• Journal of Radiation Protection and Research
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• v.42 no.3
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• pp.141-145
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• 2017

Background: The concrete walls inside the vaults of cyclotron facilities are activated by neutrons emitted by the targets during radioisotope production. Reducing the amount of radioactive waste created in such facilities is very important in case they are decommissioned. Thus, we proposed a strategy of reducing the neutron activation of the concrete walls in cyclotrons during operation. Materials and Methods: A polyethylene plate and B-doped Al sheet (30 wt% of B and 2.5 mm in thickness) were placed in front of the wall in the cyclotron room of a radioisotope production facility for pharmaceutical use. The target was Xe gas, and a Cu block was utilized for proton dumping. The irradiation time, proton energy, and beam current were 8 hours, 30 MeV, and $125{\mu}A$, respectively. To determine a suitable thickness for the polyethylene plate set in front of the B-doped Al sheet, the neutron-reducing effects achieved by inserting such sheets at several depths within polyethylene plate stacks were evaluated. The neutron fluence was monitored using an activation detector and 20-g on de Au foil samples with and without 0.5-mm-thick Cd foil. Each Au foil sample was pasted onto the center of a polyethylene plate and B-doped Al sheet, and the absolute activity of one Au foil sample was measured as a standard using a Ge detector. The resulting relative activities were obtained by calculating the ratio of the photostimulated luminescence of each foil sample to that of the standard Au foil. Results and Discussion: When the combination of a 4-cm-thick polyethylene plate and B-doped Al sheet was employed, the thermal neutron rate was reduced by 78%. Conclusion: The combination of a 4-cm-thick polyethylene plate and B-doped Al sheet effectively reduced the neutron activation of the investigated concrete wall.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
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• 2003.11a
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• pp.533-538
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• 2003

It has been shown that ion implantation produces remarkable improvements in surface-sensitive physical and chemical properties as well as other mechanical properties, in polymers. In this study, ion implantation was performed onto polymer, PC(polycarbonate), in order to investigate surface hydrophilic property through contact angle measurement using distilled water. PC was irradiated with N, Ar, Xe ions at the irradiation energy of $20\;{\sim}\;50keV$ and the dose range of $5{\times}10^{15},\;1{\times}10^{16},\;7{\times}10^{16}\;ions/cm^2$. The contact angle of water has been reduced with increasing fluence and ion mass but increased with increasing implanted energy. The changes of chemical and structural property are discussed in view of infrared spectroscopy and FT-IR, XPS, which shows increasing C-O bonding and C-C bonding. The root mean square of surface roughness examined by means of AFM changed smoothly from 0.387nm to 0.207nm and the change of wettability was discussed with respect to elastic and inelastic collisions obtained as results of TRIM simulation. It was found that wettability of the modified PC surface was affected on change of functional group and nuclear stopping or linear energy transfer(LET, energy deposited per unit track length per ion) that causes chain scission by displacing atom from polymer chains, but was not greatly dependant on surface morphology.

• Corrosion Science and Technology
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• v.20 no.4
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• pp.210-229
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• 2021

To safely operate domestic nuclear power plants approaching the end of their design life, the material degradation management strategy of the components is important. Among studies conducted to improve the soundness of nuclear reactor components, research methods for understanding the degradation of reactor internals and preparing management strategies were surveyed. Since the IGSCC (Intergranular Stress Corrosion Cracking) initiation and propagation process is associated with metal dissolution at the crack tip, crack initiation sensitivity was decreased in the hydrogenated water with decreased crack sensitivity but occurrence of small surface cracks increased. A stress of 50 to 55% of the yield strength of the irradiated materials was required to cause IASCC (Irradiation Assisted Stress Corrosion Cracking) failure at the end of the reactor operating life. In the threshold-stress analysis, IASCC cracks were not expected to occur until the end of life at a stress of less than 62% of the investigated yield strength, and the IASCC critical dose was determined to be 4 dpa (Displacement Per Atom). The stainless steel surface oxide was composed of an internal Cr-rich spinel oxide and an external Fe and Ni-rich oxide, regardless of the dose and applied strain level.

• Progress in Medical Physics
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• v.33 no.4
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• pp.108-113
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• 2022

Purpose: Proton therapy has been used for optimal cancer treatment by adapting its Bragg-peak characteristics. Recently, a tissue-sparing effect was introduced in ultrahigh-dose-rate (FLASH) radiation; the high-energy transmission proton beam is considered in proton FLASH therapy. In measuring high-energy/ultrahigh-dose-rate proton beam, Faraday Cup is considered as a dose-rate-independent measurement device, which has been widely studied. In this paper, the feasibility of the simply designed Faraday Cup (Poor Man's Faraday Cup, PMFC) for transmission proton FLASH therapy is investigated. Methods: In general, Faraday cups were used in the measurement of charged particles. The simply designed Faraday Cup and Advanced Markus ion chamber were used for high-energy proton beam measurement in this study. Results: The PMFC shows an acceptable performance, including accuracy in general dosimetric tests. The PMFC has a linear response to the dose and dose rate. The proton fluence was decreased with the increase of depth until the depth was near the proton beam range. Regarding secondary particles backscatter from PMFC, the effect was negligible. Conclusions: In this study, we performed an experiment to investigate the feasibility of PMFC for measuring high-energy proton beams. The PMFC can be used as a beam stopper and secondary monitoring system for transmission proton beam FLASH therapy.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.42 no.2
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• pp.203-210
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• 2010

The $\underline{H}igh$ flux $\underline{A}dvanced$ $\underline{N}eutron$ $\underline{A}pplication$ $\underline{R}eact\underline{O}r$ (HANARO), an open-tank-in-pool type reactor, is one of the multi-purpose research reactors in the world. Since the commencement of HANARO's operations in 1995, a significant number of experimental facilities have been developed and installed at HANARO, and continued efforts to develop more facilities are in progress. Owing to the stable operation of the reactor and its frequent utilization, more experimental facilities are being continuously added to satisfy various fields of study and diverse applications. The irradiation testing equipment for nuclear fuels and materials at HANARO can be classified into capsules and the Fuel Test Loop (FTL). Capsules for irradiation tests of nuclear fuels in HANARO have been developed for use under the dry conditions of the coolant and materials at HANARO and are now successfully utilized to perform irradiation tests. The FTL can be used to conduct irradiation testing of a nuclear fuel under the operating conditions of commercial nuclear power plants. During irradiation tests conducted using these capsules in HANARO, instruments such as the thermocouple, Linear Variable Differential Transformer (LVDT), small heater, Fluence Monitor (F/M) and Self-Powered Neutron Detector (SPND) are used to measure various characteristics of the nuclear fuel and irradiated material. This paper describes not only the status of HANARO and the status and perspective of irradiation devices and instrumentation for carrying out nuclear fuel and material tests in HANARO but also some results from instrumentation during irradiation tests.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.15 no.6
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• pp.283-289
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• 2015

Recently, high energy photon radiotherapy is a growing trend for increasing therapy results. Commonly, if you use high energy photons above 6~8 MeV nominal accelerator voltage, It lead the photo-nuclear reaction and the generation of photo-neutron are accompanied and these problematic factors are issued in the view of radiation protection. Therefore, in this study analyzed for dose distribution of photo-neutron in radiotherapy room based on MCNPX. As a result, absorbed dose is increased sharply from 10 MV to 12 MV. It was founded that the rapid increasement of photoneutron fluence was related to the absorbed dose at above 10 MV. Also, in case of the recommendation of ICRP 103, the outcome of an exchanged equivalent dose which based on calculated an absorbed dose, showed lower equivalent dose than ICRP 60 by reflecting the contribution of secondary photon for absorbed dose of human body in the low energy band.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.17 no.10
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• pp.509-515
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• 2007

In order to fabricate adhesiveless 2-layer flexible copper clad laminate (FCCL) used for COF (chip on film) with high peel strength, polyimide (PI; Kapton-EN, $38\;{\mu}m$) surface was modified by reactive $O_2^+$ and $N_2O^+$ ion beam irradiation. 300 mm-long linear electron-Hall drift ion source was used for ion irradiation with ion current density (J) higher than $0.5\;mA/cm^2$ and energy lower than 200 eV. By vacuum web coating process, PI surface was modified by linear ion source and then 10-20 nm thick Ni-Cr and 200 nm thick Cu film were in-situ sputtered as a tie layer and seed layer, respectively. Above this sputtered layer, another $8-9{\mu}m$ thick Cu layer was grown by electroplating and subsequently acid and base resistance and thermal stability were tested for examining the change of peel strength. Peel strength for the FCCLs treated by both $O_2^+$ and $N_2O^+$ ion irradiation showed similar magnitudes and increased as the thickness of tie layer increased. FCCL with Cu (200 nm)/Ni-Cr (20 nm)/PI structure irradiated with $N_2O^+$ at $1{\times}10^{16}/cm^2$ ion fluence was proved to have a strong peel strength of 0.73 kgf/cm for as-received and 0.34 kgf/cm after thermal test.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Nondestructive Testing
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• v.18 no.6
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• pp.477-483
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• 1998

Hysteresis loop, Barkhausen noise(BN), and hardness were measured in the neutron irradiated RPV steel for various fluence, irradiated dose up to $10^{18}n/cm^2$. The coercivity, remanence and maximum induction of neutron irradiated samples did not change significantly, but the BNA and BNE were decreased as the neutron irradiation increased. The changes of BNE and BNA were characterized by three stages with respect to neutron dose. The BNA and BNE were decreased with an increase of neutron dose to $10^{12}n/cm^2$, and remained nearly constant up to $10^{16}n/cm^2$, then were decreased rapidly with an increase of the neutron dose above $10^{16}n/cm^2$. On the other hand, the hardness was observed revesely with the change of BNA and BNE.

• Proceedings of the KIEE Conference
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• 2001.11a
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• pp.161-164
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• 2001

Transmuted impurity atoms formed in neutron-irradiated ZnO thin films were theoretically identified first and then experimentally confirmed by Photoluminescence (PL). ZnO thin films grown by plasma-assisted molecular beam epitaxy were irradiated by neutron beam at room temperature. Among eight isotropes naturely exiting in ZnO films, only $^{64}Zn$, $^{68}Zn$, $^{70}Zn$ and $^{18}O$ were expected to transmute into $^{65}Cu$, $^{69}Ga$, $^{71}Ga$ and $^{19}F$, respectively. The concentrations of these transmuted atoms were estimated by considering natural abundance, neutron fluence, and neutron cross section. The neutron-irradiated ZnO thin films were characterized by PL. In the PL spectra of these ZnO thin film, the Cu-related PL peaks were seen, but the Ga- or F-associated PL peaks were absent. This observation demonstrates the existence of $^{65}Cu$ in the ZnO. In this paper, emission mechanism of Cu impurities wil1 be described and the reason for the absence of the Ga- or F-associated PL peaks will be discussed.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Precision Engineering
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• v.29 no.1
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• pp.41-47
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• 2012

The LDS(Laser Direct Structuring) is one of the new direct writing methods to fabricate conductive patterns by energy beam. It uses thermoplastic polymers with an additive compound that serves as plating seed after the activation by laser. The advantages of LDS include the miniaturization of electrical components, design flexibility, and a reduced number of production steps. The purpose of this study is to investigate the fundamental mechanism for LDS and the characteristics of conductive patterns by laser parameters. These results were studied by SEM, EDX, and XPS analysis. We have used a 20W pulse-modulated fiber laser and copper electroless plating to fabricate conductive patterns on polymer. The result showed that electroless copper plating seed caused the laser cracking of additive compound. In particular, the additive compound contained in copper metal oxides atoms will be changed to copper metal elements. Also, the characteristics of conductive patterns were dependent on laser parameter, especially laser fluence.