• Korean Journal of Mineralogy and Petrology
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• v.36 no.2
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• pp.95-106
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• 2023

Quartz (SiO₂) is among the major rock-forming minerals in the earth's crust. The atomistic structures of SiO₂ may evolve during diverse frictional processes. The reduction of friction of quartz-rock accompanied by its amorphization, hydration, and formation of silica gel provides mineralogical insights into earthquakes and related phenomena. Ball milling, together with rotary shear experiments have been useful to infer the atomic origins of such processes. In this study, optimal experimental conditions for ball milling for amorphization of SiO₂ were determined by taking into account various process variables. The crystallinity of SiO₂ gradually decreased and became amorphous as the ball milling time increased at a high milling speed. The degree of wear of the milling media and its effect on the amorphization of SiO₂ were analyzed using distinct milling materials (zirconia, stainless steel). The amount of ball wear increased with increasing milling time. Furthermore, the worn stainless steel particles from balls tend to interact with amorphized SiO₂ to form Si-O-Cr. These results aid in understanding the process of atomistic structural changes caused by ball milling of divserse materials with relatively high hardness, such as SiO₂, and understanding various geological friction processes.

• Korean Journal of Mineralogy and Petrology
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• v.34 no.3
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• pp.169-176
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• 2021

This study aimed to fundamentally understand structural changes of zeolite under pressure and in the presence of different pressure-transmitting media (PTM) for application studies such as immobilization of heavy metal cation or CO₂ storage using pressure. High-pressure X-ray powder diffraction study was conducted on the zeolite-W (K_6.4Al_6.5Si_25.8O₆₄× 15.3H₂O, K-MER) to understand linear compressibility and the bulk moduli in different PTM conditions. Zeolite-w is a synthetic material having the same framework as natural zeolite merlinoite ((K, Ca_0.5, Ba_0.5, Na)₁₀ Al₁₀Si₂₂O₆₄× 22H₂O). The space group of the sample was identified as I4/mmm belonging to the tetragonal crystal system. Water, carbon dioxide, and silicone-oil were used as pressure-transmitting media. The mixture of sample and each PTM was mounted in a diamond anvil cell (DAC) and then pressurized up to 3 GPa with an increment of ca. 0.5 GPa. Pressure-induced changes of powder diffraction patterns were measured using a synchrotron X-ray light source. Lattice constants, and bulk moduli were calculated using the Le-Bail method and the Birch-Murnaghan equation. In all PTM conditions, linear compressibility of c-axis (𝛽^c) was 0.006(1) GPa^-1 or 0.007(1) GPa^-1. On the other hand, the linear compressibility of a(b)-axis (𝛽^a) was 0.013(1) GPa^-1 in silicone-oil run, which is twice more compressible than the a(b)-axis in water and carbon dioxide runs, 𝛽^a = 0.006(1) GPa^-1. The bulk moduli were measured as 50(3) GPa, 52(3) GPa, and 29(2) GPa in water, carbon dioxide, and silicone-oil run, respectively. The orthorhombicities of ac-plane in the water, and carbon dioxide runs were comparatively constant, near 0.350~0.353, whereas the value decreased abruptly in the silicone-oil run following formula, y = -0.005(1)x + 0.351(1) by non-penetrating pressure fluid condition.

• Economic and Environmental Geology
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• v.40 no.4
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• pp.419-443
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• 2007

Recently, the branch-out of foreign companies into domestic markets through M&A and the opened followed by the Free Trade Agreement(FTA) with America have made the environmental site assessments of specific site more necessary. In this study, through case study of conducting actual environmental site assessment by use of a toolbox approach at a large scale of chemical plant with various contaminants located in a coastal area, the problems of guideline of domestic environmental assessment of soil were complemented. And an efficient and economical assessment was achieved. All six steps such as basic investigation, environmental site history survey, sampling and analysis, installation of monitoring wells and hydrogeological survey, and data interpretation were conducted in this study. All results of document survey, geological lineament analysis, field geology survey of surrounding area, geophysical prospecting of the site, hydraulic conductivity, measurement of groundwater flow rate and direction, sampling and analysis at each step were associated and estimated as an integrated tool box approach. As a consequence of this study, toolbox approaches were very useful techniques for contamination level and site characterization of subsurface media. The given conditions to conduct a basic survey for domestic soil environment assessment of site by use of existing documents, as well as interviews with the owner/manager/user of all adjacent properties and thorough review of all practically reviewable records pertaining to the property and surrounding properties within "Guideline for Soil Environment Assessment" radii are very poor. As a result, the application of toolbox approach in the environment site assessment of site is not only more efficient and economical, but also could be very useful assessment to integrate the soil and groundwater contamination.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Groundwater Environment
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• v.1 no.2
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• pp.105-112
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• 1994

To investigate the migration behavior of contaminants in rocks. adsorption and diffusion experiments for Sr as a sorbing contaminant and for Cr-EDTA as a non-sorbing contaminant were carried out on granitic rocks. The Sr adsorption on separated minerals and crushed rocks tends to slightly increase with increasing pH. It also greatly decreases with the increase of ionic strength in NaCl solution. Among separated minerals, biotite and sericite have adsorbed much more amount of Sr than other rock-forming minerals, such as quartz, plagioclase, and potassic feldspar, because the specific surfaces and cation exchange capacities of phyllosilicates are generally much greater than those of the other rock-forming minerals. The intrinsic diffusion coefficients of Cr-EBTA for granitic rocks differ little from those of Sr. This indicates that they are independent of water-rock interactions. Experimental data show that the intrinsic diffusion coefficients are positively correlated with the porosities of the rocks. They are close to the theoretically predicted values, especially in pre-steady state diffusion region, with the increase of rock sample thickness.

• Geophysics and Geophysical Exploration
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• v.2 no.1
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• pp.33-42
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• 1999

AVO and complex trace analyses mainly used to characterize natural gas reservoir were tested in this paper for a possible application to detection of major geological discontinuities such as fracture zones. The test data used in this study were calculated by utilizing a viscoelastic numerical program which was based on the generalized Maxwell body for a horizontal fracture model. In AVO analysis of a horizontal fracture zone, p-wave reflection appears to be variant depending upon the acoustic-impedence contrast and the offset distance. The fracture zone is also effectively clarified both in gradient stack and range-limited stack in which fracture zone reflection is attenuated with the increasing offset distance. In complex attribute plots (instantaneous amplitude, frequency, and phase), the top and bottom of the fracture Tone are characterized by a zone of strong amplitudes and an event of the same phase. Low frequency characteristics appear at the fracture zone and the underneath. Amplitude attenuation and waveform dispersion are dependent on Q-contrast between the fracture zone and the surrounding media. They were properly compensated by optimum inverse Q-filtering.

• Tunnel and Underground Space
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• v.16 no.4 s.63
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• pp.281-287
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• 2006

Intake of groundwater by tunneling in a mountainous area mostly results from groundwater flow through fractured parts of total rock mass. For reasonable analysis of this phenomenon the representative joint groups 1, 2, and 3 have been selected by previous investigations, geological/geophysical field tests and boring works. Three dimensional fractures were generated by the FracMan and MAFIC which is a three dimensional finite element model has been used to analyse a groundwater flow through fractured media. Monte Carlo simulation was applied to reduce the uncertainty of this study. The numerical results showed that the average and deviation of amounts of groundwater intaked into tunnel per unit length were $5.40{\times}10^{-1}$ and $3.04{\times}10^{-1}m^3/min/km$. It is concluded that tunnel would be stable on impact of groundwater environment by tunneling because of the lower value than $2.00{\sim}3.00m^3/min/km$ as previous and present standard on the application of tunnel construction.

• 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.

• Journal of Nuclear Fuel Cycle and Waste Technology(JNFCWT)
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• v.11 no.1
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• pp.41-54
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• 2013

Radionuclide sorption data is necessary for the safety assessment of radioactive waste disposal. However the use of sorption database is often limited due to the accessability. A web-based sorption database program named KAERI-SDB has been developed to provide information on the sorption of radionuclides onto geological media as a function of geochemical conditions. The development of KAERI-SDB was achieved by improving the performance of pre-existing sorption database program (SDB-21C) developed in 1998 and considering user's requirements. KAERI-SDB is designed that users can access it by using a web browser. Main functions of KAERI-SDB include (1) log-in/member join, (2) search and store of sorption data, and (3) chart expression of search results. It is expected that KAERI-SDB could be widely utilized in the safety assessment of radioactive waste disposal by enhancing the accessibility to users who wants to use sorption data. Moreover, KAERI-SDB opened to public would also improve the reliability and public acceptance on the radioactive waste disposal programs.

• Journal of Nuclear Fuel Cycle and Waste Technology(JNFCWT)
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• v.4 no.3
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• pp.235-243
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• 2006

In this study, an experimental study on the sorption properties of uranium(VI) onto a bentonite colloid generated from Gyeongju bentonite which is a potential buffer material in a high-level radioactive waste repository was performed as a function of the pH and the ionic strength. The bentonite colloid prepared by separating a colloidal fraction was mainly composed of montmorillonite. The concentration and the size fraction of the prepared bentonite colloid measured using a gravitational filtration method was about 5100 ppm and 200-450 nm in diameter, respectively. The amount of uranium removed by the sorption reaction bottle walls, by precipitation, and by ultrafiltration was analyzed by carrying out some blank tests. The removed amount of uranium was found not to be significant except the case of ultrafiltration at 0.001 M $NaClO_4$. The ultrafiltration was significant in the lower ionic strength of 0.001 M $NaClO_4$ due to the cationic sorption onto the ultrafilter by a surface charge reversion. The distribution coefficient $K_d$ (or pseudo-colloid formation constant) of uranium(VI) for the bentonite colloid was about $10^4{\sim}10^7mL/g$ depending upon pH and ionic strength of $NaClO_4$ and the $K_d$ was highest in the neutral pH around 6.5. It is noted that the sorption of uranium(VI) onto the bentonite colloid is closely related with aqueous species of uranium depending upon geochemical parameters such as pH, ionic strength, and carbonate concentration. As a consequence, the bentonite colloids generated from a bentonite buffer can mobilize the uranium(VI) as a colloidal form through geological media due to their high sorption capacity.

• Journal of Soil and Groundwater Environment
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• v.9 no.1
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• pp.1-11
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• 2004

Foam reduces the mobility of gas phase in porous media to overcome gravity override and to divert acid into desired layers in the petroleum industry and to enhance the efficiency of environmental remediation. Recent experimental studies on foam show that foam exhibits a remarkably different flow rheology depending on the flow regime. This study, for the first time, focuses on the issues of foam diversion process under the conditions relevant to groundwater remediation, combining results from laboratory linear-flow experiments and a simple numerical model with permeability contrasts. Linear flow tests performed at two different permeabilities (k = 9.1 and 30.4 darcy) confirmed that two flow regimes of steady-state strong foams were also observed within the permeability range of shallow geological formations. Foam exhibited a shear-thinning behavior in a low-quality regime and near Newtonian rheology in a high-quality regime. Data taken from linear flow tests were incorporated into a simple numerical model to evaluate the efficiency of foam diversion process in the presence of permeability contrasts. The simple model illustrated that foam in the high-quality regime exhibited a successful diversion but foam in the low-quality regime resulted in anti-diversion, implying that only foam in the high-quality regime would be applicable to the diversion process. Sensitivity study proved that the success of diversion process using foam in the high-quality regime was primarily controlled by the limiting capillary pressures (${P_c}{^*}$) of the two layers of interest. Limitations and implications are also discussed and included.