• Journal of Radiation Protection and Research
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• v.45 no.2
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• pp.81-87
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• 2020

Background: Kori unit #1 is permanently shut down after a 40-year lifetime. The Nuclear Safety and Security Commission recommends establishing initial decommissioning plans for all nuclear and radwaste treatment facilities. Therefore, the Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute (KAERI) must establish an initial and final decommissioning plan for radwaste-treatment facilities. Radiation safety assessment, which constitutes one chapter of the decommissioning plan, is important for establishing a decommissioning schedule, a strategy, and cost. It is also a critical issue for the government and public to understand. Materials and Methods: This study provides a method for assessing external radiation dose to workers during decommissioning. An external dose is calculated following each exposure scenario, decommissioning strategy, and working schedule. In this study, exposure dose is evaluated using the deterministic method. Physical characterization of the facility is obtained by both direct measurement and analysis of the drawings, and radiological characterization is analyzed using the annual report of KAERI, which measures the ambient dose every month. Results and Discussion: External doses are calculated at each stage of a decommissioning strategy and found to increase with each successive stage. The maximum external dose was evaluated to be 397.06 man-mSv when working in liquid-waste storage. To satisfy the regulations, working period and manpower must be managed. In this study, average and cumulative exposure doses were calculated for three cases, and the average exposure dose was found to be about 17 mSv/yr in all the cases. Conclusion: For the three cases presented, the average exposure dose is well below the annual maximum effective dose restriction imposed by the international and domestic regulations. Working period and manpower greatly affect the cost and entire decommissioning plan; hence, the chosen option must take account of these factors with due consideration of worker safety.

• Imaging Science in Dentistry
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• v.54 no.2
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• pp.129-137
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• 2024

Purpose: Patients with head and neck cancer (HNC) who undergo dental procedures during radiotherapy (RT) face an increased risk of developing osteoradionecrosis (ORN). Accordingly, new tools must be developed to extract critical information regarding the dose delivered to the teeth and mandible. This article proposes a novel approach for visualizing 3-dimensional planned dose distributions on panoramic reconstruction computed tomography (pCT) images. Materials and Methods: Four patients with HNC who underwent volumetric modulated arc therapy were included. One patient experienced ORN and required the extraction of teeth after RT. In the study approach, the dental arch curve (DAC) was defined using an open-source platform. Subsequently, pCT images and dose distributions were generated based on the new coordinate system. All teeth and mandibles were delineated on both the original CT and pCT images. To evaluate the consistency of dose metrics, the Mann-Whitney U test and Student t-test were employed. Results: A total of 61 teeth and 4 mandibles were evaluated. The correlation coefficient between the 2 methods was 0.999, and no statistically significant difference was observed (P>0.05). This method facilitated a straightforward and intuitive understanding of the delivered dose. In 1 patient, ORN corresponded to the region of the root and the gum receiving a high dosage (approximately 70 Gy). Conclusion: The proposed method particularly benefits dentists involved in the management of patients with HNC. It enables the visualization of a 3-dimensional dose distribution in the teeth and mandible on pCT, enhancing the understanding of the dose delivered during RT.

• Journal of Radiation Protection and Research
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• v.47 no.1
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• pp.1-7
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• 2022

Background: In Japan, new regulations that revise the dose limit for the lens of the eye (hereafter the lens), operational quantities, and measurement positions for the lens dose were enforced in April 2021. Based on the international safety standards, national guidelines, the results of the Radiation Safety Research Promotion Fund of the Nuclear Regulation Authority, and other studies, the Working Group of Radiation Protection Standardization Committee, the Japan Health Physics Society (JHPS) developed a guideline for radiation dose monitoring for the lens. Materials and Methods: The Working Group of the JHPS discussed the criteria of non-uniform exposure and the management criteria set not to exceed the dose limit for the lens. Results and Discussion: In July 2020, the JHPS guideline was published. The guideline consists of three parts: main text, explanations, and 26 examples. In the questions, the corresponding answers were prepared, and specific examples were provided to enable similar cases to be addressed. Conclusion: With the development of the guideline on radiation dose monitoring of the lens, radiation managers and workers will be able to smoothly comply with revised regulations and optimize radiation protection.

• Journal of radiological science and technology
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• v.41 no.6
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• pp.573-580
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• 2018

The Nuclear Safety Commission amended the Nuclear Safety Act by strengthening the safety management system for the frequent workers to the level of radiation workers. And students entering radiation management zones for testing and practical purposes are subject to frequent workers. It is inevitable that this will incur additional costs. In this paper, the validity of the amendment to the Nuclear Safety Act was to be assessed in terms of radiation protection. Study subjects are from 2014 to 2016, among university students in Seong-nam Korea and comparisons for analyses were made taking into account variables that are differences in annual, practical types, on-class and clinical practice students exposure dose. The analysis showed that exposures between on-class and clinical practice received were less than the annual dose limit of 1 mSv for the public. Then, some alternatives that excluding from frequent workers during on-class practice or mitigating the frequent workers' safety regulation for only on-class frequent workers can be considered. Optimization is how rational is the reduction in exposure dose to the costs required. Therefore, the results are hardly considered for optimization. If the data accumulated, it could be considered that the revision of the act could be evaluated and improved.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.52 no.10
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• pp.2379-2386
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• 2020

This paper presents the results of the first intercomparison exercise performed by the Korea retrospective dosimetry (KREDOS) working group using electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) spectroscopy. The intercomparison employed the alanine dosimeter, which is commonly used as the standard dosimeter in EPR methods. Four laboratories participated in the dose assessment of blind samples, and one laboratory carried out irradiation of blind samples. Two types of alanine dosimeters (Bruker and Magnettech) with different geometries were used. Both dosimeters were blindly irradiated at three dose levels (0.60, 2.70, and 8.00 Gy) and four samples per dose were distributed to the participating laboratories. Assessments of blind doses by the laboratories were performed using their own measurement protocols. One laboratory did not participate in the measurements of Magnettech alanine dosimeter samples. Intercomparison results were analyzed by calculating the relative bias, E_n value, and z-score. The results reported by participating laboratories were overall satisfactory for doses of 2.70 and 8.00 Gy but were considerably overestimated with a relative bias range of 10-95% for 0.60 Gy, which is lower than the minimum detectable dose (MDD) of the alanine dosimeter. After the first intercomparison, participating laboratories are working to improve their alanine-EPR dosimetry systems through continuous meetings and are preparing a second intercomparison exercise for other materials.

• Journal of dental hygiene science
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• v.13 no.3
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• pp.264-270
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• 2013

This research, which was conducted for dental hygienists, intended to check out what factors have an influence on their practices by knowledge and attitude on radiation safety management (RSM). This study performed a survey on such an issue from July 2 to August 30, 2012 for 220 dental hygienists who worked in Busan, Gyeongnam areas. The data was analysed using the IBM SPSS Statistics 21.0 program. The results were as follows: As a result of the knowledge according to the general characteristics and RSM, a statistically meaningful difference was found according to the education on radiation and wearing apron. As for the attitude according to the general characteristics and RSM, a statistically meaningful difference was found according to the education on radiation and wearing apron. As to the practice according to the general characteristics and RSM, a statistically meaningful difference was found according to the education on radiation, wearing thermo luminescent dosimeter and wearing apron. When the analysis of safety management practice for radiation was conducted with the independent variables such as knowledge, altitude and health concerns about radiography, it turned out that the factors having an effect on the practice were altitude and health concerns by that order.

• 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.

• International Journal of Advanced Culture Technology
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• v.11 no.3
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• pp.346-357
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• 2023

The purpose of this study is to suggest improvement plans for prevention regulations by reflecting the toxicity, fire and explosion effects of hazardous materials factories and surrounding areas using an off-site consequence assessment program. Regarding the effects of the hydrogen cyanide leak accident, which is the 1st petroleum of the 4th class flammable liquid, Areal Locations of Hazardous Atmospheres (ALOHA) program was used to compare and analyze the extent of damage effects for toxicity, overpressure, and radiation. As a result, the toxicity was analyzed to exceed 5km in the area with Acute exposure guideline level (AEGL)-2 concentration or higher, the overpressure was 103m in the range of 1 psi or more, and the radiant heat was analyzed to be 724m in the range of 2kw/m² or more. Toxicity and radiation affected the area outside the hazardous material storage area, but the overpressure was limited to the inside of the hazardous material storage area. Therefore, we propose to improve the safety management of hazardous materials by conducting a risk assessment for hazardous materials and reflecting the results in internal and external emergency response plans to prepare prevention regulations.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Radiology
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• v.16 no.6
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• pp.741-749
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• 2022

Radiography-Testing that verify the quality of welding structures without destruction are overwhelmingly used in industries, but many safety precautions are required as radiation is used. The workers for Radiography-Testing perform the inspection by moving the Iridium-192 radiation source embedded in the transport container of the gamma-ray irradiator within or outside the facility. The general facility is completely blocked about radiation from the outside with thick concrete, but if it is difficult for worker to handle object of inspection, facilities ceiling can be opened. A general facility may be constructed using a theoretical dose evaluation method because all exterior facilities are blocked, but if the ceiling is open, it is not appropriate to evaluate radiation safety with a simple theoretical calculation method due to the skyshine effect. Therefore, in this study, the radiation safety of the facility was evaluated in the actual field through an ion chamber survey-meter and an accumulated dose-meter called as OSLD, and the actual evaluation environment was modeled and evaluated using the Monte Carlo simulation code as FLUKA. According to the direction of the irradiation, the radiation dose at the facility boundary was difficult to meet the standards set by the regulatory authority, and radiation safety could be secured through additional methods. In addition, it was confirmed that the simulation results using the Iridium-192 source were valid evaluation with the actual measured results.

• Journal of the Korea Safety Management & Science
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• v.15 no.2
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• pp.121-128
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• 2013

The objectives of this study were to investigate the degrees of emotional labor, the effects to organizational effectiveness and the significant factors influencing organizational effectiveness in radiation therapy professional. The subjects of this study were the radiation therapists working at the hospital in Seoul and Gyungi. The self-reported questionnaires were administered to 205 radiation therapists and the data were analyzed with SPSS 19.0 package. The level of emotional labor of single or female subjects were revealed higher than married or male. The professionalism of job has significant correlation with emotional labor. Significant explanatory variables of the degrees of emotional labor included organization culture, distress and self-leadership. These three variables demonstrated the explanatory power of 13.9% of the emotional labor. Based on the findings, emotional labor of radiation therapist was correlated with occupational professionalism. These results suggest that the intervention program intervening emotional labor should be continued to develop in order to improve the effective self-leadership, organization culture and distress factor.