• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.56 no.3
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• pp.1029-1036
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• 2024

Drawing on the deep experience and understanding of the principles of nuclear safety, as well as many years of nuclear power plant design and operation, the EDF led NUWARD SMR Project is developing a design for a Small Modular Reactor (SMR) of 340 MWe composed of two 170 MWe independent units, that will supplement the offering of high-output nuclear reactors, especially in response to specific needs such as replacement of fossil-fuelled power plants. NUWARD SMR is a mix of proven and innovative design features that will make it more commercially competitive, while integrating safety features that comply with the highest international standards. Following the principles of redundancy and diversity and rigorous application of Defence in Depth (DID), with an international view on nuclear safety licensing, the Project also incorporates new safety approaches into its design development. The NUWARD SMR Project has been in development for a number of years, it entered conceptual design formally in mid-2019 and entered Basic Design in 2023. The objective of the concept design phase was to confirm the project technological choices and to define the first design configuration of the NUWARD SMR product, to document it, in order to launch pre-licensing with the French Safety Authority (ASN) and to define its estimated cost and its subsequent development and construction schedules. As a delivery milestone the Safety Options file (called the Dossier d'Options de Sûreté (DOS)) has been submitted to ASN in July 2023 for their opinion. An integral part of the NUWARD SMR Project, is not only to deliver a design suitable for France and to satisfy French regulation, but to develop a product suitable and indeed desirable, for the international market, with a first focus in Europe. In order to achieve its objectives and realise its market potential, the NUWARD SMR Project needs to define and realise its safety approach within an international environment and that is the key subject of this paper. The following paper: • Summarises the foundation principles and technological background which underpin the design; • Contextualises the key design features with regard to the international safety regulatory framework with particular emphasis on innovative passive safety aspects; • Illustrates the Project activities in preparation for first licensing in France, and also a wider international view via the ASN led Joint Early Review of the NUWARD SMR design, including Finnish and Czech Republic regulators, recently joined by the Swedish, Polish and Dutch regulators; • Articulates the collaborative approach to design development from involvement with the Project partners (the Commissariat à l'énergie atomique et aux énergies alternatives (CEA), Naval Group, TechnicAtome, Framatome and Tractebel) to the establishment of the International NUWARD Advisory Board (INAB), to gain greater international insight and advice; • Concludes with the focus on next steps into detailed design development, standardisation of the design and its simplification to enhance its commercial competitiveness in a context of further harmonisation of the nuclear safety and licensing requirements and aspirations.

• Journal of Korean Tunnelling and Underground Space Association
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• v.26 no.3
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• pp.209-222
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• 2024

The Earth Pressure Balance (EPB) shield Tunnel Boring Machine (TBM) is widely used for underground tunnel construction for its advantages, such as eliminating the need for additional facilities compared to the slurry shield TBM, which requires Slurry Treatment Plant (STP). During EPB shield TBM excavation, a soil conditioning technique is employed to enhance the physical properties of the excavated soil by injecting additives, thus broadening the range of applicable ground conditions to EPB shield TBMs. This study explored the use of xanthan gum, a type of biopolymer, as an alternative to the commonly used polymer additive. Biopolymers, derived from biological sources, are fully biodegradable. In contrast to traditional polymers such as polyacrylic acid, which contain environmentally harmful components, xanthan gum is gaining attention as an eco-friendly material due to its minimal toxicity and environmental impact. Test conditions with similar workability were established through slump tests, and the rheological characteristics were assessed using a laboratory pressurized vane shear test apparatus. The experiments demonstrated that, despite exhibiting similar workability, the peak strength in the flow curve decreased with increasing the content of xanthan gum. Consequently, a correlation between the xanthan gum content and peak strength was established. Replacing the traditional polymers with xanthan gum could enable stable EPB shield TBM operation by reducing equipment load, in addition to offering environmental benefits.

• Korean Journal of Soil Science and Fertilizer
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• v.43 no.3
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• pp.374-383
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• 2010

Microwave radar can penetrate cloud cover regardless of weather conditions and can be used day and night. Especially a ground-based polarimetric scatterometer has advantages of monitoring crop conditions continuously with full polarization and different frequencies. Kim et al. (2009) have measured backscattering coefficients of paddy rice using L-, C-, X-band scatterometer system with full polarization and various angles during the rice growth period and have revealed the necessity of near-continuous automatic measurement to eliminate the difficulties, inaccuracy and sparseness of data acquisitions arising from manual operation of the system. In this study, we constructed an X-band automatic scatterometer system, analyzed scattering characteristics of paddy rice from X-band scatterometer data and estimated rice growth parameter using backscattering coefficients in X-band. The system was installed inside a shelter in an experimental paddy field at the National Academy of Agricultural Science (NAAS) before rice transplanting. The scatterometer system consists of X-band antennas, HP8720D vector network analyzer, RF cables and personal computer that controls frequency, polarization and data storage. This system using automatically measures fully-polarimetric backscattering coefficients of rice crop every 10 minutes. The backscattering coefficients were calculated from the measured data at a fixed incidence angle of $45^{\circ}$ and with full polarization (HH, VV, HV, VH) by applying the radar equation and compared with rice growth data such as plant height, stem number, fresh dry weight and Leaf Area Index (LAI) that were collected at the same time of each rice growth parameter. We examined the temporal behaviour of the backscattering coefficients of the rice crop at X-band during rice growth period. The HH-, VV-polarization backscattering coefficients steadily increased toward panicle initiation stage, thereafter decreased and again increased in early-September. We analyzed the relationships between backscattering coefficients in X-band and plant parameters and predicted the rice growth parameters using backscattering coefficients. It was confirmed that X-band is sensitive to grain maturity at near harvesting season.

• Korean Journal of Environment and Ecology
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• v.34 no.3
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• pp.259-270
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• 2020

Plants Social Network (PSN) was first used in recent studies to incorporate the plant sociology methods for the understanding of plant society with the social network analysis methods that have recently attracted attention in the social science and visualize and analyze a PSN. The process of construction and analysis on PSN proceeds in the order of setting up the survey area, investigating the appearance plants species on plots of 100㎡, analyzing the interspecific association, building the sociogram, and analyzing the network structure and centrality. This study established a PSN by investigating the appearance species after installing 708 plots to include various dominant vegetational physiognomies in Busan Metropolitan City, where coastal and inland vegetation could be observed simultaneously. The survey found a total of 195 species, including 42 species of evergreen, 151 species of deciduous trees, and 2 species of semi-evergreen trees. The interspecies binding analysis was performed with the focus on the total number of species. It showed the number of friendly species in the order of Eurya japonica (47 species), Trachelospermum asiaticum (46 species), Linder glauca (44 species), Sorbus alnifolia (44 species), and Ligustrum japonicum (41 species). Based on it, we generated a sociogram using Gephi 0.9.2 program. The sociogram was divided into groups that appeared mostly on the coast and those that did not, reflecting the geographical distribution characteristics of forest vegetation in Busan. The analysis of the network structured showed 1,709 links and an average of 17.5 species having interspecies binding with a species. The density was 0.09, the diameter was 5, and the average path distance was 2.268. We concluded that various PSNs should be established in the future for precise comparative analysis of network characteristics in the social science field. In the PSN of Busan Metropolitan City, Eurya japonica, Linder glauca, Ligustrum japonicum, and Trachelospermum asiaticum showed high centrality.

• Horticultural Science & Technology
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• v.31 no.3
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• pp.359-365
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• 2013

Chrysanthemum is one of the most popular ornamental plants worldwide. Recently, lots of new and novel chrysanthemum varieties have been developed using mutagenesis. However, there was no study for comparison of tissue culture condition among the mutant varieties derived from one original variety, until now. This study was conducted to compare the efficient regeneration condition of the two chrysanthemum mutant varieties, 'ARTI-purple' and 'ARTI-queen'. Two different flower parts (disk and ray florets) at the unopened and early blooming stages were used for comparison of regeneration condition on MS medium supplemented with combinations of three growth regulators (BA, NAA, and IAA). The highest regeneration rate was identified on the NAA and BA combination when the disk florets at unopened blooming stage are used. The best optimum combinations of growth regulators were identified as NAA $1.0mg{\cdot}L^{-1}$ and BA $0.5mg{\cdot}L^{-1}$ at 'ARTI-purple', which displayed 47.9% regeneration. However, regeneration of 'ARTI-queen' was the highest as 25.6% at NAA $2.0mg{\cdot}L^{-1}$ and BA $1.0mg{\cdot}L^{-1}$. There results indicate that there is a difference for the optimum regeneration condition between the mutant varieties derived from one original variety. These results will be useful for construction of efficient regeneration system of diverse chrysanthemum mutants developed by mutation breeding.

• Korean Security Journal
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• no.41
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• pp.37-66
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• 2014

In recent years, with the development of computers and electronics, electronics and communication technology in a growing and each part is dependent on the cross-referencing makes all electronic equipment is obsolete due to direct or indirect damage EMP. Korea and the impending standoff North Korea has a considerable level of technologies related to the EMP, EMP weapons you already have or in a few years, the development of EMP weapons will complete. North Korea launched a long-range missile and conducted a nuclear test on several occasions immediately after, when I saw the high-altitude nuclear blackmail has been strengthening the outright offensive nuclear EMP attacks at any time and practical significance for the EMP will need offensive skills would improve. At this point you can predict the damage situation of Korea's security reality that satisfy the need, more than anything else to build a protective system of the EMP. The scale of the damage that unforeseen but significant military damage and socio-economic damage and fatalities when I looked into the situation which started out as a satellite communications systems and equipment to attack military and security systems and transportation, finance, national emergency system, such as the damage elsewhere. In General, there is no direct casualties reported, but EMP medical devices that rely on lethal damage to people who can show up. In addition, the State power system failure due to a power supply interruption would not have thought the damage would bring State highly dependent on domestic power generation of nuclear plants is a serious nuclear power plant accident in the event of a blackout phenomenon can lead to the plant's internal problems should see a forecast. First of all, a special expert Committee of the EMP, the demand for protective facilities and equipment and conduct an investigation, he takes fits into your budget is under strict criteria by configuring the contractors should be sifting through. He then created the Agency for verification of performance EMP protection after you have verified the performance of maintenance, maintenance, safety and security management, design and construction company organized and systematic process Guard facilities or secret communications equipment and perfect for the EMP, such as protective equipment maneuver system should take.

• Korean Journal of Environment and Ecology
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• v.25 no.1
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• pp.17-30
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• 2011

This study has analyzed the vegetation composition in the areas using different slope revetment techniques of riverbanks, in a way to improve the vegetation induction in the future considering the ecological aspects of the induction in Garaeyoul Village, Gangdong-gu, Seoul. The result of the vegetation distribution in each different slope revetment technique was analyzed, that the naturalized herb was dominant in the pole block accounting for 70.7%, while native herb was dominant in the lawn block occupying 48.5% and in the crib block occupying 55.7%. The vegetation coverage measured by different slope revetment techniques was highest in the crib block(average 97.5%), followed by the lawn block(average 95.3%) and pole block(average 27.9%). The vegetation base area was the most wide in the crib block and the most narrowest in the pole block. The result of community analysis in areas using different slope revetment techniques, dry herbs and vine herbs were dominated and the coverage was very poor in the pole block. In the lawn block, the barb was fragmented into narrow areas due to the blocks, which prevented the creation of large-scale plant communities. In the crib block, Miscanthus sacchariflorus, Fescue arundinacea and Aster pilosus, which also consisted of large-scale communities. Average dry weight was also measured by each slope revetment technique. The weight was heaviest in the crib block with $187.63g/m^2$, followed by the lawn block($137.65g/m^2$) and pole block($6.75g/m^2$). The soil moisture contents in the crib block and lawn block was 16.3% and 15.2%, respectively, while that of the pole block was 4.7%, which revealed the highly dry condition of the pole block soil. The analysis result of soil chemical property showed that there was little difference in soil texture, soile acidity(pH), and exchangeable ion content, however, the soil organic matter(OM) content and available $P_2O_5$ were highest in the pole block. In the future, in order to induce more vegetation into river banks and walls, a proper construction method should be applied so that the vegetation area can be expanded as much as possible, considering the safety of the banks.

• Journal of Korean Society of Environmental Engineers
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• v.30 no.5
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• pp.524-533
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• 2008

Industrial wastewater generated in the electroplating and metal finishing industries typically contain toxic free and complex metal cyanide with various heavy metals. Alkaline chlorination, the normal treatment method destroys only free cyanide, not complex metal cyanide. A novel treatment method has been developed which destroys both free and complex metal cyanide as compared with Practical Plant(I). Prior to the removal of complex metal cyanide by Fe/Zn coprecipitation and removal of others(Cu, Ni), Chromium is reduced from the hexavalent to the trivalent form by Sodium bisulfite(NaHSO$_3$), followed by alkaline-chlorination for the cyanide destruction. The maximum removal efficiency of chromium by reduction was found to be 99.92% under pH 2.0, ORP 250 mV for 0.5 hours. The removal efficiency of complex metal cyanide was max. 98.24%(residual CN: 4.50 mg/L) in pH 9.5, 240 rpm with 3.0 $\times$ 10$^{-4}$ mol of FeSO$_4$/ZnCl$_2$ for 0.5 hours. The removal efficiency of Cu, Ni using both hydroxide and sulfide precipitation was found to be max. 99.9% as Cu in 3.0 mol of Na$_2$S and 93.86% as Ni in 4.0 mol of Na$_2$S under pH 9.0$\sim$10.0, 240 rpm for 0.5 hours. The concentration of residual CN by alkaline-chlorination was 0.21 mg/L(removal efficiencies: 95.33%) under the following conditions; 1st Oxidation : pH 10.0, ORP 350 mV, reaction time 0.5 hours, 2nd Oxidation : pH 8.0, ORP 650 mV, reaction time 0.5 hours. It is important to note that the removal of free and complex metal cyanide from the electroplating wastewater should be employed by chromium reduction, Fe/Zn coprecipitation and, sulfide precipitation, followed by alkaline-chlorination for the Korean permissible limit of wastewater discharge, where the better results could be found as compared to the preceding paper as indicated in practical treatment(I).

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• v.52 no.4
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• pp.503-515
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• 2014

A lot of existing wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) are rebuilt or retrofitted for advanced wastewater treatment processes to cope with reinforced effluent criteria of nitrogen and phosphorous. Moreover, how to treat the wasted sludge from WWTPs has been also issued since the discharge of the wasted sludge into ocean is impossible from 2011 due to the London Convention 97 protocol. These trend changes of WWTPs get a motivation to assess environmental and economic impacts from the construction stage to the waste stage in WWTPs. Therefore, this study focuses on evaluation of environmental and economic impacts of the advanced wastewater treatment processes and waste sludge treatment process by using life cycle assessment. Four advanced wastewater treatment processes of Anaerobic/Anoxic/Oxic ($A_2O$), 5 stages-Bamard Denitrification Phosphate (Bardenpho), Virginia Initiative Plant (VIP), and Modified University of Cape Town (MUCT) are chosen to compare the conventional activated sludge (CAS) and three waste sludge treatment methods of land fill, incineration, and composting are used. To evaluate environmental and economic impacts of each advanced wastewater treatment processes, life cycle assessment (LCA) and life cycle cost (LCC) are conducted based on International organization for standardization (ISO) guidelines. The results clearly represent that the $A_2O$ process with composting shows 52% reduction in the environmental impact than the CAS process with landfill. On the other hand, the MUCT process with composting is able to save 62% of the life cycle cost comparing with the CAS process with landfill. This result suggested the qualitative and quantitative criteria for evaluating eco-environmental and economic technologies of advanced treatment processes and also sludge treatment method, where their main influence factors on environmental and economic impacts are analyzed, respectively. The proposed method could be useful for selecting the most efficient and eco-friendly wastewater treatment process and sludge treatment method when retrofitting the existing WWTPs to advanced treatments.

• Korean Journal of Plant Resources
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• v.33 no.5
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• pp.446-459
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• 2020

This study analyzed the phenotypes and chemotypes of 74 tartary buckwheat (Fagopyrum tataricum) germplasms using principal component analysis and cluster analysis. The average seed size of tartary buckwheat germplasm was 5.2 × 3.4 mm, which is smaller than the seed size of common buckwheat. The dark browned colored ovate or elliptic shape was mostly observed in collected germplasm. The average content of rutin was 1,393 mg per 100 g dry weight (DW) in tartary buckwheat seed. Similarly, the flavonoid and polyphenol contents ranged from 253 to 2,669 and 209 to 1,823 mg, respectively, per 100 g DW in the collected germplasm. The three components (PC1, 2, and 3) of principal component analysis revealed 68.55% of the total variance of the collected accessions. Cluster analysis using descriptors showed that 74 accessions were clustered into five groups. The study showed that the most interesting resources for functional breeding programs are: Five resources (HLB1004, HLB1005, HLB1007, HLB1009, and HLB1013) due to the rich rutin, polyphenol, and flavonoid.