• Economic and Environmental Geology
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• v.28 no.3
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• pp.279-286
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• 1995

The amount of the high level radioactive wastes in Korea will be increased up to 14,297 MTU about 2010 year. Most of countries adopt the concept of deep burial repository in high level radioactive waste disposal. Because the high level radioactive wastes are very toxic in biosphere and to human, the data verifing its never return to the biosphere are requisite for the disposal. Presently, the evaluating techniques for the high level radioactive waste disposal are not fully developed. Therefore, in order to dispose the high level radioactive wastes in proper time the R & D of it is urged in our country. The R & D and/or the international joint research programme for the disposal of high level wastes have already been proceeded. In our country no plan for its disposal has been prepared. It is the time that the direction of the R & D is to be discused seriously. The R & D for the disposal of high level radioactive wastes in Korea is believed to be focused on developing the pecular techniques such as in situ characteristics of groundwater flowage, and change of properties of in situ rock mass at thermal effects.

• Journal of Nuclear Fuel Cycle and Waste Technology(JNFCWT)
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• v.17 no.2
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• pp.203-212
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• 2019

Disposal nonconformity of radioactive wastes refers to radioactive wastes that need to be treated, solidified and packaged during operation or decommissioning of NPPs, and are typically exemplified by particulate radioactive wastes with dispersion characteristics. These wastes include the dried powders of concentrated wastes generated in the process of operating NPPs, slurry and sludge, various powdered wastes generated in the decommissioning process (crushed concrete, decontamination sludge, etc.), and fine radioactive soil, which is not easy to decontaminate. As these particulate wastes must be packaged so that they become non-dispersive, they are solidified with solidification agents such as cement and polymer. If they are treated using existing solidification methods, however, the volume of the final wastes will increase. This drawback may increase the disposal cost and reduce the acceptability of disposal sites. Accordingly, to solve these problems, this study investigates the pelletization of particulate radioactive wastes in order to reduce final waste volume.

• Journal of Nuclear Fuel Cycle and Waste Technology(JNFCWT)
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• v.12 no.2
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• pp.165-169
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• 2014

In order to use the nuclear energy as the sustainable energy source, the safe and efficient management of radioactive wastes generated from the nuclear fuel cycle including NPP decommissioning is one of the most important factors. The establishment of acceptance criteria for very low level radioactive wastes generated from decommissioning of nuclear power plant in a large quantity is seemed to play a key role for developing a radioactive wastes disposal strategy as well as NPP decommissioning strategy. In this thesis, we want to review the acceptance criteria of low-and-intermediate-level radioactive wastes in this country through the analysis of other country's acceptance criteria.

• Journal of Nuclear Fuel Cycle and Waste Technology(JNFCWT)
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• v.21 no.2
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• pp.255-269
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• 2023

Compared to operational wastes, nuclear power plant (NPP) decommissioning wastes are generated in larger quantities within a short time and include diverse types with a wider range of radiation characteristics. Currently used 200 L drums and IP-2 type transport containers are inefficient and restrictive in packaging and transporting decommissioning wastes. Therefore, new packaging and transport containers with greater size, loading weight, and shielding performance have been developed. When transporting radioactive materials, radiological safety should be assessed by reflecting parameters such as the type and quantity of the package, transport route, and transport environment. Thus far, safety evaluations of radioactive waste transport have mainly targeted operational wastes, that have less radioactivity and a smaller amount per transport than decommissioning wastes. Therefore, in this study, the possible radiation effects during the transport from NPP to disposal facilities were evaluated to reflect the characteristics of the newly developed containers and decommissioning wastes. According to the evaluation results, the exposure dose to transport workers, handling workers, and the public was lower than the domestic regulatory limit. In addition, all exposure dose results were confirmed, through sensitivity analysis, to satisfy the evaluation criteria even under circumstances when radioactive materials were released 100% from the container.

• Journal of Nuclear Fuel Cycle and Waste Technology(JNFCWT)
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• v.2 no.3
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• pp.219-230
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• 2004

Most of the low-level liquid radioactive wastes generated from PWR plants are classified into high or low total suspended solid(HTDS or LTDS), and into radiochemical and radioactive laundry waste. Although the evaporation process has a high decontami- nation ability, it has several problems such as corrosion, foam, and congestion. A new liquid waste disposal process using the ion-exchange demineralizer(IED), instead of the current evaporation process, has been introduced into the Yonggwang NPP #5 and 6. These two methods have been compared to understand the differences in this study. Aspects compared here were the released radioactivity amount of the liquid radioactive wastes, the dose of off-site residents, the decontamination factor, and the amount of the solid radioactive wastes. The IED system is designed to discharge higher radioactivity about 20% than the evaporating system, and the actual radioactivity released from the evaporating and IED system were 0.473mCi and 1.098mCi, respectively. The radioactivity released from the IED was 2.32 times higher than that of the evaporating system. The dose of off-site residents was $2.97{\times}10^{-6}$mSv for the evaporating system, and $6.47{\times}10^{-6}$mSv for IED. The decontamination factor(DF) of the evaporator is, in most cases, far lower than the lower limits of detection(LLD) with the Ge-Li detector. Due to the low concentration of the liquid wastes collected from the liquid waste system, the decontamination factor of IED is very low. Since there is not enough data on the amount of solid radioactive wastes generated by the evaporation system, the comparison on these two systems has been conducted on the basis of the design, and the comparison result was that the evaporating system generated more wastes about 40% than IED.

• Journal of Nuclear Fuel Cycle and Waste Technology(JNFCWT)
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• v.2 no.4
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• pp.231-238
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• 2004

The conditions are obtained for the decomposition of solid radioactive wastes, including ion exchange resin, zeolite, charcoal, and sludge from nuclear power plant. In the process of decomposing the radioactive wastes was used the microwave acid digestion method with mixed acid. The solution after acid digestion by the following method was colorless and transparent. Each solution was analyzed with ICP-AES and AAS and the recovery yield for 5 different elements added into the simulated radioactive wastes were over $94{\%}$. The elemental analysis of destructive low and medium level radioactive wastes by the proposed microwave acid digestion conditions concerning the chemical characteristics of each radioactive waste are expected to be useful basic data for development of optimal glass formulation.

• Journal of Nuclear Fuel Cycle and Waste Technology(JNFCWT)
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• v.19 no.1
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• pp.133-140
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• 2021

This study evaluates the radioactivity of concrete waste that occurs due to large amounts of decommissioned nuclear wastes and then determines the surface dose rate when the waste is packaged in a disposal container. The radiation assessment was conducted under the presumption that impurities included in the bio-shielded concrete contain the highest amount of radioactivity among all the concrete wastes. Neutron flux was applied using the simplified model approach in a sample containing the most Co and Eu impurities, and a maximum of 9.8×104 Bq·g-1 60Co and 2.63×105 Bq·g-1 152Eu was determined. Subsequently, the surface dose rate of the container was measured assuming that the bio-shield concrete waste would be packaged in a newly developed disposal container. Results showed that most of the concrete wastes with a depth of 20 cm or higher from the concrete surface was found to have less than 1.8 mSv·hr-1 in the surface dose of the new-type disposal container. Hence, when bio-shielded concrete wastes, having the highest radioactivity, is disposed in the new disposal container, it satisfies the limit of the surface dose rate (i.e., 2 mSv·hr-1) as per global standards.

• Proceedings of the Korean Radioactive Waste Society Conference
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• 2004.06a
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• pp.158-166
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• 2004

The optimal conditions are obtained for the decomposition of solid radioactive wastes, including ion exchange resin, zeolite, active charcoal, and sludge from nuclear power plant. In the process of decomposing the radioactive wastes were used the microwave acid digestion method with mixed acid. The solution after acid digestion by the following method was colorless and transparent. Each solution was analyzed with ICP-AES and AAS and the recovery yield for 5 different elements added the simulated radioactive wastes were over 94%. As an effective pre-treatment, the proposed microwave acid digestion conditions concerning the chemical trait of each radioactive waste are expected to be generally applied to above-mentioned radioactive wastes from nuclear power plant hereafter.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.48 no.6
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• pp.1368-1375
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• 2016

A radiological safety assessment study was performed for the transportation of low level radioactive wastes which are temporarily stored in Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute (KAERI), Daejeon, Korea. We considered two kinds of wastes: (1) operation wastes generated from the routine operation of facilities; and (2) decommissioning wastes generated from the decommissioning of a research reactor in KAERI. The important part of the radiological safety assessment is related to the exposure dose assessment for the incidentfree (normal) transportation of wastes, i.e., the radiation exposure of transport personnel, radiation workers for loading and unloading of radioactive waste drums, and the general public. The effective doses were estimated based on the detailed information on the transportation plan and on the radiological characteristics of waste packages. We also estimated radiological risks and the effective doses for the general public resulting from accidents such as an impact and a fire caused by the impact during the transportation. According to the results, the effective doses for transport personnel, radiation workers, and the general public are far below the regulatory limits. Therefore, we can secure safety from the viewpoint of radiological safety for all situations during the transportation of radioactive wastes which have been stored temporarily in KAERI.

• Proceedings of the Korean Radioactive Waste Society Conference
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• 2005.11a
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• pp.126-133
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• 2005

Securing of radioactive waste disposal site and the related operations for disposal of low and intermediate level radioactive waste is being actively carried out in Korea. For disposal of radioactive wastes, physicochemical and radiological status and integrity of radioactive wastes must be secured first. Also, waste generators must provide this information to disposers. In addition, to secure the safety of waste disposal, waste acceptance criteria (WAC) and site specific waste acceptance criteria (SWAC) to consider characteristics of the disposal site are required. Radioactive wastes must be processed, generated, managed and transferred in accordance with these criteria. [1] For this, evaluation of properties on each of the radioactive wastes must be performed. However, in reality, atomic power plants are experiencing difficulties in relation to this due to the large quantity of radioactive waste generation. In order to solve this problem, IAEA and major overseas countries have developed, thus are using waste certification program (WCP) and quality assurance program (QAP) [2,3]. On the basis of these programs, radioactive waste certification program has been developed for safe disposal of radioactive wastes in Korea to satisfy the provisions specified in 'low and intermediate level radioactive waste transfer guidelines' of announcement No. 2005-18 from the Ministry of Science and Technology and specific site waste acceptance criteria (tentative plan). In addition, it is being planned to administer amendment on commercial atomic power plant related procedures and ensile staff training in order for early introduction and operation of radioactive waste certification system.