• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.45 no.1
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• pp.29-40
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• 2013

Two different kinds of nuclear power plants produce a substantial amount of spent fuel annually in Korea. According to the current projection, it is expected that around 60,000 MtU of spent fuel will be produced from 36 PWR and APR reactors and 4 CANDU reactors by the end of 2089. In 2006, KAERI proposed a conceptual design of a geological disposal system (called KRS, Korean Reference disposal System for spent fuel) for PWR and CANDU spent fuel, as a product of a 4-year research project from 2003 to 2006. The major result of the research was that it was feasible to construct a direct disposal system for 20,000 MtU of PWR spent fuels and 16,000 MtU of CANDU spent fuel in the Korean peninsula. Recently, KAERI and MEST launched a project to develop an advanced fuel cycle based on the pyroprocessing of PWR spent fuel to reduce the amount of HLW and reuse the valuable fissile material in PWR spent fuel. Thus, KAERI has developed a geological disposal system for high-level waste from the pyroprocessing of PWR spent fuel since 2007. However, since no decision was made for the CANDU spent fuel, KAERI improved the disposal density of KRS by introducing several improved concepts for the disposal canister. In this paper, the geological disposal systems developed so far are briefly outlined. The amount and characteristics of spent fuel and HLW, 4 kinds of disposal canisters, the characteristics of a buffer with domestic Ca-bentonite, and the results of a thermal design of deposition holes and disposal tunnels are described. The different disposal systems are compared in terms of their disposal density.

• Journal of Nuclear Fuel Cycle and Waste Technology(JNFCWT)
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• v.2 no.4
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• pp.279-292
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• 2004

The underground research tunnel is essential to validate the integrity of a reference high-level waste disposal system, and the safety of geological disposal. In this study, a basic design of an underground research tunnel (URT) was tried to be developed. The candidate site for URT was described briefly, and it was intended to suggest the basic concept of the underground research tunnel. In order to develop the design of URT based on the basic concept, design requirements were established. Based on the basic concept and the design requirements, the basic design of URT was performed. Research items to be studied in the URT were also derived in this study.

• Journal of Energy Engineering
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• v.27 no.1
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• pp.51-58
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• 2018

In this paper, we reported that the influence of advanced functional mineral filler calcium carbonate ($CaCO_3$) extracted from oyster shell waste, which are rich mineral sources of $CaCO_3$. Oyster Shells, available in abundance, have no eminent use and are commonly regarded as waste. Their improper disposal causes a significant level of environmental concern and also results in a waste of natural resources. Recycling shell waste could potentially eliminate the disposal problem, and also turn an otherwise useless waste into high value added products. Oyster shell waste calcination process to produce pure lime (CaO) which have good anti-microbial property for waste water treatment and then focuses on its current applications to treat the coffee waste and its effluents for biological treatment and utilization as a fertilizers.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.54 no.7
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• pp.2339-2358
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• 2022

The review discusses various alternative approaches for spent nuclear fuel (SNF) reprocessing in aqueous carbonate media. The main stages, schemes, and methods of the most well-known and well-described processes for reprocessing SNF and some high-level radioactive waste using carbonate systems developed by research groups in Japan, the United States of America, the Republic of Korea, and the Russian Federation described and compared. The main advantages of such methods are outlined compared to the SNF reprocessing in nitric acid media. The levels of development and proximity of the designed processes to the industrial implementation are shown. The main principle achievements, prospects, and routes for the refinement of such methods for the technology of SNF reprocessing and handling of high-level radioactive waste formulated.

• Advances in materials Research
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• v.11 no.4
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• pp.251-277
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• 2022

Disposal of industrial waste in cities where municipal authorities permitting higher floor area ratio coupled with increasing living standards, a lot of demolition waste is being generated. Its disposal is a challenge particularly in megacities where no landfills are available. The ever-increasing cost of building construction materials also necessitates consuming demolition wastes in a useful manner to save fresh natural raw materials. In the present work, the crushed waste glass is used in high-strength concrete as a partial replacement of fine aggregate. The control concrete of grade M60 was proportioned following BIS 10262-2009. The crushed waste glass has been used as a partial replacement with varying percentages of 10, 20, 30, and 40% by weight of fine aggregate. Experimental tests were carried on the fresh and hardened state of the concrete. The effect of crushed waste glass on the workability of the concrete has been investigated. Non-destructive tests, acid attack tests, compressive strength, split tensile strength, and X-ray diffraction analysis was carried out for the control concrete and concrete containing crushed waste glass after 7, 28, and 270 days of normal curing. The results show that for the same w/c ratio, the workability of concrete increases with increasing replaced crushed waste glass content. However, the decrease in compressive strength of the concrete after 28 days of normal curing and further after 28 days of acid attacks, up to 30% replacement level of fine aggregate by the crushed waste glass is insignificant.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.51 no.2
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• pp.588-599
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• 2019

This research presents a structural design of high-level waste (HLW) container using ultra-high performance fiber reinforced concrete (UHP-FRC) material. The proposed design aims to overcome the drawbacks of the existing concrete containers which are heavy, difficult to fabricate, and expensive. In this study, the dry storage container (DSC) that commonly used at Canadian Nuclear facilities is selected to present the proposed design. The design has been performed such that the new UHP-FRC alternative has a structural stiffness equivalent to the existing steel-concrete-steel container under various loading scenarios. Size optimization technique is used with the aim of maximizing stiffness, and minimizing the cost while satisfying both the design stresses and construction requirements. Then, the integrity of the new design has been evaluated against accidental drop-impact events based on realistic drop scenarios. The optimization results showed: the stiffness of the UHP-FRC container (300 mm wall thick) is being in the range of 1.35-1.75 times the stiffness of existing DSC (550 mm wall thick). The use of UHP-FRC leads to decrease the container weight by more than 60%. The UHP-FRC container showed a significant enhancement in performance in comparison to the existing DSC design under considered accidental drop impact scenarios.

• The Journal of Engineering Geology
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• v.33 no.2
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• pp.323-334
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• 2023

The vast volumes of data that are generated during site characterization and associated research for the disposal of high-level radioactive waste require effective data management to properly chronicle and archive this information. The Swedish Nuclear Fuel and Waste Management Company, SKB, established the SICADA database for site selection, evaluation, analysis, and modeling. The German Federal Company for Radioactive Waste Disposal, BGE, established ArbeitsDB, a database and document management system, and the ELO data system to manage data collected according to the Repository Site Selection Act. The U.K. Nuclear Waste Services established the Data Management System to manage any research and survey data pertaining to nuclear waste storage and disposal. The U.S. Department of Energy and Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste Management established the Technical Data Management System for data management and subsequent licensing procedures during site characterization surveys. The presented cases undertaken by these national agencies highlight the importance of data quality management and the scalability of data utilization to ensure effective data management. Korea should also pursue the establishment of both a data management concept for radioactive waste disposal that considers data quality management and scalability from a long-term perspective and an associated data management system.

• Korean Journal of Agricultural and Forest Meteorology
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• v.13 no.3
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• pp.140-147
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• 2011

We studied the influence of livestock waste leachate on oxidative damage and antioxidative responses in poplar clones in August which increase the demand of antioxidants because of high temperature and high light during this period. We measured ion leakage, antioxidant enzyme activities (APX, GR), and carotenoid contents. Oxidative damage and antioxidative responses by treated livestock waste leachate in poplar clones showed various results. We divided poplar clones into three groups using the criteria based on ion leakage which represent cell damage induced oxidative stress. Eco 28, 62-10, Bonghwa1 and Dorskamp belonged to the first group in which the cell damaged level was lower than that of the control. The results suggest that this group augmented for demand of antioxidative in summer because high concentration of nitrogen induced by treatment of live stock wastes acted as environmental stress. Consequently, they failed to keep up the homeostasis of reactive oxygen species. The second group in which the cell damaged level was similar to that of the control was Suwon, 72-30 and 72-31 clones. Finally, 97-18 clone belonged to the third group in which the cell damaged level was lower than that of the control group. In this case, nitrogen treated by livestock waste leakage decreased oxidative stress. 97-18 clone was the clones with the least damage in summer oxidative stresses treated by livestock waste leakage. These results suggest that the high concentration nitrogen due to the livestock waste leakage can act differently upon the clones. We speculate that the added oxidation damage in the summer (growing season) may have an effect on the total fresh weight and also influence the purification ability for livestock waste leakage. However, further studies are needed for the confirmation.

• Electronics and Telecommunications Trends
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• v.37 no.4
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• pp.28-35
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• 2022

To solve the challenge of waste plastics, this study investigated the related technologies and company trends along the plastic life cycle, and primarily describes ICT technologies to improve efficiency in the process of sorting and sorting waste plastics. Waste plastic discharge caused by the explosive increase in parcel traffic because of COVID-19 is also growing exponentially. Hence, waste treatment is emerging as a social challenge. Most of the domestic waste classification depends on the manual process according to the waste pollution level. The plastic material classification approach using the spectroscopy approach reveals a high error in the contaminated waste plastic classification, but if the Artificial Intelligence-based image classification technology is employed together, the classification precision can be enhanced because of the type of waste plastic product and the contaminated part can be differentiated.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.33 no.10
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• pp.25-31
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• 2017

The buffer is one of the major components of an engineered barrier system (EBS) for the disposal of high-level radioactive waste (HLW). As the buffer is located between a disposal canister and host rock, it is indispensable to assure the disposal safety of high-level radioactive waste. It can restrain the release of radionuclide and protect the canister from the inflow of groundwater. Since high quantity of heat from a disposal canister is released to the surrounding buffer, thermal properties of the buffer are very important parameters for the analysis of the entire disposal safety. Especially, temperature criteria of the compacted bentonite buffer can affect the design of HLW repository facility. Therefore, this paper investigated thermal properties for the Kyungju compacted bentonite buffer which is the only bentonite produced in South Korea. Hot wire method and dual probe method were used to measure thermal conductivity and specific heat capacity of the compacted bentonite buffer according to the temperature variation. Thermal conductivity and specific heat capacity were decreased dramatically when temperature variation was between $22^{\circ}C{\sim}110^{\circ}C$ as degree of saturation decreased according to the temperature variation. However, there was little variation under the high temperature condition at $110^{\circ}C{\sim}150^{\circ}C$.