• Journal of Environmental Health Sciences
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• v.45 no.2
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• pp.142-153
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• 2019

Objectives: The aim of this study was to determine environmental chemical exposure related to residential and personal lifestyle characteristics in the adult Korean population. The observations of this study can provide information useful for developing reduction approaches for exposure to chemicals among the general adult population. Methods: The second stage of the Korean National Environmental Health Survey (KoNHES) was conducted from 2012 to 2014, with 6,478 persons participating. Using the results of the survey, the relationship between exposure levels of heavy metals and organic chemicals and exposure factors, e.g. residential and personal lifestyle characteristics, were analyzed. Results: The exposure levels of VOCs and PAHs were significantly lower in participants living at a distance of more than 100 m from roads versus living closer to roads. Home ventilation lowered VOC and PAH exposure but did not lower chemical exposure from household products. Use of public transportation showed lower exposure to heavy metals, VOCs, and PAHs. Current smoker was significantly higher for levels of heavy metals, VOCs, and PAHs, and the exposure trend was similar for current drinkers. Physical activity was related with higher exposure to phthalates and environmental phenols. Conclusion: Our observations based on a nationally representative population for Korea show that exposure to chemicals varies by residential and personal lifestyle, and this should be considered for developing appropriate mitigation measures and policies. Given the health concerns surrounding environmental chemicals, it is necessary to develop comprehensive measures to reduce chemical exposure.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.53 no.10
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• pp.3236-3246
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• 2021

Lessons learned from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant accident directed that multiple failures should be considered more seriously rather than single failure in the licensing bases and safety cases because attempts to take accident management measures could be unsuccessful under the high radiation environment aggravated by multiple failures, such as complete loss of electric power, uncontrollable loss of coolant inventory, failure of essential safety function recovery. In the case of the complete loss of electric power called station blackout (SBO), if there is no mitigation action for recovering safety functions, the reactor core would be overheated, and severe fuel damage could be anticipated due to the failure of the active heat sink. In such a transient condition at CANDU-6 plants, the seal failure of the primary heat transport (PHT) pumps can facilitate a consequent increase in the fuel sheath temperature and eventually lead to degradation of the fuel integrity. Therefore, it is necessary to specify the regulatory guidelines for multiple failures on a licensing basis so that licensees should prepare the accident management measures to prevent or mitigate accident conditions. In order to explore the efficiency of implementing accident management strategies for CANDU-6 plants, this study proposed a realistic accident analysis approach on the SBO transient with multiple-failure sequences such as seal failure of PHT pumps without operator's recovery actions. In this regard, a comparative study for two PHT pump seal failure modes with and without coolant seal leakage was conducted using a best-estimate code to precisely investigate the behaviors of thermal-hydraulic parameters during transient conditions. Moreover, a sensitivity analysis for different PHT pump seal leakage rates was also carried out to examine the effect of leakage rate on the system responses. This study is expected to provide the technical bases to the accident management strategy for unmitigated transient conditions with multiple failures.

• Journal of Environmental Impact Assessment
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• v.28 no.5
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• pp.483-491
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• 2019

In orderto cope with the post-2020 in accordance with the Paris Agreement, greenhouse gas (GHG)reduction in Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) and its contributions to post-2020 were discussed. The 26 Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) administered by Geum-River Basin Environmental Office from 2010 to 2019 were analyzed for reviewing GHG mitigation measures. From the case study, it was found that the assessment of GHG emissions reduction and climate change adaptation were not appropriately performed. In this study, the following measures are proposed to improve the inappropriate assessment of 'GHG subject matter' associated with EIA according to post-2020, 1) allotment of enforced charge on GHG emission during the EIA process, 2) addition of the 'GHG subject matter' in 'establishing permissible discharge standards' which is based on "Act on the Integrated Control of Pollutant-discharging Facilities", and 3) the participation of stakeholders in early EIA stage for governance. Also the details on the EIA for the preparedness of post-2020 were discussed here.

• Journal of Advanced Navigation Technology
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• v.24 no.6
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• pp.515-520
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• 2020

The development of autopilot system and flight management system (FMS) equipment in today's aircraft navigation can be attributed to the reduction of pilots' workload and the navigation safety. The effect of autopilot and FMS equipment is greater, especially in heavy airport traffic or complicated of the departure. However, some airport specific departure procedures result in an uncommanded turn event due to an error in the FMS, causing aircraft to deviate from the center line of the route. With most departure procedures requiring area navigation (RNAV) operation, pilot situation awareness and corrective action are the only ways to minimize aircraft deviation to maintain the safety of area navigation. Through analysis of the occurrence status of the uncommended turn event by aircraft type, airport and flight phase, and comparative analysis of the survey results of foreign airlines and the airlines self-reduction plan with the aircraft manufacturer's corrective action, it is intended to give implications for the need for more fundamental measures to prevent recurrence of such events.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.16 no.5
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• pp.873-889
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• 2015

In civil engineering, probabilistic seismic risk assessment is used to predict the economic damage to a lifeline system of possible future earthquakes. The results are used to plan mitigation measures and to strengthen the structures where necessary. Instead, after an earthquake public authorities need mathematical models that compute: the damage caused by the earthquake to the individual vulnerable components and links, and the global behavior of the lifeline system. In this study, a framework that was developed and used for prediction purpose is modified to assess the consequences of an earthquake in quasi real-time after such earthquake happened. This is possible because nowadays entire seismic regions are instrumented with tight networks of strong motion stations, which provide and broadcast accurate intensity measure maps of the event to the public within minutes. The framework uses the broadcasted map and calculates the damage to the lifeline system and its component in quasi real-time. The results give the authorities the most likely status of the system. This helps emergency personnel to deal with the damage and to prioritize visual inspections and repairs. A highway transportation network is used as a test bed but any lifeline system can be analyzed.

• Journal of Environmental Policy
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• v.7 no.2
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• pp.91-104
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• 2008

In foreign countries, efforts are in progress to apply guidelines to minimize the loss of biodiversity within environmental assessment, yet those efforts have not been considered in Korea. If this continues, biodiversity in our nation will quickly diminish. Therefore, Korea needs to urgently prepare guidelines that minimize the loss of biodiversity. In this study 32 environmental impact assessment statements on express-highway construction projects were analyzed to evaluate potential problems with the current EIA system and to provide ideas on how to introduce a biodiversity/ecosystem item into the system. In the analyses of the 32 statements, few contents that deal with habitat/biodiversity were found and a lack of assessment of biodiversity issues was noticed in the EIA system in Korea. The system, therefore, should be improved to consider biodiversity issues in the survey, to predict impacts on biodiversity, and to establish corresponding mitigation measures.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society for Noise and Vibration Engineering Conference
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• 2005.05a
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• pp.535-540
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• 2005

In environmental impact assessment, noise impact assessment usually consists of three stages surveying the existing noise levels by measurements, predicting noise levels induced by construction works and predicting noise levels after the completion of project. When predicting noise level in urban area, this method does not consider acoustic phenomena like multi reflection, diffraction and absorption due to complex topographic configuration of building and terrains. For the purpose, a noise mapping tool is utilized to produce a series of noise maps, which are those for the present, for the works of construction and for the future. For accurate noise mapping, acoustical and topographic information is essential. Standard sound power levels and directivities of various construction equipments are required and scheduling of construction processes and locations of the equipments should be provided. In the case of exceeding legal limit, mitigation measures are applied to satisfy the legal limits and subsequent noise map is obtained and checked.

• Journal of Soil and Groundwater Environment
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• v.25 no.3
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• pp.32-42
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• 2020

오염부지 관리 기조가 매체 중심에서 수용체 중심으로 변화하면서 우리나라에 위해성평가 제도가 도입되었으나, 이를 오염현장에 충분히 활용하기 위한 체계와 관련 기술들은 아직 제대로 확립되어 있지 않다. 특히, 여러 가지 이유로 정화곤란부지로 분류가 되는 오염부지의 정화 및 관리와 그러한 부지에 적용될 수 있는 위해저감기술들에 대한 기술적, 사회적 논의와 합의도 부족한 실정이다. 본 연구에서는 그동안 오염토양의 정화에만 초점이 맞추어진 우리나라의 토양환경정책이 오염부지의 관점에서 그와 연결된 수용체를 보호하는 방향으로 나아가기 위해 필요한 위해성기반 오염 부지관리 의사결정체계를 제안하고, 그러한 관리체계가 현장에서 적절히 적용되도록 하기 위해 필요한 위해저감기술들을 조사, 분류하여 위해저감 방식에 따른 위해저감기술의 활용성 및 적용성을 평가하는 방안을 제안하였다.

• Bulletin of the Korea Photovoltaic Society
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• v.6 no.1
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• pp.21-34
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• 2020

Sri Lanka has strongly understood the importance of mitigation of climate change and various measures have been taken. To tackle the climate change, after ratifying Paris Agreement, Sri Lanka has pledged to reduce her greenhouse gas emission in the energy sector by 20% (16% unconditional and 4% conditional) by 2030 based on the BAU scenario. Simultaneously, the government introduced its new energy policy and strategies in 2019 with a vision of achieving carbon neutrality by 2050. This paper survey related key government documents, policies, reports, and academic articles to investigate opportunities for the private sector to invest large scale solar power deployment (10 MW or above) and to get support from climate finance under article 6 of the Paris Agreement. It has found, growing concern on the environment, energy security issues and increase import expenses for fossil fuels are the main influencing factors to move renewable sources. Further, government investment and FDI both have gradually decreased in the energy sector. Therefore, an alternative financing mechanism is needed. Although the private sector allowed investing in the energy sector since 1996 with the introduction of IPP (Independent Power Producers), it could not make considerable progress on involving large scale solar utility projects. This has revealed government policy is not aligning with the long term generation plan of the electricity sector. The study has also found, it needs more strategic road map, coordination with different institutions, monitoring system to enhance large scale solar contribution.

• Journal of Korean Society for Atmospheric Environment
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• v.27 no.3
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• pp.255-271
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• 2011

ACE-Asia (Asian Pacific Regional Aerosol Characterization Experiment) in spring 2001 was a turning point to trigger international research interest on Asian dust (AD). This basically arose from the lack of research on AD, the important natural phenomenon to characterize the Northeast Asia. In contrast, health risk related to AD has been the primary concern in Korea. Although due in part to severe AD events of 2001~2002, research and mitigation measures on AD in Korea are typically based on the assumption that AD events are increasing in frequency and severity. However, contrary to the trend in Korea, the number of AD days and emission amounts of AD in China have decreased since 1980s. This paper reviews the impacts of AD on ambient air quality and variations in toxic substances during the AD event, reflecting the concern in Korea. While a great amount of dust particles flow into Korea during the AD event, a considerable amount of dust particles are locally generated as well. Since dust particles are mixed with toxic substances as they pass over polluted areas, the levels of toxic substances become lower in dust particles that do not pass over polluted areas. Broadening the research scope on AD is warranted to understand the AD as an important natural phenomenon, irrespective of its associated health risk.