• Journal of Radiation Protection and Research
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• 제41권4호
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• pp.418-423
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• 2016

Background: This work was to get information about $^{90}Sr$ contamination of the environment by using soil and moss from selected areas in Jeju Island, Korea. Materials and Methods: The activities of $^{90}Sr$ in soil and moss samples were investigated at nine locations of Jeju island, Korea. The soil samples have been collected at 4 sites of Jeju island during June to August of 2013, analyzed for vertical distribution of $^{90}Sr$ activities. The moss samples have been collected at 5 sites of Jeju island during November of 2011 to June of 2012, and analyzed for radioactive $^{90}Sr$. Results and Discussion: The $^{90}Sr$ vertical concentrations in the investigated soil samples were 2.77 to $18.24Bq{\cdot}kg^{-1}$ in eastern part, 1.69 to $18.27Bq{\cdot}kg^{-1}$ in northern part, 3.76 to $13.46Bq{\cdot}kg^{-1}$ in the western part and 1.09 to $8.70Bq{\cdot}kg^{-1}$ in the southern part of the Mt. Halla in Jeju island, respectively. Activities of $^{90}Sr$ show the highest value at the surface soil and decrease with depth. The activity concentration measured was in the range of 79.6 to $363Bq{\cdot}kg^{-1}$ -dry moss. Conclusion: This material is expected to be basis reference for survey of environmental radioactivity in Jeju Island.

• 인간식물환경학회지
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• 제22권6호
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• pp.563-573
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• 2019

The North Korean government conducted its first nuclear test in 2006 and more recently the sixth nuclear test on September 3, 2017. In order to identify how North Korea's nuclear tests have affected the environment, a scientific approach is required. Although North Korea's nuclear tests and their environmental destruction are not a severe threat to the environment of the Korean Peninsula at this time, identifying environmental damage and taking countermeasures in advance are essential to minimize their potential threats to the environments. The purpose of this study is to study the environmental impact of North Korea's nuclear tests using Google Earth image analysis. As a method of the study, we compare Google Earth images taken before and after each nuclear test was conducted in North Korea. To overcome limitations of the suggested comparison method, we cross-checked our results with those of previous scientific research. After the 1st-3rd nuclear tests, green spaces were found to be considerably reduced. In particular, when comparing the Google Earth images before and after the second nuclear test, some ground subsidences were observed. Such subsidences can cause tunnels on the mountainsides and cracks in rocks around the mountains, leading to the release of radioactive materials and contaminating groundwater. Besides, after the 4th-6th nuclear tests, decay and deforestation were observed not in the nuclear test sites, but in their surrounding areas. Especially after the 5th and 6th nuclear tests, the topography and the forests of the surrounding areas were severely damaged. In relation to North Korea's nuclear tests and their impact on the natural environment, we need to prepare various policy measures to reduce North Korea's environmental pollution and natural environment destruction. Those policy measures include the establishment of various cooperative governance between the Korean government, the private sector, the academia, NGOs, and international organizations.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• 제56권1호
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• pp.160-166
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• 2024

The inversion of radiation field distribution is of great significance in the decommissioning sites of nuclear facilities. However, the radiation fields often contain multiple mixtures of radionuclides, making the inversion extremely difficult and posing a huge challenge. Many radiation field reconstruction methods, such as Kriging algorithm and neural network, can not solve this problem perfectly. To address this issue, this paper proposes an optimized inverse distance weighted (IDW) interpolation algorithm for reconstructing the gamma radiation field. The algorithm corrects the difference between the experimental and simulated scenarios, and the data is preprocessed with normalization to improve accuracy. The experiment involves setting up gamma radiation fields of three Co-60 radioactive sources and verifying them by using the optimized IDW algorithm. The results show that the mean absolute percentage error (MAPE) of the reconstruction result obtained by using the optimized IDW algorithm is 16.0%, which is significantly better than the results obtained by using the Kriging method. Importantly, the optimized IDW algorithm is suitable for radiation scenarios with multiple radioactive sources, providing an effective method for obtaining radiation field distribution in nuclear facility decommissioning engineering.

• Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging
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• 제43권1호
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• pp.83-86
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• 2009

Kasabach-Merritt syndrome (KMS) consists of thrombocytopenia, microangiopathic hemolytic anemia, and localized consumption coagulopathy that develops within vascular hemangioma. This syndrome may also be associated with occult hemangiomas located at various sites. Tc-99m RBC scintigraphy and SPECT have proven to be reliable for confirming or excluding hemangioma. Total body blood pool imaging study during the scintigraphy also provides a means of screening for occult lesions. The authors report the case of a 29-year-old man who presented with a giant hepatic hemangioma complicated by KMS, and underwent Tc-99m RBC scintigraphy and SPECT including a total body blood pool imaging study.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• 제51권5호
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• pp.1470-1476
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• 2019

The nuclear power plants in South Korea have been designed in accordance with the U.S. Regulatory Guide 1.60 (R.G 1.60) design spectrum of which the peak frequency range is 2-10 Hz. The characteristics of the earthquakes at the Korea nuclear power plant sites were observed to be closer to that of Central and Eastern United States (CEUS) than the R.G 1.60, which is a lower amplification in a low frequency range, and a higher amplification in a high frequency range. The possibility of failure for sensitive power plant components in the high frequency range has been considered and evaluated. In this study, in order to improve the reliability of nuclear plant and administrative control procedures, seismic tests of an emergency diesel generator (EDG) were conducted using a shaking table under both high and low frequency ranges. From the tests, oil/lubricant leaks from the bolt connections, the fuel filter and the fuel inlet were observed. Therefore, the check list of nuclear plant components after an earthquake should include bolt connections of EDG as well as anchor bolts.

• 한국수정란이식학회지
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• 제27권2호
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• pp.113-119
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• 2012

Epigenetic modification including genome-wide DNA demethylation is essential for normal embryonic development. Insufficient demethylation of somatic cell genome may cause various anomalies and prenatal loss in the development of nuclear transfer embryos. Hence, the source of nuclear donor often affects later development of nuclear transfer (NT) embryos. In this study, appropriateness of porcine embryonic germ (EG) cells as karyoplasts for NT with respect to epigenetic modification was investigated. These cells follow methylation status of primordial germ cells from which they originated, so that they may contain less methylated genome than somatic cells. This may be advantageous to the development of NT embryos commonly known to be highly methylated. The rates of blastocyst development were similar among embryos from EG cell nuclear transfer (EGCNT), somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT), and intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) (16/62, 25.8% vs. 56/274, 20.4% vs. 16/74, 21.6%). Genomic DNA samples from EG cells (n=3), fetal fibroblasts (n=4) and blastocysts from EGCNT (n=8), SCNT (n=14) and ICSI (n=6) were isolated and treated with sodium bisulfite. The satellite region (GenBank Z75640) that involves nine selected CpG sites was amplified by PCR, and the rates of DNA methylation in each site were measured by pyrosequencing technique. The average methylation degrees of CpG sites in EG cells, fetal fibroblasts and blastocysts from EGCNT, SCNT and ICSI were 17.9, 37.7, 4.1, 9.8 and 8.9%, respectively. The genome of porcine EG cells were less methylated than that of somatic cells (p<0.05), and DNA demethylation occurred in embryos from both EGCNT (p<0.05) and SCNT (p<0.01). Interestingly, the degree of DNA methylation in EGCNT embryos was approximately one half of SCNT (p<0.01) and ICSI (p<0.05) embryos, while SCNT and ICSI embryos contained demethylated genome with similar degrees. The present study demonstrates that porcine EG cell nuclear transfer resulted in hypomethylation of DNA in cloned embryos yet leading normal preimplantation development. Further studies are needed to investigate whether such modification affects long-term survival of cloned embryos.

• 대한방사선기술학회지:방사선기술과학
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• 제43권6호
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• pp.481-487
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• 2020

Radiation measurement technology has steadily improved and its usage is expanding in various industries such as nuclear medicine, security search, satellite, nondestructive testing, environmental industries and the domain of nuclear power plants (NPPs). Especially, the simultaneous measurements of gamma rays and neutrons can be even more critical for nuclear safety management of spent nuclear fuel and monitoring of the nuclear material. A semiconductor detector comprising cadmium, zinc, and tellurium (CZT) enables to detect gamma-rays due to the significant atomic weight of the elements via immediate neutron and gamma-ray detection. Semiconductor sensors might be used for nuclear safety management by monitoring nuclear materials and spent nuclear fuel with high spatial resolution as well as providing real-time measurements. We aim to introduce a portable nuclide-analysis device that enables the simultaneous measurements of neutrons and gamma rays using a CZT sensor. The detector has a high density and wide energy band gap, and thus exhibits highly sensitive physical characteristics and characteristics are required for performing neutron and gamma-ray detection. Portable nuclide-analysis device is used on NPP-decommissioning sites or the purpose of nuclear nonproliferation, it will rapidly detect the nuclear material and provide radioactive-material information. Eventually, portable nuclide-analysis device can reduce measurement time and economic costs by providing a basis for rational decision making.

• 한국지진공학회:학술대회논문집
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• 한국지진공학회 2001년도 추계 학술발표회 논문집 Proceedings of EESK Conference-Fall 2001
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• pp.67-74
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• 2001

This paper presents the Safe Shutdown Earthquake(SSE) input motion for the seismic design of the Advanced Power Reactor 1400(APR1400). The Design Ground Response Spectra(DGRS) far the SSE is based on the design spectrum specified in regulatory Guide(RG) 1.60 of U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission(US NRC), anchored to a Peak Ground Acceleration(PGA) of 0.3g and enriched in the high frequency range. This SSE seismic input motion is to be applied to the seismic analysis as the free-field seismic motion at the ground surface of both the rock and generic soil sites fur APRI1400. The enrichment for APR1400 seismic input motion is performed considering the current US NRC regulations, the seismic hazard studies performed by the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LINL) and Electric Power Research Institute(EPRI) for the Central and Eastern United States nuclear power plant sites, and the seismic input motions used in the design certifications of the three existing U.S. advanced standard plants. It is represented by a set of DGRS and the accompanying Target Power Spectral Density(PSD) Function in both the horizontal and vertical directions.

• 방사성폐기물학회지
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• 제19권1호
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• pp.39-49
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• 2021

The behaviors of various desorption agents were investigated during the desorption of cesium (Cs) from samples of clay minerals and actual soil. Results showed that polymeric cation exchange agents (polyethyleneimine (PEI)) efficiently desorbed Cs from expandable montmorillonite, whereas acidic desorption solutions containing HCl or PEI removed considerable Cs from hydrobiotite. However, most desorption agents could desorb only 54% of Cs from illite because of Cs's specific adsorption to selective adsorption sites. Cs desorption from an actual soil sample containing Cs-selective clay mineral illite (< 200 ㎛) and extracted from near South Korea's Kori Nuclear Power Plant was also investigated. Considerable adsorbed 137Cs was expected to be located at Cs-selective sites when the 137Cs loading was much lower than the sample's cation exchange capacity. At this low 137Cs loading, the total Cs amount desorbed by repeated washing varied by desorption agent in the order HCl > PEI > NH4+, and the highest Cs desorption amount achieved using HCl was 83%. Unlike other desorption agents with only cation exchange capabilities, HCl can attack minerals and induce dissolution of metallic elements. HCl's ability to both alter minerals and induce H+/Cs+ ion exchange is expected to promote Cs desorption from actual soil samples.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• 제39권2호
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• pp.95-102
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• 2007

The conceptual design of the MIT modular pebble bed reactor is described. This reactor plant is a 250 Mwth, 120 Mwe indirect cycle plant that is designed to be deployed in the near term using demonstrated helium system components. The primary system is a conventional pebble bed reactor with a dynamic central column with an outlet temperature of 900 C providing helium to an intermediate helium to helium heat exchanger (IHX). The outlet of the IHX is input to a three shaft horizontal Brayton Cycle power conversion system. The design constraint used in sizing the plant is based on a factory modularity principle which allows the plant to be assembled 'Lego' style instead of constructed piece by piece. This principle employs space frames which contain the power conversion system that permits the Lego-like modules to be shipped by truck or train to sites. This paper also describes the research that has been conducted at MIT since 1998 on fuel modeling, silver leakage from coated fuel particles, dynamic simulation, MCNP reactor physics modeling and air ingress analysis.