• Journal of Korean Society of Environmental Engineers
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• v.38 no.1
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• pp.42-46
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• 2016

The radioactive iodine ($^{131}I$) presents in the environment through the excrete process of nuclear medicine patients. In the detecting of low level of $^{131}I$ in the public water, the counting uncertainty has an effect on the accuracy and reliability of detecting $^{131}I$ radioactivity concentration. In this study, the contribution of sample amount, radioactivity concentration and counting time to the uncertainty was investigated in the case of public water sample. Sampling points are public water and the effluents of a sewage treatment plant at Sapkyocheon stream, Geumgang river. In each point, 1, 10 and 20 L of liquid samples were collected and prepared by evaporation method. The HPGe (High Purity Germanium) detector was used to detect and analyze emitted gamma-ray from samples. The radioactivity concentration of $^{131}I$ were in the range of 0.03 to 1.8 Bq/L. The comparison of the counting uncertainty of the sample amount, 1 L sample is unable to verify the existence of the $^{131}I$ under 0.5 Bq/L radioactivity concentration. Considering the short half-life of $^{131}I$ (8.03 days), a method for measuring 1 L sample was used. However comparing the detecting and preparing time of 1, 10 L respectively, detecting 10 L sample would be an appropriate method to distinguish $^{131}I$ concentration in the public water.

• Journal of Korean Society of Water and Wastewater
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• v.25 no.3
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• pp.407-417
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• 2011

Nowadays, the high land use, mainly used for urbanization, is affecting runoff loads of non-point pollutants to increase. According to this fact, increasing runoff loads seems like to appear that it contributes to high ratio of pollution loads in the whole the pollution loads and that this non-point source is the main cause of water becoming worse quality. Especially, concentrated pollutants on the impermeable roads run off to the public water bodies. Also the coefficient of runoff from roads is high with a fast velocity of runoff, which ends up with consequence that a lot of pollutants runoff happens when it is raining. Therefore it is very important project to evaluate the quantity of pollutant loads. In this study, I computed the pollutant loadings depending on time and rainfall to analyze characteristics of runoff while first flush storm water and evaluated the runoff time while first flush storm water and rainfall based on the change in curves on the graph. I also computed contribution ratio to identify its impact on water quality of stream. I realized that the management and treatment of first flush storm water effluents is very important for the management of road's non-point source pollutants because runoff loads of non-point source pollution are over the 80% of whole loads of stream. Also according to the evaluation of runoff loads of first flush storm water for SS, run off time was shown under the 30 minute and rainfall was shown under the 5mm which is less than 20% of whole rainfall. These are under 5mm which is regarded amount of first flush storm water by the Ministry of Environment and it is judged to be because run off by rainfall is very fast on impermeable roads. Also, run off time and rainfall of BOD is higher than SS. Therefore I realized that the management of non-point source should be managed and done differently depending on each material. Finally, the contribution ratio of pollutants loads by rainfall-runoff was shown SS 12.7%, BOD 12.7%, COD 15.9%, T-N 4.9%, T-P 8.9%, however, the pollutants loads flowing into the steam was shown 4.4%. This represents that the concentration of non-point pollutants is relatively higher and we should find the methodical management and should be concerned about non-point source for improvement on water quality of streams.

• Journal of Nuclear Fuel Cycle and Waste Technology(JNFCWT)
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.107-120
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• 2019

The decommissioning of one nuclear power plant in a multi-unit nuclear power plant (multi-unit NPP) site may pose radiation exposure risk to decommissioning workers. Thus, it is essentially required to evaluate the exposure dose of decommissioning workers of operating multi-unit NPPs nearby. The ENDOS program is a dose evaluation code developed by the Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute (KAERI). As two sub-programs of ENDOS, ENDOS-ATM to anticipate atmospheric transport and ENDOS-G to calculate exposure dose by gaseous radioactive effluents are used in this study. As a result, the annual maximum individual dose for decommissioning workers is estimated to be $2.31{\times}10^{-3}mSv{\cdot}y^{-1}$, which is insignificant compared with the effective dose limit of $1mSv{\cdot}y^{-1}$ for the public. Although it is revealed that the exposure dose of operating multi-unit NPPs does not result in a significant impact on decommissioning workers, closer examination of the effect of additional exposure due to actual demolition work is required. The calculation method of this study is expected to be utilized in the future for planned decommissioning projects in Korea. Because domestic NPPs are located in multi-unit sites, similar situations may occur.

• Journal of Environmental Impact Assessment
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• v.4 no.3
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• pp.41-48
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• 1995

In former times the protection of our environment didn't play an important role due to the fact that emissions and effluents were not considered as serious impacts. However, opinions and scientific measurements meanwhile confirmed that the impacts are more serious than expected. Thus measures to protect our earth has to be taken into consideration. A part of these measures in the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA). One of the most important parts of the EIA is the collection of basic datas and the following evaluation. Experience out of the daily business of Gerling Consulting Group shows that the content of the EIA has to be revised and enlarged in certain fields. The historical development demonstrated that in areas in which the population and the industrial activities reached high concentration there is a high necessity to develop strict environmental laws and regulations. Maximum values of the concentration of hazardous materials were fixed concerning the emission into and water. Companies not following these regulations were punished. The total amount of environmental offences increased rapidly during the last decade, at least in Germany. During this development the public consciousness concerning environmental affairs increased as well in the industrialized countries. But it could clearly be seen that the development in the field of environmental protection went into the wrong direction. The technologies to protect the environment became more and more sophisticated and terms as: "state of the art" guided more and more to lower emissions, Filtertechnologies and wastewater treatment for example reached a high technical level-but all these sophisticated technologies has one and the same characteristic: they were end-of-the pipe solutions. A second effect was that this kind of environmental protection costs a lot of money. High investments are necessary to reduce the dust emission by another ppm! Could this be the correct way? In Germany the discussion started that the environmental laws reduce the attractivity to invest or to enlarge existing investments within the country. Other countries seem to be not so strict with controlling the environmental laws which means it's simply cheaper to produce in Portugal or Greece. Everybody however knows that this is not the correct way and does not solve the environmental problems. Meanwhile the general picture changes a little bit and we think it changes into the correct direction "End-of-the-pipe" solutions are still necessary but this word received a real negative touch and nobody wants to be brought into connection with this word received a real negative touch and nobody wants to be brought into connection with this word especially in connection with environmental management and safety. Modern actual environmental management starts in a different way. Thoughts about emissions start in the very beginning of the production, they start with the design of the product and modification of traditional modes of production. Basis of these ideas are detailed analyses of products and processes. Due to the above mentioned facts that the public environmental consciousness changed dramatically a continous environmental improvement of each single production plant has to be guarantied. This question is already an important question of the EIA. But it was never really checked in a wholistic approach. Environmental risks have to be taken into considerations during the execution of an EIA. This means that the environmental risks have to be reduced down to a capable risk-level. Environmental risks have to be considered within the phase of planning, during the operation of a plant and after shut down. The experience shows that most of the environmental relevant accidents were and caused by human fault. Even in highly protected plants the human risk-factor can not be excluded during evaluation of the risk-potential. Thus the approach of an EIA has to regard technical evaluations as well as organizational thoughts and the human factor. An environmental risk is a threat to the environment. An analysis of the risk concerning the organizational and human aspect however never was properly executed during an EIA. A possible solution could be to use an instrument as the actual EMAS (Environmental Management System) of the EC for more accurate evaluation of the impact to the environment during an EIA. Organizations or investors could demonstrate by an approved EMAS or even by showing their installment of EMAS that not only the technical level of the planned investment meets the requested standards but as well the actual or planned management is able to reduce the environmental impact down to a bearable level.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.30 no.7
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• pp.996-1004
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• 2020

Various genetically engineered microorganisms have been developed for the removal of heavy metal contaminants. Metal biosorption by whole-cell biosorbents can be enhanced by overproduction of metal-binding proteins/peptides in the cytoplasm or on the cell surface. However, few studies have compared the biosorption capacity of whole cells expressing intracellular or surface-displayed metal-adsorbing proteins. In this study, several constructs were prepared for expressing intracellular and surface-displayed Ochrobactrum tritici 5bvl1 ChrB in Escherichia coli BL21(DE3) cells. E. coli cells expressing surface-displayed ChrB removed more Cr(VI) from aqueous solutions than cells with cytoplasmic ChrB under the same conditions. However, intracellular ChrB was less susceptible to variation in extracellular conditions (pH and ionic strength), and more effectively removed Cr(VI) from industrial wastewater than the surface-displayed ChrB at low pH (<3). An adsorption-desorption experiment demonstrated that compared with intracellular accumulation, cell-surface adsorption is reversible, which allows easy desorption of the adsorbed metal ions and regeneration of the bioadsorbent. In addition, an intrinsic ChrB protein fluorescence assay suggested that pH and salinity may influence the Cr(VI) adsorption capacity of ChrB-expressing E. coli cells by modulating the ChrB protein conformation. Although the characteristics of ChrB may not be universal for all metal-binding proteins, our study provides new insights into different engineering strategies for whole-cell biosorbents for removing heavy metals from industrial effluents.