• Journal of Nuclear Fuel Cycle and Waste Technology(JNFCWT)
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• v.12 no.4
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• pp.345-361
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• 2014

The systematic quality assurance activities on documents of the safety assessment are required for the safety case of the low- and intermediate-level radioactive waste disposal facility. In this paper, quality assurance system focused on the input data including the site characterization, groundwater flow, system design and monitoring are prepared and discussed. Rule for the input data selection is suggested and applied for the safety assessment which is based on the in-situ/experiment observations, final facility design and waste pileup plan, engineered barrier, field monitoring, recent biosphere, and radionuclide inventory. The reduction of data uncertainty will be expected to contribute to the safety of disposal facility further.

• Proceedings of the Korean Radioactive Waste Society Conference
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• 2005.06a
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• pp.205-210
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• 2005

The proposed regulation for low and intermediate level radioactive waste disposal facility, scheduled to be revised, recommends that the waste generator should verify the radioactive waste conforms to the disposal requirements before disposing of it. According to the regulation, the radionuclide concentration of the radioactive waste, and its physical and chemical characteristics and safety must be confirmed prior to the disposal of low and intermediate level radioactive wastes, and the waste generator is required to deliver this information to the disposal facility operator. In addition, the disposal facility operator must assess the safety of the disposal site to establish the SWAC (Site Specific Waste Acceptance Criteria) in consideration of the characteristics of the site, whereas the waste generator must comply with the criteria in managing, disposing of and delivering low and intermediate level radioactive wastes. To abide by the afore-mentioned regulation and criteria, the waste generator must verify that the radioactive wastes to be disposed of are suitable for disposal before they are transported to the disposal facility, and to this end a radioactive waste certification program must be developed. This study conducted an in-depth analysis of the radioactive waste certification programs enforced in countries advanced in atomic energy to develop a draft of a certification program applicable to local power plants, and the program is currently applied as pilot to Uljin Power Plants No. 1 & 2 to prove its applicability. This study is going to analyze the results of the pilot application with a view to developing a radioactive waste certification program suitable to local conditions.

• Journal of Nuclear Fuel Cycle and Waste Technology(JNFCWT)
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• v.15 no.1
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• pp.65-82
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• 2017

The result of a preliminary safety assessment that was completed by applying the radionuclide inventory calculated on the basis of available data from radioactive waste generation agencies suggested that many difficulties are to be expected with regard to disposal safety and operation. Based on the results of the preliminary safety assessment of the entire disposal system, in this paper, a unit package exceeding the safety goal is selected that occupies a large proportion of radionuclides in intermediate-level radioactive waste. We introduce restrictions on the amount of radioactivity in a way that excludes the high surface dose rate of the package. The radioactivity limit for disposal will be used as the baseline data for establishing the acceptance criteria and the disposal criteria for each disposal facility to meet the safety standards. It is necessary to draw up a comprehensive safety development plan for the Gyeongju waste disposal facility that will contribute to the construction of a Safety Case for the safety optimization of radioactive waste disposal facilities.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.35 no.6
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• pp.556-565
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• 2003

A quality assurance safety assessment database, called QUARK (QUality Assurance Program for Radioactive Waste Management in Korea), has been developed to manage both analysis information and parameter database for safety assessment of low- and intermediate-level radioactive waste (LILW) disposal facility in Korea. QUARK is such a tool that serves QA purposes for managing safety assessment information properly and securely. In QUARK, the information is organized and linked to maximize the integrity of information and traceability. QUARK provides guidance to conduct safety assessment analysis, from scenario generation to result analysis, and provides a window to inspect and trace previous safety assessment analysis and parameter values. QUARK also provides default database for safety assessment staff who construct input data files using SAGE(Safety Assessment Groundwater Evaluation), a safety assessment computer code.

• Journal of Radiation Protection and Research
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• v.29 no.1
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• pp.41-48
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• 2004

A safety assessment code, called SAGE (Safety Assessment Groundwater Evaluation), has been developed to describe post-closure radionuclide releases and potential radiological doses for low- and intermediate-level radioactive waste (LILW) disposal in an engineered vault facility in Korea. The conceptual model implemented in the code is focused on the release of radionuclide from a gradually degrading engineered barrier system to an underlying unsaturated zone, thence to a saturated groundwater zone. The radionuclide transport equations are solved by spatially discretizing the disposal system into a series of compartments. Mass transfer between compartments is by diffusion/dispersion and advection. In all compartments, radionuclides ate decayed either as a single-member chain or as multi-member chains. The biosphere is represented as a set of steady-state, radionuclide-specific pathway dose conversion factors that are multiplied by the appropriate release rate from the far field for each pathway. The code has the capability to treat input parameters either deterministically or probabilistically. Parameter input is achieved through a user-friendly Graphical User Interface. An application is presented, which is compared against safety assessment results from the other computer codes, to benchmark the reliability of system-level conceptual modeling of the code.

• Journal of Nuclear Fuel Cycle and Waste Technology(JNFCWT)
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• v.9 no.2
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• pp.87-92
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• 2011

This paper introduces the policy and regulations on very low level waste (VLLW) management in China. Given the important decommissioning and site restoration program of the old facility, it is considered necessary to create a new disposal facility dedicated to VLLW. Many general design principles are in common with to the disposal facility for low and intermediate level waste (LILW), namely the isolation of the waste by means of a multibarrier system, but using bentonite and/or high density polyethylene membranes instead of the generalized use of concrete barriers. The design of the facility is consistent with the design of disposal facilities for hazardous waste. The engineering design of two VLLW disposal facilities is introduced.

• Journal of Nuclear Fuel Cycle and Waste Technology(JNFCWT)
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.267-270
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• 2021

Long-term experiments have been conducted on two important safety issues: long-term durability of a concrete barrier with the steel reinforcements and gas generation from low-and intermediate-level wastes in an underground research tunnel of a radioactive waste disposal facility. The gas generation and microbial communities were monitored from waste packages (200 L and 320 L) containing simulated dry active wastes. In the concrete experiment, corrosion sensors were installed on the steel reinforcements which were embedded 10 cm below the surface of concrete in a concrete mock-up, and groundwater was fed into the mock-up at a pressure of 2.1 bars to accelerate groundwater infiltration. No clear evidence was observed with respect to corrosion initiation of the steel reinforcement for 4 years of operation. This is attributed to the high integrity and low hydraulic conductivity of the concrete. In the gas generation experiment, significant levels of gas generation were not measured for 4 years. These experiments are expected to be conducted for a period of more than 10 years.

• Journal of Nuclear Fuel Cycle and Waste Technology(JNFCWT)
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• v.19 no.1
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• pp.113-121
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• 2021

A safety assessment of radioactive waste repositories is a mandatory requirement process because there are possible radiological hazards owing to radionuclide migration from radioactive waste to the biosphere. For a reliable safety assessment, it is important to establish a parameter database that reflects the site-specific characteristics of the disposal facility and repository site. From this perspective, solubility, a major geochemical parameter, has been chosen as an important parameter for modeling the migration behavior of radionuclides. The solubilities were derived for Am, Ni, Tc, and U, which were major radionuclides in this study, and on-site groundwater data reflecting the operational conditions of the Gyeongju low and intermediate level radioactive waste (LILW) repository were applied to reflect the site-specific characteristics. The radiation dose was derived by applying the solubility and radionuclide inventory data to the RESRAD-OFFSITE code, and sensitivity analysis of the dose according to the solubility variation was performed. As a result, owing to the low amount of radionuclide inventory, the dose variation was insignificant. The derived solubility can be used as the main input data for the safety assessment of the Gyeongju LILW repository in the future.

• Journal of Nuclear Fuel Cycle and Waste Technology(JNFCWT)
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• v.4 no.2
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• pp.187-195
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• 2006

The regulation for the low and intermediate level radioactive waste to be transferred to the disposal facility, recently revised, require that radioactive waste generators should set up waste certification program to verify the radioactive waste conform to the waste acceptance criteria(WAC) before disposal. The radioactive waste disposal facility, scheduled to be constructed in Korea, will institute WAC for the wastes to be transferred to the facility. This WAC is expected to compose of the requirements for the radiological characterization, physical and chemical characterization, physical/chemical restriction, prohibited item, packaging, identification, labeling, and documentation. For the compliance with this regulation, The radioactive waste generators should verify that the waste meet WAC through performance of the waste certification program and are responsible for handing in all the certification documents to the disposal facility. This waste certification program plan was set up as a preliminary program for the certification of radioactive waste generated in Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute (KAERI) and should be further revised until preparation of WAC by disposal agent.

• Journal of Nuclear Fuel Cycle and Waste Technology(JNFCWT)
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• v.6 no.4
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• pp.369-385
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• 2008

The purpose of site monitoring and investigation is to offer the basic data for performance assessment and design of low- and intermediate-level radioactive waste(LILW) disposal facility by monitoring variations of main site properties continually in the stage of pre-operation, operation and post-closure. Main contents of site monitoring are as follows. In the stage of pre-operation, suitability evaluation for disposal facility and monitoring for constructing and operating disposal facility are performed. In the operation period, monitoring is performed including surroundings to research the influence to environment with operating disposal facility and operate safely and efficiently. In the post-closure period, monitoring about major site properties is performed to prevent the effect of radioactive waste from disposal facility and to secure long-term safety.