• Journal of Soil and Groundwater Environment
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.10-16
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• 2009

Characteristics of natural radioactivity were investigated for soils collected from seven sites of different bed rocks distributed in the Keum River area of Korea by the use of a Gamma-ray spectrometry. Specific activity (SA) and SA ratio (SAR) of typical naturally occurring radioactive nuclide such as $^{226}$Ra, $^{228}$Ac and $^{40}$K were determined for the soil samples. The SA values of $^{226}$Ra, $^{228}$Ac and $^{40}$K in 41 soils of 7 sites are 26.7-485 (74.2 ${\pm}$ 72.2), 30.9-157 (90.7 ${\pm}$ 32.7) and 203-1558 (990 ${\pm}$ 203) Bq/kg, respectively. The SA of $^{226}$Ra has very different values by the soils and the sites. Especially the SA of $^{226}$Ra in a soil sample of Ogcheon site is 485 Bq/kg while most SA of 41 soil samples are < 100 Bq/kg. SA of $^{228}$Ac has a little different values with the soils and sites, however the SA of $^{40}$K has almost constant values in all soil samples. The SAR values of $^{26}$Ra/$^{228}$Ac, $^{226}$Ra/$^{40}$K and $^{228}$Ac/$^{40}$K in 41 soils of 7 sites are 0.343-6.11 (0.865 ${\pm}$ 0.883), 0.0258-0.759 (0.0814 ${\pm}$ 0.1l17) and 0.0373-0.178 (0.0945 ${\pm}$ 0.0373), respectively. The SARs of $^{226}$Ra/$^{228}$Ac and $^{226}$Ra/$^{40}$K have very different values by the soils and the sites, however the SAR of $^{228}$Ac/$^{40}$K has a little difference by the soil and sites.

• Journal of Radiation Protection and Research
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• v.26 no.2
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• pp.51-58
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• 2001

In the low level radioactivity measurement, such as environmental radioactivity, there were used commonly cylindrical and Marinelli type beakers by means of measurement container. If there are differences in the matrix density or sample height between standard source and sample, it must be determined full energy peak efficiency considering self absorption effect. In this paper, we compared measured efficiency with calculated full energy peak efficiencies in the HPGe detector using the Monte Carlo method. For cylindrical container, we calculated the variation of the efficiency with sample height. Also, we calculated the variation of the detection efficiency with apparent density in the cylindrical and Marinelli container. It was seen that it need to be corrected for self absorption in the energy range of below 1000keV. Also, in order to verify the validity of calculation, we compared the calculated value with reference value using NIST SRM 4353 reference soil.

• Water for future
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• v.8 no.2
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• pp.30-40
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• 1975

Hydrogeological survey and geophysical prospecting have been carried out in Saudi Arabia for the purpose of finding groundwater in the soil and rock at the request of General trading company in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. The surveyed area is located on $38^{\circ}-39^{\circ}$ 30' in longitude and $26^{\circ}-26^{\circ}$ 30' in latitude. The topography of this area is dominated by northwest southeast mountain range composed mostly of precambrian rocks and basalt of tertiary period. Geology is mainly composed of greenstone, granite, andesite, diorite rhyolite of pre-cambrian era and sandstone of cambrian period which are underlained by basalt and andesite of tertiary period and alluvium of quaternary unconformably. The instruments used in this investigation are TR-18B2 radioactivity unit which isjapanese patented and A.C. Terrameter, a resistivity meter manufactured by ABEM of Stockholm, Sweden. Radioactivity method has been conducted along the Alula-Khaybar road, totally 164Km by the car-borne. As a result of the above survey 16 places have been selected and these anomalies show 1.2N-1.6N compared to background of each area in intensity with width of 10-50m. Resistivity vertical profiling which made use of Schlumberger configuration method has been made over selected areas by radioactivity method to provide hydrogeological information for a water resources survey. The result of resistivity shows that good aquifers are located in the western part of surveyed area where sedimentary rock is distributed. The strata showing 10-50, ${\Omega}-m$ in resistivity are thought to be waterbearing layer. The variations in aquifer resistivity found, are thought to be due to verying clay content, which could be related to aquifer yield. It has proved impossible to detect small salinity variation in the buried aquifer by geophysics. As a result of resistivity prospecting 10 places are recommended to be drilled at the anomalies as shown attached map. yields from the proposed holes have been estimated approximately from $20m^3$ to $200m^3$ per day. Prior to drilling for groundwater, test boring using ${\c}4"$ should be drilled in order to obtain more reliable hydrogeological information for the construction of perfect wells.ells.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.52 no.6
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• pp.1259-1265
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• 2020

A beta ray scanner was proposed for in-situ discrimination of beta and gamma ray radioactivity. This scanner is based on the principle that gamma and beta rays experience different changes in detection efficiency in scintillators with different geometries, especially with regard to the scintillator thickness. The ratios of the counting rates of gamma rays (R_gamma), beta rays (R_beta), and sample measurements (R_total) in a thick scintillator to those in a thin one are reported. The parameter X_thick, which represents the counting rate contributed by beta rays to the total counting rate in the thick scintillator, was derived as a function of those ratios. The values of R_gamma and R_beta for ⁶⁰Co and ⁹⁰Sr sources were estimated as 3.2 ± 0.057 and 0.99 ± 0.0049, respectively. The estimated beta ray contributions had relative standard deviations of 2.05-4.96%. The estimated range of the beta rays emitted from ⁹⁰Sr was 19 mm as per the Monte Carlo N-Particle simulation, and this value was experimentally verified. Homogeneous and surface contaminations of ⁶⁰Co and ⁹⁰Sr-⁹⁰Y were simulated for application of the proposed method. The counting rate contributed by the beta rays was derived and found to be proportional to the concentration of ⁹⁰Sr-⁹⁰Y contamination.

• Journal of Nuclear Fuel Cycle and Waste Technology(JNFCWT)
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• v.2 no.4
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• pp.245-251
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• 2004

Soil washing equipment was developed for decontamination of radioactively contaminated soil generated during normal operation or decommissioning and verification experiments were performed. Decontamination effciency above $80{\%}$ was achieved. In case of low radiation level and large particle size, decontamination efficiency was higher. According to the ratio of volume of water to soil quantity, decontamination efficiency was higher in case of high radiation level. Re-decontamination using decontaminated soil was effective in case of small particles. Using soil washing equipment, radioactivity of contaminated soil generated in nuclear power plant can be decreased and volume of soil for disposal can be decreased. And this equipment can be used in decommissioning.

• Proceedings of the Korean Radioactive Waste Society Conference
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• 2003.11a
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• pp.696-700
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• 2003

$H_2SO_4$ and citric acid had higher extraction efficiency of $^{137}Cs$ from soil than the other chemicals. Thus, $H_2SO_4$and citric acid were used as additives on remediation experiment by electrokinetic method to increase removal efficiency of $^{137}Cs$ from the radioactive soil being stored during a long time. An average velocity of effluent discharged from experimental column $2.0{\times}10^{-2}$/cm/min and a volume of the discharged soil wastewater for 10 days is 3.6 Pore Volume. The 54% of a total of $^{137}Cs$ in the column was decontaminated for 10 days. Furthermore, the predicted values of residual concentration by the developed model were quite similar to those obtained from experiments.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.54 no.5
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• pp.1606-1615
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• 2022

For investigating whether the MARSSIM nonparametric test has sufficient statistical power when a site has a specific contamination distribution before conducting a final status survey (FSS), a novel approach was proposed to predict the release probability of the site. Five distributions were assumed: lognormal distribution, normal distribution, maximum extreme value distribution, minimum extreme value distribution, and uniform distribution. Hypothetical radioactivity populations were generated for each distribution, and Sign tests were performed to predict the release probabilities after extracting samples using Monte Carlo simulations. The designed Type I error (0.01, 0.05, and 0.1) was always satisfied for all distributions, while the designed Type II error (0.01, 0.05, and 0.1) was not always met for the uniform, maximum extreme value, and lognormal distributions. Through detailed analyses for lognormal and normal distributions which are often found for contaminants in actual environmental or soil samples, it was found that a greater statistical power was obtained from survey units with normal distribution than with lognormal distribution. This study is expected to contribute to achieving the designed decision error when the contamination distribution of a survey unit is identified, by predicting whether the survey unit passes the statistical test before undertaking the FSS according to MARSSIM.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.45 no.1
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• pp.1-12
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• 2013

This paper describes the radiation doses to human and non-human biota in the Republic of Korea, as a result of the Fukushima nuclear accident. By using the measured airborne activity and ground deposition, the effective and thyroid doses of five human age groups (infant, 5 years, 10 years, 15 years and adult) were estimated by the ECOSYS code, and the whole body absorbed dose rate of the eight Korean reference animals and plants (RAPs) was estimated by the K-BIOTA (the Korean computer code to assess the risk of radioactivity to wildlife). The first-year effective and thyroid human doses ranged from 5.7E-5 mSv in the infant group to 2.0E-4 mSv in the 5 years group, and from 5.0E-4 mSv in the infant group to 3.4E-3 mSv in the 5 years group, respectively. The life-time (70 years) effective and thyroid human doses ranged from 1.5E-4 mSv in the infant group to 3.0E-4 mSv in the 5 years group, and from 6.0E-4 mSv in the infant group to 3.5E-3 mSv in the 5 years group, respectively. The estimated maximum whole body absorbed dose rate to the Korean RAPs was 6.7E-7 mGy/d for a snake living in soil (terrestrial biota), and 2.0E-5 mGy/d for freshwater fish (aquatic biota), both of which were far less than the generic dose criteria to protect biota from ionizing radiation. Also, the screening level assessment for ERICA's (Environmental Risks from Ionizing Contaminants: Assessments and management) limiting organisms showed that the risk quotient (RQ) for the estimated maximum soil and water activity was significantly less than unity for both the terrestrial and freshwater organisms. Conclusively, the radiological risk of the radioactivity released into the environment by the Fukushima nuclear accident to the public and the non-human biota in the republic of Korea is considered negligible.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.55 no.8
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• pp.2802-2811
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• 2023

In a first-of-its-kind study, terrestrial radionuclide concentrations were measured in 35 topsoil samples from the outskirts of Dhaka using HPGe gamma-ray spectrometry to assess the radiological consequences of such a vast number of brick kilns on the plant workers, general as well as dwelling environment. The range of activity concentrations of ²²⁶Ra, ²³²Th, and ⁴⁰K is found at 19 ± 3.04 to 38 ± 4.94, 39 ± 5.85 to 57 ± 7.41, and (430 ± 51.60 to 570 ± 68.40) Bq/kg, respectively. ²³²Th and ⁴⁰K concentrations were higher than the global averages. Bottom ash deposition in lowlands, fly ash buildup in soils, and the fallout of micro-particles are all probable causes of the elevated radioactivity levels. ¹³⁷Cs was found in the sample, which indicates the migration of ¹³⁷Cs from nuclear accidents or nuclear fallout, or the contamination of feed coal. Although the effective dose received by the general public was below the recommended dose limit but, most estimates of hazard parameters surpass their respective population weighted global averages, indicating that brick kiln workers and nearby residents are not safe due to prolonged exposures to terrestrial radiation. In addition, the soil around sampling sites is found to be unsuitable for agricultural purposes.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Soil and Groundwater Environment Conference
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• 2000.11a
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• pp.103-106
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• 2000

Geophysical data sets from the Chojeong area in the Chungbuk-Do are compositely studied in terms of multi-attribute interpretation for the subsurface mapping of shallow fracture zones, associated with groundwater reservoir. Utilizing a GIS software, the attribute data are implemented to a database; a lineament from the satellite image, electrical resistivities and its standard deviation, radioactivity, seismic velocity, bedrock depth from exploration data. In an attempt to interpret 1-D electrical sounding data in 2-D and 3-D views, 2-D resistivities structures are firstly made by interpolating 1-D plots. Reconstruction of a resistivity volume is found to be an effective scheme for subsurface mapping of shallow fracture zones. Shallow fracture zones in the southeastern part of the study area are commonly correlated in the various exploration data.