• Journal of Radiation Industry
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• v.18 no.1
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• pp.89-93
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• 2024

Accidents at nuclear facilities and nuclear power plants led to leaks of large amounts of radioactive substances. Of the various radioactive nuclides released, ¹³⁷Cs are radioactive substances generated during the fission of uranium. Therefore, due to the high fission yield (6.09%), strong gamma rays, and a relatively long half-life (30 years), a rapid and efficient removal method and a study of adsorbents are needed. Accordingly, an adsorbent was prepared using Prussian blue (PB), a material that selectively adsorbs radioactive cesium. As a result of evaluating the adsorption performance with the prepared adsorbent, it was confirmed that 82% of the removal efficiency was obtained, and most of the cesium was rapidly adsorbed within 10 to 15 minutes. The purpose of this study was to adsorb cesium using the Prussian blue alginate bead and to compare the change in detection efficiency according to the amount of adsorbent added for quantitative evaluation. However, in this case, it is difficult to determine the detection efficiency using a standard source with the same conditions as the measurement sample, so the efficiency change of the HPGe detector according to the different heights of Prussian blue was calculated through MCNP simulation using certified standard materials (1 L, Marinelli beaker) for radioactivity measurement. It is expected to derive a relational equation that can calculate detection efficiency through an efficiency curve according to the volume of Prussian blue, quantitatively evaluate the activity at the same time as the adsorption of radioactive nuclides in actual contaminated water and use it in the field of nuclear facility operation and dismantling in the future.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.55 no.8
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• pp.2723-2733
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• 2023

Transuranic nuclides (such as ²³⁸Pu, ²⁵²Cf, ²⁴⁹Bk, etc.) have a wide range of application in industry, medicine, agriculture, and other fields. However, due to the complex conversion chain and remarkable fission losses in the process of transuranic nuclides production, the generation amounts are extremely low. High flux reactor with high neutron flux and flexible irradiation channels, is regarded as the promising candidate for producing transuranic nuclides. It is of great significance to increase the conversion ratio of transuranic nuclides, resulting in higher efficiency and better economy. In this paper, we perform an optimization design evaluation of producing transuranic nuclides in high flux reactor, which includes optimization design of irradiation target and influence study of reactor core loading. It is demonstrated that the production rate increases with appropriately determined target material and target structure. The target loading scheme in the irradiation channel also has a significant influence on the production of transuranic nuclides.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.52 no.6
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• pp.1266-1270
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• 2020

A code is developed to correct for the coincidence summing effect in detecting a voluminous gamma source, and this code is applied to a¹⁵²Eu standard source as a test case. The source is 1000 mL of liquid in a cylindrical shape. To calculate the coincidence summing effect, the cylindrical source is considered as 10(radial) × 8(height) sectional sources. For each sectional source, the peak efficiency and total efficiency are obtained by Monte Carlo simulation at each energy for 10 energies between 50 keV and 2000 keV. The efficiencies of each sector are then expressed as polynomials of gamma energy. To calculate the correction coefficients for the coincidence summing effect, the KORSUM code is used after modification. The magnitudes of correction are 4%-17% for the standard ¹⁵²Eu source measured in this study. The relative deviation of 4.7% before the coincidence correction is reduced to 0.8% after the correction is applied to the efficiency based on the measured gamma line. Hence, this study has shown that a new method has been developed that is applicable for correcting the coincidence effect in a voluminous source, and the method is applied to the measured data of a standard ¹⁵²Eu cylinder source.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.54 no.10
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• pp.3682-3694
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• 2022

The expansion of a country's ecological footprint generates resources for economic development. China's import bill and carbon footprint can be reduced by investing in green transportation and energy technologies. A sustainable environment depends on the cessation of climate change; the current study investigates nuclear energy efficiency, economic complexity, air transportation, and industrial improvement for reducing environmental footprint. Using data spanning the years 1983-2016, the dynamic autoregressive distributed lag simulation method has demonstrated the short- and long-term variability in the impact of regressors on the ecological footprint. The study findings revealed that economic complexity in China had been found to have a statistically significant impact on the country's ecological footprint. Moreover, the industrial improvement process is helpful for the ecological footprint in China. In the short term, air travel has a negative impact on the ecological footprint, but this effect diminishes over time. Additionally, energy innovation is negative and substantial both in the short and long run, thus demonstrating its positive role in reducing the ecological footprint. Policy implications can be extracted from a wide range of issues, including economic complexity, industrial improvement, air transportation, energy innovation, and ecological impact to achieve sustainable goals.

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2010.06a
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• pp.238.2-238.2
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• 2010

Recently, environmental pollution and energy depletion problems have been issued over the world. For this reason, many renewable systems have been developing. Of these, the Ocean Thermal Energy Conservation(OTEC) is drawing attention as the upcoming alternative energy source. In this paper, the efficiency of each of OTEC which harness the effluent from nuclear power plant was analyzed by using computer calculation. The result, shows that Ul-jin Nuclear Power Plant is the best place geographically and the regenerative cycle is most outstanding performance cycle for OTEC. The difference of temperature between surface water and deep water temperature should be greater than $20^{\circ}C$ in order to increase the efficiency.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.56 no.1
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• pp.147-159
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• 2024

Plutonium-238 has always been considered as the one of the promising radioisotopes for space nuclear power supply, which has long half-life, low radiation protection level, high power density, and stable fuel form at high temperatures. The industrial-scale production of ²³⁸Pu mainly depends on irradiating solid ²³⁷NpO₂ target in high flux reactors, however the production process faces problems such as large fission loss and high requirements for product quality control. In this paper, a conceptual design study of producing ²³⁸Pu in a multi-purpose high flux reactor was evaluated and analyzed, which includes a sensitivity analysis on ²³⁸Pu production and a further study on the irradiation scheme. It demonstrated that the target structure and its location in the reactor, as well as the operation scheme has an impact on ²³⁸Pu amount and product quality. Furthermore, the production efficiency could be improved by optimizing target material concentration, target locations in the core and reflector. This work provides technical support for irradiation production of ²³⁸Pu in high flux reactors.

• Analytical Science and Technology
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• v.17 no.5
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• pp.438-442
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• 2004

To determine the contents of $^{99}Tc$ in the spent PWR (pressurized water reactor) nuclear fuels by ICP-MS (inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry), a technetium separation method using an extraction chromatographic resin (TEVA Spec resin) has been established. $^{99}Tc$ was separated from a spent PWR nuclear fuel solution by this separation procedure and its concentration was determined by ICP-MS. The result agrees well with the value calculated by the program ORIGEN 2 and also the value measured by AG MP-1 resin/ICP-MS method described in our previous paper. It can be concluded that the present separation procedure is superior to the AG MP-1 resin procedure with respect to the time required for technetium separation as well as the efficiency of decontamination from other radioactive nuclides.

• Journal of Nuclear Fuel Cycle and Waste Technology(JNFCWT)
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• v.20 no.4
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• pp.469-488
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• 2022

Technology for high-level-waste disposal employing a multibarrier concept using engineered and natural barrier in stable bedrock at 300-1,000 m depth is being commercialized as a safe, long-term isolation method for high-level waste, including spent nuclear fuel. Managing heat generated from waste is important for improving disposal efficiency; thus, research on efficient heat management is required. In this study, thermal management methods to maximize disposal efficiency in terms of the disposal area required were developed. They efficiently use the land in an environment, such as Korea, where the land area is small and the amount of waste is large. The thermal effects of engineered barriers and natural barriers in a high-level waste disposal repository were analyzed. The research status of thermal management for the main bedrocks of the repository, such as crystalline, clay, salt, and other rocks, were reviewed. Based on a characteristics analysis of various heat management approaches, the spent nuclear fuel cooling time, buffer bentonite thermal conductivity, and disposal container size were chosen as efficient heat management methods applicable in Korea. For each method, thermal analyses of the disposal repository were performed. Based on the results, the disposal efficiency was evaluated preliminarily. Necessary future research is suggested.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.50 no.3
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• pp.462-469
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• 2018

The background spectrum of a $3^{{\prime}{\prime}}{\times}3^{{\prime}{\prime}}$ NaI(Tl) well-type scintillation SILENA detector was measured without shielding, in 6 cm thick lead shielding, and with 2 mm thick electrolytic copper covering the detector inside the lead shielding. The relative remaining background of the lead shield lined with copper was found to be ideal for low-level environmental radioactive spectroscopy. The background total count rate in the (20-2160 KeV) was reduced 28.7 times by the lead and 29 times by the Cu + Pb shielding. The effective reduction of background (1.04) by the copper mainly appeared in the energy range from X-ray up to 500 KeV, while for the total energy range the ratio is 1.01 relative to the lead only. In addition, a strong relation between the full-energy peak absolute efficiency and the detector well height was found using gamma-ray isotropic radiation point sources placed inside the detector well. The full-energy peak efficiency at a midpoint of the well (at 2.5 cm) is three times greater than that on the detector surface. The energy calibrations and the resolution of any single energy line are independent of the locations of the gamma source inside or outside of the well.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.35 no.4
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• pp.347-355
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• 2003

The \gamma-ray spectrometer of the PGAA (Prompt Gamma Activation Analysis) facility constructed at HANARO of the Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute was upgraded to the multi-mode spectrometer including the single mode, the Compton suppression mode and the pair mode. The performance of the spectrometer was tested and summarized. The background count rate and the uncertainty of the detection efficiency were reduced greatly in comparison with those before the new installation.