perception of Disaster Risks and Attitudes Toward Nuclear Energy Policy

  • Iwai, Noriko;Shishido, Kuniaki
    • Asian Journal for Public Opinion Research
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    • v.2 no.3
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    • pp.172-195
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    • 2015
  • Multiple nationwide opinion surveys, carried out by the government (cabinet office), major media (national newspapers and NHK), the National Institute for Environmental Studies, and the Atomic Energy Society of Japan, have revealed that the Fukushima nuclear accident has heightened people's perception of disaster risks, fear of nuclear accidents, and increased recognition of pollution issues, and has changed public opinion on nuclear energy policy. The opinion gap on nuclear energy policy between specialists and lay people has widened since the disaster. The results of the Japanese General Social Survey data show that objections to the promotion of nuclear energy are strong among females, and weaker among young males and the supporters of the LDP. These findings are similar to the data collected after the Chernobyl accident. People who live in a 70km radius of nuclear plants tend to evaluate nuclear disaster risks higher. Distance from nuclear plants and the perception of earthquake risk interactively correlate with opinions on nuclear issues. Among people whose evaluation of earthquake risk is low, those who live nearer to the plants are more likely to object to the abolishment of nuclear plants. It was also found that the nuclear disaster has changed people's behavior; they now try to save electricity. The level of commitment to energy saving is found to relate to opinions on nuclear issues.

News Focus - Today and Tomorrow of the Korea-made NPP, SMART (뉴스초점 - 한국 토종 원자로 'SMART"의 오늘과 내일)

  • Kim, Hak-Roh
    • Journal of the Korean Professional Engineers Association
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    • v.44 no.6
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    • pp.40-44
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    • 2011
  • Nuclear energy in Korea began in 1958, when the Korea's atomic energy act was formulated and the relevant organizations were founded. Since then, notwithstanding the two catastrophe like TMI and Chernobyl accident, Korea made a wise decision to expand the peaceful uses of the nuclear energy as well as to localize the essential nuclear design technology of fuel and nuclear steam supply system. This decision resulted in the success of export of nuclear power plants as well as research reactor in 2010s. The Korea's nuclear policy, which well utilized 'international crisis in nuclear business' as 'opportunity of Korea to get. nuclear technology', is believed nice policy as a role model of nuclear new-comer countries. Based upon the success story of localization of nuclear technology, Korea had an eye for a niche market, which was a basis of development of SMART, Korea-made integral PWR. The operation of a SMART plant can sufficiently provide not only electricity but also fresh water for 100,000 residents. Last two years, Korea's nuclear industry team led by the Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute completed the standard design of SMART and applied to the Korea's regulatory body for standard design approval. Now the Korea's licensing authority is reviewing the design with the relevant documents, and the design team is doing its best to realize its hope to get the approval by the end of this year. From next year, the SMART business including construction and export will be explored by the KEPCO consortium.

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Off-Site Consequence Analysis for PWR and PHWR Types of Nuclear Power Plants Using MACCS II Code (MACCS II 코드를 이용한 국내 경수로 및 중수로형 원전의 소외결말분석)

  • Jeon, Ho-Jun;Chi, Moon-Goo;Hwang, Seok-Won
    • Journal of the Korean Society of Safety
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    • v.26 no.5
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    • pp.105-109
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    • 2011
  • Since a severe accident, which happens in low frequency, can cause serious damages, the interests in off-site consequence analysis for a nuclear power plant have been increased after Chernobyl, TMI and Fukushima accidents. Consequences, which are the effects on health and environment caused by released radioisotopes, are evaluated using MACCS II code based on the method of Level 3 PSA. To perform a consequence analysis for the reference plants, the input data of the code were generated such as meteorological data, population distribution, release fractions, and so on. Using these input data, acute and lifetime dose as an organ, CCDF for early fatalities and latent cancer fatalities, and average individual risk were analyzed by using MACCS II code in this study. These results might contribute to establishing accident management plan and quantitative health object.

On the Report Tendency of Mass Communication in Nuclear Accident and the Standpoint of Public Acceptance from a Intrinsic Point of View. (A Case Study of Quantitative Analysis in Connection with the Newspaper Report Especially in Korea.) (핵사고시 매스컴의 보도경향과 본질적 면에서 본 국민이해의 관점 (특히 한국신문 보도에 관련된 정량적인 분석의 사례를 중심으로))

  • Lee, Soo-Yong
    • Journal of Radiation Protection and Research
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    • v.21 no.3
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    • pp.217-253
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    • 1996
  • Following after the Chernobyl accident. the response to the large scale nuclear accidents became a clear example to show how these accidents affect the public information that strongly depend on political, economical, and social factors. Futhermore, in present day although we live in the era of various information, as far as the problem of nuclear is concerned, the acceptance of the source of Information is always apt to limited. Therefore, in this investigations, as a case study, an attempt is to make the method of minimizing and a preparation to cope with the grope of countermeasure for psychologically unsettled and disordered problems that accepted from both of the unconfirmed and of the exaggerated circumstantial report of mass media as well as a clue to the probability under the condition of existence of major and minor nuclear accidents. In the present paper, it also intends to establish the terminology that covered all the part of nuclear field use in a writing guideline to the scientific column of nuclear accident as shown in the table. and several methodology in relation to the report tendency of mass communication in nuclear accident and the standpoint of public acceptance from a intrinsic point of view are discussed.

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A Study on Minimum Detection Limit of Environmental Radioactivity in HPGe Detector (HPGe 검출기에서 환경방사능측정의 검출하한치에 관한 연구)

  • Jang, Eun-Sung
    • 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.

Search for the activity measurement of radionuclides I-131 (131I을 이용한 방사능 측정에 관한 연구)

  • Baek, Seong-Min;Jang, Eun-Sung
    • Journal of the Korean Society of Radiology
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    • v.6 no.1
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    • pp.79-82
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    • 2012
  • Iodine is one of important nuclides to be checked for radiation exposure after nuclear power facility accidents. After Chernobyl accident, it was observed that there is a greater amount of organic iodine in the atmosphere than inorganic iodine. In this study, we not only varied the amount of sample being exposed to $^{131}I$ and the duration of exposure to $^{131}I$ but also diluted the sample in distilled water and mixed the sample in kelp and liquid $^{131}I$ to measure and analyze the radiation detection levels. We concluded that the radiation levels were not high enough to be harmful to human body. The radiation from $^{131}I$ decreased over time, and we calculated the half life at 7-9 days. We found that the radiation from any sample containing $^{131}I$ was halved by up to 7days.

Cases Study of Accidents in High Risk Organizations by System Dynamics (시스템 다이내믹스 기법을 활용한 고위험 조직 사고 사례 분석)

  • Oh, Youngmin;Ryu, Jin
    • Korean System Dynamics Review
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    • v.16 no.3
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    • pp.5-29
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    • 2015
  • The importance of the concept of safety culture has increased in the security of high-risk facility after Chernobyl accident in 1986. This paper elaborated the concept of safety culture and its main factors by Causal Loop Diagram. Due to the decline of safety culture, the occurrence of incidents and accidents require more and more corrective actions to the members of high-risk facilities and thereby increasing their workloads. Employees who must complete the task within the given time have to have time pressures and don't comply with the rules and procedures. Also, a schedule pressure is a big stress for employees, causing mistakes in precision work. In order to improve these problems, CLD of the safety culture in this paper suggests hiring more workers, re-allocation of given workloads and strengthen the learning, communication capabilities and safety leadership. In addition, the two real accident cases were analyzed to test the feasibility of the System Dynamic simulation model through the process of structuring the fault trees on the stationary black out accident in Kori unit 1 in South Korea and Kleen Energy power station explosion in US. The simulation results show that the various safety factors cause the serious accident combined with mechanical failure and safety culture will reduce the possibility of the accidents in these high-risk organizations. This simulation model can contribute to analyzing the impact of the organizational and human factors of safety culture and can provide the alternatives in high-risk facilities.

A Study on Distribution of Cs-137 and Sr-90 in Soils around Taejon Region (대전지역 토양에 대한 Cs-137 및 Sr-90 방사능농도 분포 조사)

  • Lee, Myung-Ho;Lee, Chang-Woo;Hong, Kwang-Hee;Choi, Yong-Ho;Kim, Sang-Bok;Park, Doo-Won;Lee, Jeong-Ho
    • Journal of Radiation Protection and Research
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    • v.20 no.2
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    • pp.123-128
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    • 1995
  • The concentration of Cs-137 and Sr-90 has been analyzed in soils around Taejon region. A correalation was found between the concentration of Cs-137 and the organic matter content. The mean value of Cs-137 was 14.37Bq/kg-dry and that of Sr-90 was 7.95Bq/kg-dry in undisturbed soils around Taejon region. The concentration ratio of Cs-137/Sr-90 was 1.99. The distribution of Cs-137 and Sr-90 was similar to cumulative fallout level and had been more affected by nuclear weapons test than by the chernobyl accident.

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Analysis on the Perception of Nuclear Power Plant and the Preference of its Policy Alternatives for Public Acceptance (원자력발전소에 대한 인식과 국민수용성 향상을 위한 정책대안들의 선호 분석)

  • Park, Young-Sung;Lee, Byong-Whi
    • Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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    • v.27 no.1
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    • pp.33-44
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    • 1995
  • Public acceptance has become an important factor in nuclear power program particularly after Chernobyl accident and recent rapid democratization in Korea. Methods reflecting public opinions in order to improve public acceptance are firstly to understand what the public think about nuclear power plant and secondly to find out the public preference values for its policies. For this purpose, simplified multi-attribute utility (MAU) model was applied to analyze the public perception pattern for fire power production systems. And the conjoint analysis was applied to find out the quantitative values of public preferences for twelve policy alternatives to improve the safety and to support communities surrounding nuclear power plants in Korea. To implement these perception and preference analyses, mail survey was conducted to the Qualified sample who had the experience of visiting nuclear power plant. Diagnosis of their perception pattern for five power production systems was made by the simplified MAU model. Estimation of the quantitative preference values for potential policy alternatives was made by the conjoint measurement technique, which made it possible to forecast the effectiveness of each option. The results from the qualified sample and the methods used in this study would be helpful to set up new policy of nuclear power plant.

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