• Journal of Bio-Environment Control
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• v.14 no.3
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• pp.218-231
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• 2005

This paper reviews the engineering approach needed to support humans during their long-term missions in space. This approach includes closed plant production systems under microgravity or low pressure, mass recycling, air revitalization, water purification, waste management, elimination of trace contaminants, lighting, and nutrient delivery systems in controlled ecological life support system (CELSS). Requirements of crops f3r space use are high production, edibility, digestibility, many culinary uses, capability of automation, short stems, and high transpiration. Low pressure on Mars is considered to be a major obstacle for the design of greenhouses fer crop production. However interest in Mars inflatable greenhouse applicable to planetary surface has increased. Structure, internal pressure, material, method of lighting, and shielding are principal design parameters for the inflatable greenhouse. The inflatable greenhouse operating at low pressure can reduce the structural mass and atmosphere leakage rate. Plants growing at reduced pressure show an increasing transpiration rates and a high water loss. Vapor pressure increases as moisture is added to the air through transpiration or evaporation from leaks in the hydroponic system. Fluctuations in vapor pressure will significantly influence total pressure in a closed system. Thus hydroponic systems should be as tight as possible to reduce the quantity of water that evaporates from leaks. And the environmental control system to maintain high relative humidity at low pressure should be developed. The essence of technologies associated with CELSS can support human lift even at extremely harsh conditions such as in deserts, polar regions, and under the ocean on Earth as well as in space.

• Korean Journal of Weed Science
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• v.1 no.1
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• pp.5-14
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• 1981

Weed is one of the problems in the crop land as well as in uncultivated land, raising the farm management costs. Therefore, the weed control is essential for effective agricultural management. The cost for weed control in Korea occupies on the average 27.6% of the total labor cost required. Agricultural policies since 1960 were transferring from yield increase due to land productivities to increase of income due to labor productivities. Therefore, the weed control by hand is also changed to weed control by chemicals. The weed control by chemicals has also brought about some side-effects and needs better, improved weed control methods. The present weed control situation and related problems were studied to present new approaches for agricultural development in the future. There were 458 species of weeds in 82 families which were growing in the crop land. The weeds to control, however, are 12 in paddy field and 9 in upland. So far weeds in paddy field are well under control, while weeds in upland are poorly controlled due to change in chemical efficiency and chemical damage in the upland. The administration, research and extension work for the efficient use of agricultural chemicals have been done by various institutions, such as Office of Rural Development, Office of Forestry, and chemical companies. The courses for agricultural chemicals were offered in the agricultural colleges. However, the efficiency of chemicals could not be maximized due to the poor relationships among related institutes. The newly established Agricultural Chemical Research Center at the Office of Rural Development and the Korean Weed Science Association are expected to contribute toward improving weed control in Korea. The Korean agriculture in the future will eventually be mechanized and the varieties resistant to high nitrogen application and to high plant density will be required for high yields. The rice will be transplanted earlier and the whole growing period will be extended. The application of organic matter will be increased for increasing soil fertility, and the use of agricultural chemicals will be continued. Under such a condition, the studies on the weed occurrence and its integrated control measures will be needed. Also weed controls in the newly exclaimed land, crop varieties, horticultural varieties, forage crops, and forests are also needed to study. Basic and practical researches for the weed control to improve the labor productivity will be also needed. In order to meet the all requirements for efficient weed control, weed control systems including all the academics, research and extension workers, administratives, farmers and companies should be established. Also securing researchers and education of personnels are pre-required and research funds for the chemical studies should be provided efficiently and timely.

• International Journal of Highway Engineering
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• v.17 no.3
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• pp.85-95
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• 2015

PURPOSES : Recently, bonded concrete overlay has been used as an alternative solution in concrete pavement rehabilitation since its material properties are similar to those of the existing concrete pavements. Deteriorated concrete pavements need rapid rehabilitation in order to prevent traffic jams on Korean expressways. Moreover, speedy and effective repair methods are required. Therefore, the use of bonded concrete overlay with ultra-rapid hardening cement has increased in an effort to reopen promptly the expressways in Korea. However, mobile mixer is required for ultra-rapid hardening cement concrete mixing in the construction site. The use of mobile mixer causes various disadvantages aforementioned such as limitation of the construction supply, open-air storage of mixing materials, increase in construction cost, and etc. In this study, therefore, hydration accelerator in-situ mixing on polymer modified concrete produced in concrete plant is attempted in order to avoid the disadvantages of existing bonded concrete overlay method using ultra-rapid hardening cement. METHODS : Bonded concrete overlay materials using ultra-rapid hardening cement should be meet all the requirements including structural characteristics, compatibility, durability for field application. Therefore, This study aimed to evaluate the application of hydration accelerator in-situ mixing on polymer modified concrete by evaluating structural characteristics, compatibility, durability and economic efficiency for bonded concrete overlay. RESULTS : Test results of structural characteristics showed that the compressive, flexural strength and bond strength were exceed 21MPa, 3.15MPa and 1.4MPa, respectively, which are the target strengths of four hours age for the purpose of prompt traffic reopening. In addition, tests of compatibility, such as drying shrinkage, coefficient of thermal expansion and modulus of elasticity, and durability (chloride ions penetration resistance, freezing-thawing resistance, scaling resistance, abrasion resistance and crack resistance), showed that the hydration accelerator in-situ mixing on polymer modified concrete were satisfied the required criteria. CONCLUSIONS : It was known that the hydration accelerator in-situ mixing on polymer modified concrete overlay method was applicable for bonded concrete overlay and was a good alternative method to substitute the existing bonded concrete overlay method since structural characteristics, compatibility, durability were satisfied the criteria and its economic efficiency was excellent compare to the existing bonded concrete overlay methods.

• Journal of the Korea Institute of Building Construction
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• v.17 no.3
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• pp.211-217
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• 2017

The objective of this study is to seek a reliable mixture proportion for magnesium potassium phosphate composite(MKPC) mortars with a near-neutral pH value (below 9.5) and a relatively good compressive strength exceeding 30MPa. The main parameter selected was the molar ratios($M_{mp}$) of $MgO-to-KH_2PO_4$ which varied from 30.4 to 3.4. The setting time of the MKPC mortars tended to shorten with a decrease in $M_{mp}$ value. With regard to the strength development ratio normalized by the 28-day strength, the ranges measured in the mortars with an $M_{mp}$ below 7.9 were 50~61% at 1 day and 60~73% at 3 days, indicating a highly rapid early-strength development. With a decrease in $M_{mp}$, the formation of struvite-K crystal identified as a primary hydration product increased, which led to the decrease of the macro-capillary pores in micro-structures. For achieving the targeted requirements for pH value and compressive strength, the $M_{mp}$ needs to be selected as below 5.1.

• Journal of Nuclear Fuel Cycle and Waste Technology(JNFCWT)
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• v.14 no.3
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• pp.235-243
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• 2016

In the near future, many countries, including the Republic of Korea, will face a significant increase in low level radioactive waste (LLW) from nuclear power plant decommissioning. The purpose of this paper is to look at blending as a method for enhancing disposal options for low-level radioactive waste from the decommissioning of nuclear reactors. The 2007 U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission strategic assessment of the status of the U.S. LLW program identified the need to move to a risk-informed and performance-based regulatory approach for managing LLW. The strategic assessment identified blending waste of varying radionuclide concentrations as a potential means of enhancing options for LLW disposal. The NRC's position is that concentration averaging or blending can be performed in a way that does not diminish the overall safety of LLW disposal. The revised regulatory requirements for blending LLW are presented in the revised NRC Branch Technical Position for Concentration Averaging and Encapsulation (CA BTP 2015). The changes to the CA BTP that are the most significant for NPP operation, maintenance and decommissioning are reviewed in this paper and a potential application is identified for decommissioning waste in Korea. By far the largest volume of LLW from NPPs will come from decommissioning rather than operation. The large volumes in decommissioning present an opportunity for significant gains in disposal efficiency from blending and concentration averaging. The application of concentration averaging waste from a reactor bio-shield is also presented.

• Clean Technology
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• v.27 no.3
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• pp.247-254
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• 2021

In this study, an eco-friendly combustion process of waste 2,4,6-trinitrotoluene (TNT: 2,4,6-trinitrotoluene) was developed, and fundamental data for the quantity of the organic matter in the final combustion residues is presented. Because complete combustion of TNT is not possible theoretically, the combustion process was optimized to reduce organic matter content in the combustion residue by performing measures such as heating time changes, addition of propellant material, and after treatment using a high-temp electrical furnace. From the results, it was confirmed that the organic matter content in the residue could be decreased to 7 ~ 10% with each method. The quantity of the organic matter could be minimized by optimizing the combustion conditions of the process. With only a combustion time increase, the amount of organic matter in the combustion residues was measured at about 9 wt%. The environmental friendliness of the final exhaust gas was also confirmed by real time gas component analyses. In addition, the organic contents could be reduced by a further 2 wt% by applying an additional heat treatment using an external electric furnace after the first incineration treatment. In the combustion process of propellant added waste TNT, it was found that various TNT wastes could be treated using the same eco-friendly protocols because the organic content in the residue decreased in accordance with the amount of propellant. The amount of the organic matter content produced by all these methods fulfilled the requirements under the Waste Management Act.

• The Journal of Korea Institute of Information, Electronics, and Communication Technology
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• v.15 no.2
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• pp.178-188
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• 2022

The introduction of virtual power plants is actively being discussed to solve the problem of grid acceptability caused by the spread of distributed renewable energy, which is the key to achieving carbon neutrality. However, a new business such as virtual power plants is difficult to secure economic feasibility at the initial stage of introduction because it is common that there is no compensation mechanism. Therefore, appropriate support including subsidy is required at the early stage. But, it is generally difficult to obtain the cost model to determine the subsidy level because of the lack of enough data for the new business model. In this study, a survey of domestic experts on the requirements, appropriate scale, and cost required for the introduction of virtual power plants is conducted. First, resource composition scenarios are designed from the survey results to consider the impact of the resource composition on the cost. Then, the cost estimation model is obtained using the individual cost estimation data for their resource compositions using logistic regression analysis. In the case study, appropriate initial subsidy levels are analyzed and compared for the virtual power plants on the scale of 20-500MW. The results show that mid-to-large resource composition cases show 29-51% lower cost than small-to-large resource composition cases.

• Journal of Korean Society of Rural Planning
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• v.28 no.1
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• pp.1-15
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• 2022

A Care farm is known to have positive effects on various people in psychological, physical, and social aspects. However, care farm services for the disabled, transportation disadvantaged, and socially disadvantaged are limited. This study conducted a demand survey in order to provide basic data for development of the Agro-Healing Virtual Reality Therapy(AVRT) system. The respondents were the ordinary person(n=127) and the disabled person(n=72), and the survey items consisted of 4 categories and 20 items, including intention to use AVRT, requirements for use, factors to be considered when developing the system, and content and program preferences. The intention to use a AVRT was found to be at a high level of 80% or more by respondent characteristics. In addition, similar results were shown in all items such as virtual reality experience, willingness to use, appropriate use time, and willingness to pay by respondent characteristics, and correlation by item was determined through correlation analysis. As for the conditions of use, both sides preferred rural types and were found to have the purpose of healing. However, there were concerns about dizziness in common between system use, and in the case of the disabled person, there were difficulties in purchasing expensive equipment. In the development of the AVRT system, the part of sensory priority, important technology level, and color preference were evaluated, and the preference of content and programs to be developed in the system was identified. Fruit, vegetables, flowers, and animals preferred mandarin, tomato, tulips, and dogs first, horticultural healing preferred harvest management for the ordinary person, plant cultivation for the disabled person, and forest healing and animal education preferred walking and dog-related programs. However, agricultural work was found to be a program with high preference for making processed foods for the ordinary person and creating an animal breeding environment for the disabled person. The result of this study is expected to provide reference data that can be suggested for the development of Agro-healing Virtual Reality Therapy system.

• 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 Wetlands Research
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• v.20 no.4
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• pp.398-409
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• 2018

Organic farming practices including loach based ecosystem-farming have been demonstrated to be effective in conjunction with rice farming to increase yield and quality. This new form of farming combines agriculture and fishery and is quickly developing into a new industry. The current study investigated the effect of rice-fish mixed farming system on the vegetation-diversity function. Vegetation within the four study sites was surveyed and analyzed based on plant taxonomy. The vegetation survey demonstrated that 127 taxa of 38 families, 100 genera, 107 species, and 20 varieties occurred within the study sites. A total of 15 plant species taxa occurred in the rice-fish mixed paddy fields with a fish habitat and did not occur in the conventional paddy field lacking fish habitat. This difference is thought to arise from differences in moisture requirements for vegetation. Life form analysis demonstrated differences in hemicryptophytes, therophytes, and hydrophytes according to fish habitat. The naturalized plants identified were also determined to be species widely distributed throughout Korea. Frequency analysis demonstrated that the rice-fish mixed paddy fields with a fish habitat had a high ratio of both obligate and facultative wetland plants relative to the conventional paddy field. Based on the study results, it is likely that vegetation-diversity will increase with environment diversity. However, no statistical significance was observed according to paddy types. Future research should aim to identify additional environmental factors, including the existence of fish habitat, habitat area, depth of fish habitat, hydrological parameters, water quality, and paddy soil environment, to enhance vegetation-diversity and biocultural diversity.