• Journal of Environmental Impact Assessment
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• v.31 no.5
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• pp.286-295
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• 2022

In this study, the concentration distribution of indoor radon in Daejeon Metropolitan City was investigated and the reduction efficiency was evaluated by applying the radon reduction methods. Based on the results of the National Institute of Environmental Research, indoor radon measurements were conducted on 24 selected houses, and the average value of District A was 261 Bq/m3, far exceeding the standard, and even in the same house, indoor radon concentration was affected by measurement point and time. In the case of eight houses that applied the soil venting method to reduce radon, the indoorradon level was significantly lowerthan the standard value, and the average reduction efficiency was also around 55%, indicating a good reduction effect. In addition, the average reduction efficiency was around 90% in the two houses that carried out the shielding method, showing the very excellent effect of the indoorradon reduction. Even if the same reduction method is applied when reducing radon, the reduction efficiency may vary depending on various factors such as the structure of the building, the frequency of ventilation, and the season, so it is necessary to accurately evaluate the effectiveness of the reduction method in the future. Based on this, it is necessary to establish indoor radon management measures in Daejeon Metropolitan City to reduce human harm caused by radon exposure.

• Journal of the Korean Association of Geographic Information Studies
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• v.20 no.1
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• pp.71-84
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• 2017

Radon, which enters the interior environment from soil, rocks, and groundwater, is a radioactive gas that poses a serious risk to humans. Indoor radon concentrations are measured to investigate the risk of radon gas exposure and reliable radon concentration mapping is then performed for further analysis. In this study, we compared the predictive performance of various univariate kriging algorithms, including ordinary kriging and three nonlinear transform-based kriging algorithms (log-normal, multi-Gaussian, and indicator kriging), for mapping radon concentrations with an asymmetric distribution. To compare and analyze the predictive performance, we carried out jackknife-based validation and analyzed the errors according to the differences in the data intervals and sampling densities. From a case study in South Korea, the overall nonlinear transform-based kriging algorithms showed better predictive performance than ordinary kriging. Among the nonlinear transform-based kriging algorithms, log-normal kriging had the best performance, followed by multi-Gaussian kriging. Ordinary kriging was the best for predicting high values within the spatial pattern. The results from this study are expected to be useful in the selection of kriging algorithms for the spatial prediction of data with an asymmetric distribution.

• Journal of Environmental Impact Assessment
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• v.27 no.3
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• pp.241-250
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• 2018

Recently, negative effects on human health such as disease caused by harmful environment have been dealt with seriously. In particular, studies on the effect of radon exposure, which is known as a primary carcinogen in lung cancer due to radioactive materials, have been actively studied. In Korea, since January 1, 2018, radon measurement is mandatory when building a new apartment, so it is necessary to measure the radon concentration and submit it to the local government and it should be posted where residents can see it. Radon has only recommended standards for multi-use facilities, but now it has decided to set recommendation standards for private homes. Therefore, it should now be possible to manage the radon in the environmental impact assessment phase as well as in the Post-environmental Impact Assessment. It should be possible to share health information such as the radon concentration and the risk of radon, and participation of health experts in the environmental impact assessment stage is required. Soil, air quality, hygiene and aerial items should be improved to take into account the effects of radon on human health during the environmental impact assessment process. If the level value of conncentration of radon shows above the recommended level, then alternative measures should be prepared and mitigation measures should be prepared as well.

• Journal of odor and indoor environment
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• v.17 no.4
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• pp.322-329
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• 2018

The objective of this study is to identify the research trend in the field of indoor environment in Korea. We collected 419 papers published in the Journal of the Korean Society for indoor environment between 2004 and 2018, and attempted to produce datasets using a topic modeling technique, Latent Dirichlet Allocation(LDA). The result of topic modeling showed that 8 topics ("VOCs investigation", "Subway environment", "Building thermal environment", "School health", "Building particulate matter", "Asbestos risk", "Radon risk", "Air cleaner and treatment") could be extracted using Gibbs sampling method. In terms of topic trends, investigation of volatile organic compounds, subway environment, school health, and building particulate matter showed a decreasing tendency, while the building thermal environment, asbestos risk, radon risk, air cleaners, and air treatment showed an increasing tendency. The results of this topic modeling could help us to understand current trends related indoor environment, and provide valuable information in developing future research and policy frameworks.

• Journal of the Korea Institute of Building Construction
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• v.18 no.1
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• pp.9-15
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• 2018

Radon gas, which is present on the earth, is a primary carcinogen released from rocks, soil, building materials, etc., and exists as a unique gas phase. In order to solve the risk of radon gas, we evaluated the basic performance which can be used as indoor finishing materials in addition to the radon gas reduction properties of the matrix using anthracite. An anthracite used as a conventional filter material was used to produce a matrix, and a test was conducted to replace the gypsum board, which is one of the building materials used in the existing room. As the anthracite replacement ratio increases, flexural failure load strength increases and thermal conductivity tends to decrease. Depending on the thickness of the board, the reduction performance of radon gas shows a slight difference.

• Economic and Environmental Geology
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• v.31 no.5
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• pp.415-424
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• 1998

In order to investigate soil-gas $^{222}Rn$ concentrations, Kwanak Campus (Seoul National University), Boeun (Choong-buk) and Gapyung (Kyonggi) areas were selected and classified depending on their base rock types. Radon risk indices of these study areas decrease in the order of Gapyung>Kwanak Campus>Boeun areas, and in the order of rock type as banded gneiss>granite gneiss>granite>black slate-shale>mica schist>shale-lirnestone>phyllite-schist. Radon emanating trends with water content and grain size of soils were assessed by modified Morse 3 min. method. Radon emanation increases with the increase of water content in soils which is lower than 6~16 wt.%, and decreases in the range of higher than 6-16 wt. %. It shows that Rn emanation increases with the decrease of soil grain size. Radioactivity analysis of radionuclides of 238U series in some soil samples shows that radioactive disequilibrium state between $^{226}Ra$ and $^{238}U$ exists owing to different geochemical behavior of each radionuclide, and, it is necessary to carry out radioactive isotope geochemical approach for soil-gas $^{222}Rn$ study.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.54 no.4
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• pp.1431-1438
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• 2022

In this study, natural radioactivity concentrations and dosimetric values of fly ash samples were evaluated for the landfill area of the coal-fired power plant (CFPP) complex at Binh Thuan, Vietnam. The average activity concentrations of ²³⁸U, ²²⁶Ra, ²³²Th and ⁴⁰K were 93, 77, 92 and 938 Bq kg^-1, respectively. The average results for radon dose, indoor external, internal, and total effective dose equivalent (TEDE) were 5.27, 1.22, 0.16, and 6.65 mSv y^-1, respectively. The average emanation fraction for fly ash were 0.028. The excess lifetime cancer risks (ELCR) were recorded as 20.30×10^-3, 4.26×10^-3, 0.62×10^-3, and 25.61×10^-3 for radon, indoor, outdoor exposures, and total ELCR, respectively. The results indicated that the cover of shielding materials above the landfill area significantly decreased the gamma radiation from the ash and slag in the ascending order: Zeolite < PVC < Soil < Concrete. Total dose of all radionuclides in the landfill site reached its peak at 19.8 years. The obtained data are useful for evaluation of radiation safety when fly ash is used for building material as well as the radiation risk and the overload of the landfill area from operation of these plants for population and workers.

• Journal of Korean Society of Occupational and Environmental Hygiene
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.54-67
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• 2006

This study was performed to deduct the extension possibility of the standards establishment for $NO_2$, $O_3$, Asbestos, Radon, total volatile organic compounds (TVOC) excluded in the indoor air part of Industrial Safety Acts in Korea. The air pollutants were sampled for 30 office buildings from August to September, 2005 in the metropolitan area. The airborne concentrations of $NO_2$, $O_3$, Radon and TVOC were 0.0092 ppm, 0.0035 ppm, 0.57 pCi/L and $423{\mu}g/m^3$, respectively. The management plan and reduction methods is required in the aspect of indoor air quality(IAQ) because the emission sources of those also exist in indoor as well as outdoor even though those were not exceeded the standards of the Ministry of Environment in Korea. The standard for TVOC in the new and remodeling office has to be established based on the risk assessment when hazard index exceeded "1" in the worst case scenario. In the state of art, the management of each volatile organic compounds has a difficulty due to not enough data for toxicological reference. Therefore, it is suggested that first of all, the standard for TVOC be established and then expanded to each materials for decision-making of improvement of IAQ in office.

• Journal of Radiation Protection and Research
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.57-70
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• 1992

An excess risk of lung cancer mortality among Koreans, attributable to indoor $^{222}Rn$ daughters exposure, were quantitatively evaluated by applying a stochastic health risk projection model on the radiation exposure. The lung cancer rate in Korean males and females, based on the 1989 demographic data, were estimated to be $22.4/10^5-y\;and\;9.5/10^5-y$, respectively The lifetime baseline lung cancer risks, deduced from these rates, appeared to be 0.047 and 0.019 for males and females, respectively, and were lower than the corresponding 1984 values of 0.067 and 0.025 in the U.S.A. The excess risk coefficients, derived by modified relative risk projection model of the BEIR-IV Committee under the US National Academy of Science, per annual 1.0 WLM of exposure to indoor radon daughters were estimated to be 0.022/WLM for males, 0.009/WLM for females, and 0.017/WLM for both sexes. The resulting annual frequency of excess lung cancer mortality for the life expectancy in the Korean population appeared to be 230/10^6-WLM, which was an approximate median of $120{\sim}450/10^6-WLM$ reported so far in the world.

• Journal of radiological science and technology
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• v.44 no.5
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• pp.489-494
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• 2021

In this study, radioactivity quantitative analysis was performed on radon contained in cigarette, and the effective dose was calculated using the result value to determine the amount of exposure caused by smoking. A total of 5 types of cigarettes were sampled. Cigarette smoke was collected by using activated carbon, and tobacco were measured by homogenizing for quantitative analysis. For each sample, Bi-214 and Pb-214 were subjected to gamma nuclide analysis to observe the uranium-based radioactive material contained in cigarette, and a measurement time of 30,000 seconds was set for the sample based on the results of previous studies. As a result of measuring the radioactivity of tobacco, a maximum of 0.715 Bq/kg was derived, and in the case of cigarette smoke measured using activated carbon, a maximum of 3.652 Bq/kg was derived. Using this measurement, the average effective dose to the lungs is 0.938 mSv/y, and it was found that there is a possibility of receiving exposure up to 1.099 mSv/y depending on the type of tobacco. It was found that the exposure dose due to cigarette occupies a large proportion of the annual effective dose limit for the general public. Therefore, more diverse studies on radioactive substances in cigarette are needed, and measures to monitor and reduce the incidental exposure to radon should be established.