• Journal of the Korean institute of surface engineering
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• v.34 no.1
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• pp.62-67
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• 2001

Green technology is being developed up to a point that is feasible not only in an environmental sense, but also in an economical viewpoint. This paper introduces two case studies that applied $CO_2$ technology into nuclear industry. 1) Nuclear laundry : A laundry machine that uses liquid and supercritical $CO_2$ as a solvent for decontamination of contaminated working dresses in nuclear power plants was developed. The machine consists of a 16 liter reactor, a recovery system with compressors, and storage tanks. All $CO_2$ used in cleaning is fully recovered and reused in next cleaning, resulting in no production of secondary nuclear waste. Decontamination factor is still lower than that in the methods currently used in the plant. Nuclear laundry using $CO_2$ looks promising with technical improvements-surfactants and mechanical agitation. 2) $CO_2$ nozzle decontamination : An adjustable nozzle for controlling the size of dry ice snow was developed. Using the developed nozzle, a surface decontamination device was made. Human oils like fingerprints on glass were easy to remove. Decontamination ability was tested using a contaminated pump-housing surface. About 40 to 80% of radioactivity was removed. This device is effective in surface-decontamination of any electrical devices like detector, controllers which cannot be cleaned in aqueous solution.

• Journal of Radiation Industry
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• v.12 no.4
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• pp.277-285
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• 2018

Patients administered radioisotope for medical purposes are regulated by each country to quarantine them until their body's radioactivity contents decrease below release criteria. To predict the quarantine period and provide it to medical staffs and patients, it is necessary to approach the assessment of the exposure dose of persons due to patients in a realistic manner. For this purpose, a whole-body effective half-life should be applied to the dose assessment equation instead of the physical half-life. In this study, we constructed a bio-kinetic model for each nuclear species based on the ICRP publication to obtain a whole-body effective half-life of 10 unsealed gamma-ray emitting nuclei from the notification of Nuclear Safety and Security Commission, and calculated the effective half-life mathematically by simulating the distribution of the radioisotope administered in the whole body as well as each organ scale. The whole-body effective half-life of $^{198}Au$, $^{67}Ga$, $^{123}I$, $^{111}In$, $^{186}Re$, $^{99m}Tc$, and $^{201}TI$ were 1,93, 2.57, 0.295, 2.805, 1.561, 0.245, and 2.397 days respectively. However, it was found to be undesirable to offer a single value of the effective half-life of $^{125}I$, $^{131}I$, and $^{169}Yb$ because the changes in the effective half-life show no linearity. A bio-kinetic model created for the internal exposure assessment has been shown to be possible to calculate the effective half-life of radioisotopes administered in the patient's body, but subsequent studies of radiolabeled compounds are required as well.

• Journal of Radiation Protection and Research
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• v.46 no.4
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• pp.178-183
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• 2021

Background: This study was carried out to provide environmental transfer parameter values to estimate activity concentrations of these radionuclides in agricultural crops when direct contamination occurred. Materials and Methods: Mass interception fractions (F_Bs) and weathering half-lives (T_ws) of ¹³¹I and radiocesium were calculated using openly available monitoring data obtained after the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant accident. F_B is the ratio between the initial radioactivity concentration of a radionuclide retained by the edible part of the plant (Bq·kg^-1 fresh weight [FW]) and the amount of deposited radionuclide in that area (Bq·m^-2). T_w values can be calculated using activity concentrations of crops decreased with time after the initial contamination. Results and Discussion: Calculated F_B and T_w values for ¹³¹I and radiocesium were mostly obtained for leafy vegetables. The analytical results showed that there was no difference of F_Bs between ¹³¹I and radiocesium by t-test; geometric mean values for leafy vegetables cultivated under outdoor conditions were 0.058 and 0.12 m²·kg^-1 FW, respectively. Geometric mean T_w value of ¹³¹I in leafy vegetables grown under outdoor conditions was 8.6 days, and that of radiocesium was 6.6 days; there was no significant difference between T_w values of these radionuclides by Wilcoxon rank sum test. Conclusion: There was no difference between ¹³¹I and radiocesium for F_Bs and T_ws. By using these factors, we would be able to carry out a rough estimation of the activity concentrations of ¹³¹I and radiocesium in the edible part of leafy crops when a nuclear accident occurred.

• Advanced Industrial SCIence
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• v.2 no.3
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• pp.1-7
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• 2023

Recently, it is increasing that a issue of concern about radiation exposure. It affects soil, water, air, crops, etc., and in the long term, environmental pollution and food pollution occur, and it is considered to cause social problems and economic damage. Radiation exposure causes diseases and health problems, but as a method for diagnosing diseases, nuclear medicine tests such as X-ray imaging, CT, and PET-CT are conducted, and radiation isotopes are exposed for the purpose of cancer treatment. A Hungarian case study on radiation in water, particularly drinking water, following the release of radioactive waste from Fukushima, and an examination of the Larsemann Hills area in Antarctica, found that it was within the prescribed radioactivity limits of drinking water recommended by the World Health Organization. We looked at radioprotective agents, focusing on DNA damage, cell and organ damage, and cancer, and also investigated various literatures on ACE inhibitors, antioxidants, and natural substances among restoration materials. Although exposed to radiation in everyday life, the reason why it can be safe is probably because there is a radiation protection material and a recovery material for radiation exposure, so we are trying to find possible materials.

• Korean Journal of Environmental Agriculture
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• v.15 no.2
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• pp.167-178
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• 1996

In order to identify PCP glucose conjugates transformed from PCP in soybean and rice cell suspension cultures, the purified metabolites were acetylated, purified twice by HPLC using a normal and a reversed phase column, and then subjected to fast atom bombardment(FAB) mass spectrometric analysis. As were the conjugates, their acetylated derivatives of the glucose conjugates formed at the early stage(48 hr) of metabolism were separated by HPLC into three fractions. FABMS analysis of each fraction revealed that, at least in two fractions, the locations of the spectral peaks were practically coincident with those deducible from the structures of pentachlorophenyl and tetrachlorophenyl ${\beta}-D-glucopyranosides$. Based on information obtained from mass spectral and chromatographic analysis of not only the water-soluble metabolites but also aglycones and glycone, it is concluded that PCP is primarily metabolized to glucose conjugates, which account for more than 50% recovery of the PCP-conveyed radioactivity from the water soluble metabolites : The conjugates are mainly made up of pentachlorophenyl ${\beta}-D-glucopyranoside$, tetrachlorophenyl ${\beta}-D-glucopyranosides$( probably 2 or more isomers), and 2-hydroxy-3,4,5,6-tetrachlorophenyl ${\beta}-D-glucopyranoside$.

• Economic and Environmental Geology
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• v.51 no.2
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• pp.77-85
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• 2018

There would be a possibility of uranium contamination around the nuclear power plants and the underground waste disposal sites, where the uranium could further migrate and diffuse to some distant places by groundwater. It is necessary to understand the biogeochemical behaviors of uranium in underground environments to effectively control the migration and diffusion of uranium. In general, various kinds of microbes are living in soils and geological media where the activity of microbes may be closely connected with the redox reaction of nuclides resulting in the changes of their solubility. We investigated the adsorption and precipitation behaviors of dissolved uranium on some solid materials using hydrogen gas as an electron donor instead of organic matters. Although the effect of hydrogen gas did not appear in a batch experiment that used granite as a solid material, there occurred a reduction of uranium concentration by 5~8% due to hydrogen in an experiment using bentonite. This result indicates that some indigenous bacteria in the bentonite that have utilized hydrogen as the electron donor affected the behavior (reduction) of uranium. In addition, the bentonite bacteria have showed their strong tolerance against a given high temperature and radioactivity of a specific waste environment, suggesting that the nuclear-biogeochemical reaction may be one of main mechanisms if the natural bentonite is used as a buffer material for the disposal site in the future.

• Korean Journal of Environmental Agriculture
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• v.5 no.2
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• pp.85-94
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• 1986

To study fate of carbofuran in paddy system, C-14 labelled carbofuran was applied to paddy water containing rice seedlings and time course study was made on the distribution, metabolism and chemical transformation of the systemic insecticide. Carbofuran was readily absorbed by plant root and translocated to shoots where most of the radioactivities were confined to leaf tips. The fact that gradual increases in radioactivities of both aqueous phase extracts and non-extractable fractions of plants (shoots and root) increased with incubation is taken as an evidence that reactions (phase I and II) proceed in rice plants. Carbofuran and its five metabolites were all detected by TLC in organic phase extracts of paddy plants or soil. Evidence was put forward that carbofuran and its five metabolites were all identified as aglycones of conjugates. 7-benzofuranol and 3-hydroxycarbofuran were the most abundant aglycones. Soil microbes appears to have little effects on the metabolism of carbofuran. They increased radioactivity of non-extractable fraction and reduced that of organic phase extracts of paddy soil.

• Environmental Mutagens and Carcinogens
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• v.22 no.2
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• pp.65-69
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• 2002

To elucidate the effect of microsphere coinjection on the administration of oligodeoxynucleotides (ODN), we have investigated biodistribution of ［S-35］-labeled antisense ODN targeted to cAMP-dependent protein kinase (PKA) RI-$\alpha$ subunit in nude mice xenografted with WiDr (human colon cancer, ATCC CCL218). The strategy of using microsphere has been proposed for cancer treatment as a carrier of therapeutic ODN so that it could offer an advantage with respect to maintaining constant ODN levels in blood and obtaining higher therapeutic ODN concentration at tumor sites. Comparative biodistribution studies were performed in nude mice (female, 20 g of body weight, n = 4-6) xenografted with WiDr cancer cells, when 0.1 $\mu$Ci (specific activity, 2.94 mCi/$\mu$mole) of ［S-35］-labeled RI-$\alpha$ antisense ODN was injected alone or with microsphere (PLG-18, polylactic copolymer with cationic surfactant DDAB18). Peak tumor uptake of ［S-35］-labeled ODN was significantly increased from 17.7% (at 6 h) of injected dose per gram of tissue (ID/g) to 42.5% (at 24 h) ID/g when microsphere was coinjected with ODN. The different biodistribution in the kidney accumulation (e.g., 100.2% ID/g for ODN alone and 54.9%/ID/g for microshpere coinjection) may contribute to higher blood concentration (e.g., 21.5%ID/$m\ell$ for ODN alone and 37.5%ID/$m\ell$ for microsphere coinjection) of radiolabeled ODN. Of importance is the fact that the whole body retention of radioactivity increased with microsphere coinjection from 50.8%ID/g to 68.0%ID/g after 24-h of injection. This decreased kidney accumulation and increased whole body retention of ［S-35］-labeled ODN resulted in a significant improvement of ODN targeting to the tumor site. In conclusion, the coinjection of microsphere appears to be an important carrier system in vehiculation of antisense oligonucleotide to the tumor tissue in vivo.

• Korean Journal of Environmental Agriculture
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• v.10 no.2
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• pp.149-157
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• 1991

In order to elucidate the possible change in the non-extractable bound residue of TCAB(3,3' 4,4' - tetrachloroazobenzene) in soil as a function of aging period, uniformly ring-labelled $^{14}C-TCAB$ was treated to soil(organic matter : 1.8%), and aged for 3, 6, 9, 12 and 15 months at $21{\pm}1^{\circ}C$, respectively. $^{14}CO_2$ evolution and volatilization loss during the aging were negligible. The amounts of non-extractable bound residue of TCAB increased gradually from 7.55% in 3-month aging to 19.32% in 15-month aging. Partition data suggested no formation of polar groups in the chemical structure of TCAB. Most of $^{14}C-radioactivity$ of bound residues was present in humin in the range of 50.52 to 58.93%. The fact that the number of microorganisms in soil decreased relative to the control suggested no chance of their involvement in the formation of non-extractable bound residues. Accordingly, the increase in the non-extractable bound residue of TCAB in soil with aging period is believed to be due to the transformation of the trans isomer to the cis one which is more polar and more adsorptive than the former.

• Economic and Environmental Geology
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• v.42 no.4
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• pp.335-342
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• 2009

The effects of bacterial lysis on the rate of quartz dissolution were investigated under pH 7 condition using Bacillus subtilis cells which were either irradiated or non-irradiated with gamma ray. The amount of dissolved organic carbon (DOC) which resulted from bacterial lysis increased in slurries of quartz and bacteria mixture over experimental period. Lysis of non-irradiated bacteria led to the elevated concentration of dissolved silicon when compared with abiotic control. Concomitant increase in the amounts of DOC and dissolved silicon over time indicated that lixiviation of silicon from quartz was due to bacterial lysis. Higher amounts of DOC and dissolved silicon were present in the irradiated bacterial slurries than those of non-irradiated bacteria. The enhancement of quartz dissolution in the irradiated bacterial slurries was likely attributed to disruption of organic molecules in the bacterial cells by gamma ray and formation of effective ligands for quartz dissolution. The results suggest that the effects of bacterial lysis on mineral weathering rate should be considered for prediction of time for released radionuclides to migrate to surface biosphere in high level radioactive waste disposal site.