• Safety and Health at Work
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• v.12 no.4
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• pp.445-451
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• 2021

Background: This study aimed to evaluate the reliability and validity of the self-administered questionnaire for Korean radiation workers. Methods: From May 24, 2016, to June 30, 2017, 20,608 participants completed the questionnaire, providing information on sociodemographics, lifestyle, work history and practices, medical radiation exposure, and medical history, which was linked to the National Dose Registry and the National Cancer Registry. The validity of the questionnaire was evaluated using the responses of 20,608 workers, and reliability was evaluated using the responses of 3043 workers who responded to the survey twice. Results: Responses concerning demographic characteristics and lifestyle showed reliability with a moderate-to-high agreement (kappa: 0.43-0.99), whereas responses concerning occupation and medical radiation exposure had a wide range of agreement (kappa: 0.05-0.95), possibly owing to temporal variability during employment. Regarding validity, responses to the question about the first year of employment had an excellent agreement with the national registry (intraclass correlation coefficient = 0.9); however, responses on cancer history had a wide range of agreement (kappa: 0.22-0.85). Conclusion: Although the reliability and validity of the questionnaire were not distinguished by demographic characteristics, they tended to be low among participants whose occupational radiation exposure was minimal. Overall, the information collected can be reliable for epidemiological studies; however, caution must be exercised when using information such as medical exposure and work practices, which are prone to temporal variability.

• KCID journal
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• v.19 no.1
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• pp.87-96
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• 2012

Information of local solar radiation is essential for many field, including water resources management, crop yield estimation, crop growth model, solar energy systems and irrigation and drainage design. Unfortunately, solar radiation measurements are not easily available due to the cost and maintenance and calibration requirements of the measuring equipment and station. Therefore, it is important to elaborate methods to estimate the solar radiation based on readily available meteorological data. In this study, two empirical equations are employed to estimate daily solar radiation using Cheongju Regional Meteorological Office data. Two scenarios are considered: (a) sunshine duration data are available for a given location, or (b) only daily cloudiness index records exist. Simple linear regression with daily sunshine duration and cloudiness index as the dependent variable accounted for 91% and 80%, respectively of the variation of solar radiation(H) at 2011. Daily global solar radiation is highly correlated with sunshine duration. In order to indicate the performance of the models, the statistical test methods of the mean bias error(MBE), root mean square error(RMSE) and correlation coefficient(r) are used. Sunshine duration and cloudiness index can be easily and reliably measured and data are widely available.

• Journal of Radiation Industry
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• v.4 no.4
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• pp.353-357
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• 2010

Silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) can be used in the areas such as integrate circuit, cell electrode and antimicrobial deodorant. In this study, AgNPs have been prepared by using $AgNO_3$ aqueous solution in the carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC) hydrogel. CMC powders were dissolved in deionized water, and then irradiated by a gamma-ray with a radiation dose of 50 kGy to make CMC hydrogel. CMC hydrogels were dipped into $1.0{\times}10^{-2}M$ $AgNO_3$ solution for 1 hour. After that, the swollen hydrogels were irradiated by gamma-ray for the formation of AgNPs. The characteristics of silver nanoparticles in the CMC hydrogels were monitored by UV-Vis and the morphological study and dispersed coefficient of particles were investigated by FE-SEM/EDX. It was observed that the sodium salt in the CMC is crucial to the formation of silver nanoparticle. Finally, antibacterial tests indiacted that the hydrogel containing silver nanoparticle has antibacterial activity.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Industry Convergence
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• v.6 no.1
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• pp.65-71
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• 2003

Infrared heating has been traditionally used in industrial applications for processes such as dehydration of food industrial. This heating method involves the application of radiation in the wavelength range of 5~50 micrometers. In this work, simultaneous heat balance equations were developed to simulate the infrared radiation heating of red peppers. The equations assume that moisture diffuses to the outer boundaries of the material in liquid form and evaporation occurs at the surface of the red peppers. Energy for moisture evaporation is supplied by the infrared radiant energy. The equations were validated with experimental data on surface temperature and average moisture content of red peppers. Average deviations of predicted surface red peppers temperature and average red peppers moisture from experimental data were 323~353K and 50~80%, respectively. The spectral extinction coefficients in the wavelength range $1.5<{\lambda}<27$ micrometer at 293K for Red Peppers were determined from results of reflection measurements and the four flux radiative heat transfer calculation. The radiation extinction coefficients were obtained from effective drying factor the temperature 373K.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.52 no.8
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• pp.1798-1806
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• 2020

In this study, we investigated whether there is a significant relationship between the natural radiation dose rate and the cancer incidences in Korea by using a big data analysis. The natural dose rate data for this analysis were the measurement data obtained from the 171 monitoring posts of the 113 administrative districts in Korea over the 10 years from 2007 to 2016. The relative cancer incidences for this analysis were the difference in the cancer patients per hundred thousand people year-on-year in the administrative districts with the five highest and the five lowest natural gamma dose rates each year over the same period. To analyze the correlation between the two variables, Spearman's rank correlation coefficient between the two rates was derived using R, a well-known big data analysis tool. The analysis showed that Spearman's rank correlation coefficient was more than 0.05 and that the correlation between the two variables was not statistically significant.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.53 no.6
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• pp.2025-2037
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• 2021

The influence of lead cations on natural quartz (QZ) from Egypt as a glass shielding material for the composition with nominal formula (10Na₂O - (90 - x) QZ - xPbO (where x = 30, 35, 40, 45 and 50 mol %)) was examined. The studied samples are synthesized via the melt quenching method at 1050 ℃. The X-ray diffraction XRD patterns were confirmed the glass nature for studied samples. Moreover, the optical properties, and the transparency for all compositions were examined by UV-Vis spectroscopy. Also, the major elemental composition of the natural quartz were estimated via the X-ray fluorescence (XRF) technique. Further, the density and molar volume were determined. Furthermore, the nuclear shielding parameters such as, mass attenuation coefficient, effective atomic number, electronic density, the total atomic, and electronic cross sections as well as the mean free path, and the half value layer with different gamma ray energies (81 keV-1407 keV) were calculated. Besides, the results showed that the shielding behavior towards the gamma ray radiation for all glass samples was increased as the increment in PbO concentration in the glass system.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.56 no.2
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• pp.666-672
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• 2024

In the present work, a new brick series based on the Vietnamese white clay minerals from the Bat Trang was fabricated to be applied in the radiation protection applications during the decommissioning of the nuclear power reactors. The bricks were constructed under various pressure rates varied from 7.61 MPa to 114.22 MPa. The influence of pressure rate on the physical and γ-ray shielding properties were investigated in the study. The experimental measurement for the material's density using the MH-300A density meter showed an enhancement in the prepared bricks' density by 22.5 % with increasing the applied pressure rate while the bricks' porosity reduced by 31.2 % when the pressure rate increased from 7.61 MPa to 114.22 MPa. The increase in the fabricated bricks density and the reduction in their porosities enhances the bricks' linear attenuation coefficients as measured by the NaI (Tl) detector along the energy range extended from 0.662 MeV to 1.332 MeV. The linear attenuation coefficient increased by 13.8 %, 17.6 %, 17.0 %, and 17.1 % at gamma ray energies of 0.662 MeV, 1.173 MeV, 1.252 MeV, and 1.332 MeV, respectively. The enhancement in the linear attenuation coefficient increases the bricks' radiation protection efficiency by 10.22 %, 14.48 %, 14.09 %, and 14.26 % at gamma ray energies of 0.662 MeV, 1.173 MeV, 1.252 MeV, and 1.332 MeV, respectively.

• New & Renewable Energy
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• v.8 no.2
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• pp.14-23
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• 2012

The TMY (Typical Meteorological Year) for the solar energy study is generated using observation data with 22 solar sites from KMA (Korea Meteorological Administration) during 11 years (2000-2010). The meteorological data for calculation the TMY are used solar radiation, temperature, dew point temperature, wind speed and humidity data. And the TMY is calculated to apply the FS (Finkelstein and Schafer) statistics and RMSE (Root Mean Squared Error) methods. FS statistics performed with each point and each variable and then selected top five candidate TMM months with statistical analysis and normalization. Finally TMY is generated to select the highest TMM score with evaluation the average errors for the 22 whole points. The TMY data is represented average state and long time variations with 22 sites and meteorological data. When TMY validated with the 11-year daily solar radiation data, the correlation coefficient was about 0.40 and the highest value is 0.57 in April and the lowest value is 0.23 in May. Mean monthly solar radiation of TMY is 411.72 MJ which is 4 MJ higher than original data. Average correlation coefficient is 0.71, the lowest correlation is 0.43 in May and the highest correlation is 0.90 in January. Accumulated annual solar radiation by TMY have higher value in south coast and southwestern region and have relatively low in middle regions. And also, differences between TMY and 11-year mean of is distributed lower 100 MJ in Kyeongbuk, higher 200 MJ in Jeju and higher 125 MJ in Jeonbuk and Jeonnam, respectively.

• Journal of Radiation Protection and Research
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• v.42 no.2
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• pp.130-140
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• 2017

Background: With the need for a domestic level 3 probabilistic safety assessment (PSA), it is essential to develop a Korea-specific code. Health effect assessments study radiation-induced impacts; in particular, long-term health effects are evaluated in terms of cancer risk. The objective of this study was to analyze the latest cancer risk models developed by foreign organizations and to compare the methodology of how they were developed. This paper also provides suggestions regarding the development of Korean cancer risk models. Materials and Methods: A review of cancer risk models was carried out targeting the latest models: the NUREG model (1993), the BEIR VII model (2006), the UNSCEAR model (2006), the ICRP 103 model (2007), and the U.S. EPA model (2011). The methodology of how each model was developed is explained, and the cancer sites, dose and dose rate effectiveness factor (DDREF) and mathematical models are also described in the sections presenting differences among the models. Results and Discussion: The NUREG model was developed by assuming that the risk was proportional to the risk coefficient and dose, while the BEIR VII, UNSCEAR, ICRP, and U.S. EPA models were derived from epidemiological data, principally from Japanese atomic bomb survivors. The risk coefficient does not consider individual characteristics, as the values were calculated in terms of population-averaged cancer risk per unit dose. However, the models derived by epidemiological data are a function of sex, exposure age, and attained age of the exposed individual. Moreover, the methodologies can be used to apply the latest epidemiological data. Therefore, methodologies using epidemiological data should be considered first for developing a Korean cancer risk model, and the cancer sites and DDREF should also be determined based on Korea-specific studies.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.53 no.12
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• pp.4106-4113
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• 2021

Rare earth doped barium tellurite glasses were synthesised and explored for their radiation shielding applications. All the samples showed good thermal stability with values varying between 101 ℃ and 135 ℃ based on dopants. Structural properties showed the dominance of matrix elements compared to rare earth dopants in forming the bridging and non-bridging atoms in the network. Bandgap values varied between 3.30 and 4.05 eV which was found to be monotonic with respective rare earth dopants indicating their modification effect in the network. Various radiation shielding parameters like linear attenuation coefficient, mean free path and half value layer were calculated and each showed the effect of doping. For all samples, LAC values decreased with increase in energy and is attributed to photoelectric mechanism. Thulium doped glasses showed the highest value of 1.18 cm^-1 at 0.245 MeV for 2 mol.% doping, which decreased in the order of erbium, holmium and the base barium tellurite glass, while half value layer and mean free paths showed an opposite trend with least value for 2 mol.% thulium indicating that thulium doped samples are better attenuators compared to undoped and other rare earth doped samples. Studies indicate an increased level of thulium doping in barium tellurite glasses can lead to efficient shielding materials for high energy radiation.