• Journal of Radiation Protection and Research
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• v.34 no.4
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• pp.195-200
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• 2009

effluents to the environment. The activity of carbon-14, one of the radioactive effluents, in the environment is already high level and its effect on radiation exposure to the public and the environment is insignificant; thus, NPPs did not perform the carbon-14 monitoring in effluents in the past. By the way, effluents of noble gas and particulate radioactive materials originated from nuclear fuels has been continuously reduced due to both the advancement of manufacturing and integrity technology for nuclear fuels and the improvement of operation methods of NPPs. Futhermore, the portion of dose assessment by tritium and carbon-14 to the public has been relatively increased because the lower limit of detection for low-energy beta sources, such as tritium and carbon-14, is low due to the advancement of radiation detection technology. In this paper, the technical background for carbon-14 monitoring in nuclear facilities was investigated using United States technical reports and papers. This paper also reviews whether carbon-14 monitoring is necessary or not based on the investigated documents.

• Journal of Environmental Science International
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• v.32 no.12
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• pp.883-898
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• 2023

To investigate the occurrence characteristics and types of fog on the Korean Peninsula over the past three years (2020 to 2022), data from 96 synoptic meteorological observatories and 21 ocean buoys were collected and analyzed. We included precipitation fog, which occurs after precipitation events, and cloud-base lowering fog, which is caused by the development of lower-level clouds, with a total six subtypes of fog. In the case of cloud-base lowering fog, the occurrence frequency at 2.6% was not high at 2.6%, but the duration of low visibility below 200 m was very long at 6.9 hours. The seasonal frequency of fog is low in spring and winter, high in summer over islands and coastal areas, and high in autumn over inland areas. The frequency of inland fog, which is characterized by high radiation fog and dense fog, requires attention in terms of transportation safety, with an occurrence time of 0500 LST to 1000 LST. Therefore, systematic analysis of precipitation fog and cloud-base lowering, as well as radiation and advection fog, is required in the analysis of recognizing fog as a disaster and causing transportation disorders.

• Korean Journal of Remote Sensing
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• v.38 no.1
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• pp.83-101
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• 2022

Accurate atmospheric correction is essential for the analysis of land surface and environmental monitoring. Aerosol optical depth (AOD) information is particularly important in atmospheric correction because the radiation attenuation by Mie scattering makes the differences between the radiation calculated at the satellite sensor and the radiation measured at the land surface. Thus, it is necessary to use high-quality AOD data for an appropriate atmospheric correction of high-resolution satellite images. In this study, we examined the Second Simulation of a Satellite Signal in the Solar Spectrum (6S)-based atmospheric correction results for the Sentinel-2 images in South Korea using raster AOD (MODIS) and single-point AOD (AERONET). The 6S result was overall agreed with the Sentinel-2 level 2 data. Moreover, using raster AOD showed better performance than using single-point AOD. The atmospheric correction using the single-point AOD yielded some inappropriate values for forest and water pixels, where as the atmospheric correction using raster AOD produced stable and natural patterns in accordance with the land cover map. Also, the Sentinel-2 normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) after the 6S correction had similar patterns to the up scaled drone NDVI, although Sentinel-2 NDVI had relatively low values. Also, the spatial distribution of both images seemed very similar for growing and harvest seasons. Future work will be necessary to make efforts for the gap-filling of AOD data and an accurate bi-directional reflectance distribution function (BRDF) model for high-resolution atmospheric correction. These methods can help improve the land surface monitoring using the future Compact Advanced Satellite 500 in South Korea.

• Journal of Radiation Protection and Research
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• v.26 no.4
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• pp.393-398
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• 2001

The non-combustible RI wastes disposed of in hospital every year emit ${\gamma}$-ray or ${\beta}$-ray but their activities are very low to the extent of background. Development of more simple methods is needed because the conventional detection methods are so ineffective and complex. In this study, to solve this problem, detection method using efficiency curve for ${\gamma}$-ray emitting radioactive wastes measurement is proposed and experimental detection efficiency equation is also determined through HPGe's standard specimen measurement. For ${\beta}$-emitting radioisotopes detection, new measurement method using detection efficiency estimated by Monte Carlo simulation and SBD measurements is also proposed. According to the results of this paper, the unknown activity of low-level radioactive wastes without LSC requiring the preparation of standard sample and measurement for standard source detection efficiency could be determined efficiently and simply about ${\pm}17%$ in errors by using the theoretical detection efficiency and the SBD measurement result.

• Journal of Radiation Protection and Research
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• v.26 no.2
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• pp.51-58
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• 2001

In the low level radioactivity measurement, such as environmental radioactivity, there were used commonly cylindrical and Marinelli type beakers by means of measurement container. If there are differences in the matrix density or sample height between standard source and sample, it must be determined full energy peak efficiency considering self absorption effect. In this paper, we compared measured efficiency with calculated full energy peak efficiencies in the HPGe detector using the Monte Carlo method. For cylindrical container, we calculated the variation of the efficiency with sample height. Also, we calculated the variation of the detection efficiency with apparent density in the cylindrical and Marinelli container. It was seen that it need to be corrected for self absorption in the energy range of below 1000keV. Also, in order to verify the validity of calculation, we compared the calculated value with reference value using NIST SRM 4353 reference soil.

• Proceedings of the KSRS Conference
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• v.1
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• pp.320-323
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• 2006

Temperature inversion may cause air pollution problems because air pollutants cannot be dissipated through vertical motion of the atmosphere and are accumulated near the surface. The air quality is worsen gradually if an inversion event lasts for a long time. An inversion event is defined as consecutive temperature profiles with occurrence of the temperature inversion condition. In this paper, temperature inversion events over three major cities on Taiwan are analyzed. They are measured by ground-based microwave radiometers installed in Taipei, Taichung, and Kaohsiung from 2002 to 2004 by the Environment Protection Administration (EPA) of Taiwan. Characteristics of temperature inversion events at the three cities are extracted using different classification methods.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.55 no.6
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• pp.2158-2165
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• 2023

Marine radioactivity monitoring is critical for taking immediate action in case of unexpected nuclear accidents at nuclear facilities located near coastal areas. Especially when the level of contamination is not predictable, mobile monitoring systems will be useful for wide-area ocean radiation survey and for determination of the level of radioactivity. Here, we used a silicon photomultiplier and a high-efficiency GAGG crystal to fabricate a compact, battery-powered gamma spectroscopy that can be used in an ocean environment. The developed spectroscopy has compact dimensions of 6.5 × 6.5× 8 cm³ and weighs 560 g. We used LoRa, a low-power wireless protocol for communication. Successful data transmission was achieved within 1.4 m water depth. The developed gamma spectroscopy was able to detect radioactivity from a ¹³⁷Cs point source (3.7 kBq) at a distance of 20 cm in water. Moreover, we demonstrated an unmanned radioactivity monitoring system in a real sea by combining unmanned surface vehicle with the developed gamma spectroscopy. A hidden ¹³⁷Cs source (3.07 MBq) was detected by the unmanned system at a distance of 3 m. After successfully testing the developed mobile spectroscopy in an ocean environment, we believe that our proposed system will be an effective solution for mobile real-time marine radioactivity monitoring.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Radiology
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• v.13 no.6
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• pp.847-856
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• 2019

The various environmental issues arose with the development of today's economy. naturally, people were increased interest in environment and the importance of research on drinking water and contamination are emerging especially. A number of country areas, uranium and ²²²Rn in ground water have been detected to people using as drinking water. So this study evaluated the way for more accurate measurements than when measuring ²²²Rn concentrations in the ground water containing. the experiment was performed using the low-level liquid scintillation counter with an alpha, beta analysis easy PSA function of pulse. the scintillator as the preparation of the ground water samples are mixed, the measure value detection is lowered over prepare period and expiration date. Energy spectrum was also moved to a lower side channel. As a long time to buy the scintillator and over time after opening, it was confirmed that detection is lowered. if the purpose is to use a different scintillator can see the energy through the channel change.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.27 no.3
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• pp.535-541
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• 2017

Two Gram-staining-negative, red-pinkish, coccus-shaped, non-motile, and aerobic bacterial strains, designated $Ant21^T$ and Ant22, were isolated from the Antarctic coastal sea water. Strains $Ant21^T$ and Ant22 showed UVC and gamma radiation resistance. Phylogenetic analyses based on 16S rRNA gene sequences determined that these strains belong to the genus Deinococcus. Through the analyses of the 16S rRNA gene sequences, strains $Ant21^T$ and Ant22 were found to have 97.7% and 97.8% similarity to Deinococcus marmoris DSM $12784^T$ and 97.0% and 97.2% similarity to Deinococcus saxicola AA-$1444^T$, respectively. The sequence similarity with the type strains of other Deinococcus species was less than 96.9% for both strains. Strains $Ant21^T$ and Ant22 shared relatively high 16S rRNA gene sequence similarity (99.3%) and had a closely related DNA reassociation value of $84{\pm}0.5%$. Meanwhile, they showed a low level of DNA-DNA hybridization (<30%) with other closely related species of the genus Deinococcus. The two strains also showed typical chemotaxonomic features for the genus Deinococcus, in terms of the major polar lipid (phosphoglycolipid) and the major fatty acids ($C_{16:0}$, $C_{16:1}$ ${\omega}6c/{\omega}7c$, $iso-C_{17:0}$, and $iso-C_{15:0}$). They grew at temperatures between $4^{\circ}C$ and $30^{\circ}C$ and at pH values of 6.0-8.0. Based on the physiological characteristics, the 16S rRNA gene sequence analysis results, and the low DNA-DNA reassociation level with Deionococcus marmoris, strains $Ant21^T$ ($=KEMB\;9004-167^T$ $=JCM\;31436^T$) and Ant22 (KEMB 9004-168 =JCM 31437) represent novel species belonging to the genus Deinococcus, for which the name Deinococcus rubrus is proposed.

• Korean Journal of Environmental Biology
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• v.22 no.3
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• pp.411-418
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• 2004

Mercury, one of the most diffused and hazardous organ-specific environmental contaminants, exists in a wide variety of physical and chemical states. The murcury with the nature which evaporates easily can cause an acute or chronic mercury poisoning to workers at mercury-handling workplaces. Although many studies indicate that mercury induces a deleterious damage, little has been reported from the investigations of mercury effects at surrounding levels in living things. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the biological effects of mercury chloride and ionizing radiation. Prepubertal male F344 rats were administered mercury chloride in drinking water throughout the experimental period or were given wholebody irradiation with a dose of 6.5 Gy. The amount changed of body weight during the experimental period showed a 4.9% rise in the mercury-treated group and 14.4% decline in the irradiated group compared with the level of the control group. The results of hematological analysis (red blood cells, white blood cells, hemoglobin, and hematocrit) indicated the differential effects of mercury chloride and ionizing radiation. However the concentration of cortisol as assessed by radioimmunoassay increased in both of the groups. Relative expressions of mRNA related to mitochondrion-mediated apoptosis were investigated using semiquantitative reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction on gonad and urinary organs of the experimental groups. While the expression of Bcl-2 mRNA exhibited different patterns depending on the organs or the experimental groups, both of the experimental groups showed a conspicuous expressions of Bax mRNA. In conclusion, the target organ of mercury chloride seems to be a urinary organ and the pattern of damage induced by mercury chloride differs from that by ionizing radiation.