• Title/Summary/Keyword: Environmental Performance

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Technical Standards and Safety Review of the Low and Intermediate Level Radioactive Waste Disposal Facility (중.저준위 방사성폐기물 처분시설에 대한 기술기준 및 안전심사)

  • Cheong, Jae-Hak;Lee, Kwan-Hee;Lee, Yun-Keun;Jeong, Chan-Woo;Rho, Byung-Hwan
    • Journal of Nuclear Fuel Cycle and Waste Technology(JNFCWT)
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    • v.6 no.4
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    • pp.357-368
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    • 2008
  • On July 31, 2008, the Government issued the construction and operation permit for the first low and intermediate level radioactive waste disposal facility in the Republic of Korea. In this paper, the fundamental regulatory framework, regulatory requirements and technical standards of the disposal facility are introduced, and the phased review process adopted for evaluation of the safety of the facility is briefly described. The Atomic Energy Act sets forth a stepwise regulatory framework for the whole life-cycle of the disposal facility such as siting, design, construction, operation, closure and institutional control. More detailed regulatory requirements and technical standards are stipulated in the subsequent regulations of the Atomic Energy Act and a series of Notices issued by the Ministry of Eduction, Science and Technology. The Korea Institute of Nuclear Safety, as entrusted by the Ministry under the Atomic Energy Act, conducted safety review on the disposal facility, and evaluated the compliance with relevant criteria in all technical elements(i.e. siting and structural safety, radiological environmental impact, operational safety, systems and components, quality assurance, and total systematic performance assessment, etc.). The overall safety review process can be phased into inception phase, initial review phase, main review phase and completion phase. The review results were reported to and deliberated by the five Sub-committees of the Special Committee on Nuclear Safety, and then reported to the Ministry. The Ministry issued the construction and operation permit of the disposal facility through the deliberation of the review results by the Nuclear Safety Commission. Hereafter, the safety of the repository will be reassured by a series of subsequent regulatory inspections and reviews under the Atomic Energy Act. In addition, the licensee's continuous implementation of the "Safety Promotion Plan" may also enhance the long-term safety of the repository and contribute to build-up the confidence of the safety case.

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Complex Terrain and Ecological Heterogeneity (TERRECO): Evaluating Ecosystem Services in Production Versus water Quantity/quality in Mountainous Landscapes (산지복잡지형과 생태적 비균질성: 산지경관의 생산성과 수자원/수질에 관한 생태계 서비스 평가)

  • Kang, Sin-Kyu;Tenhunen, John
    • Korean Journal of Agricultural and Forest Meteorology
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    • v.12 no.4
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    • pp.307-316
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    • 2010
  • Complex terrain refers to irregular surface properties of the earth that influence gradients in climate, lateral transfer of materials, landscape distribution in soils properties, habitat selection of organisms, and via human preferences, the patterning in development of land use. Complex terrain of mountainous areas represents ca. 20% of the Earth's terrestrial surface; and such regions provide fresh water to at least half of humankind. Most major river systems originate in such terrain, and their resources are often associated with socio-economic competition and political disputes. The goals of the TERRECO-IRTG focus on building a bridge between ecosystem understanding in complex terrain and spatial assessments of ecosystem performance with respect to derived ecosystem services. More specifically, a coordinated assessment framework will be developed from landscape to regional scale applications to quantify trade-offs and will be applied to determine how shifts in climate and land use in complex terrain influence naturally derived ecosystem services. Within the scope of TERRECO, the abiotic and biotic studies of water yield and quality, production and biodiversity, soil processing of materials and trace gas emissions in complex terrain are merged. There is a need to quantitatively understand 1) the ecosystem services derived in regions of complex terrain, 2) the process regulation occurred to maintain those services, and 3) the sensitivities defining thresholds critical in stability of these systems. The TERRECO-IRTG is dedicated to joint study of ecosystems in complex terrain from landscape to regional scales. Our objectives are to reveal the spatial patterns in driving variables of essential ecosystem processes involved in ecosystem services of complex terrain region and hence, to evaluate the resulting ecosystem services, and further to provide new tools for understanding and managing such areas.

Influence of Dietary Conjugated Linoleic Acid (CLA) and Carotenoids on Growth, Fatty Acid Composition, and 3T3-L1 Cells in Black Seabream (Acanthopagrus schlegeli) (CLA 첨가사료가 감성돔(Acanthopagrus schlegeli) 성장과 지방산 조성 및 내장 추출지방이 지방세포 3T3-L1에 미치는 영향)

  • Guo, Rui;Rohmah, Zuliyati;Choi, Kwang-Soo;Park, Si-Hyang;Ha, Yeong-Lae;Kang, Seok-Joong;Choi, Byeong-Dae
    • Journal of Life Science
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    • v.25 no.5
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    • pp.548-556
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    • 2015
  • Three groups of black seabream (Acanthopagrus schlegeli) were fed with treatment diets containing certain concentrations of conjugated linoleic acid (CLA) and carotenoids. The control group feed contained 0% CLA and 0% carotenoids, the CP10 group feed contained 1% CLA and 0.1% carotenoids, and the CP25 group feed contained 2.5% CLA and 0.1% carotenoids. The CP10 and CP25 groups demonstrated the enhanced growth and increased feed conversion efficiency of black seabream. The specific growth rates (SGRs) were 0.74, 0.81, and 0.97, while the feed conversion ratios (FCRs) were 2.65, 2.46, and 2.04 for the control, CP10, and CP25 groups, respectively. The total contents of high unsaturated fatty acid (HUFA) for the control, CP10, and CP25 groups were 41.0%, 41.7%, and 43.5%, respectively. CLA was deposited to the extent of 2.8% and 5.6% in the muscle, and 4.0% and 8.3% in the viscera of the CP10 and CP25 groups, respectively. Meanwhile, treatment with the viscera lipid extract (VLE) from CP25 fish evidently lowered 3T3-L1 adipocytes viability. The lipid extract from the muscle and viscera of black seabream contained ample amounts of beneficial substances, such as CLA, carotenoids, EPA, and DHA. CLA, which enriched black seabream muscle, could be categorized as a functional food and serve as a well-being food. Meanwhile, the fish oil from its viscera could serve as a high function supplement.

A Study on the Hydraulic Characteristics of Rashig Super-Ring Random Packing in a Counter-Current Packed Tower (역류식 충전탑에서 Raschig Super-ring Random Packing의 수력학적 특성에 대한 연구)

  • Kang, Sung Jin;Lim, Dong-Ha
    • Clean Technology
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    • v.26 no.2
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    • pp.102-108
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    • 2020
  • In recent years, packed column has been widely used in separation processes, such as absorption, desorption, distillation, and extraction, in the petrochemical, fine chemistry, and environmental industries. Packed column is used as a contacting facility for gas-liquid and liquid-liquid systems filled with random packed materials in the column. Packed column has various advantages such as low pressure drop, economical efficiency, thermally sensitive liquids, easy repairing restoration, and noxious gas treatment. The performance of a packed column is highly dependent on the maintenance of good gas and liquid distribution throughout a packed bed; thus, this is an important consideration in a design of packed column. In this study, hydraulic pressure drop, hold-up as a function of liquid load, and mass transfer in the air, air/water, and air-NH3/water systems were studied to find the geometrical characteristic for raschig super-ring experiment dry pressure drop. Based on the results, design factors and operating conditions to handle noxious gases were obtained. The dry pressure drop of the random packing raschig super-ring was linearly increased as a function of gas capacity factor with various liquid loads in the Air/Water system. This result is lower than that of 35 mm Pall-ring, which is most commonly used in the industrial field. Also, it can be found that the hydraulic pressure drop of raschig super-ring is consistently increased by gas capacity factor with various liquid loads. When gas capacity factor with various liquid loads is increased from 1.855 to 2.323 kg-1/2 m-1/2 S-1, hydraulic pressure drop increases around 17%. Finally, the liquid hold-up related to packing volume, which is a parameter of specific liquid load depending on gas capacity factor, shows consistent increase by around 3.84 kg-1/2 m-1/2 S-1 of the gas capacity factor. However, liquid hold-up significantly increases above it.

Evaluation of Community Land Model version 3.5-Dynamic Global Vegetation Model over Deciduous Forest in Gwangneung, Korea (광릉 활엽수림에서 Community Land Model 3.5-Dynamic Global Vegetation Model의 평가)

  • Lim, Hee-Jeong;Lee, Young-Hee;Kwon, Hyo-Jung
    • Korean Journal of Agricultural and Forest Meteorology
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    • v.12 no.2
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    • pp.95-106
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    • 2010
  • The performance of Community Land Model version 3.5 - Dynamic Global Vegetation Model (CLM-DGVM) was evaluated through a comparison with the observation over temperate deciduous forest in Gwangneung, Korea. Influence of plant phenology, composition of plant functional type, and climate variability on carbon exchanges was also examined through sensitivity test. To get equilibrium carbon storage, the model was run for 400 years driven by the observed atmospheric data at the deciduous forest of the year 2006. We run the model for 2006 with the equilibrium carbon storage at Gwangneung forest and compared the model output with the observation. A comparison of leaf area index (LAI) between the model and observation indicated that the simulated phenology poorly represented the timing of budburst, leaf-fall, and evolution of LAI. Senescence of the phenology was delayed about four weeks and the simulated maximum LAI (of 5.8 $m^2$ $m^{-2}$) was greater than the observed value (of 4.5 $m^2$ $m^{-2}$). The overestimated LAI contributed to overestimation of both gross primary productivity (GPP) and ecosystem respiration $(R_e)$ through increased photosynthesis and foliar autotropic respiration $(R_a)$, respectively. Despite the discrepancy between the simulated and observed LAI, the simulated tree carbon storage amounts were comparable with the reported values at the site. Change in plant phenology from the simulated to the observed reduced more than six weeks of the plant growth period, resulting in the decreased amount of GPP and $R_e$. These values, however, were still higher (~10% of GPP and 40% of $R_e$) than the observed values. The effect of change in plant functional type composition (from dominant temperate deciduous forest to the coexistence of temperate deciduous and needle leaf forests) on the estimated amount of GPP and $R_e$ was marginal. The influence of climate variability on carbon storage amounts was not significant. The simulated inter-annual variation of GPP and $R_e$ from 1994 to 2003 depended on annual mean air temperature and total radiation but not on precipitation. Other deficiencies of CLM3.5-DGVM have been discussed.

Experimental Study on Structural Behavior of Precast PSC Curved Girder Bridge (프리캐스트 PSC 곡선 거더교의 구조거동에 대한 실험적 연구)

  • Kim, Sung Jae;Kim, Sung Bae;Uhm, Ki Ha;Kim, Jang Ho Jay
    • KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
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    • v.34 no.6
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    • pp.1731-1741
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    • 2014
  • Recently, many overpasses, highway, and advanced transit systems have been constructed to distribute the traffic congestion, thus small size of curved bridges with small curvature such as ramp structures have been increasing. Many of early curved bridges had been constructed by using straight beams with curved slabs, but curved steel beams have replaced them due to the cost, aesthetic and the advantage in building the section form and manipulating the curvature of beams, thereby large portion of curved bridges were applied with steel box girders. However, steel box girder bridges needs comparatively high initial costs and continuous maintenance such as repainting, which is the one of the reason for increasing the cost. Moreover, I-type steel plate girder which is being studied by many researchers recently, seem to have problems in stability due to the low torsional stiffness, resulting from the section characteristics with thin plate used for web and open section forms. Therefore, in recent studies, researchers have proposed curved precast PSC girders with low cost and could secured safety which could replace the curved steel girder type bridges. Hence, this study developed a Smart Mold system to manufacture efficient curved precast PSC girders. And by using this mold system a 40 m 2-girder bridge was constructed for a static flexural test, to evaluate the safety and performance under ultimate load. At the manufacturing stage, each single girder showed problems in the stability due to the torsional moment, but after the girders were connected by cross beams and decks, the bridge successfully distributed the stress, thereby the stability was confirmed. The static loading test results show that the initial crack was observed at 1,400 kN when the design load was 450 kN, and the load at the allowable deflection by code was 1,800 kN, which shows that the safety and usability of the curved precast PSC bridge manufactured by Smart Mold system is secured.

More-than-human Geographies of Nature: Toward a Careful Political Ecology (새로운 정치생태학을 위한 비인간지리학의 인간-자연 연구)

  • Choi, Myung-Ae
    • Journal of the Korean Geographical Society
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    • v.51 no.5
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    • pp.613-632
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    • 2016
  • The recent diagnosis of the Anthropocene challenges public understanding of nature as a pure and singular entity removed from society, as the diagnosis confirms the earth-changing force of humans. In geography, the nature-society divide has been critically interrogated long before the diagnosis of the Anthropocene, developing several ways of theorizing nature-society relations. This paper introduces a new frontier for such theoretical endeavors: more-than-human geography. Inspired by the material and performative turn in geography and the social sciences around the 2000s, more-than-human geographers have sought to re-engage with the livingness of the world in the study of nature-society relations. Drawing on actor-network theory, non-representational theory (NRT) and vitalism, they have developed innovative ways of thinking about and relating to nature through the key concepts of 'nonhuman agency' and 'affect'. While more-than-human geography has been extensively debated and developed in recent Euro-American scholarship on cultural and economic geography, it has so far received limited attention in Korean geographical studies on nature. This paper aims to address this gap by discussing the key concepts and seminal work of more-than-human geography. I first outline four theoretical strands through which nature-society relations are perceived in geography. I then offer an overview of more-than-human geography, discussing its theoretical foundations and considering ontologies, epistemologies, politics and ethics associated with nature-society relations. Then, I compare more-than-human geography with political ecology, which is the mainstream critical approach in contemporary environmental social sciences. I would argue that more-than-human geography further challenges and develops political ecology through its heightened attention to the affective capacity of nonhumans and the methodological ethos of doing a careful political ecology. I conclude by reflecting on the implications of more-than-human geography for Korean studies on nature-society relations.

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Study on Operating Strategy for Recreation Forests through Comparing the Level of User Satisfaction according to Clusters (군집별 만족도 비교를 통한 자연휴양림의 효율적 운영 방안 연구)

  • Gang, Kee-Rae;Lee, Kee-Cheol
    • Journal of the Korean Institute of Landscape Architecture
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    • v.38 no.1
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    • pp.39-48
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    • 2010
  • Recreation forests are in the spotlight as the place for personality development, mind and body comfort, companionship, and environment education in forests and valleys. Visitors to recreation forests have been on the increase along with booming in recreation forest building since 1988. Recreation forests are being categorized according to some features such as regional and environmental condition. Recreation forests, however, have not met the expectations of some visitors who want to take a rest with calmness due to the influence of the 5-day-work-week system, increasing interest in rest, leisure, and well-being, and users converge during weekends, summer, and the tourist season. In order to improve visitors' satisfaction efficiently, this study surveyed the level of satisfaction in each cluster based on the precedent study which had classified 85 national or public recreation forests in Korea into clusters. Questionnaires were distributed properly to each cluster and, of the 1,132 questionnaires collected, 1,015 were valid and used for analysis. Reliability of questionnaires and statistical validity of the model were verified. As a result, there are meaningful differences in the ranking of independent variables which affect the level of satisfaction according to clusters. Variables in rest and fatigue recovery have the strongest influence on the level of satisfaction in the clusters of potential factor, internal activation factor, and mixed potential capacity factor. In the use performance and visiting condition factor cluster, appropriateness of visit cost is most influential and, in the education cluster, connectivity with tourist attractions around it is most affective. These results can provide priority in services and maintenance of recreation forests for improving the level of satisfaction and differentiate the distribution of resources according to clusters.

Characterization and Purification of the Bacteriocin Produced by Bacillus licheniformis Isolated from Soybean Sauce (간장에서 분리한 Bacillus licheniformis가 생산하는 박테리오신의 특성 및 정제)

  • Jung, Sung-Sub;Choi, Jung-I;Joo, Woo-Hong;Suh, Hyun-Hyo;Na, Ae-Sil;Cho, Yong-Kweon;Moon, Ja-Young;Ha, Kwon-Chul;Paik, Do-Hyeon;Kang, Dae-Ook
    • Journal of Life Science
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    • v.19 no.7
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    • pp.994-1002
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    • 2009
  • A bacteriocin-producing bacterium identified as Bacillus licheniformis was isolated from soybean sauce. Antibacterial activity was confirmed by paper disc diffusion method, using Micrococcus luteus as a test organism. The bacteriocin also showed antibacterial activities against Bacillus sphaericus, Lactobacillus bulgaricus, Lactobacillus planiarum, Paenibacillus polymyxa, and Pediococcus dextrinicus. Optimal culture conditions for the production of bacteriocin was attained by growing the cells in an MRS medium at a pH of 6.5~ 7.0 and a temperature of 37$^\circ$C for 36$\sim$48 hr. Solvents such as chloroform, ethanol, acetone, and acetonitrile had little effect on bacteriocin activity. However, about 50% of bacteriocin activity diminished with treatment of methanol and isopropanol at the final concentration of 50% at 25$^\circ$C for 1 hr. It was stable against a pH variation range from 3.0 and 7.0, but the activity reduced to 50% at a pH range from 9.0 to 11.0. It's activity was not affected by heat treatment at 100$^\circ$C for 30 min and 50% of activity was retained after heat treatment at 100$^\circ$C for 60 min, showing high thermostability. The bacteriocin was purified to a homogeneity through ammonium sulfate precipitation, SP-Sepharose ion-exchange chromatography, and reverse-phase high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). The entire purification protocol led to a 75-fold increase in specific activity and a 13.5% yield of bacteriocin activity. The molecular weight of purified bacteriocin was estimated to be about 2.5 kDa by tricine-SDS-PAGE.

The NCAM Land-Atmosphere Modeling Package (LAMP) Version 1: Implementation and Evaluation (국가농림기상센터 지면대기모델링패키지(NCAM-LAMP) 버전 1: 구축 및 평가)

  • Lee, Seung-Jae;Song, Jiae;Kim, Yu-Jung
    • Korean Journal of Agricultural and Forest Meteorology
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    • v.18 no.4
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    • pp.307-319
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    • 2016
  • A Land-Atmosphere Modeling Package (LAMP) for supporting agricultural and forest management was developed at the National Center for AgroMeteorology (NCAM). The package is comprised of two components; one is the Weather Research and Forecasting modeling system (WRF) coupled with Noah-Multiparameterization options (Noah-MP) Land Surface Model (LSM) and the other is an offline one-dimensional LSM. The objective of this paper is to briefly describe the two components of the NCAM-LAMP and to evaluate their initial performance. The coupled WRF/Noah-MP system is configured with a parent domain over East Asia and three nested domains with a finest horizontal grid size of 810 m. The innermost domain covers two Gwangneung deciduous and coniferous KoFlux sites (GDK and GCK). The model is integrated for about 8 days with the initial and boundary conditions taken from the National Centers for Environmental Prediction (NCEP) Final Analysis (FNL) data. The verification variables are 2-m air temperature, 10-m wind, 2-m humidity, and surface precipitation for the WRF/Noah-MP coupled system. Skill scores are calculated for each domain and two dynamic vegetation options using the difference between the observed data from the Korea Meteorological Administration (KMA) and the simulated data from the WRF/Noah-MP coupled system. The accuracy of precipitation simulation is examined using a contingency table that is made up of the Probability of Detection (POD) and the Equitable Threat Score (ETS). The standalone LSM simulation is conducted for one year with the original settings and is compared with the KoFlux site observation for net radiation, sensible heat flux, latent heat flux, and soil moisture variables. According to results, the innermost domain (810 m resolution) among all domains showed the minimum root mean square error for 2-m air temperature, 10-m wind, and 2-m humidity. Turning on the dynamic vegetation had a tendency of reducing 10-m wind simulation errors in all domains. The first nested domain (7,290 m resolution) showed the highest precipitation score, but showed little advantage compared with using the dynamic vegetation. On the other hand, the offline one-dimensional Noah-MP LSM simulation captured the site observed pattern and magnitude of radiative fluxes and soil moisture, and it left room for further improvement through supplementing the model input of leaf area index and finding a proper combination of model physics.