• Journal of Soil and Groundwater Environment
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• v.15 no.6
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• pp.9-16
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• 2010

Groundwater sampling was performed at 38 wells where they are located in the areas with high uranium and radon (marked as A and B, respectively) concentrations, which were based on the previous research results. In-situ parameters (temperature, pH, EC, Eh, DO) and natural radionuclides (uranium and radon) were analyzed to figure out the characteristics of groundwater environments. In-situ data did not show any relations to natural radionuclide data, which could be caused by groundwater mixing, depths of wells, and geological settings, etc. But the highest radon well presented relatively low temperature value and the highest uranium well presented relatively low pH values The highest uranium concentration ranging $1.14{\sim}188.19{\mu}g/L$ showed in the area of A region consisted of Jurassic two-mica granite. The areas of Jurassic biotite granite and Cretaceous granite in the A region have the uranium concentrations ranging $0.10{\sim}49.78{\mu}g/L$ and $0.36{\sim}3.01{\mu}g/L$, respectively. The uranium values from between wells of community water systems (CWSs) penetrating fractured bed-rock aquifers and personal boreholes settled in shallow aquifers near the wells of CWSs show big differences. It implies that the groundwaters of the two areas have evolved from different water-rock interaction paths that may caused by various types of wells having different aquifers. High radon activities in the area of B region composed of Precambrian gneiss showed ranging from 6,770 to 64,688 pCi/L. Even though the wells are located in the same geological settings, their rodon concentration presented different according to depth and distance.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.55 no.2
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• pp.523-529
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• 2023

Cemented uranium tailings backfill created from alkali-activated slag (CUTB) is an effective method of disposing of uranium tailings. Using some environmental functional minerals with ion exchange, adsorption, and solidification abilities as backfill modified materials may improve the leaching resistance of the CUTB. Natural zeolite, which has good ion exchange and adsorption characteristics, is selected as the backfill modified material, and it is added to the backfill materials with cementitious material proportions of 4%, 8%, 12%, and 16% to prepare CUTB mixtures with environmental functional minerals. After the addition of natural zeolite, the uniaxial compressive strength (UCS) of the CUTB decreases, but the leaching resistance of the CUTB increases. When the natural zeolite content is 12%, the UCS reaches the minimum value of 8.95 MPa, and the concentration of uranium in the leaching solution is 0.28-8.07 mg/L, the leaching rate R₄₂ is 9.61×10^-7 cm/d, and cumulative leaching fraction P₄₂ is 8.53×10^-4 cm, which shows that the alkali-activated slag cementitious material has a good curing effect on the CUTB, and the addition of environmental functional minerals helps to further improve the leaching resistance of the CUTB, but it reduces the UCS to an extent.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.2 no.4
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• pp.273-278
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• 1970

The Contents of uranium and thorium in radioactive ores produced in Korea were determined by gamma-ray spectrometry utilizing Ge (Li) diode detector. Both methods, namely, gamma-ray spectrometries of activated samples and non-activated samples, were tested and compared for their accuracies and rapidness in determination of contents. Also the useful-ness of application of Ge(Li) diode detector to the determination of uranium and thorium contents in ores was discussed in detail.

• Journal of Integrative Natural Science
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• v.6 no.2
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• pp.104-110
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• 2013

1-Aza-12-crown-4 macrocyclic ligand was combined with styrene (2th petroleum in 4th class hazardous materials) divinylbenzene copolymer having 1%, 2%, 3%, and 6% crosslinks by a substitution reaction, in order to synthesize resin. These synthetic resins were confirmed by chlorine content, elementary analysis and IR-spectrum. As the results of the effects of pH, equilibrium arrival time, crosslink of synthetic resin, and dielectric constant of a solvent on uranium ion adsorption for resin adsorbent, the uranium ion showed high adsorption at pH 3 or over and adsorption equilibrium of uranium ion was about 2 hours. In addition, adsorption selectivity for the resin in methanol solvent was the order of uranium ($UO_2{^{2+}}$) > iron ($Fe^{3+}$) > lutetium ($Lu^{3+}$) ions, adsorbability of the uranium ion was in the crosslinks order of 1%, 2%, 3%, and 6% was increased with the lower dielectric constant.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.52 no.12
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• pp.2867-2873
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• 2020

In reprocessed uranium, derived from an impoverished fuel of light-water moderated reactors, there are isotopes of ^{232, 234, 236}U, which make its recycling remarkably difficult. A method of concentration of ²³⁵U target isotope in cascade's additional product was proposed to recover the isotopic composition of reprocessed uranium. A general calculation procedure is presented and a parameters' optimization of multi-flow cascades with additional products. For the first time a numeric model of a cascade that uses the cuts of partial flows of stages with relatively high separation factors was applied in this procedure. A novel computing experiment is carried out on separation of reprocessed uranium hexafluoride with providing a high concentration of ²³⁵U in cascade's additional product with subsequent dilution. The parameters of cascades' stages are determined so as to allow reducing the ^{232, 234, 236}U isotope content up to the acceptable. It was demonstrated that the dilution of selected products by the natural waste makes it possible to receive a low enriched uranium hexafluoride that meets the ASTM C996-15 specification for commercial grade.

• Journal of Nuclear Fuel Cycle and Waste Technology(JNFCWT)
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• v.4 no.2
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• pp.179-186
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• 2006

Chemical wastes are generated from nuclear facilities and R&D laboratories, but the uranium concentration in the final dried cake is evaluated into 11.2 Bq/g, which exceeds the exemption level of 10 Bq/g for each U isotopes, so the cake is categorized into a radioactive waste. Acid dissolution was applied to extract uranium from the waste sludge, and uranium adsorption on the dissolved solution was experimented by using IRN-77 and Diphosil bead. A large amount of resin was required to get above 80% of uranium removal, which was found to be due to a large amount of metal ions simultaneously dissolved from the precipitates with uranium. As an alternative method, acid dissolution is applied to the dewatered wet cake of the sludge, and the natural evaporation method is adopted for the dissolved solution. The uranium concentration of the dissolved solution was estimated to be 6.97E-01 Bq/ml, and the specific activity of the final waste sheets is evaluated to be 4.3 Bq/g. These results lead to the suggestion that the application of acid dissolution to the wet cake and the natural evaporation for the dissolved solution is an effective treatment method for chemical wastes containing uranium.

• Journal of Nuclear Fuel Cycle and Waste Technology(JNFCWT)
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• v.5 no.2
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• pp.113-122
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• 2007

In this study, uranium migration experiments have been performed using a natural groundwater and a granite core with natural fractures in a glove-box constructed to simulate an appropriate subsurface environment. Groundwater flow experiments using the non-sorbing anionic tracer Br were carried out to analyze the flow properties of groundwater through the fracture of the granite core. The result of the uranium migration experiment showed a breakthrough curve similar to that of the non-sorting Br. This result may imply that uranium migrates as anionic complexes through the rock fracture since uranium can form carbonate complexes at a given groundwater condition. The distribution coefficient $K_d$ of the uranium between the groundwater and the fracture filling material was obtained as low as 2.7 mL/g from a batch sorption experiment. This result agrees well with the result from the migration experiment, showing a faster elution of the uranium through the rock fracture. In order to analyze retardation properties of the uranium through the rock fracture, the retardation factor $R_d({\sim}16.2)$ was obtained by using the $K_d$ obtained from the batch sorption experiment and it was compared with the $R_d({\sim}14.3)$ obtained by using the result from the uranium migration experiment. The values obtained from the both experiments were very similar to each other. This reveals that the retardation of the uranium is mainly occurred by the fracture filling material when the uranium migrates through the fracture of a granite core.

• Advances in materials Research
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• v.2 no.2
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• pp.93-98
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• 2013

Objective of this study is to calculate gamma buildup factors for pointed and isotropic gamma sources in depleted uranium, uranium dioxide, natural uranium, tin, water and concrete using MCNP4C code. The thickness of the media ranges from 0.5 to 10 mean-free-path (mfp) and gamma energy ranges from 0.5 to 10 MeV. Owing to the outstanding accuracy of MCNP in calculation involving gamma interaction, results fairly match those reported previously. The maximum relative error is 2%.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.38 no.4
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• pp.353-358
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• 2006

Alpha track analysis for the determination of the trace amount of alpha emitting nuclides in a very small particle was performed as an efficient and powerful technique during safeguard inspection. Metal particles with well-defined spherical shape, size and isotopic compositions as a reference material were used to correlate the number of tracks or track diameter with an isotopic composition eventually to identify the uranium enrichment in the environmental swipe samples. Slopes in the number of tracks versus the exposure time curve provide a simple insight into the uranium enrichment of an unknown particle. Low enriched uranium metal particles result in slopes still steeper than the depleted or natural uranium metal particles. In addition, a linear relationship between track diameter and particle size Is thought to be a useful first stage analytical tool as an efficient and convenient inspection guide. The significance of the simple linear model was also judged using the usual statistical tests.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Clothing and Textiles
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.98-103
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• 1990

Fibrous adsorbents containing amidoxime group which make chelate complexes with uranyl ions are studied for the recovery of uranium from sea water. Acrylic fibers are used as base Polymer. The adsorption properties of uranium are carried out to examine pH effect, concen-tration dependence, adsorption rate, separation, and chelate complex. The results obtained are as follows; 1. Metal capacity of U (VI) ion is in the range of pH $2\~10.2$. Amidoxime group-containing fiber recover U (VI) ions existed in sea water or waste water in extremely small quantities. 3. Using amidoxime group-containing fiber Cu (II) and U (VI) are separated with each other in dilute nitric acid solution (pH 2.3). 4. U (VI) chelate complexes are conformed by tridendate ligands, which are coordinated with one nitrogen and two oxygens onto amidoxime group-containing fiber.