• Journal of Radiation Protection and Research
• /
• v.48 no.1
• /
• pp.44-51
• /
• 2023

Background: Aptamers are currently being used in various fields including medical treatments due to their characteristics of selectively binding to specific molecules. Due to their special characteristics, the aptamers are expected to be used to remove radionuclides from a large amount of liquid radioactive waste generated during the decommissioning of nuclear power plants. The radiological effects on the aptamers should be evaluated to ensure their integrity for the application of a radionuclide removal technique. Materials and Methods: In this study, Monte Carlo N-Particle transport code version 6 (MCNP6) and Monte Carlo damage simulation (MCDS) codes were employed to evaluate the radiological effects on the aptamers. MCNP6 was used to evaluate the secondary electron spectrum and the absorbed dose in a medium. MCDS was used to calculate the DNA damage by using the secondary electron spectrum and the absorbed dose. Binding experiments were conducted to indirectly verify the results derived by MCNP6 and MCDS calculations. Results and Discussion: Damage yields of about 5.00×10^-4 were calculated for 100 bp aptamer due to the radiation dose of 1 Gy. In experiments with radioactive materials, the results that the removal rate of the radioactive ⁶⁰Co by the aptamer is the same with the non-radioactive ⁵⁹Co prove the accuracy of the previous DNA damage calculation. Conclusion: The evaluation results suggest that only very small fraction of significant number of the aptamers will be damaged by the radioactive materials in the liquid radioactive waste.

• Proceedings of the Korea Society for Energy Engineering kosee Conference
• /
• 2008.04a
• /
• pp.69-75
• /
• 2008

기포반응도는 월성발전소를 비롯한 CANDU형 원자로의 주된 안전성 쟁점사안으로 끊임없이 논의되어 왔다. 이는 설계기준사고가 노심에서 열에너지 불균형이 원인이 되어 기준이상의 핵연료 파손과 방사성물질 누출로 발전할 위험이 있는 사건들로 정의될 때, 사건 진행 과정에 기포반응도 증가는 조기에 운전중단을 실패할 경우 출력폭주로 이어지므로 사건의 결말이 중대사고로 전환될 위험이 크기 때문이다. 본 연구는 공개된 최신 핵자료인 ENDF/B-VII.0를 NJOY.99로 처리한 연속에너지 반응단면적 라이브러리를 구축하고 MCNP-4C에 접속하여 37봉 천연우라늄 핵연료다발의 표준노심격자에 대한 기포반응도를 시뮬레이션하여, 지금까지 각종문헌에 제시된 값들과 비교, 종합하므로 내제된 불확실성을 추정하는 내용이다. ENDF/B-VII.0 기반 MCNP-4C의 CANDU 노심격자 모델은 동일한 핵자료와 핵종농도를 사용한 WIMS-IAEA 모델과 비교할 때, 초기 노심의 임계도 오차 약 3.51mk가 연소 진행에 따라 $7.5\times10^{-4}mk$/MWD/teU의 비율로 감소하는 것으로 나타났다. 또한 MCNP-4C 예측기포반응도는 초기노심에서 기포율 50% 및 100%에 대해 각각 8.38 및 15.96mk, 평형노심에서 7.68 및 14.72mk로 계산된다. 이는 월성 2, 3, 4 FSAR의 초기노심 및 평형노심에서 100% 기포상태에 대한 값, 약15.0 및 10.6mk와 비교할 때, 초기노심은 약 1.0mk 평형노심은 약4, 1mk 보수적이지만, 다른 연구결과들과는 최대오차 ${\pm}1{\sim}2mk$ 이내에서 잘 일치하는 것으로 평가되었다. 본 연구는 CANDU 노심의 기포반응도 불확실성 요인의 규명 및 영향평가를 위한 노력의 일부로서 앞으로 감속재의 붕산농도 변화, 감속재 및 냉각재의 중수 순도 변화, 기기노화에 의한 격자 구조 및 물성 변화, 중성자속 및 출력 분포 불균형, 반응도조절장치의 위치, 등 주요 설계변수의 변화에 대한 반응도영향 분석연구를 계속할 계획이다.

• Journal of Radiation Protection and Research
• /
• v.21 no.1
• /
• pp.41-50
• /
• 1996

In this study, the theoretical calculation of the air kerma-to-dose equivalent conversion factors was performed with a Monte Carlo N-Particle transport code for the two types of extremity phantom of the ANSI and the KAERI, respectively. Considering the distribution of absorbed dose due to the interaction of homogeneous Parallel broad beam of monoenergetic primary photons in the range between 15keV and 1.5MeV, the air kerma-to-dose equivalent conversion factors based on the kerma approximation were calculated. It is showed that all the theoretical conversion factors of the two types of the extremity phantom for the ANSI and the KAERI agree well with the experimental values of the ANSI N13.32 draft(1995) for each energy within 5.7%, maximum difference ratio, except for 13.6%, difference ratio in the case for the energy of less than 40keV. It is due to uncertainties of experiment occurred in the low X-ray energy range and geometry considered in the MCNP code.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
• /
• v.55 no.12
• /
• pp.4447-4464
• /
• 2023

This paper focuses on the development of a new computational model of the CNESTEN's TRIGA Mark II research reactor using the 3D continuous energy Monte-Carlo code TRIPOLI-4 (T4). This new model was developed to assess neutronic simulations and determine quantities of interest such as kinetic parameters of the reactor, control rods worth, power peaking factors and neutron flux distributions. This model is also a key tool used to accurately design new experiments in the TRIGA reactor, to analyze these experiments and to carry out sensitivity and uncertainty studies. The geometry and materials data, as part of the MCNP reference model, were used to build the T4 model. In this regard, the differences between the two models are mainly due to mathematical approaches of both codes. Indeed, the study presented in this article is divided into two parts: the first part deals with the development and the validation of the T4 model. The results obtained with the T4 model were compared to the existing MCNP reference model and to the experimental results from the Final Safety Analysis Report (FSAR). Different core configurations were investigated via simulations to test the computational model reliability in predicting the physical parameters of the reactor. As a fairly good agreement among the results was deduced, it seems reasonable to assume that the T4 model can accurately reproduce the MCNP calculated values. The second part of this study is devoted to the sensitivity and uncertainty (S/U) studies that were carried out to quantify the nuclear data uncertainty in the multiplication factor k_eff. For that purpose, the T4 model was used to calculate the sensitivity profiles of the k_eff to the nuclear data. The integrated-sensitivities were compared to the results obtained from the previous works that were carried out with MCNP and SCALE-6.2 simulation tools and differences of less than 5% were obtained for most of these quantities except for the C-graphite sensitivities. Moreover, the nuclear data uncertainties in the k_eff were derived using the COMAC-V2.1 covariance matrices library and the calculated sensitivities. The results have shown that the total nuclear data uncertainty in the k_eff is around 585 pcm using the COMAC-V2.1. This study also demonstrates that the contribution of zirconium isotopes to the nuclear data uncertainty in the k_eff is not negligible and should be taken into account when performing S/U analysis.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
• /
• v.50 no.3
• /
• pp.446-452
• /
• 2018

To improve the accuracy and safety of irradiation tests in High flux Advanced Neutron Application ReactOr (HANARO), the nuclear energy deposition rate, which is called nuclear heating, was estimated for an irradiation capsule with an iridium sample in the irradiation hole in order. The gamma rays emitted from the radioisotopes (RIs) of the structural materials such as flow tubes of fuel assemblies and heavy water reflector tank were considered as radiation source. Using the ORIGEN2.1 code, emission rates of delayed gamma rays were calculated in consideration of the activation procedure for 8 years and 2 months of HANARO operation. Calculated emission rates were used as a source term of delayed gamma rays in the MCNP6 code. By using the MCNP code, the nuclear heating rates of the irradiation capsules in the inner core, outer core, and heavy water reflector tank were estimated. Calculated nuclear heating in the inner core, outer core, and heavy water reflector tank were 200-260 mW, 80-100 mW, and 10 mW, respectively.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Radiology
• /
• v.15 no.4
• /
• pp.415-427
• /
• 2021

Korea Institute of Radiological and Medical Sciences has provided various beam irradiation services to researchers using a 50 MeV cyclotron beam line. In particular, since the neutron beam service uses the nuclear reaction between protons and beryllium, the possibility of activation of the irradiated sample increases by using a high current. In this study, MCNP 6.2 and FISPACT-II 4.0 were used to evaluate the possible activation during the 35 MeV 20 ㎂ neutron beam service, which is preferred by the researchers. As a result of the calculation, if the iron, copper, and tungsten samples were irradiated for more than 1 hour, long-lived radioisotopes were produced and their radioactivity exceeded the standard level for self-disposal. Under the conditions of 2 hours of daily irradiation, no activation occurred in the building materials, and the internal exposure of workers due to air activation inside the irradiation room was very insignificant. And when this air was discharged to environment, the radioactivity including this air was also satisfied the emission standard.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
• /
• v.53 no.1
• /
• pp.1-18
• /
• 2021

The criticality analysis of VVER-1000 mock-up benchmark experiments from the LR-0 research reactor operated by the Research Center Rez in the Czech Republic has been conducted with the MCS Monte Carlo code developed at the Computational Reactor Physics and Experiment laboratory of the Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology. The main purpose of this work is to evaluate the newest ENDF/B-VIII.0 nuclear data library against the VVER-1000 mock-up integral experiments and to validate the criticality analysis capability of MCS for light water reactors with hexagonal fuel lattices. A preliminary code/code comparison between MCS and MCNP6 is first conducted to verify the suitability of MCS for the benchmark interpretation, then the validation against experimental data is performed with both ENDF/B-VII.1 and ENDF/B-VIII.0 libraries. The investigated experimental data comprises six experimental critical configurations and four experimental pin-by-pin power maps. The MCS and MCNP6 inputs used for the criticality analysis of the VVER-1000 mock-up are available as supplementary material of this article.

• Progress in Medical Physics
• /
• v.15 no.4
• /
• pp.215-219
• /
• 2004

Due to their excellence for the high-energy therapy range of photon beams, researchers show increasing interest in applying MOSFET dosimeters to low- and medium-energy applications. In this energy range, however, MOSFET dosimeter is complicated by the fact that the interaction probability of photons shows significant dependence on the atomic number, Z, due to photoelectric effect. The objective of this study is to develop a very detailed 3-dimensional Monte Carlo simulation model of a MOSFET dosimeter for radiological characterizations and calibrations. The sensitive volume of the High-Sensitivity MOSFET dosimeter is very thin (1 ${\mu}{\textrm}{m}$) and the standard MCNP tallies do not accurately determine absorbed dose to the sensitive volume. Therefore, we need to score the energy deposition directly from electrons. The developed model was then used to study various radiological characteristics of the MOSFET dosimeter. the energy dependence was quantified for the energy range 15 keV to 6 MeV; finding maximum dependence of 6.6 at about 40 keV. A commercial computer code, Sabrina, was used to read the particle track information from an MCNP simulation and count the tracks of simulated electrons. The MOSFET dosimeter estimated the calibration factor by 1.16 when the dosimeter was at 15 cm depth in tissue phantom for 662 keV incident photons. Our results showed that the MOSFET dosimeter estimated by 1.11 for 1.25 MeV photons for the same condition.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
• /
• v.55 no.11
• /
• pp.4019-4025
• /
• 2023

Recently, a new monkey computational phantom, called Visible Monkey, was developed for non-ionizing radiation studies in animal research. In this study, we extended its applications to ionizing radiation studies by implementing the voxel model of the Visible Monkey into three general-purpose Monte Carlo (MC) codes: MCNP6, PHITS, and Geant4. The implementation work for MCNP and PHITS was conducted using the LATTICE, UNIVERSE, and FILL cards. The G4VNestedParameterisation class was used for Geant4. Then, organ dose coefficients (DCs) for idealized photon beams in the antero-posterior direction were calculated using the three codes and compared, showing excellent agreement (differences <3%). Additionally, organ DCs in other directions (postero-anterior, left-lateral, and right-lateral) were calculated and compared with those of the newborn and 1-year-old reference phantoms. Significant differences were observed (e.g., the stomach DC of the monkey was 5-fold greater than that of the 1-year-old phantom at 0.03 MeV) while the differences tended to decrease with increasing energy (mostly <20% at 10 MeV). The results of this study allows conducting MC simulations using the Visible Monkey to estimate organ-level doses, which should be valuable to support/improve monkey experiments involving ionizing radiation exposures.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
• /
• v.53 no.3
• /
• pp.942-948
• /
• 2021

The aim of this work is to help inform the decision for choosing a convenient material for the PGAA (Prompt Gamma Activation Analysis) collimator plug to be installed at the tangential channel of the Moroccan Triga Mark II Research Reactor. Two families of materials are usually used for collimator construction: a mixture of high-density polyethylene (HDPE) with boron, which is commonly used to moderate and absorb neutrons, and heavy materials, either for gamma absorption or for fast neutron absorption. An investigation of two different collimator designs was performed using N-Particle Monte Carlo MCNP6.2 code with the ENDF/B-VII.1 and MCLIP84 libraries. For each design, carbon steel and lead materials were used separately as collimator heavy materials. The performed study focused on both the impact on neutron beam quality and the neutron-gamma background at the exit of the collimator beam tube. An analysis and assessment of the principal findings is presented in this paper, as well as recommendations.