• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.49 no.7
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• pp.1489-1494
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• 2017

The use of a room-temperature gamma spectrometer is an issue in environmental radiation monitoring. To monitor radionuclides released around a nuclear power plant, suitable instruments giving fast and reliable information are required. High-pressure xenon (HPXe) chambers have range of resolution and efficiency equivalent to those of other medium resolution detectors such as those using NaI(Tl), CdZnTe, and $LaBr_3:Ce$. An HPXe chamber could be a cost-effective alternative, assuming temperature stability and reliability. The CEA LIST actively studied and developed HPXe-based technology applied for environmental monitoring. Xenon purification and conditioning was performed. The design of a 4-L HPXe detector was performed to minimize the detector capacitance and the required power supply. Simulations were done with the MCNPX2.7 particle transport code to estimate the intrinsic efficiency of the HPXe detector. A behavioral study dealing with ballistic deficits and electronic noise will be utilized to provide perspective for further analysis.

• Journal of Radiation Protection and Research
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• v.31 no.4
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• pp.197-201
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• 2006

Daily and seasonal variations of the ambient gamma ray exposure rates were measured by using a pressurized ion chamber from January 2003 to December 2005 in the CheongJu Regional Radiation Monitoring Post and the patterns of the distributions were studied. The annual average of the daily variation of the exposure rate was $\sim0.17{\mu}R/h$. The exposure rate was found to be maximum during 8:00 am to 9:00 am and minimum during 8:00 pm to 10:00 pm. For the annual data, the exposure rate was the minimum during the month of February. The exposure rate increased from February to mid-October (except during the period from May to July with no change) and decreased from October to February. The seasonal variation was found to be about $1{\mu}R/h$. Most of the measured values (96%) of the exposure rates fell under the normal distribution with a deviation of less than 4.8% and the remaining 4% had large fluctuations caused mainly by the rainfalls.

• Transactions of the Korean Society for Noise and Vibration Engineering
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• v.24 no.11
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• pp.876-882
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• 2014

This study investigates an efficient method to estimate the total acoustic radiation power of submerged circular cylindrical structures. Since the acoustic radiation power of submerged vehicles can be changed during the operation, the estimation for its monitoring onboard is required to accomplish the missions. The total acoustic radiation power is estimated using the measured velocity and the calculated radiation efficiency of the surface which consists of submerged rectangular plate elements. Experiments are carried out to validate the estimation approach. Comparisons of the estimation results with the measurements show that they are in a good agreement for the mid-high frequency range and match well for the cases of different excitation locations which correspond to the different operation modes of underwater vehicles as well. Therefore, this estimation method can be applied effectively to the development of the radiated noise monitoring-system.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.54 no.9
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• pp.3452-3458
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• 2022

Our study adopted a big data analysis approach to determine whether there was a significant relationship between environmental radiation dose rates or age and cancer incidence rates in the Republic of Korea. The data for this analysis included environmental radiation dose rates, number of cancer patients, and age distributions of the residents from 2009 to 2016 in the administrative districts where environmental radiation monitoring posts were located. For this analysis, the environmental radiation dose rates were obtained from 171 monitoring posts located in 113 elementary administrative districts in the Republic of Korea. The number of cancer patients and the age distributions were obtained from the Central Cancer Information Center of the National Cancer Center of Korea and the Ministry of the Interior and Safety, respectively. Our findings indicated that there was no statistically significant relationship between the environmental radiation dose rate and the cancer incidence rate. However, age had a considerable influence on the cancer incidence rate of the monitored regions.

• Journal of Radiation Protection and Research
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• v.34 no.4
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• pp.195-200
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• 2009

effluents to the environment. The activity of carbon-14, one of the radioactive effluents, in the environment is already high level and its effect on radiation exposure to the public and the environment is insignificant; thus, NPPs did not perform the carbon-14 monitoring in effluents in the past. By the way, effluents of noble gas and particulate radioactive materials originated from nuclear fuels has been continuously reduced due to both the advancement of manufacturing and integrity technology for nuclear fuels and the improvement of operation methods of NPPs. Futhermore, the portion of dose assessment by tritium and carbon-14 to the public has been relatively increased because the lower limit of detection for low-energy beta sources, such as tritium and carbon-14, is low due to the advancement of radiation detection technology. In this paper, the technical background for carbon-14 monitoring in nuclear facilities was investigated using United States technical reports and papers. This paper also reviews whether carbon-14 monitoring is necessary or not based on the investigated documents.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.53 no.1
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• pp.103-110
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• 2021

In the development of a Risk Monitor probabilistic safety assessment (PSA) model from the basic PSA model of a nuclear power plant, the modeling of common-cause failure (CCF) is very important. At present, some approximate modeling methods are widely used, but there lacks criterion of modeling accuracy and error analysis. In this paper, aiming at ensuring the accuracy of risk assessment and minimizing the Risk Monitor PSA models size, we present three basic issues of CCF model resulted from the changes of a nuclear power plant configuration, put forward corresponding modeling methods, and derive accuracy criteria of CCF modeling based on minimum cut sets and risk indicators according to the requirements of risk monitoring. Finally, a nuclear power plant Risk Monitor PSA model is taken as an example to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed modeling method and accuracy criteria, and the application scope of the idea of this paper is also discussed.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Information and Commucation Sciences Conference
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• 2013.05a
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• pp.938-940
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• 2013

According to the increasing concern for the safety management of nuclear power plants, the growing need for the development of a monitoring system for the management. Smart revolution sparked the evolution of wireless networks and the spread of smart phones, smart pads and mobile-centric, as well as the change of life, injury, industrial growth, and the Internet economy. In this paper, a fusion of the latest smart technology to meet the traditional nuclear industry in the era of the smart revolution, radiation safety management system is proposed to Content Basic imaging and dose output data in real time, and provides basic monitoring functions required to manage the radiation safety.

• Journal of Korean Society for Atmospheric Environment
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• v.10 no.E
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• pp.299-302
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• 1994

At a nuclear power plant, environmental radioactivity monitoring is routine work for the radiation safety management For the environmental monitoring of tritium($^3$H) activity in water sampled liquid scintillation counting( LSC) method is applied to measure low- energy beta activity from tritium in the samples. The $^3$H activity is measured using the BECKMAN 5801 system at the KRISS( Korea Research Institute of Standards and Science) for evaluating the lower limits of detection( LLD) of $^3$H measurement and the measuring capability of low-level $^3$H activity at four nuclear Power Plant sites. The LSC systems used for low-level $^3$H activity measurements at the nuclear Power Plants are confirmed to satisfy throughout an intercomparison study under the experimental arrangements by the KRISS.

• Journal of Radiation Protection and Research
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.51-62
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• 1989

The high efficiency moderated-type neutron spectrometer and doseequivalent counter were developed for the measurement of low level environmental neutrons. By using these detectors, the neutron energy spectra and dose equivalent rates due to skyshine effect were measured in the environment surrounding the accelerator facilities and also the altitude variation of cosmic ray neutrons in the aircraft flying over Japan.

• Corrosion Science and Technology
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• v.4 no.3
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• pp.114-119
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• 2005

Since the degradation caused by corrosion is restricted to the surface of materials, conventional ultrasonic nondestructive evaluation methods based on ultrasonic bulk waves are not applicable to characterization of the corrosion degradation. To take care of this difficulty, a new nondestructive evaluation method that uses ultrasonic backward radiation has been proposed recently. This paper explores the potential of this newly developed method for nondestructive characterization and in-situ monitoring of corrosion degradation. Specifically, backward radiated ultrasounds from aged thermo-mechanically controlled process (TMCP) steel specimens by corrosion fatigue were measured and their characteristics were correlated to those of the aged specimens. The excellent correlation observed in the present study demonstrates the high potential of the backward radiated ultrasound as an effective tool for nondestructive characterization of corrosion degradation. In addition, the potential of the backward radiated ultrasound to in-situ monitoring of corrosion degradation is under current investigation.