• Journal of Nuclear Fuel Cycle and Waste Technology(JNFCWT)
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• v.19 no.1
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• pp.133-140
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• 2021

This study evaluates the radioactivity of concrete waste that occurs due to large amounts of decommissioned nuclear wastes and then determines the surface dose rate when the waste is packaged in a disposal container. The radiation assessment was conducted under the presumption that impurities included in the bio-shielded concrete contain the highest amount of radioactivity among all the concrete wastes. Neutron flux was applied using the simplified model approach in a sample containing the most Co and Eu impurities, and a maximum of 9.8×104 Bq·g-1 60Co and 2.63×105 Bq·g-1 152Eu was determined. Subsequently, the surface dose rate of the container was measured assuming that the bio-shield concrete waste would be packaged in a newly developed disposal container. Results showed that most of the concrete wastes with a depth of 20 cm or higher from the concrete surface was found to have less than 1.8 mSv·hr-1 in the surface dose of the new-type disposal container. Hence, when bio-shielded concrete wastes, having the highest radioactivity, is disposed in the new disposal container, it satisfies the limit of the surface dose rate (i.e., 2 mSv·hr-1) as per global standards.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.55 no.6
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• pp.2158-2165
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• 2023

Marine radioactivity monitoring is critical for taking immediate action in case of unexpected nuclear accidents at nuclear facilities located near coastal areas. Especially when the level of contamination is not predictable, mobile monitoring systems will be useful for wide-area ocean radiation survey and for determination of the level of radioactivity. Here, we used a silicon photomultiplier and a high-efficiency GAGG crystal to fabricate a compact, battery-powered gamma spectroscopy that can be used in an ocean environment. The developed spectroscopy has compact dimensions of 6.5 × 6.5× 8 cm³ and weighs 560 g. We used LoRa, a low-power wireless protocol for communication. Successful data transmission was achieved within 1.4 m water depth. The developed gamma spectroscopy was able to detect radioactivity from a ¹³⁷Cs point source (3.7 kBq) at a distance of 20 cm in water. Moreover, we demonstrated an unmanned radioactivity monitoring system in a real sea by combining unmanned surface vehicle with the developed gamma spectroscopy. A hidden ¹³⁷Cs source (3.07 MBq) was detected by the unmanned system at a distance of 3 m. After successfully testing the developed mobile spectroscopy in an ocean environment, we believe that our proposed system will be an effective solution for mobile real-time marine radioactivity monitoring.

• Journal of Radiation Protection and Research
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• v.24 no.2
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• pp.109-120
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• 1999

Residual radiation and radioactivity level in TRIGA Mark-II, III research reactors and facilities at the KAERI Seoul site, which are to be decommissioned, have been measured, analyzed and evaluated to know the current status of radiation and radioactivity level and to establish and to provide the technical requirements for the safe decommissioning of the facilities which shall be applied in minimizing the radiation exposure for workers and in preventing the release of the radioactive materials to the environment. Radiation dose rate and surface radioactivity contamination level on the experimental equipments, floors, walls of the facilities, and the surface of the activated materials within the reactor pool structure were measured and evaluated. Radioactivity and radionuclides in the pool and cooling water were also analyzed. In case of the activated reactor pool structures which are very difficult to measure the radiation and radioactivity level, a computer code Fispin was additionally used for estimation of the residual radioactivity and radionuclides. The radiation and radioactivity data obtained in this study were effectively used as basic data for decontamination and dismantling plan for safe decommissioning of TRIGA Mark-II, III facilities.

• Journal of Nuclear Fuel Cycle and Waste Technology(JNFCWT)
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• v.6 no.1
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• pp.11-15
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• 2008

In order to transport spent resin in a high integrated container made of high density polyethylene, a method for determining transportation grade by radioactivity analysis was developed. Ratios of radioisotopes in spent resin were derived from radioactivity analysis on spent resin. Associated curie-to-dose factors were determined to estimate radioisotope inventory from surface dose rates of spent resin. From the results, Activity limit of type A package was derived to be 1.19 TBq for HIC, and the corresponding surface dose rate was found to be 124.2 mSv/h.

• International Journal of Contents
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• v.8 no.2
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• pp.60-66
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• 2012

This study was designed to detect and measure the concentration of radioactivity of natural radionuclides ($^{238}U$, $^{232}Th$, $^{40}K$) and artificial radionuclides ($^{137}Cs$, $^{60}Co$) present in the drinking water of the city of Busan and surrounding areas in South Korea, and also to measure the absorbed dose of radiation caused by these elements in the residents so as to help better manage the risk that these radionuclides pose in the future. For the purposes of the study, a total of 42 samples of water were collected from three key water sources (19 samples of groundwater, 4 samples of tap water, and 19 samples of surface water) and their contents were analyzed for radioactivity concentration. The results revealed that two natural radionuclides, $^{238}U$ and $^{232}Th$, exist in the groundwater with an average concentration of radioactivity of 3.34 Bq/L and $8.28{\times}10^{-5}Bq/L$ respectively, while the surface water was found to contain the same two radionuclides with mean concentrations of 0.849 Bq/L and $1.103{\times}10^{-4}Bq/L$ respectively. In addition, of the 19 samples of the groundwater, $^{137}Cs$ was found in eight of them and $^{60}Co$ was detected in ten. Of the four samples of the tap water, $^{137}Cs$ was detected in all samples and $^{60}Co$ was detected in three. Both $^{137}Cs$ and $^{60}Co$ were detected in all 12 samples of surface water. As far as $^{40}K$ is concerned, this element was detected in three of the 19 groundwater samples, but was not detected in any surface or tap water sample. In addition, the absorbed dose of $^{238}U$ from the groundwater was $7.94{\times}10^{-8}Sv/y$, while the absorbed dose of $^{232}Th$ from the surface water was $9.33{\times}10^{-13}Sv/y$. The absorbed dose of $^{137}Cs$ from the tap water was $7.33{\times}10^{-5}Sv/y$, while the absorbed dose of $^{60}Co$ from the surface water was the highest at $4.23{\times}10^{-6}Sv/y$.

• Journal of Korea Society of Industrial Information Systems
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• v.16 no.4
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• pp.37-44
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• 2011

This paper was development of surface contamination automatic smear sampling for measuring radioactive contamination in radiation controlled area of nuclear facility. In indirect method a smear paper are used manually. Activity on the smear paper is affected by varying the pressures applied, by the smearing time, by the difference of ares sampled during smearing. By means of these there are erroneous. In the future the apparatus will be developed as a portable apparatus measuring smear activity automatically by adding radiation detection instrument.

• Journal of Pharmaceutical Investigation
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• v.26 no.2
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• pp.105-112
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• 1996

The surface of albumin microspheres was modified with methotrexate(MTX) by using 1,3-dicyclohexylcarbodiimide (DCC). Surface-modified albumin microspheres entrapping no MTX (SAMS), free MTX (SAMSF) and MTX-bovine serum albumin(BSA) conjugates(SAMSC) were prepared. The organ-targeting ability of free $[^3H]MTX,\;[^3H]MTX-BSA$ conjugate and the above microspheres was evaluated after i.v. administration of the preparations, equivalent to 150 nCi via the tail vein of mice. The total radioactivity in the lung increased immediately in a few minutes after i.v. injection of the microspheres, and then declined for the period of 3-4 weeks. However, the radioactivity in the liver, spleen and kidney increased slowly during the rapid decrease in radioactivity in the lung. This suggested that the microspheres could be entrapped rapidly in the lung through mechanical filtration because of their large size and slowly redistributed to the liver, spleen and kidney due to either the microspheres being degraded enough for the size to allow passage through the capillary beds of the lung and/or the release of $[^3H]MTX\;or\;[^3H]MTX-BSA$ conjugates from the microspheres. The amount of $60{sim}70%$ of the dose was targeted to the liver after the i.v. injection of SAMS, SAMSF and SAMSC, and the values of $(R_e\;^*\;_{e)liver}$ from the microspheres were $5{\sim}7$ compared to free MTX. This suggested that the liver-targeting ability from surface-modified albumin microspheres could be $5{\sim}7$ times as that of free MTX. The liver-targeted drug was accumulated in the Kupffer cells at the initial stage, thereafter the drug in the Kupffer cell was slowly transferred into the hepatocytes. The value of AUQ for liver from SAMS was higher than that from SAMSF, but much lower than that from SAMSC. This suggest that MTX bound to their surface could be eliminated slower than the entrapped free MTX, and faster than the entrapped MTX-BSA conjugates. This is consistent with the in vitro release rates order in the presence of a proteolytic enzyme. Also, surface-modified MTX was scarcely released in the absence of a proteolytic enzyme. Therefore, the surface-modified MTX nay be released (or eliminated) rapidly from SAMSC at the target site, and thereafter MTX may be released (or eliminated) slowly from the entrapped MTX-BSA conjugates in SAMSC for a long period.

• Applied Biological Chemistry
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• v.41 no.3
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• pp.253-257
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• 1998

Behaviour of a fungicide $^{14}C-propiconazole$ was investigated in a field lysimeter of sandy loam soil. At 15 days after rice-seedling transplanting, $^{14}C-propiconazole$ was treated on the soil surface at the rate of 0.12 kg/10a. The cummulative $^{14}C-radioactivity$ in the leachate from the lysimeter soil was 4.4% of the applied $^{14}C$ for 16 weeks. Most radioactivity detected in leachate was in the form of parent compound. At the end of lysimeter experiment. $^{14}C$ radioactivity in lysimeter soil was 76.5% of the applied $^{14}C$ and more than 97% of $^{14}C$ in soil remained in the top 20 cm. The percent of $^{14}CO_2$ evolved from lysimeter soil was 7.8% of the applied $^{14}C$. The radioactivity remained in the rice straw after harvest was 7.2% of the applied $^{14}C$, while less than 0.1% of the applied $^{14}C$ was detected in flag leaf, ear, chaff and hulled rice, respectively.

• Journal of Radiopharmaceuticals and Molecular Probes
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• v.8 no.2
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• pp.95-101
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• 2022

Microfluidic radioimmunoassay (RIA) platform called µ-RIA spends less reagent and shorter reaction time for the analysis compared to the conventional tube-based radioimmunoassay. This study reported the design of µ-RIA chips optimized for the gamma counter which could measure the small samples of radioactive materials automatically. Compared with the previous study, the µ-RIA chips developed in this study were designed to be compatible with conventional RIA test tubes. And, the automatic gamma counter could detect radioactivity from the ¹²⁵I labeled anti-PSA attached to the chips. Effects of the multi-layer microchannels and two-phase flow in the µ-RIA chips were investigated in this study. The measured radioactivity from the ¹²⁵I labeled anti-PSA was linearly proportional to the number of stacked chips, representing that the radioactivity in µ-RIA platform could be amplified by designing the chips with multi-layers. In addition, we designed µ-RIA chip to generate liquid-gas plug flow inside the microfluidic channel. The plug flow can promote binding of the biomolecules onto the microfluidic channel surface with recirculation in the liquid phase. The ratio of liquid slug and air slug length was 1 : 1 when the ¹²⁵I labeled anti-PSA and the air were injected at 1 and 35 µL/min, respectively, exhibiting 1.6 times higher biomolecule attachment compared to the microfluidic chip without the air injection. This experimental result indicated that the biomolecular reaction was improved by generating liquid-gas slugs inside the microfluidic channel. In this study, we presented a novel µ-RIA chips that is compatible with the conventional gamma counter with automated sampler. Therefore, high-throughput radioimmunoassay can be carried out by the automatic measurement of radioactivity with reduced radiowaste generation. We expect the µ-RIA platform can successfully replace conventional tube-based radioimmunoassay in the future.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.15 no.2
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• pp.110-116
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• 1983

The absorption and translocation of strontium-90 by soybean plant, Glycine max, was studied by applying strontium-90 solution on the foliage or on the soil surface right after the first flowering time under greenhouse conditions. The results are summarized as follows. In the foliar application of strontium-90, only a small portion of the radioactivity was translocated to other parts of the plant and most of it remained in the applied leaves, which should cause soil contamination after falling. In the soil surface application of strontium-90, much of the radioactivity was absorbed through the root and translocated to stems and leaves by different patterns depending on the growth stage.