• Environmental and Resource Economics Review
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• v.21 no.3
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• pp.543-572
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• 2012

This paper compared historical energy use from 2000 between Japan and Korea and reviewed literature of mid-and long-term low carbon energy scenarios and plans in both countries released since 2000. In terms of energy use pattern, there are similarities between Korea and Japan; high dependence on energy imports, high proportion of manufacturing industry among OECD countries, closed electricity system disconnected with foreign countries, and high proportion of nuclear power generation with low proportion of renewable electricity despite of high potential of renewable energy. Differences are as follows; decreasing trend in Japan and increasing trend in Korea in terms of energy demand and supply, difficulty of exchanging electricity between regions in Japan unlike Korea, and prospect of nuclear power, that is, curtailing in Japan while expanding in Korea according to governmental plan. Energy Basic Plan in both countries established before nuclear accident in Fukushima required expanding about two times of nuclear energy by 2030, while civil society's energy scenarios suggested reducing energy demand, phasing-out nuclear power, and expanding renewable energy. This paper will serve as a base for future studies about long-term energy scenarios and plan in Japan and Korea.

• Journal of Radiation Protection and Research
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• v.41 no.2
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• pp.161-165
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• 2016

Background: Radiation accidents having occurred in recent containing the accident in Fukushima nuclear power plants of Japan were resulted to the increase in some public concern, anxiety and confusion for radiation or nuclear safety. The public anxiety for radiation is not being decreased though the announcements done in radiation research institutes in Korea. Therefore, this study aims at providing an effective system for radiation publicity to the public members by the clipping analysis for the radiation articles reported in the media. And, the relation between those radiation issues and the radiation perception to the public members is analyzed. Materials and Methods: The radiation articles reported by them in 2013 and 2014 have been collected, and they are then classified with the article characteristic, field and tendency. Classified articles have been reviewed by dividing as two year. The 210 articles have been compared for their tendencies, characteristics and fields by year reported, and their characteristic comparison by reported year are then reviewed. Results and Discussion: Though the frequency that the radiological accidents have occurred in worldwide is far low compared to the accidental frequencies occurred in the general industrial fields, the radiation perception is being still deteriorated because of its special problem, which is defined as exposure, contamination or radioactivity, about radiation. The basic principles for radiation communication were suggested for preventing some unnecessary misunderstanding due to the variation of understanding for radiation issues. Conclusion: It is necessary to perform a variety of strategies for the publicity in improving the radiation perception, to build a relationship with the press or the media and then to consistently interact with them. Radiation communication must be performed by radiation experts or complete charge department, and must be consistently performed and be taken predictable patterns.

• Journal of the Computational Structural Engineering Institute of Korea
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• v.26 no.6
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• pp.415-421
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• 2013

In order to extend the service life of a nuclear power plant(NPP) ensuring the structural safety, effective and efficient management of NPP considering structural deteriorations and various natural hazard risks has been treated as a significant tool(IAEA 1998). The systemic efforts is required to prevent the potential loss of NPPs resulting from the natural hazard including earthquakes, hurricane and flooding since the Fukushima accident. Earthquake risk of building structures can be mitigated through appropriate seismic isolation system installation. It has been known that a seismic isolation system can lead to reduction of the deleterious effect on ground motion induced by earthquakes, and structural safety can be improved. In this paper, the NPP life-cycle management is reviewed. Furthermore, effect of seismic isolation on the NPP life-cycle cost analysis with earthquake, and cost-benefit analysis in terms of life-cycle cost when applying the seismic isolation systems to NPP are introduced.

• Journal of Energy Engineering
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• v.23 no.4
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• pp.236-239
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• 2014

KHNP CRI has been developing APR+ nuclear power plant since 2007, which is GEN III+ model with 1500 MWe capacity. To develop safer and more economical nuclear power plant than APR1400, we investigated advanced design features of ALWR(advanced light water reactor) being constructed in Korea and being developed/constructed in foreign countries. We applied the advanced design features and lessons learned from Fukushima accident to develop APR+ standard design suitable for both domestic construction and overseas construction business. Three economic assessments have performed during standard design phase of APR+. The result of the 3th(final) economic analysis for APR+ standard design showed that APR+ N-th plant was about 23% more economical than coal-fired 1,000MW power plant.

• Journal of Satellite, Information and Communications
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• v.11 no.2
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• pp.42-47
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• 2016

Due to advances such as photovoltaic power generation and energy storage system, energy self-consumption smart home system in which energy management system is built and energy is generated in house has been actively researched. In particular, due to the instability of the grid after the Fukushima nuclear accident, home system in which generating electricity from photovoltaic, storing and using it in energy storage system was commercialized in Japan. While subsidizing renewable energy projects through a combination of solar and energy storage systems in North America and Europe has expanded home installation. In this paper, we describe development of self-consumption smart home system which is connecting photovoltaic system and energy storage system in home area network and operating it based on real-time price. We implemented automated self-consumption home in which optimizing the use of energy from the power grid with minimal user's intervention.

• Journal of Radiation Protection and Research
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• v.41 no.3
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• pp.216-221
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• 2016

Background: Very fine radiation-induced aerosol particles are produced in intense radiation fields, such as high-intensity accelerator rooms and containment vessels such as those in the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant (FDNPP). Size measurement of the aerosol particles is very important for understanding the behavior of radioactive aerosols released in the FDNPP accident and radiation safety in high-energy accelerators. Materials and Methods: A combined technique using wire screens and imaging plates was developed for size measurement of fine radioactive aerosol particles smaller than 100 nm in diameter. This technique was applied to the radiation field of a proton accelerator room, in which radioactive atoms produced in air during machine operation are incorporated into radiation-induced aerosol particles. The size of $^{11}C$-bearing aerosol particles was analyzed using the wire screen technique in distinction from other positron emitters in combination with a radioactive decay analysis. Results and Discussion: The size distribution for $^{11}C$-bearing aerosol particles was found to be ca. $70{\mu}m$ in geometric mean diameter. The size was similar to that for $^7Be$-bearing particles obtained by a Ge detector measurement, and was slightly larger than the number-based size distribution measured with a scanning mobility particle sizer. Conclusion: The particle size measuring method using wire screens and imaging plates was successfully applied to the fine aerosol particles produced in an intense radiation field of a proton accelerator. This technique is applicable to size measurement of radioactive aerosol particles produced in the intense radiation fields of radiation facilities.

• Proceedings of the KIPE Conference
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• 2018.07a
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• pp.177-179
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• 2018

After Fukushima nuclear accident at 2011, nuclear industrial has been focused on operation and maintenance phase, not design and construction phase. Continued good operating performance of nuclear power plants has been the best critical issue to nuclear utilities. Replacement for complete components as well as parts of components is being procured because nuclear utilities must maintain safety and reliability of operating nuclear power plants. However, many suppliers and manufacturers are giving up a nuclear quality assurance program under reduction in new construction of nuclear power plants. It is able to be increased difficulty in procuring spare parts to support operations and maintenance of nuclear power plants. Over 20% of nuclear power plant equipment in some countries is obsolete. Owing to obsolescence of nuclear safety-related items and/or withdrawing a nuclear quality assurance program of suppliers and manufactures, some replacement item and part might be procured to the item not covered by appendix B to USNRC 10 CFR Part 50. Under various methods of the nuclear repair and replacement methodology, utilities are supposed to establish a typical program for a repair and replacement of an electrical equipment and its parts in conjunction with a nuclear quality assurance. Concerning this typical program, this study suggests the repair and replacement methodology of electrical equipments used in nuclear power plants by procurement of a power supply, based on nuclear regulations, codes, standards, guidelines, specific and general technical information, etc..

• Korean Journal of Legislative Studies
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• v.23 no.1
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• pp.151-185
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• 2017

Seoul's One Less Nuclear Power Plant is the major urban energy policy launched in April 2012. Its effort to respond to climate change and energy crisis in the aftermath of the Fukushima nuclear accident turned out very successful, considering huge decrease of energy consumption. However, the question of how the cut of energy consumption was possible remains unanswered. This paper introduces the concept of urban governance capacity as the cause of the success. It is the managing and governing capability to maintain the logical consistency policy system, comprising of policy perception, goals, policy tools and evaluation. Without this logical correspondence between the policy factors, any system including energy regime easily falls apart during the systemic transitional period. Governance capacity provides the integrating framework, so that the system as a whole maintains the internal homeostasis.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.51 no.4
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• pp.1091-1097
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• 2019

After the Fukushima accident in 2011, there has been increased public concern about radioactive contamination of water resources through fallout in neighboring countries. However, there is still no available initial response system that can promptly detect radionuclides. The purpose of this research is to develop the most efficient gamma spectrometer to monitor radionuclides in an aquatic environment. We chose a thallium-doped sodium iodide (NaI(Tl)) scintillator readout with a silicon photo multiplier (SiPM) due to its compactness and low operating voltage. Three types of a scintillation detector were tested. One was composed of a scintillator and a photomultiplier tube (PMT) as a reference; another system consisted of a scintillator and an array of SiPMs with a light guide; and the other was a scintillator directly coupled with an array of SiPMs. Among the SiPM-based detectors, the direct coupling system showed the best energy resolution at all energy peaks. It achieved 9.76% energy resolution for a 662 keV gamma ray. Through additional experiments and a simulation, we proved that the light guide degraded energy resolution with increasing statistical uncertainty. The results indicated that the SiPM-based scintillation detector with no light guide is the most efficient design for monitoring radionuclides in an aquatic environment.

• Journal of Radiation Protection and Research
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• v.45 no.4
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• pp.154-162
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• 2020

Background: Several studies have reported that wild mushrooms contain high amounts of radioactive cesium (137Cs). After the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant Accident, a significantly high concentration of 137Cs has been detected in wild mushrooms, and their consumption may be the cause of the chronic internal exposure of local consumers to radioactivity. Therefore, an accurate evaluation of the internal radioactivity resulting from mushroom ingestion is needed. Materials and Methods: The 137Cs elution rate through the cooking and digestion stages was evaluated using in vitro experiments. The edible mushroom Pleurotus djamor was taken as a sample for the experiments. The mushrooms were cultivated onto solid media containing 137Cs. We evaluated the internal dose based on the actual conditions using the elution rate data. For various cooking methods, the results were compared with those of other wild edible mushrooms. Results and Discussion: From the elution experiment through cooking, we proved that 25%-55% of the 137Cs in the mushrooms was released during soaking, boiling, or frying. The results of a simulated digestion experiment after cooking revealed that almost all the 137Cs in the ingested mushrooms eluted in the digestive juice, regardless of the cooking method. The committed effective dose was reduced by 20%-75% when considering the dissolution through the cooking process. Conclusion: We found that cooking lowers 137Cs concentration in mushrooms, therefore reducing the amount of radioactivity intake. Besides, since there were differences between mushroom types, we demonstrated that the internal exposure dose should be evaluated in detail considering the release of 137Cs during the cooking stages.