• Journal of radiological science and technology
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• v.46 no.3
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• pp.187-195
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• 2023

A shield was made by mixing materials such as bismuth(Bi) and barium(Ba) with silicon to evaluate its shielding ability. Bismuth was made into a shield by mixing a bismuth oxide(Bi₂O₃) colloidal solution and a silicon base and applied to a fibrous fabric, and barium was made by mixing lead oxide(PbO) and barium sulfate(BaSO₄) with a silicon curing agent and solidifying it to make a shield. The test was conducted according to the lead equivalent test method for X-ray protective products of the Korean Industrial Standard. The experiment was conducted by increasing the shielding body one by one from the test condition of 60 kVp, 200 mA, 0.1sec and 100 kVp, 200 mA, 0.1 sec. At 60 kVp, 2 lead oxide-barium sulfate shields, 2 bismuth oxide 1.5 mm shields, and 5 bismuth oxide 0.3 mm shields showed shielding ability equal to or higher than that of lead 0.5 mm. At 100 kVp, 2 lead oxide-barium sulfate shields and 2 bismuth oxide 1.5 mm shields showed shielding ability equal to or higher than that of lead 0.5 mm. It was confirmed that when using 2 pieces of lead oxide-barium sulfate and 1.5 mm of bismuth oxide, respectively, it has shielding ability equivalent to that of lead. Bismuth oxide and lead oxide-barium sulfate are lightweight and have excellent shielding ability, thus they have excellent properties to be used as an apron for radiation protection or other shielding materials.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.51 no.3
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• pp.860-866
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• 2019

The lead element or its salts are good radiation shielding materials. However, their toxic effects are high. Due to less toxicity of bismuth salts, the radiation shielding properties of the bismuth salts have been investigated and compared to that of lead salts to establish them as a better alternative to radiation shielding material to the lead element or its salts. The transmission geometry was utilized to measure the mass attenuation coefficient (${\mu}/{\rho}$) of different salts containing lead and bismuth using a high-resolution HPGe detector and different energies (between 81 and 1333 keV) emitted from point sources of $^{133}Ba$, $^{57}Co$, $^{22}Na$, $^{54}Mn$, $^{137}Cs$, and $^{60}Co$. The experimental ${\mu}/{\rho}$ results are compared with the theoretical values obtained through WinXCOM program. The theoretical calculations are in good agreement with their experimental ones. The radiation protection efficiencies, mean free paths, effective atomic numbers and electron densities for the present compounds were determined. The bismuth fluoride ($BiF_3$) is found to have maximum radiation protection efficiency among the selected salts. The results showed that present salts are more effective for reducing the intensity of gamma photons at low energy region.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Radiology
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• v.16 no.4
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• pp.419-425
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• 2022

In the medical field, lead aprons are used to protect the human body from radiation. However, lead is a heavy metal that is harmful to the human body and the environment, so various shield are being developed. In this study, bismuth, which has a similar atomic number to lead, was set as a new material and the absorption rate according to thickness in the same energy region was compared and evaluated through Monte Carlo simulation. The same tendency was confirmed when the thickness of the lead shield was 0.25 mm, the thickness of the bismuth was 0.3 mm, when the lead was 0.50 mm, the bismuth was 0.60 mm, and when the lead was 0.75 mm, the bismuth was 0.90 mm. Therefore, it is reasonable to replace lead with bismuth in the shield material.

• Journal of radiological science and technology
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• v.44 no.3
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• pp.189-194
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• 2021

This study was conducted to reduce the exposure dose to the breast and adjacent organs as the number of Mammography increased. Therefore, it has been designed a shield in lead, bismuth + tungsten, and bismuth that does not require to be equipped by the patient, in which each type of shield was compared and analyzed of radiation exposure dose to breast, thyroid, and eye. Using a mammography machine, optically stimulated luminescent dosimeter(OSLD) was inserted to bilateral breast, thyroid, and eye of a dosimetry phantom to measure dose radiated onto the phantom. Shielding device was made in different thickness of 2mm, 3mm, and 5mm and dose evaluation was performed by measuring the dose while using lead, bismuth, and bismuth + tungsten prosthesis. When each shields combined with shielding device, were compared of dose, all showed similar does reduction in the dose to breast, thyroid, and eye in both cranialcaudal and mediolateraloblique view. Based on the current study, bismuth and bismuth + tungsten can replace conventional lead shield and it is anticipated to safely and conveniently reduce radiation exposure to breast, thyroid, and eye with the shield that does not require to be equipped.

• Proceedings of the Korean Nuclear Society Conference
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• 2002.10a
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• pp.160.1-160
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• 2002

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.53 no.6
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• pp.1834-1845
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• 2021

Liquid lead-bismuth cooled fast reactor is one of the most promising reactor types among the fourth-generation nuclear energy systems. The flow and heat transfer characteristics of lead-bismuth eutectic (LBE) are completely different from ordinary fluids due to its special thermal properties, causing that the traditional Reynolds analogy is no longer recommended and appropriate. More accurate turbulence flow and heat transfer model for the liquid metal lead-bismuth should be developed and applied in CFD simulation. In this paper, a specific CFD solver for simulating the flow and heat transfer of liquid lead-bismuth based on the k - 𝜀 - k_𝜃 - 𝜀_𝜃 model was developed based on the open source platform OpenFOAM. Then the advantage of proposed model was demonstrated and validated against a set of experimental data. Finally, the simulation of LBE turbulent flow and heat transfer in a 7-pin wire-wrapped rod bundle with the k - 𝜀 - k_𝜃 - 𝜀_𝜃 model was carried out. The influence of wire on the flow and heat transfer characteristics and the three-dimensional distribution of key thermal hydraulic parameters such as temperature, cross-flow velocity and Nusselt number were studied and presented. Compared with the traditional SED model with a constant Pr_t = 1.5 or 2.0, the k - 𝜀 - k_𝜃 - 𝜀_𝜃 model is more accurate on predicting the turbulence flow and heat transfer of liquid lead-bismuth. The average relative error of the k - 𝜀 - k_𝜃 - 𝜀_𝜃 model is reduced by 11.1% at most under the simulation conditions in this paper. This work is meaningful for the thermal hydraulic analysis and structure design of fuel assembly in the liquid lead-bismuth cooled fast reactor.

• Journal of the Korean institute of surface engineering
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• v.39 no.5
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• pp.215-222
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• 2006

The passivity behavior of copper anode containing impurities in copper sulfate solution for electrorefining process was studied at several different levels of impurities such as As, Sb, Bi and Pb. The passivity behavior was investigated by electrochemical techniques (galvanostatic, potentiodynamic and cyclic voltammetry tests) and surface analysis (optical microscopy, electron probe microanalysis, scanning electron microscopy). The results were that arsenic, antimony inhibited passivation and bismuth accelerated it and lead containing anode showed different passivity behavior from above anodes. The improved passivity characteristics could be explained by decrease in oxygen content in passivity film which resulted from a reaction among the impurities, oxygen and copper in the anode. The SEM image revealed that arsenic or antimony containing anode exhibited a porous passivity film and bismuth containing anode showed the compact passivity film and lead containing anode had loose passivity film on anode.

• Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.21 no.1
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• pp.56-60
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• 2000

The mechanism of a matrix modification for the trace determination of volatile lead and bismuth by an electro-thermal atomic absorption spectrophotometry was studied by a X-ray diffractometry (XRD). For the investigation of structures, the ash products of the elements were produced by using a palladium as a matrix modifier with or without aluminum or nickel as an auxiliary modifier. The same charring conditions as in the analysis of samples were applied together with much concentrated solution of analytical elements and modifiers in a graphite furnace to get a large amount of the product for XRD. The XRD patterns showed PbPd3 for lead and BiPd3 for bismuth. These mean that the reaction procedures through the charring and atomization were changed from $Pb^{2+}$ ${\rightarrow}$ PbO ${\rightarrow}$$Pb^0$ to $Pb^{2+}$ ${\rightarrow}$ PbO ${\rightarrow}PbPd_3$ ${\rightarrow}$ Pb o for lead and from $Bi^{3+}$ ${\rightarrow}$ BiO ${\rightarrow}$ Bi o to $Bi^{3+}$ ${\rightarrow}$ BiO ${\rightarrow}$ $BiPd_3$ ${\rightarrow}$ $Bi^0$ for bismuth by the addition of modifiers. The volatile elements were stabilized by the formation of palladium alloys through a charring process. Charring temperatures were raised about 500 $^{\circ}C$ by the alloying and the atomization was also stabilized for the enhancement of sensitivities.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.55 no.8
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• pp.2835-2843
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• 2023

After an emergency shutdown of a lead-bismuth fast reactor, thermal stratification occurs in the upper Plenum, which negatively impacts the integrity of the reactor structure and the residual heat removal capacity of natural circulation flow. The research on thermal stratification of reactors has mainly been conducted using an experimental method, a system program, and computational fluid dynamics (CFD). However, the equipment required for the experimental method is expensive, accuracy of the system program is unpredictable, and resources and time required for the CFD approach are extensive. To overcome the defects of thermal stratification analysis, a high-precision full-order thermal stratification model based on CFD technology is prepared in this study. Furthermore, a reduced-order model has been developed by combining proper orthogonal decomposition (POD) with Galerkin projection. A comparative analysis of thermal stratification with the proposed full-order model reveals that the reduced-order thermal stratification model can well simulate the temperature distribution in the upper plenum and rapidly elucidate the thermal stratification interface characteristics during the lead-bismuth fast reactor accident. Overall, this study provides an analytical tool for determining the thermal stratification mechanism and reducing thermal stratification.

• Journal of radiological science and technology
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• v.41 no.6
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• pp.611-616
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• 2018

Lead apron is harmful to the human body because it is made at heavy metals, and when worn for long periods of time, it causes pain. Therefore, this paper intended to improve the defects of lead apron by using new material shields. For the comparative evaluation of lead and new material shieldes, the shielding rate and weight were measured and tested based on lead 0.5 mmPb. The rate of shielding was 97% based on lead at 0.5 mm thickness, while The new material shield T3 showed similar shielding rates as lead in 8 layers, and in T2 these values were measured in 11 layers. In addition, similar shielding rate was measured in 12 layers at B2, and 8 layers in BF, and 4 layers in $BF_2$. Comparing the weight of cases when commercialized with apron, T3, T2 and B2 were heavier than lead apron. But BF, $BF_2$ were lighter than the lead apron. Based on the results of the experiment, T3 and T2 can be used as an alternative to lead if human or environmental hazards are considered a priority. However, BF and $BF_2$ should be used if the reduction of external exposure is considered a priority.