• Journal of Korean Tunnelling and Underground Space Association
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• v.21 no.5
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• pp.587-609
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• 2019

Short-and long-term stabilities of bentonite, favored material as buffer in geological repositories for high-level waste were reviewed in this paper in addition to alternative design concepts of buffer to mitigate the thermal load from decay heat of SF (Spent Fuel) and further increase the disposal efficiency. It is generally reported that the irreversible changes in structure, hydraulic behavior, and swelling capacity are produced due to temperature increase and vapor flow between $150{\sim}250^{\circ}C$. Provided that the maximum temperature of bentonite is less than $150^{\circ}C$, however, the effects of temperature on the material, structural, and mineralogical stability seems to be minor. The maximum temperature in disposal system will constrain and determine the amount of waste to be disposed per unit area and be regarded as an important design parameter influencing the availability of disposal site. Thus, it is necessary to identify the effects of high temperature on the performance of buffer and allow for the thermal constraint greater than $100^{\circ}C$. In addition, the development of high-performance EBS (Engineered Barrier System) such as composite bentonite buffer mixed with graphite or silica and multi-layered buffer (i.e., highly thermal-conductive layer or insulating layer) should be taken into account to enhance the disposal efficiency in parallel with the development of multilayer repository. This will contribute to increase of reliability and securing the acceptance of the people with regard to a high-level waste disposal.

• Journal of Korean Society of Environmental Engineers
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• v.31 no.11
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• pp.1007-1018
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• 2009

Hydrocyclone is widely used in industry, because of its simplicity in design, high capacity, low maintenance and operational cost. The separation action of a hydrocyclone treating particulate slurry is a consequence of the swirling flow that produces a centrifugal force on the fluid and suspended particles. In spite of hydrocyclone have many advantage, the application for treatment of urban stormwater case study were rare. We conducted a laboratory scale study on treatable potential of micro particles using hydrocyclone filter (HCF) that was a combined modified hydrocyclone with perlite filter cartridge. Since it was not easy to use actual storm water in the scaled-down hydraulic model investigations, it was necessary to reproduce ranges of particles sizes with synthetic materials. The synthesized storm runoff was made with water and addition of particles; ion exchange resin, road sediment, commercial area manhole sediment, and silica gel particles. Experimental studies have been carried out about the particle separation performance of HCF-open system and HCF-closed system. The principal structural differences of these HCFs are underflow zone structure and vortex finder. HCF was made of acryl resin with 120 mm of diameter hydrocyclone and 250 mm of diameter filter chamber and overall height of 800 mm. To determine the removal efficiency for various influent concentrations of suspended solids (SS) and chemical oxygen demand (COD), tests were performed with different operational conditions. The operated maximum of surface loading rate was about 700 $m^3/m^2$/day for HCF-open system, and 1,200 $m^3/m^2$/day for HCF-closed system. It was found that particle removal efficiency for the HCF-closed system is better than the HCF-open system under same surface loading rate. Results showed that SS removal efficiency with the HCF-closed system improved by about 8~20% compared with HCF-open system. The average removal efficiency difference for HCF-closed system between measurement and CFD particle tracking simulation was about 4%.

• Economic and Environmental Geology
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• v.53 no.6
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• pp.667-675
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• 2020

An Alum-sludge based adsorbent (ASBA) was synthesized by the hydrothermal treatment of alum sludge obtained from settling basin in water treatment plant. ASBA was applied to remove fluoride and arsenic in artificially-contaminated aqueous solutions and mine drainage. The mineralogical crystal structure, composition, and specific surface area of ASBA were identified. The result revealed that ASBA has irregular pores and a specific surface area of 87.25 ㎡ g-1 on its surface, which is advantageous for quick and facile adsorption. The main mineral components of the adsorbent were found to be quartz(SiO2), montmorillonite((Al,Mg)2Si4O10(OH)2·4H2O) and albite(NaAlSi3O8). The effects of pH, reaction time, initial concentration, and temperature on removal of fluoride and arsenic were examined. The results of the experiments showed that, the adsorbed amount of fluoride and arsenic gradually decreased with increasing pH. Based on the results of kinetic and isotherm experiments, the maximum adsorption capacity of fluoride and arsenic were 7.6 and 5.6 mg g-1, respectively. Developed models of fluoride and arsenic were suitable for the Langmuir and Freundlich models. Moreover, As for fluoride and arsenic, the increase rate of adsorption concentration decreased after 8 and 12 hr, respectively, after the start of the reaction. Also, the thermodynamic data showed that the amount of fluoride and arsenic adsorbed onto ASBA increased with increasing temperature from 25℃ to 35℃, indicating that the adsorption was endothermic and non-spontaneous reaction. As a result of regeneration experiments, ASBA can be regenerated by 1N of NaOH. In the actual mine drainage experiment, it was found that it has relatively high removal rates of 77% and 69%. The experimental results show ASBA is effective as an adsorbent for removal fluoride and arsenic from mine drainage, which has a small flow rate and acid/neutral pH environment.