• Analytical Science and Technology
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• v.13 no.4
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• pp.403-411
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• 2000

This study described a method of thermoluminescence dating of pottery shards using subtraction method. TL measurement was achieved using two different types of samples prepared by quartz inclusion method and fine-grain technique. Fine grains (size range: $5-10{\mu}m$) were separated by suspending grounded pottery samples into acetone solution and sedimentation quantitatively. In quartz inclusion method quartz grains in the size range of 90 to $125{\mu}m$ diameter were obtained by extracting the quartz crystals embed in the pottery shards and etching them with 1.0 M HF solutions. The archaeological dose of both the quartz and fine grains was determined from the dose calibration curves obtained from sequential irradiation of $^{137}Cs$ gamma and $^{241}Am$ alpha source to the samples and TL measurement of natural samples, in which the alpha dose of 4.60 Gy for the Packjae pottery was obtained using subtraction method. Annual alpha dose rates ($3.05{\pm}0.11$ mGy/yr.) were determined by the analysis of U, Th contents in the pottery shards and evaluation of the values with Bell's equation. Dividing the alpha dose accumulated in the pottery shards by the annual alpha dose rate, we found age of approximately $1508{\pm}80$ years B.P. (AD. ca. 492 yr.) for the Packjae pottery. It matches well with the archeological age estimate (middle of 5th century) within 10 percent uncertainty and thereby conforms the age of the pottery sample.

• Journal of Nuclear Fuel Cycle and Waste Technology(JNFCWT)
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• v.8 no.3
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• pp.207-213
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• 2010

The effect of temperature on swelling pressure was observed with a Korean domestic Ca-bentonite which has been considered as a potential buffer material in the engineering barrier of a high level radioactive waste (HLW) disposal system. The Ca-bentonite was compacted to a dry density of 1.6 g/$cm^3$, and then de-ionized water was supplied into it with a constant pressure of 0.69 MPa. The equilibrium swelling pressures were measured with different temperatures of $25^{\circ}C$, $30^{\circ}C$, $40^{\circ}C$, $50^{\circ}C$, $60^{\circ}C$, $70^{\circ}C$, respectively. The Ca-bentonite showed a sufficiently high swelling pressure of 5.3 MPa at room temperatures. Then it was clearly showed that the equilibrium swelling pressure was decreased with an increase of temperature. Interestingly, there were some differences in temperature effect on the equilibrium swelling pressure when the environmental temperature is increasing or decreasing. For further clarifying the swelling behaviour of a Korea domestic Ca-bentonite, the change of a compaction level, and the composition variation of a supplied water would be needed to use in conceptual design of HLW disposal system.

• Journal of Nuclear Fuel Cycle and Waste Technology(JNFCWT)
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• v.6 no.2
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• pp.101-109
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• 2008

For the Kyungju bentonite which is considered as a candidate material for the buffer and backfill in the high-level waste repository, the thermal conductivities of compacted bentonite and a bentonite-sand mixture were measured. The thermal conductivities of the compacted bentonites with a dry density of 1.2 to $1.8\;Mg/m^3$ and the bentonite-sand mixture with a dry density of 1.6 and $1.8\;Mg/m^3$ were measured within the gravimetric water content range of 10wt% to 20wt% and the sand fraction range of 10 to 30wt%. The thermal conductivity of compacted bentonite and a bentonite-sand mixture increases with increasing dry density and sand weight fraction in the case of constant water weight fraction, and increases with increasing water weight fraction and sand weight fraction in the case of constant dry density. The empirical correlations to describe the thermal conductivity of compacted bentonite and a bentonite-sand mixture as a function of water fraction at each dry density were suggested. These correlations can predict the thermal conductivities of bentonite and a bentonite-sand mixture with a difference below 10%.

• Journal of Nuclear Fuel Cycle and Waste Technology(JNFCWT)
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• v.16 no.2
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• pp.261-270
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• 2018

In this study, to replace the 'J-slot joint', a joint device between a disposal canister and an emplacement jig in Deep Borehole Disposal process, a novel joint device was designed and tested. The novel joint device was composed of a wedge on top of a disposal canister and a hook box at the end of a winch system. The designed joint device had merits in that it can recombine an emplaced canister freely without the replacement of the joint component. Moreover, it can be applied to various emplacement jigs such as drill pipes, wire-lines, and coiled tubing. To demonstrate the designed joint device, the joint device (${\Phi}110mm$, H 148 mm), a twin canister string (${\Phi}140mm$, H 1,105 mm), and a water tube (${\Phi}150mm$, H 1,500 mm) as a borehole model were manufactured at 1/3 scale. As deployment muds, Na-type bentonite (MX-80) and Ca-type (GJ II) bentonite muds were prepared at solid contents of 7wt% and 28wt%, respectively. The manufactured joint device showed good performance in pure water and viscous muds, with an operation speed of $10m{\cdot}min^{-1}$. It was concluded that the newly developed joint device can be used for the emplacement and retrieval of a deep disposal canister, below 3~5 km, in the future.

• Journal of Nuclear Fuel Cycle and Waste Technology(JNFCWT)
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• v.16 no.4
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• pp.411-420
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• 2018

This study presents a revised crackling core model for the description of $UO_2$ sphere oxidation in air atmosphere. For close reproduction of the sigmoid behavior exhibited in $UO_2$ to $U_3O_8$ conversion, the fragmentation effect contributing to the increased reactive surface area and the concept of variable grain conversion time were considered in the model development. Under the assumptions of two-step successive reaction of $UO_2{\rightarrow}U_3O_7{\rightarrow}U_3O_8$ and final grain conversion time equivalent to ten times the initial grain conversion time, the revised model showed good agreement with the experimental data measured at 599 - 674 K and a lowest deviation when compared with Nucleation and Growth model and AutoCatalytic Reaction model. The evaluated activation energy at 100% conversion to $U_3O_8$, $57.6kJ{\cdot}mol^{-1}$, was found to be closer to the experimentally extrapolated value than to the value determined in AutoCatalytic Reaction model, $48.6kJ{\cdot}mol^{-1}$.

• Environmental and Resource Economics Review
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• v.28 no.3
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• pp.385-413
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• 2019

This study examines the determinants of net export of electricity among 30 European countries sharing electricity grid during the period of 1990~2014 by separating the sample period before and after 2005 in which ETS was introduced in Europe. The empirical method used in this study is generalize least squared one considering both heterogeneous and serial correlation in the balanced panel data. According to the empirical results, after 2005 introducing the ETS, holing energy resources, concentrating only on few electricity generation resources, and nuclear electricity generation had played more important role in net export of electricity, while renewable energy had negative effect on net export of electricity and coal and gas generation have no effect on net export after introduction of ETS in Europe probably because of high environmental cost. The policy implication of the results would be that reconsidering each country's optimal generation mix strategy and its role in case freely trading electricity.

• Journal of Nuclear Fuel Cycle and Waste Technology(JNFCWT)
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• v.17 no.3
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• pp.329-338
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• 2019

Suction of unsaturated bentonite buffers is a very important input parameter for hydro-mechanical performance assessment and design of an engineered barrier system. This study analyzed suction measurement techniques and constitutive models of unsaturated porous media reported in the literature, and suggested suction measurement techniques and constitutive models suitable for bentonite buffer in an HLW repository. The literature review showed the suction of bentonite buffer to be much higher than that of soil, as measured by total suction including matric suction and osmotic suction. The measurement methods (RH-Cell, RH-Cell/Sensor) using a relative humidity sensor were suitable for suction measurement of the bentonite buffer; the RH-Cell /Sensor method was more preferred in consideration of the temperature change due to radioactive decay heat and measurement time. Various water retention models of bentonite buffers have been proposed through experiments, but the van Genuchten model is mainly used as a constitutive model of hydro-mechanical performance assessment of unsaturated buffers. The water characteristic curve of bentonite buffers showed different tendencies according to bentonite type, dry density, temperature, salinity, sample state and hysteresis. Selection of water retention models and determination of model input parameters should consider the effects of these controlling factors so as to improve overall reliability.

• Journal of Nuclear Fuel Cycle and Waste Technology(JNFCWT)
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• v.17 no.3
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• pp.347-353
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• 2019

The composition of the reduced fuel produced in the electrolytic reduction process of pyroprocessing affects the concentration change of $UCl_3$, an important operating variable of the electrorefining process. In this study, we examined the concentration change of $UCl_3$ in the electrorefiner according to the content of TRU and RE elements in the reduced fuel and the concentration of $Li_2O$ introduced in the electrorefiner accompanied with the reduced fuel. Considering only the TRU and RE elements, the concentration of $UCl_3$ decreased with increasing the number of electrorefining operation batch. In order to operate one campaign (20 batches) of electrorefining process, it was found that additional injection of $UCl_3$ should be conducted more than 3 times. On the other hand, the concentration of $UCl_3$ in the electrorefiner changed significantly depending on the concentration of $Li_2O$ and, accordingly the number of operable electrorefining batches decreased rapidly, showing that the concentration of $Li_2O$ is an important operating variable in electrorefining. Therefore, the results of this study show that to maintain the concentration of $UCl_3$ in the electrorefiner, the operation mode should be set by taking into account the effect of $Li_2O$ as well as the TRU and RE elements contained in the reduced fuel.

• Journal of Nuclear Fuel Cycle and Waste Technology(JNFCWT)
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.75-94
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• 2019

As the present single-layer repository concept requires too large an area for the site of the repository, a multi-layer repository concept has been suggested to improve the disposal density. The effects of the excavation damaged zone around the multi-layer repository constructed in the deep host rock on the temperature distribution in the repository were analyzed. For the thermal analysis of the multi-layer repository, the hydrothermal model was used to consider the resaturation process occurring in the buffer, backfill and rock. The existence of an excavation damaged zone has a significant effect on the temperature distribution in the repository, and the maximum peak temperatures of double-layer and triple-layer repositories can rise to $7^{\circ}C$ and $12^{\circ}C$, respectively depending on the size of the excavation damaged zone and the degree of decrease of the thermal conductivity. The dominant factor affecting the peak temperature in the multi-layer repository is the decrease of thermal conductivity in the excavation damaged zone, and the excavation damaged zone formed around the deposition hole has more significant effects on the peak temperature than does the excavation damaged zone formed around the disposal tunnel.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.38 no.3
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• pp.35-42
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• 2022

The N-value from the Standard Penetration Test (SPT), which is one of the representative in-situ test, is an important index that provides basic geological information and the depth of the bearing layer for the design of geotechnical structures. In the aspect of time and cost-effectiveness, there is a need to carry out a representative sampling test. However, the various variability and uncertainty are existing in the soil layer, so it is difficult to grasp the characteristics of the entire field from the limited test results. Thus the spatial interpolation techniques such as Kriging and IDW (inverse distance weighted) have been used for predicting unknown point from existing data. Recently, in order to increase the accuracy of interpolation results, studies that combine the geotechnics and deep learning method have been conducted. In this study, based on the SPT results of about 22,000 holes of ground survey, a comparative study was conducted to predict the depth of the bearing layer using deep learning methods and IDW. The average error among the prediction results of the bearing layer of each analysis model was 3.01 m for IDW, 3.22 m and 2.46 m for fully connected network and PointNet, respectively. The standard deviation was 3.99 for IDW, 3.95 and 3.54 for fully connected network and PointNet. As a result, the point net deep learing algorithm showed improved results compared to IDW and other deep learning method.