• Title/Summary/Keyword: Nuclear power plant accident

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In Vitro Experiment to Evaluate 137Cs Dissolution in the Digestion Process of Mushrooms

  • Nishiono, Kanoko;Yamanishi, Hirokuni
    • Journal of Radiation Protection and Research
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    • v.45 no.4
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    • pp.154-162
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    • 2020
  • Background: Several studies have reported that wild mushrooms contain high amounts of radioactive cesium (137Cs). After the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant Accident, a significantly high concentration of 137Cs has been detected in wild mushrooms, and their consumption may be the cause of the chronic internal exposure of local consumers to radioactivity. Therefore, an accurate evaluation of the internal radioactivity resulting from mushroom ingestion is needed. Materials and Methods: The 137Cs elution rate through the cooking and digestion stages was evaluated using in vitro experiments. The edible mushroom Pleurotus djamor was taken as a sample for the experiments. The mushrooms were cultivated onto solid media containing 137Cs. We evaluated the internal dose based on the actual conditions using the elution rate data. For various cooking methods, the results were compared with those of other wild edible mushrooms. Results and Discussion: From the elution experiment through cooking, we proved that 25%-55% of the 137Cs in the mushrooms was released during soaking, boiling, or frying. The results of a simulated digestion experiment after cooking revealed that almost all the 137Cs in the ingested mushrooms eluted in the digestive juice, regardless of the cooking method. The committed effective dose was reduced by 20%-75% when considering the dissolution through the cooking process. Conclusion: We found that cooking lowers 137Cs concentration in mushrooms, therefore reducing the amount of radioactivity intake. Besides, since there were differences between mushroom types, we demonstrated that the internal exposure dose should be evaluated in detail considering the release of 137Cs during the cooking stages.

Effects of the Questionnaire and Radioactivity Measurement of Fishery from the Fukushima Nuclear Disaster (후쿠시마 원자력 재해 이후 수산물의 방사능 측정 및 설문 조사)

  • Kim, Myung Jun;Kang, Seok Min;Kweon, Dae Cheol
    • Journal of the Korean Society of Radiology
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    • v.10 no.1
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    • pp.53-58
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    • 2016
  • March 11, 2011 Fukushima nuclear power plant accident has occurred, the last four years, his is the current state of anxiety remains on the consumer. Therefore, 2015 the current progress continues to have continued research for the purpose of resolving the insecurity of fishery in the country. We measured the radiation of the origin of fishery products, by 2015, research was carried out through a number of references to get additional data or studies that influence this to some degree. Create a consumer and one for the seller for the survey to find out the thoughts of both consumers and sellers on fisheries was to create the statistics by direct survey in 2014 year survey meter using PM1405 equipment dynamics of several species of aquatic origin in accordance with the (Taiwan, China, Russia), mackerel, pomfret, hairtail, saury, shrimp, squid measurements of radiation were investigated. The measurement in 2014 was $0.043{\sim}0.073{\mu}Sv/h$. The seller influenced the survey (90%) on fishery products sales, consumer safety, without this fishery (90%), radioactive contamination very high (28%) and the polarization was not as nearly 72%. The study of the stability of the radiation determined by the radiation levels of the aquatic marine products in a comparison the radiation levels result was determined in ICRP below the standard value (1 mSv/y).

Probabilistic Safety Assessment of Gas Plant Using Fault Tree-based Bayesian Network (고장수목 기반 베이지안 네트워크를 이용한 가스 플랜트 시스템의 확률론적 안전성 평가)

  • Se-Hyeok Lee;Changuk Mun;Sangki Park;Jeong-Rae Cho;Junho Song
    • Journal of the Computational Structural Engineering Institute of Korea
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    • v.36 no.4
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    • pp.273-282
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    • 2023
  • Probabilistic safety assessment (PSA) has been widely used to evaluate the seismic risk of nuclear power plants (NPPs). However, studies on seismic PSA for process plants, such as gas plants, oil refineries, and chemical plants, have been scarce. This is because the major disasters to which these process plants are vulnerable include explosions, fires, and release (or dispersion) of toxic chemicals. However, seismic PSA is essential for the plants located in regions with significant earthquake risks. Seismic PSA entails probabilistic seismic hazard analysis (PSHA), event tree analysis (ETA), fault tree analysis (FTA), and fragility analysis for the structures and essential equipment items. Among those analyses, ETA can depict the accident sequence for core damage, which is the worst disaster and top event concerning NPPs. However, there is no general top event with regard to process plants. Therefore, PSA cannot be directly applied to process plants. Moreover, there is a paucity of studies on developing fragility curves for various equipment. This paper introduces PSA for gas plants based on FTA, which is then transformed into Bayesian network, that is, a probabilistic graph model that can aid risk-informed decision-making. Finally, the proposed method is applied to a gas plant, and several decision-making cases are demonstrated.

Reduction of Outdoor and Indoor Ambient Dose Equivalent after Decontamination in the Fukushima Evacuation Zones

  • Yoshida-Ohuchi, Hiroko;Kanagami, Takashi;Naitoh, Yutaka;Kameyama, Mizuki;Hosoda, Masahiro
    • Journal of Radiation Protection and Research
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    • v.42 no.1
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    • pp.42-47
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    • 2017
  • Background: One of the most urgent issues following the accident at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant (FDNPP) was the remediation of the land, in particular, for residential area contaminated by the radioactive materials discharged. In this study, the effect of decontamination on reduction of ambient dose equivalent outdoors and indoors was evaluated. The latter is essential for residents as most individuals spend a large portion of their time indoors. Materials and Methods: From December 2012 to November 2014, thirty-seven Japanese single-family detached wooden houses were investigated before and after decontamination in evacuation zones. Outdoor and indoor dose measurements (n = 84 and 114, respectively) were collected based on in situ measurements using the NaI (Tl) scintillation surveymeter. Results and Discussion: The outdoor ambient dose equivalents [$H^*(10)_{out}$] ranged from 0.61 to $3.71{\mu}Sv\;h^{-1}$ and from 0.23 to $1.32{\mu}Sv\;h^{-1}$ before and after decontamination, respectively. The indoor ambient dose equivalents [$H^*(10)_{in}$] ranged from 0.29 to $2.53{\mu}Sv\;h^{-1}$ and from 0.16 to $1.22{\mu}Sv\;h^{-1}$ before and after decontamination, respectively. The values of reduction efficiency (RE), defined as the ratio by which the radiation dose has been reduced via decontamination, were evaluated as $0.47{\pm}0.13$, $0.51{\pm}0.13$, and $0.58{\pm}0.08$ ($average{\pm}{\sigma}$) when $H^*(10)_{out}$ < $1.0{\mu}Sv\;h^{-1}$, $1.0{\mu}Sv\;h^{-1}$ < $H^*(10)_{out}$ < $2.0{\mu}Sv\;h^{-1}$, and $2.0{\mu}Sv\;h^{-1}$ < $H^*(10)_{out}$, respectively, indicating the values of RE increased as $H^*(10)_{out}$ increased. It was found that the values of RE were $0.53{\pm}0.12$ outdoors and $0.41{\pm}0.09$ indoors, respectively, indicating RE was larger outdoors than indoors. Conclusion: Indoor dose is essential as most individuals spend a large portion of their time indoors. The difference between outdoors and indoors should be considered carefully in order to estimate residents' exposure dose before their returning home.

Effect of Construction Joint on Leakage Resistance of Gas in Reinforced Concrete Pressure Vessels (철근콘크리트 압력용기에서 시공이음이 가스의 누설저항에 미치는 영향)

  • Yi, Seong-Tae
    • Journal of the Korea institute for structural maintenance and inspection
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    • v.21 no.2
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    • pp.87-94
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    • 2017
  • In the nuclear power plant, the steel or polymer liner plates are adopted to prohibit the inner concrete surface from contacting with gas or liquid materials. If there is an accident, the plate may be damaged, and, in this case, concrete shall have the final responsibility to safety requirements. In this paper, an experimental research was carried out to investigate the effects of construction joint and wet and loading conditions on the permeability of concrete. The test results showed that, under a construction joint in the wet condition, leakage of gas pressure has been started from $1kg/cm^2$. However, when there are no construction joints, it is initiated from $2kg/cm^2$. In addition, under the air dried and unloading condition, regardless of with or without the presence of the construction joint, since the gas passage that exist in concrete is constant, leakage has a constant tendency to increase. Finally, under the loading condition, as described in Reference 1, since leakage is inversely proportional to the thickness of the wall, and, considering the wall thickness of the actual plant, it is found that there will not be no problem in the sealing of the gas.

Development of a Dynamic Ingestion Pathways Model(KORFOOD), Applicable to Korean Environment (한국 환경에 적용 가능한 동적 섭식경로 모델 (KORFOOD) 개발)

  • Hwang, Won-Tae;Kim, Byung-Woo;Lee, Kun-Jai
    • Journal of Radiation Protection and Research
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    • v.18 no.1
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    • pp.9-24
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    • 1993
  • The time-dependent radioecological model applicable to Korean environment has been developed in order to assess the radiological consequences following the short-term deposition of radionuclides in an accident of nuclear power plant. Time-dependent radioactivity concentrations in foodstuffs can be estimated by the model called 'KORFOOD' as well as time-dependent and time-integrated ingestion doses. Three kinds of critical radionuclides and thirteen kinds of foodstuffs were considered in this model. Dynamic variation of radioactivities were simulated by considering several effects such as deposition, weathering and washout, resuspension, root uptake, translocation, leaching, senescence, intake and excretion of soil by animals, intake and excretion of feedstuffs by animals, etc. The input data to the KORFOOD are the time of the year when the deposition occurs, the kinds of radionuclides and foodstuffs for estimation. The time-dependent specific activities in rice and the ingestion doses due to the consumption of all considered foodstuffs were calculated with deposition time using agricultural data-base in Kori region. In order to validate results of KORFOOD, the calculated results were compared with those by a leading German model, ECOSYS-87. The comparison of results shows good agreements within a factor of ten.

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And recognition of the next generation about the radioactivity A Study on the direction of education (방사능(선)에 관한 차세대 인식도 및 교육방향에 대한 고찰)

  • Seo, Dong-Woo;Kim, Kyeong-Yeon;Kim, Jong-Eun;Bae, Hyun-Hak;Son, Jae-Ho;Jeon, Min-Gyu;Jung, Jae-Eun
    • Korean Journal of Digital Imaging in Medicine
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    • v.16 no.1
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    • pp.43-47
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    • 2014
  • Sens of insecutity of the public and professionals about harmful effects of radiation is increasing in an accident at the Chernobyl and Fkushima nuclear power plant.Anxiety was amplified to lack of information about radiation majority of people. To target the middle and high school in the region of Daegu and Gyeongsangbuk-do, to investigate the radiation recognition of the next generation, it is intended to present a model of education for the safe use of radiation. The High School of the six metropolitan cities, city, town through the questionnaire and needs to be educational experience of radiation and use knowledge level of radiation, experience in daily life, understanding of man-made radiation and natural radiation, information channel on radiation, the radiation Distribute the total 800 parts of, to recover the 629 unit, was analyzed for 155 females 474 males. Many people 75.36% of the people, to 24.64% female subjects of this investigation, was constant, respectively from 13 to 18 years age. It is a large number and 30.37% of the respondents as "normal" level of knowledge of radiation, for the type of radiation, most knew. You have answer for risk experience of the medical radiation was higher, touching a lot of information via the broadcast medium in general, and the accuracy is low. I thought we wanted to be educated three or more twice a year, as an educator,about 71.37% and radiation-related understanding of knowledge and background in accordance with the diversification of information channels, the regional differences between urban and rural areas. But I considered the difference age (grade) for each is displayed, intended for junior high school students, the target surface and use the occurrence of radiation, high school students, the need for education about risk and application of radiation through this study.

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Sorption Efficiency of the Bamboo Charcoal to Remove the Cesium in the Contaminated Water System (오염수계 내 세슘 제거를 위한 대나무 활성탄의 흡착효율 규명)

  • Ahn, Joungpil;Lee, Minhee
    • Economic and Environmental Geology
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    • v.51 no.2
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    • pp.87-97
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    • 2018
  • The cesium (Cs) removal from the contaminated water system has been considered to be difficult because the cesium likes to exist as soluble phases such as ion and complexes than the solid in water system. Many researches have focused on developing the breakthrough adsorbent to increase the cesium removal efficiency in water. In this study, the laboratory scale experiments were performed to investigate the feasibility of the adsorption process using the bamboo charcoal for the Cs contaminated water system. The Cs removal efficiency of the bamboo charcoal were measured and the optimal adsorption conditions were determined by the adsorption batch experiments. Total 5 types of commercialized bamboo charcoals in Korea were used to identify their surface properties from SEM-EDS and XRD analyses and 3 types of bamboo charcoals having large specific surface areas were used for the adsorption batch experiment. The batch experiments to calculate the Cs removal efficiency were performed at conditions of various Cs concentration (0.01 - 10 mg/L), pH (3 - 11), temperature ($5-30^{\circ}C$), and adsorption time (10 - 120 min.). Experimental results were fitted to the Langmuir adsorption isotherm curve and their adsorption constants were determined to understand the adsorption properties of bamboo charcoal for Cs contaminated water system. From results of SEM-EDS analyses, the surfaces of bamboo charcoal particles were composed of typical fiber structures having various pores and dense lamella structures in supporting major adsorption spaces for Cs. From results of adsorption batch experiments, the Cs-133 removal efficiency of C type bamboo charcoal was the highest among those of 3 bamboo charcoal types and it was higher than 75 % (maximum of 82 %) even when the initial Cs concentration in water was lower than 1.0 mg/L, suggesting that the adsorption process using the bamboo charcoal has a great potential to remove Cs from the genuine Cs contaminated water, of which Cs concentration is low (< 1.0 mg/L) in general. The high Cs removal efficiency of bamboo charcoal was maintained in a relatively wide range of temperatures and pHs, supporting that the usage of the bamboo charcoal is feasible for various types of water. Experimental results were similar to the Langmuir adsorption model and the maximum amount of Cs adsorption (qm:mg/g) was 63.4 mg/g, which was higher than those of commercialized adsorbents used in previous studies. The surface coverage (${\theta}$) of bamboo charcoal was also maintained in low when the Cs concentration in water was < 1.0 mg/L, investigating that the Cs contaminated water can be remediated up with a small amount of bamboo charcoal.