• Journal of Nuclear Fuel Cycle and Waste Technology(JNFCWT)
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• v.10 no.4
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• pp.247-254
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• 2012

Vitrification technology has been widely applied as one of effective processing methods for wastes generated in nuclear power plants. The advantage of vitrifying for low- and intermediate-level radioactive wastes has a large volume reduction and good durability for the final products. Recently, a filter using on HVAC(Heating Ventilating & Air Conditioning System) is composed with media (glass fiber) and separator (aluminum film) has been studied the proper treatment technology for meeting the waste disposal requirement. Present paper is a feasibility study for the filter vitrification that developing of the glass compositions for filter melting and melting test for physicochemical characteristic evaluation. The aluminum metal of film type is preparing with 0.5 cm size for proper mixing with glass frit, glass fiber is also preparing with 1 cm size within crucible. The glass compositions should be developed considering molten glass are related with wastes reduction. Glass compositions obtained from developing on glass formulation are mainly composed of $SiO_2$ and $B_2O_3$ for aluminum metal. A variety of factors obtained from the glass formulation and melting test are reviewed, which is feeding rate and glass characteristics of final products such as durability for implementing the wastes disposal requirement.

• Journal of Nuclear Fuel Cycle and Waste Technology(JNFCWT)
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• v.12 no.1
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• pp.69-77
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• 2014

Unsaturated hydraulic conductivity of the bentonite-buffer was evaluated using the relative humidity data. The method for calculating unsaturated hydraulic conductivity was deduced from the general analytical equation representing the movement of water in unsaturated media, which was applied to the experimental results of water infiltration tests for identifying the behavior of unsaturated hydraulic conductivity according to the water saturation. Unlike the saturated condition, the hydraulic gradient and water flux were irregularly changed, and the unsaturated hydraulic conductivity was increased with increasing the experimental time. Swelling of bentonite grains due to the water absorption increased the volume and size of pore within bentonite, resulting in the increase of water velocity and unsaturated hydraulic conductivity. This result suggested the necessity of further investigation on the correlation between the swelling degree of bentonite-buffer and unsaturated hydraulic conductivity. The method used in this study can be useful technique for evaluating long-term hydraulic performance of bentonite-buffer in the radioactive waste disposal system.

• Journal of Korean Society of Environmental Engineers
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• v.32 no.2
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• pp.185-192
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• 2010

The objective of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of stabilization for army firing range soil highly contaminated with Pb (total Pb: 29,000 mg/kg) using calcined waste oyster shells. The calcination was conducted to activate quicklime from calcite. In order to evaluate the effectiveness of calcination, both natural oyster shells (NOS) and calcined oyster shells (COS) were applied to the Pb contaminated soil. Stabilization was conducted by mixing the contaminated soil with oyster shell media at 5-20 wt% and cured for 28 days. Following 28 days of curing, Pb leachability was measured based on the Korean Standard Test method (0.1 N HCl extraction). The treatment results showed that the COS treatment outperformed the NOS treatment. All of the NOS treatments failed to meet the Korean warning standard of 100 mg/kg. However, the Pb concentrations were significantly reduced to 47 mg/kg and 3 mg/kg upon 15 wt% and 20 wt% COS treatments, respectively which passed the Korean warning standard. Moreover, -#20 mesh materials were more effective than the -#10 mesh materials in effectively reducing Pb leachability. The scanning electron microscopy (SEM)-energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX) results indicated that Pb immobilization was strongly linked to Al and Si.

• Journal of Chitin and Chitosan
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• v.23 no.4
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• pp.285-292
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• 2018

In this study, for the purpose of decomposing food waste, the strain was screened from traditional fermented food and soils. The enzyme activity (protease, amylase, cellulase, lipase) experiment was carried out using the paper disc method in 212 strains isolated from 5% NaCl media. Among them, only the strains having enzyme activity of more than 2 (soil) or more than 4 (traditional fermented food) with the halozone of enzyme activity of 15 mm or more were selected first, and microorganism identification through 16S rRNA sequencing was performed. Finally, were identified such as Bacillus subtilis, Bacillus amyloliquefaciens, Bacillus siamensis, Bacillus licheniformis, Bacillus aquimaris, Bacillus megaterium, Bacillus koreensis, Bacillus stratoshericus, Bacillus aryabhattai, Bacillus safensis, Marinobacter hydrocarbonoclasticus. 11 species of mixed strains were confirmed that the culture time was 24 hours, the incubation temperature was $30^{\circ}C$ and the optimum pH was 7.0. In order to confirm the degree of decomposition of standard food wastes (100 g) by treating 11 kinds of mixed strains (25%), solid content of more than $2000{\mu}m$ was determined to be 103 g for the sterilized water group and 18 g for the mixed strains group. And the rest was decomposed to a size of less than $2000{\mu}m$.

• Journal of Nuclear Fuel Cycle and Waste Technology(JNFCWT)
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• v.17 no.3
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• pp.329-338
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• 2019

Suction of unsaturated bentonite buffers is a very important input parameter for hydro-mechanical performance assessment and design of an engineered barrier system. This study analyzed suction measurement techniques and constitutive models of unsaturated porous media reported in the literature, and suggested suction measurement techniques and constitutive models suitable for bentonite buffer in an HLW repository. The literature review showed the suction of bentonite buffer to be much higher than that of soil, as measured by total suction including matric suction and osmotic suction. The measurement methods (RH-Cell, RH-Cell/Sensor) using a relative humidity sensor were suitable for suction measurement of the bentonite buffer; the RH-Cell /Sensor method was more preferred in consideration of the temperature change due to radioactive decay heat and measurement time. Various water retention models of bentonite buffers have been proposed through experiments, but the van Genuchten model is mainly used as a constitutive model of hydro-mechanical performance assessment of unsaturated buffers. The water characteristic curve of bentonite buffers showed different tendencies according to bentonite type, dry density, temperature, salinity, sample state and hysteresis. Selection of water retention models and determination of model input parameters should consider the effects of these controlling factors so as to improve overall reliability.

• Journal of Microbiology
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• v.44 no.6
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• pp.600-606
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• 2006

Spore forming actinobacteria (sporoactinobacteria) isolated from soils with an acidic pH in Pinus thunbergii forests and coal mine waste were subjected to taxonomic characterization. For the isolation of acidophilic actinobacteria, acidified starch casein agar (pH adjusted to 4-5) was used. The numbers of actinobacteria growing in acidic media were between $3.2{\times}10^4$ and $8.0{\times}10^6$ CFU/g soil. Forty three acidophilic actinobacterial strains were isolated and their 16S rDNA sequences were determined. The isolates were divided into eight distinctive phylogenetic clusters within the variation encompassed by the family Streptomycetaceae. Four clusters among them were assigned to the genus Streptacidiphilus, whereas the remaining four were assigned to Streptomyces. The clusters belonging to either Streptomyces or Streptacidiphilus did not form a monophyletic clade. The growth pH profiles indicated that the representative isolates grew best between pH 5 and 6. It is evident from this study that acidity has played a critical role in the differentiation of the family Streptomycetaceae, and also that different mechanisms might have resulted in the evolution of two groups, Streptacidiphilus (strict acidophiles) and neutrotolerant acidophilic Streptomyces. The effect of geographic separation was clearly seen among the Streptacidiphilus isolates, which may be a key factor in speciation of the genus.

• Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.23 no.1
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• pp.92-98
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• 2018

Suitability of aluminium-based water treatment sludge (WTS), a waste product from water treatment facilities, was assessed for removal of heavy metals from an electroplating wastewater which had high concentrations of copper and chromium along with other heavy metals. Batch tests with simulated wastewater in single- and multi-metal solutions indicated the influence of initial pH and WTS dose on removal of six metals namely Cu(II), Co(II), Cr(VI), Hg(II), Pb(II) and Zn(II). In general, removal of cationic metals such as Pb(II), Cu(II) and Zn(II) increased with increase in pH while that of anionic Cr(VI) showed a reduction with increased pH values. Tests with multi-metal solution showed that the influence of competition was more pronounced at lower WTS dosages. Column test with diluted (100 times) real electroplating wastewater showed complete removal of copper up to 100 bed volumes while chromium removal ranged between 78-92%. Other metals which were present in lower concentrations were also effectively removed. Mass balance for copper and chromium showed that the WTS media had Cu(II) and Cr(VI) sorption capacities of about 1.7 and 3.5 mg/g of dried sludge, respectively. The study thus indicates that WTS has the potential to be used as a filtration/adsorption medium for removal of metals from metal-bearing wastewaters.

• Journal of Environmental Science International
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• v.15 no.2
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• pp.133-139
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• 2006

Soil biofiltration is an environmentally-sound technology for elimination of VOCs, odorous and NOx compounds from a low concentration, high volume waste gas streams because of its simplicity and cost-effectiveness. This study was performed to evaluate effect of removal of gaseous NOx using a soil and a yellow soil. Over $60\%\;and\;48\%$ of NOx from a soil and a yellow soil was removed at the inlet NO concentrations of $423\~451$ppb, respectively. The bio-filter using a soil media was capable of purifying NOx with a different natural processes. Although some of the processes are quite complex, they can broadly be summarized as adsorption into soil pore water, and biochemical transformations by soil bacteria. When the filteration bio-reactor was applied to a soil and a yellow soil, effective NOx removal was obtained for several times and months. These results show that a soil biofilter can be of use as an alternative advanced NOx treatment system.

• Resources Recycling
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• v.10 no.5
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• pp.22-28
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• 2001

Recovery of silver in the spent solution generated from MEO(Mediated Electrochemical Oxidation) process, which is a process to decompose radioactive organic mixed wastes at low temperature, was performed using chemical method. Silver nitrate in 5M nitric acid solution could be completely recovered as AgCl by using 1% excess of the stoichiometric HCl equivalents. Then, AgCl was transformed to Ag metal by reduction reaction with hydrogen peroxide under alkaline media. The optimum pH for the reduction to silver metal was found to be in the range of 12.8∼13.0.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.16 no.11
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• pp.1740-1746
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• 2006

Enrichment techniques led to the isolation of a Pseudomonas sp. strain P2 from municipal waste-contaminated soil sample, which could utilize different isomers of a commercial mixture of 4-nonylphenol when grown in the presence of phenol. The isolate was identified as Pseudomonas sp., based on the morphological, nutritional, and biochemical characteristics and 16S rDNA sequence analysis. The ${\beta}$-ketoadipate pathway was found to be involved in the degradation of phenol by Pseudomonas sp. strain P2. Gas chromatography-mass spectrometric analysis of the culture media indicated degradation of various major isomers of 4-nonylphenol in the range of 29-50%. However, the selected ion monitoring mode of analysis of biodegraded products of 4-nonylphenol indicated the absence of any aromatic compounds other than those of the isomers of 4-nonylphenol. Moreover, Pseudomonas sp. strain P2 was incapable of utilizing various alkanes individually as sole carbon source, whereas the degradation of 4-nonylphenol was observed only when the test organism was induced with phenol, suggesting that the degradation of 4-nonylphenol was possibly initiated from the phenolic moiety of the molecule, but not from the alkyl side-chain.