• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• 제43권5호
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• pp.405-412
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• 2011

Used nuclear fuel will likely be stored dry for extended periods of time in the USA. Until a final disposition pathway is chosen, the storage periods will almost definitely be longer than were originally intended. The ability of the important-tosafety structures, systems, and components (SSCs) to continue to meet storage and transport safety functions over extended times must be determined. It must be assured that there is no significant degradation of the fuel or dry cask storage systems. Also, it is projected that the maximum discharge burnups of the used nuclear fuel will increase. Thus, it is necessary to obtain data on high burnup fuel to demonstrate that the used nuclear fuel remains intact after extended storage. An evaluation was performed to determine the conditions that may lead to failure of dry storage SSCs. This paper documents the initial technical gap analysis performed to identify data and modeling needs to develop the desired technical bases to ensure the safety functions of dry stored fuel.

• 방사성폐기물학회지
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• 제20권2호
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• pp.255-258
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• 2022

Three government bodies, that is, the Ministry of Science and ICT (MSIT), Ministry of Trade, Industry, and Energy (MOTIE), and Nuclear Safety and Security (NSSC), jointly established the Institute for Korea Spent Nuclear Fuel (iKSNF) in December 2020 to secure the management technologies for spent nuclear fuel (SNF). The objective of iKSNF is to successfully conduct the long-term research and development program of the 「Development of Core Technologies to Ensure Safety of Spent Nuclear Fuel Storage and Disposal System」. Our program, known as the first multi-ministry program in the nuclear field of Korea, mainly focuses on developing core technologies required for the long-term management of SNF, including those for safe storage and deep geological disposal of SNF. The program comprises three subprograms and seven key projects covering the storage, disposal, and regulatory sectors of SNF management. Our program will last from 2021 through 2029, with a budget of approximately four billion USD sponsored by MSIT, MOTIE, and NSSC.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• 제54권10호
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• pp.3672-3681
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• 2022

This study investigates the environmental footprint impacts of nuclear energy consumption in the presence of environmental technology and globalization of the ten largest ecological footprint countries from 1990 up to 2017. By considering a set of methods that can help solve the issue of cross-sectional dependence, we employ the Lagrange multiplier bootstrap cointegration method, Driscoll-Kraay standard errors for long-run estimation and feasible generalized least squares (FGLS) and panel-corrected standard errors (PCSE) for robustness. The finding revealed significant negative effects of nuclear energy consumption, environmental-related technology, population density and significant positive effects of globalization and economic growth on ecological footprint. These results are also robust by assessing the long-run impacts of predictors on carbon footprint and CO₂ emissions as alternate ecological measures. These conclusions provide the profound significance of nuclear energy consumption for environmentally sustainable development in the top ten ecological footprint countries and serve as an important reference for ecological security for other countries globally.

• 방사성폐기물학회지
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• 제20권1호
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• pp.111-118
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• 2022

The denuclearization of North Korea was unpredictable and resulted in radical changes. Despite the skepticism and disappointment surrounding denuclearization, it is important for certain verification technologies to establish what is technically possible or practically impossible, and how reliable these technical means are. This article presents the technical hurdles in nuclear verification by systematically categorizing them into issues of correctness and completeness. Moreover, it addresses the safety and security risks during the denuclearization process, including the radiological impact on humans, environmental effects, and the illegal transfer of material, information, and technologies.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• 제48권4호
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• pp.965-974
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• 2016

The article describes the results of experiments conducted on pigs to determine the effect of plutonium, which is the most radiotoxic and highly active element in the range of mixed fuel $(U_{0.8}Pu_{0.2})O_2$ fission products, on living organisms. The results will allow empirical prediction of the emergency plutonium radiation dose for various organs and tissues of humans in case of an accident in a reactor running on mixed fuel $(U_{0.8}Pu_{0.2})O_2$.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• 제55권3호
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• pp.908-918
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• 2023

The Saudi National Atomic Energy project aims to adopt peaceful nuclear technologies and be part of the country's energy mix. As emerging nuclear energy, it is essential to understand public concerns and acceptability of nuclear energy, as well as the factors influencing acceptance to develop nuclear energy policy and implement nuclear energy programs. The purpose of this study is to analyze the public attitudes and acceptance of nuclear energy among Saudi Arabian citizens by utilizing protection motivation theory and theory of planned behavior. A total of 1,404 participants answered a questionnaire which was distribute by convenience sampling approach. A Structural Equation Modeling framework was constructed and analyzed to understand public behavior toward building the country's first Nuclear Power Plant (NPP). Before analyzing the data, the model was validated. The research concluded that the benefits of nuclear power plants were essential in determining people's acceptance of NPPs. Surprisingly, the effect of the perceived benefits was found higher than the effect of the perceived risks to the acceptance. Furthermore, the public's participation in this study revealed that the NPPs location has a significant impact on their acceptance. Based on the finding, several policy implementations were suggested. Finally, the study's model results would benefit scholars, government agencies, and the business sector in Saudi Arabia and worldwide.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• 제52권12호
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• pp.2969-2974
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• 2020

Looking at the recent studies, nuclear energy and carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions nexus shows inconclusive result. To further explain nuclear energy-pollution nexuses this study is an attempt to analyze the impact of nuclear energy on pollution reduction for BRICS countries covering data for the period from 1993 to 2017. This study conducts advanced panel techniques such as Continuously-Updated Fully-Modified (CUP-FM) and Continuously-Updated Bias-Corrected (CUP-BC) for long run estimation. Our results support the notion that nuclear energy reduce CO₂ emissions. Also, renewable energy corrects environmental pollution in BRICS countries. The magnitude of the coefficient of nuclear energy is less as compared to renewable energy, implying that nuclear is less effective in reducing environmental pollution. The findings offer significant policy understandings and suggestions not only for BRICS economies but for developing countries as well in designing suitable nuclear energy-growth-carbon policies.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• 제53권8호
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• pp.2746-2752
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• 2021

The environmental effects of China's nuclear energy consumption in a dynamic framework of the pollution haven hypothesis are examined. This study uses a dynamic autoregressive distributed lag simulation approach. Empirical evidence confirms that the pollution haven hypothesis does not exist for China; i.e., foreign direct investment plays a promising role in influencing environmental outcomes. Furthermore, empirical results concluded positive contribution of nuclear energy in pollution mitigation. From the results it is expected that encouraging foreign investment to increase generation of nuclear energy would benefit environmental quality by reducing CO₂ emissions.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• 제46권4호
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• pp.501-512
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• 2014

HANARO is a multipurpose research reactor located at the Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute (KAERI). Since the commencement of its operation in 1995, various neutron irradiation facilities, such as rabbit irradiation facilities, fuel test loop (FTL) facilities, capsule irradiation facilities, and neutron transmutation doping (NTD) facilities, have been developed and actively utilized for various nuclear material irradiation tests requested by users from research institutes, universities, and industries. Most irradiation tests have been related to national R&D relevant to present nuclear power reactors such as the ageing management and safety evaluation of the components. Based on the accumulated experience as well as the sophisticated requirements of users, HANARO has recently supported national R&D projects relevant to new nuclear systems including the System-integrated Modular Advanced Reactor (SMART), research reactors, and future nuclear systems. This paper documents the current state and utilization of irradiation facilities in HANARO, and summarizes ongoing research efforts to deploy advanced irradiation technology.

• 대한산업공학회지
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• 제39권3호
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• pp.183-191
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• 2013

We address the power generation mix problem that considers not only nuclear and fossil fuels such as oil, coal and LNG but also renewable energy technologies. Unlike nuclear or other generation technologies, the expansion plan of renewable energy is highly uncertain because of its dependency on the government policy and uncertainty associated with technology improvements. To address this issue, we conduct a delphi survey and forecast the capacity of renewable energy. We further propose a stochastic mixed integer programming model that determines an optimal capacity expansion and the amount of power generation using each generation technology. Using the proposed model, we test eight generation mix scenarios and particularly evaluate how much the expansion of renewable energy contributes to the total costs for power generation in Korea. The evaluation results show that the use of renewable energy incurs additional costs.