• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.51 no.2
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• pp.526-532
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• 2019

In this study, an in-house $^{152}Eu$ calibration source was produced from a custom epoxy matrix with a density of ${\rho}=1.14g\;cm^{-3}$, which is chemically stable and durable form after its solidification. The homogeneity of $^{152}Eu$ in matrix was obtained better than 98%. For a Marinelli beaker geometry, an efficiency calibration procedure was applied to a n-type, coaxial, 78.5% relative efficient HPGe detector in the energy range of 121.7-1408.0 keV by using in-house $^{152}Eu$ calibration source. Then the measured efficiencies for Marinelli geometry were compared with the results calculated by MEFFTRAN and ANGLE softwares for the validation. Although MEFFTRAN and ANGLE have two different efficiency transfer algorithms to calculate the efficiencies, they usually need to use a reliable and accurate reference efficiency values as input data. Hence, reference efficiency values were obtained experimentally from a multinuclide standard source for the same detector-Marinelli geometry. In the present source characterization, the corrections required for self-absorption and true coincidence summing effects for $^{152}Eu$ gamma-rays were also obtained for a such close counting geometry condition. The experimental results confirmed the validity of efficiency calculations obtained by MEFFTRAN and ANGLE softwares that are calculation tools.

• Analytical Science and Technology
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• v.13 no.6
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• pp.743-750
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• 2000

For the ${\gamma}$-ray spectrometry analysis of radium and radon in environmental samples, plastic Marinelli beakers have been usually used. But, there are two problems; one is the increment of background by adsorption of airborne radon daughters on the plastic beaker, and other is the incompleteness of radioactive equilibrium by the loss of gaseous radon produced during the radioactive equilibrium process. In order to solve these problems, we made aluminium counting container, and investigated its characteristics. We investigated radioactive equilibrium process using the aluminium container. We found that both solid and liquid samples reached at radioactive equilibrium state in the aluminium container without loss of gaseous radon. By the use of the aluminium container, we established radon and radium analysis method of solid and liquid samples using gamma-ray spectrometry.

• Analytical Science and Technology
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• v.28 no.3
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• pp.228-235
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• 2015

The efficiency and applicability of the solid phase extraction disk method in a ²²⁶Ra analysis were examined by the gamma ray spectrometer (GRS) method using a Marinelli beaker and the liquid scintillation counter (LSC) method for groundwater. The recovered ²²⁶Ra, which was filtered by the solid phase extraction disk, was analyzed using gamma ray spectrometer The disks, which were pretreated for caulking the daughter nuclide, were sealed with polyethylene film. Distilled water was used for the blank value of the ²²⁶Ra activity. The recovery values of ²¹⁴Bi and ²¹⁴Pb in the solid phase extraction disk, which used ²²⁶Ra standard material, were 80% (295.21 Kev) and 104% (351.92 Kev), respectively, which were higher than 75% determined by the LSC. The injection of nitrogen gas into the measuring chamber reduced the interference values by about 10%. The detection limits of the ²²⁶Ra activity in a blank sample of 5 L were 0.17~0.40 pCi/L after 80,000 seconds of measuring time. The relationship of the ²²⁶Ra activity in the solid phase extraction disk method and in the LSC method in seven groundwater samples showed a correlation coefficient value 0.987, which implies the applicability of the solid phase extraction disk method. The results showed that ²²⁶Ra activity in groundwater using the solid phase extraction disk method has the following benefits: simple pretreatment, time saving, high recovery values, a low detection limit, and so on. Compared with the LSC method and the GRS method using the Marinelli beaker for the ²²⁶Ra analysis, the solid phase extraction disk method could be useful in groundwater samples with low levels of activities of radionuclides because the method is not restricted by the volume of the sample.

• Journal of Radiation Protection and Research
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• v.31 no.1
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• pp.47-52
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• 2006

A self-absorption correction is important issue for the exact radioactivity determination of gamma emitting radionuclides in environmental samples which have the range of apparent density from $0.3g/cm^3$ up to $1.5g/cm^3$. In this paper, a practical and simple method without radioactive standard solutions having various densities is proposed for the self-absorption correction of environmental samples by a developed outside beaker surrounding Marinelli beaker. For the densities of 0.8, 1.0, $1.3g/cm^3$, the corrected efficiencies by the new method and the measured those by radioactive standard solutions of the three densities showed good agreement within 4 %.

• Journal of Radiation Protection and Research
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• v.11 no.1
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• pp.70-76
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• 1986

In order to establish the national standards of neutron measurements, a manganese sulphate ($MnSO_4$) bath system was developed under the IAEA technical support. This bath system was made up of a spherical s.s. 316 L bath, of 3.5 mm thick and of 125 cm internal diagmeter, filled with a manganese sulphate solution, a solution circulating system, and a $^5Mn\;{\gamma}-ray$ monitoring system. The solution pumped from the bath was introduced into a Marinelli beaker-type monitor vessel which was equipped with two seperate detectors, $3.8cm{\phi}{\times}3.8cm$ NaI(T1) crystals. The performance of the system were tested using the neutron sources, $^{241}Am-Be\;and\;^{252}Cf$, mounted at the center of the bath. From the decay curve analysis of $^{56}Mn$ activity, neutron emission rate of $^{252}Cf$ by the comparative method was obtained to be $3.71{\times}10^7\;n/s\;per\;50{mu}g$ as of November 15, 1985.

• Journal of Environmental Science International
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• v.24 no.3
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• pp.275-280
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• 2015

In order to measure the Radionuclides and Concentration, the directly grinded land samples (river soil, pine leaves and mugwort) among the environment samples around the nuclear power plant were filled in a 450 mL Marinelli beaker and weighed to obtain the dry mass ratio of the samples. Then the background and land samples were measured for 80,000 sec. The analysis of the collected land samples showed that most of them contained less radiation nuclide than the detection minimum limit in the 'Ministry of Education, Science and Technology Public Notice No. 2010-32.'In others, the natural radionuclides $^{40}K$ were detected. Of the products of nuclear reaction discharged by a nuclear reaction, $^{134}Cs$ and $^{137}Cs$ are more easily detected, and their discharge sources can be traced using the relative ratio. Although the radioactive concentration in the vicinity of Kori Nuclear Power Plant, which is more than 1,100km away from Fukushima, the Japanese nuclear accident site, continuous monitoring is needed as the radionuclides can still be accumulated in the soil or animals and plants.

• Journal of radiological science and technology
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• v.40 no.4
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• pp.605-611
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• 2017

The structure of the actual detector was computed using the code of the PENELOPE. Using the standard mixed sources (450, 1,000 ml), compare the effectiveness of each energy according to various densities and height of the PENELOPE computer simulation, and calculate the effectiveness of the various environmental specimens and apply them to various environmental specimens to determine the lower limit. The values obtained by the obtained value were obtained by applying the obtained efficiency to the actual environmental specimens and obtaining the lower limit values. The density correction factor is 1.155 g of the density correction factor of $0.4g/cm^3$ (59.54keV), 1.153 (661 keV), $1.06g/cm^3$ 1.064 (1,836.04keV), 1.03, and 1.033. It was confirmed that the radioactivity concentration of environmental samples decreased as the amount of specimen was measured increases, and the MDA value decreased as time measured increases.

• Journal of Radiation Protection and Research
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• v.46 no.3
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• pp.127-133
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• 2021

Background: Phosphogypsum is material produced as a byproduct in fertilizer industry and is generally used for building materials. This material may contain enhanced radium-226 (²²⁶Ra) activity concentration compared to its natural concentration that may lead to indoor radon accumulation. Therefore, an accurate measurement method is proposed in this study to determine ²²⁶Ra activity concentration in phosphogypsum sample, considering the potential radon leakage from the sample container. Materials and Methods: The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) phosphogypsum reference material was used as a sample in this study. High-purity germanium (HPGe) gamma spectrometry was used to measure the activity concentration of the ²²⁶Ra decay products, i.e., ²¹⁴Bi and ²¹⁴Pb. Marinelli beakers sealed with three different sealing methods were used as sample containers. Due to the potential leakage of radon from the Marinelli beaker (MB), correction to the activity concentration resulted in gamma spectrometry is needed. Therefore, the leaked fraction of radon escaped from the sample container was calculated and added to the gamma spectrometry measured values. Results and Discussion: Total activity concentration of ²²⁶Ra was determined by summing up the activity concentration from gamma spectrometry measurement and calculated concentration from radon leakage correction method. The results obtained from ²¹⁴Bi peak were 723.4 ± 4.0 Bq·kg^-1 in MB1 and 719.2 ± 3.5 Bq·kg^-1 in MB2 that showed about 5% discrepancy compared to the certified activity. Besides, results obtained from ²¹⁴Pb peak were 741.9 ± 3.6 Bq·kg^-1 in MB1 and 740.1 ± 3.4 Bq·kg^-1 in MB2 that showed about 2% difference compared to the certified activity measurement of ²²⁶Ra concentration activity. Conclusion: The results show that radon leakage correction was calculated with insignificant discrepancy to the certified values and provided improvement to the gamma spectrometry. Therefore, measuring ²²⁶Ra activity concentration in TENORM (technologically enhanced naturally occurring radioactive material) sample using radon leakage correction can be concluded as a convenient and accurate method that can be easily conducted with simple calculation.

• The Korean Journal of Nuclear Medicine Technology
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.3-6
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• 2013

Purpose: The treatment of thyroid cancer patients was continuously increased. According to the increment of thyroid cancer patients, the establishment of iodine therapy site was also increased in each hospital. This treatment involves the administration of radioactive iodine, which will be given in the form of a capsule. Therefore, protections and managements for radioactive source pollution and radiation exposure should be necessary for radiation safety. Among the many problems, the problem of disposing the radioactive wastes was occurred. In this study, The date for self-disposal for radioactive wastes, which were contaminated in clothes, bedclothes and trash, were calculated. Materials and Methods: The number of iodine therapy ward was 15 in Korea Institute of Radiological Medical and Sciences. Recently, 8 therapy wards were operated for iodine therapy patients and others were on standby for emergency treatment ward of any radiation accidents. Radioactive wastes, which were occurred in therapy ward, were clothes, bedclothes, bath cover for patients washing water and food and drink which was leftover by patients. Each sample was hold into the marinelli beaker (clothes, bedclothes, bath covers) and 90 ml beaker (food, drink, and washing water). The activities of collected samples were measured by HpGe MCA device (Multi Channel Analysis, CANBERRA, USA) Results: The storage period for the each kind of radioactive wastes was calculated by equation of storage periods based on the measurement outcomes. The average storage period was 60 days for the case of clothes, and the maximum storage period was 93 days for patient bottoms. The average storage period and the maximum storage period for the trash were 69 days and 97 days, respectively. The leftover foods and drinks had short storage period (the average storage period was 25 days and maximum storage period was 39 days), compared with other wastes. Conclusion: The proper storage period for disposing the radioactive waste (clothes, bedclothes and bath cover) was 100 days by the regulation on self-disposal of radioactive waste. In addition, the storage period for disposing the liquid radioactive waste was 120 days. The current regulation for radioactive waste self-disposing was not suitable for the circumstances of each radioactive therapy facility. Therefore, it was necessary to reduce the leftover food and drinks by adequate table setting for patients, and improve the process and regulation for disposing the short-half life radioactive wastes.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.34 no.6
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• pp.545-552
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• 2002

We developed an ultra low background gamma ray spectrometer particularly suitable for experiment which require lower detection limit. The background of a germanium spectrometer is suppressed by applying active and passive shielding technique at the same time. The active shielding devices consist of plastic scintillating plates of 50 mm thick and anti-coincidence electronic system. The shielding is made of 150 mm thick walls of very low activity lead,20 mm with activity of <10 Bq/kg and 130 mm with activity of <50 Bq/kg. The observed background count rates are 1.2 $s^{-1}$ and 0.36 $s^{-1}$ without and with the active shielding, respectively, overall the energy regions from 30 keV to 3 MeV The cosmic ray induced background is suppressed by a rate of 0.8 $s^{-1}$ at the present work. The detection efficiency curve necessary to obtain the radioactivity of environmental samples has been precisely determined on the energy regions from 80 to 2000 keV with a 10$^3$ ml marinelli beaker sample, consisting of the calibrated radionuclides $^{109}$ Cd, $^{57}$ CO, $^{139}$ Ce, $^{203}$ Hg, $^{113}$ Sn, $^{85}$Sr, $^{137}$ Cs, $^{60}$ Co and $^{88}$ Y. Virtues Of the method are demonstrated by measuring the activity of $^{137}$ Cs contained in the powdered milk.