• Journal of Radiation Protection and Research
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• v.37 no.3
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• pp.108-115
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• 2012

The Urban Areas Working Group within the EMRAS-2 ($\underline{E}$nvironmental $\underline{M}$odelling for $\underline{RA}$diation $\underline{S}$afety, Phase 2), which has been supported by the IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency), has designed some types of accidental scenarios to test and improve the capabilities of models used for evaluation of radioactive contamination in urban areas. For the comparison of the results predicted from the different models, the absorbed doses in air were analyzed as a function of time following the accident with consideration of countermeasures to be taken. Two kinds of considerations were performed to find the dependency of the predicted results. One is the 'accidental season', i.e. summer and winter, in which an event of radioactive contamination takes place in a specified urban area. Likewise, the 'rainfall intensity' on the day of an event was also considered with the option of 1) no rain, 2) light rain, and 3) heavy rain. The results predicted using a domestic model of METRO-K have been submitted to the Urban Areas Working Group for the intercomparison with those of other models. In this study, as a part of these results using METRO-K, the countermeasures effectiveness in terms of dose reduction was analyzed and presented for the ground floor of a 24-story business building in a specified urban area. As a result, it was found that the countermeasures effectiveness is distinctly dependent on the rainfall intensity on the day of an event, and season when an event takes place. It is related to the different deposition amount of the radionuclides to the surfaces and different behavior on the surfaces following a deposition, and different effectiveness from countermeasures. In conclusion, a selection of appropriate countermeasures with consideration of various environmental conditions may be important to minimize and optimize the socio-economic costs as well as radiation-induced health detriments.

• Journal of Bio-Environment Control
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• v.20 no.4
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• pp.352-356
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• 2011

It is true that the industrial development has usually been accompanied with urbanization or centralization of population that has inevitably led to high-rise buildings and densely built-up living area in the cities. While it is badly needed to acquire as much green land within the city limits as possible to compensate for reduced space for recreational purpose in parallel with increasingly urbanized area, the living conditions of plants have become seriously devastated due to shortage of sun light walled-off by high-rise buildings and contaminated environment and air. The shade that is generated by high-rise and compact buildings hinders growth of plants, which makes it urgent to develop native ground cover plant that is strongly viable in the shade. For this purpose, Ligularia stenocephala, best known as greens for Ssam (rice and condiments wrapped in leaves) was cultivated under the 30%, 50%, and 80% shadings and observed to see if there would be any changes in soil conditions, growth of plants and chlorophyll contents depending on the shading rate. The leaf number was 10.8 pieces under the 50% shading and 8.4 under the 30%-shading, 7.7 pieces more than that cultivated under lighting. The leaf width turned out to be excellent from cultivation under the 50%- shading, an evidence indicating its possibility of being cultivated as native ground cover plant in the shade. The live weight of the plants cultivated under the shading increased to 31.63 g, 43.39 g and 19.40 g, respectively, compared to 90.43 g of those in the untreated control plot. The increase in growth of roots was particularly significant with 48.48 g in comparison to 12.33 g under 30% shading cultivation. The chlorophyll synthesis amounted to 46.2 under the 50% shading, showing an increase compared to 41.9 under lighting. The chlorophyll synthesis rather shrank under other shading conditions. The cultivation of Ligularia stenocephala under the 50% shading showed the best condition in growth as native ground cover plant.

• Journal of the Korea Organic Resources Recycling Association
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• v.30 no.3
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• pp.13-22
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• 2022

In order to improve water quality of the water system contaminated with dyes, biochars prepared using discarded waste resources were applied in this study. Biochars with a large specific surface area were manufactured using street tree pruning products or waste wood, and were applied to remove an organic dye in synthetic water. Biochars were made by pyrolysis of typical street tree porch products (Platanas, Ginkgo, Aak) and waste wood under air-controlled conditions. Methylene blue (MB), which is widely used in phosphofibers, paper, leather, and cotton media, was selected in this study. The adsorption capacity of Platanas for MB was the highest and the q_max value obtained using the Langmuir model equation was 78.47 mg/g. In addition, the adsorption energy (E) (kJ/mol) of MB using the Dubinin-Radushkevich (D-R) model equation was 4.891 kJ/mol which was less than 8 kJ/mol (a criteria distinguishing physical adsorption from chemical adsorption). This result suggests a physical adsorption with weak interactions such as van der Waals force between the biochar and MB. In addition, the physical adsorption may resulted from that Platanas-based biohar has the largest specific surface area and pore volume. The ∆G value obtained through the adsorption experiment according to temperature variation was -3.67 to -7.68, which also suggests a physical adsorption. Considering these adsorption results, the adsorption of MB onto Platanas-based biochar seems to occur through physical adsorption. Overall, it was possible to suggest that adsorption capacity of the biochr prepared from this study was equal to or greater than that of commercial activated carbon reported in other studies.

• Economic and Environmental Geology
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• v.55 no.4
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• pp.407-419
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• 2022

Soil(vadose zone) gas compositions were measured for about 3 days to suggest a method for monitoring and interpreting soil gas data collected around wells from which methane(CH₄) is outflowing. The vadose zone gas samples were collected within 1 m around two test wells(TB2 and TB3) at Pohang and analyzed for CO₂, CH₄, N₂ and O₂ concentrations in situ. CO₂ flux was measured beside TB2. In addition, gas samples from well head in TB2 and atmospheric air samples were collected for comparison. Carbon isotopes of CO₂(δ¹³C_CO2) of samples collected on the last day of the study period were analyzed in the laboratory. The two test wells (TB2 and 3) were 12.7 m apart and only TB3 was cemented to the surface. According to the bio-geochemical process-based interpretation, the relationships between CO₂ and O₂, N₂, and N₂/O₂ of vadose zone gas were plotted between the lines of CH₄ oxidation and CO₂ dissolution. In addition, the CH₄ concentrations of gas samples from the wellhead of the uncemented well (TB2) were 5.2 times higher than the atmospheric CH₄ concentration. High CO₂ concentrations (average 1.148%) of vadose zone gas around TB2 seemed to be attributed to the oxidation of CH₄. On the other hand, the vadose zone CO₂ around the cemented well(TB3) showed a relatively low concentration(0.136%). This difference indicates that the vadose zone gas(including CO₂) around the CH₄ outflowing well were strongly affected by well completion(cementing). This study result can be used to establish strategies for environmental monitoring of soil around natural gas sites, and can be used to monitor leakage around injection and observation wells for CO₂ geological storage. In addition, the method of this study is useful for soil monitoring in natural gas storage and oil-contaminated sites.