• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.49 no.5
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• pp.1010-1018
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• 2017

The European Treatment and Disposal of Irradiated Graphite and other Carbonaceous Waste project sought to develop best practices in the retrieval, treatment, and disposal of irradiated graphite including other irradiated carbonaceous waste such as structural material made of graphite, nongraphitized carbon bricks, and fuel coatings. Emphasis was given on legacy irradiated graphite, as this represents a significant inventory in respective national waste management programs. This paper provides an overview of the characteristics of graphite irradiated during its use, primarily as a moderator material, within nuclear reactors. It describes the potential techniques applicable to the retrieval, treatment, recycling/reuse, and disposal of these graphite wastes. Considering the lifecycle of nuclear graphite, from manufacture to final disposal, a number of waste management options have been developed. These options consider the techniques and technologies required to address each stage of the lifecycle, such as segregation, treatment, recycle, and ultimate disposal in a radioactive waste repository, providing a toolbox to aid operators and regulators to determine the most appropriate management strategy. It is noted that national waste management programs currently have, or are in the process of developing, respective approaches to irradiated graphite management. The output of the Treatment and Disposal of Irradiated Graphite and other Carbonaceous Waste project is intended to aid these considerations, rather than dictate them.

• Progress in Superconductivity and Cryogenics
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• v.23 no.3
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• pp.55-59
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• 2021

A thermoelectric cooler (TEC) is promising as an alternative refrigeration technology for the sake of its inherent advantages; no-moving parts and refrigerant-free in its operation. Due to the compactness, reliability and excellence in temperature stability, TECs have been widely used for small cooling devices. In recent years, thermoelectric devices have been attractive technologies that not only serve the needs of cooling and heating applications but also meet the demand for energy by recycling waste heat. In this research paper, multistage TEC is proposed as a concept of demonstrating the idea of transient cooling technology. The key idea of transient cooling is to harnesses the thermal mass installed at the interfacial level of the stages. By storing heat temporally at the thermal mass, the multistage TEC can readily reach lower temperatures than that by a steady-state operation. The multistage TEC consists of four different sizes of thermoelectric modules and they are operated with an optimized current. Once the cold-part of the uppermost stage is reached at the no-load temperature, the current is successively supplied to the lower stages with a certain time interval; 25, 50 and 75 seconds. The results show the temperatures that can be ultimately reached at the cold-side of the lowermost stage are 197, 182 and 237 K, respectively. It can be concluded that the timing or total amount of the current fed to each thermoelectric module is the key parameter to determine the no-load temperature.

• Current Photovoltaic Research
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• v.7 no.1
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• pp.21-27
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• 2019

Lifetime of Si photovoltaics modules are about 25 years and a large amount of waste modules are expected to be discharged in the near future. Therefore, the extraction and collection of valuable metals out of discharged Si modules will be one of the important technologies. In this study, we demonstrated that supercritical $CO_2$ extraction method can be effectively used to remove Cu, one of the abundant elements in the module, as well as its oxide form, $Cu_2O$. Especially, we proved that the addition of hexane as co-solvent is effective for the removal of both materials. The optimal ratio of $CO_2$ and hexane was 4:1 at a fixed temperature and pressure of $250^{\circ}C$ and 250 bar, respectively. In addition, it was proven that the removal of $Cu_2O$ was preceded via reduction of $Cu_2O$ to Cu.

• Progress in Superconductivity and Cryogenics
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• v.24 no.3
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• pp.1-6
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• 2022

The Magnetic Force Control MFC technology is very useful because of its physical treatment process. Especially the Magnetic Separation MS technology is expected to contribute to SDGs 2030, Circular Economy and Carbon neutral 2050 realization. This paper describes the review of the IFMFC activity from 2010.The IFMFC is organized by three local committees of researchers in Japan, China and Korea. The IFMFC aims to exchange the information of the development results using the MFC technology and to educate the young researchers. The forum has been held in every year around three countries. In 2020 and 2021, the forum was organized by Zoom online due to the COVID-19. The 134 presentations were made up to 2020.The breakdown of these presentations are categorized to the environment remediation52%, material resource37% and fundamental research/technology11%. The Super Conducting Magnet SCM development promotes the MFC technologies. There are some impressive backgrounds as to the brilliant SM technology applications for many different magnetism ; SCM development, High Gradient Magnetic Separation HGMS, magnetic seeding method and magneto-Archimedes effect. This paper reviews the IFMFC activity according to those presented presentations.

• Journal of Fashion Business
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• v.26 no.1
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• pp.16-29
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• 2022

Environmental problems increasingly serious, and sustainability in the fashion industry has become an essential factor. Nowadays, numerous brands are engaging in sustainable fashion activities, such as recycling, vegan, fair trade, etc., which have not been done before. However, there are limited studies about sustainable fashion activities focusing on luxury brands. The purpose of this study is to establish the current status of luxury brands' sustainable fashion activities based on the macro trend of Todeschini et al(2017)'s thesis. This study selected six global luxury fashion brands Louis Vuitton, Hermes, Gucci, Prada, Burberry, and Stella McCartney. Data were collected from the brand's websites and reports, fashion magazines, and Google. As a result of the study, the following adjustments are being implemented; first, efforts are being made to reduce the consumption of natural resources. Second, transparency on working conditions is provided in various ways. Third, luxury brands' awareness of the sharing economy was not opened. Fourth, efforts are being made to develop eco-friendly materials and technologies to minimize wastage. Based on these research results, if applied as basic data for the development of Korean fashion brands and start-up companies, it will help establish directions of sustainable fashion strategies.

• Resources Recycling
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• v.28 no.6
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• pp.26-35
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• 2019

This study aims to introduce and economical review on the possibilities of rare earth elements(REEs) recovery from coal ashes and the analysis of economical evaluation factors based on the data for securing domestic rare earth elements. The cut-off grade of REEs on recovering from coal ash was confirmed to be 1,000 ppm on total rare earth oxides(TREO) basis, and while the economic value of coal ash changed with contents and specific elements of rare earth elements. This shall be resulted in the price differences of rare earth elements required by the current industry, and it probably varies depending on the future demand of rare earth components. For developing of commercial recovery technology on REEs in coal ashes, many researches have been carried out by various analyzing methods, such as evaluation of holding value of REEs in ashes, assessment between supply and demand of industry, comparison of investment and its profitability for the REEs's production from coal ashes, and so on. Although these methods have been suggested, its recovery system with economical feasibility could not been confirmed up to present. In this reason, the process design of recovering REEs from coal ash shall be researched continuously to solve the problems of the global rare earth market. And also these researches shall be conducted actively in Korea for the purpose of securing the REEs resources and their recovering technologies.

• Journal of the Korea Organic Resources Recycling Association
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• v.23 no.4
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• pp.40-51
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• 2015

This study is to estimate the viability of aerobic stabilization technology for reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from landfills in Korea. In this study, methane emissions were estimated by applying Landfill gas estimation model (LandGEM) to Y landfill in Korea. By comparison of an anaerobic condition (baseline) and an aerobic condition, the amount of $CO_2eq$ savings was calculated. The $CO_2eq$ savings take place inside the landfilled waste during aeration due to the conversion of previously anaerobic biodegradation to aerobic processes, releasing mainly $CO_2$. It was demonstrated that 86.6% of the total GHG emissions occurring under anaerobic conditions could be reduced by aerobic stabilization technology. This means the aerobic stabilization technology could reduce environmental contamination through early stabilization and GHG emissions considerably at the same time. Therefore, the aerobic stabilization technology is one of the optimal technologies that could be employed to domestic landfill sites to achieve sustainable landfill.

• Resources Recycling
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• v.24 no.5
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• pp.40-55
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• 2015

The purpose of this study is to analyse whether the waste disposal volume level in the construction waste disposal industry makes a different effect on earnings management behaviour by size of the licensed storage capacity and by location of the waste disposal site. The empirical results of this study are as follows. First, the waste disposal volume significantly influences earnings management behavior. When it comes to the size of licensed storage capacity in the small-sized capacity firms, the smaller waste disposal volume firms make more aggressive earnings management by using discretionary accruals. On the other hand, in the large-sized capacity firms, more waste disposal volume firms report higher earnings by adjusting more discretionary accruals. Second, the effects of waste disposal volume on the earnings management show different pattern depending on the location of waste disposal site. When the firms are located in the non-capital regions, the smaller waste disposal volume firms report higher earnings by adjusting discretionary accruals as well as by using real activities earnings management. However, the firms located in the capital regions show more aggressive earnings management when they have higher waste disposal volume level.

• Journal of Environmental Health Sciences
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• v.19 no.4
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• pp.51-58
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• 1993

The integrated solid waste management for Seoul Metropolitan city can be established on the basis of the following hierarchy of priorities: 1. Efforts for source reduction should be propelled by both government and citizens to achieve the effects of resource conservation. The adequate production and consumption which are environmentally amenable and sustainable can be induced by the reasonable imposition of deposit money for waste treatment to one-time use products. To accomplish source reduction effectively, the induction of legal and institutional regulation of producer and consumer participation is requisite. 2. For resource recovery, wastes generated should be recycled as far as practicable. Community residents are responsible to separate discharge, the authorities concerned have responsibility of separate collection, and recycling industry should be assissted through tax reduction and financing. Resource separation facilities can be constructed at Kimpo Metropolitan landfill site for wastes not separately collected due to some unavoidable circumstances. 3. Garbage should be composted. Garbage is uneconomical for incineration, because it has high moisture content and low calorie, thus there is no reason for the incineration of garbage even though garbage is classified into combustibles. Composting facilities can be located at sites which are not densely populated and easily accessible to transportation, for example, Kimpo Metropolitan landfill site. Compost produced can be managed by the authorities for the use of fertilizer to a green tract of suburban land and farms. 4. Nonhazardous combustible wastes not recyclable can be utilized for thermal recovery at the incinerators which are completely equipped with pollution control devices. According to the trend of local autonomy and the equity principle of local autonomous entities, incineration facilities of minimal capacity required can be constructed at each districts of Seoul Metropolitan city which have organized local assembly. In case of Yangcheon district, the economically combustible waste quantity is about 260 tons/day which exceeds 150 tons/day, the incineration capacity of existing facility. But, from now on, waste quantity can be reduced substantially by the intensive efforts of citizens for source reduction and recycling and the institutional support of administrative organizations. Especially, it is indispensable for the government to constitute institutional and technological bases that can recycle paper and plastics form 43% of waste generated. A good time for constructing of incineration facilities for municipal solid waste can be postponed to the time that pollution control technologies of domestic enterprises are fully developed to satisfy the standards of air pollution prevention, because the life expectancy of Kimpo Metropolitan landfill site is about 25 years. Within this period, institutional improvements and technological advancements can be attained, while the air qual. ity of Seoul Metropolitan city can be ameliorated to the level to afford incineration facilities. 5. For final disposal, incombustibles and ash are landfilled sanitarily at Kimpo Metropolitan landfill site.

• Resources Recycling
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• v.25 no.3
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• pp.55-62
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• 2016

Steel structures exposed to extremely corrosive environment like marine environments and industrial area are generally manufactured by applying various protection treatment to increase their lifetime. Metal spraying is one of the protection methods to overcome some drawbacks of the widely employed technologies. Therefore, lots of research needs to be done to improve the corrosion resistance of steel structures. In this study, the corrosion resistance of steel structures was evaluated with the variation in the type and thickness of metal spray by measuring the corrosion potential and current density. As a raw material for spraying, Zn, Al and their mixture were employed to obtain coating thickness of $30{\sim}100{\mu}m$. Our data indicated that the pure zinc coating with $100{\mu}m$ showed the lowest corrosion potential. In the case of pure Al and Zn 85%-Al 15%, the corrosion potential and current density was decreased compared to pure zinc. It was found that the corrosion potential was decreased with the increase of coating thickness irrespective of the type of the coating.