• Journal of Soil and Groundwater Environment
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• v.23 no.4
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• pp.1-15
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• 2018

Despite of safety issues related to radiological hazards, 31 countries around the world are operating more than 450 nuclear power plants (NPPs). To operate NPPs safely, safety regulations from radiation protection organizations were developed and adopted in many countries. However, many cases of radionuclide releases at foreign NPPs have been reported. Almost all commercial NPPs routinely release radioactive materials to the surrounding environments as liquid and gas phases under control. These releases are called 'planned releases' which are planned, regularly monitored, and well documented. Meanwhile, the releases focused in this review, called 'unplanned releases', are neither planned nor monitored by regulatory and/or protection organizations. NPPs are generally composed of various structures, systems and components (SSCs) for safety. Among them, the SSCs near reactors are closely related to safety of NPPs, and typically fabricated to comply with stringent requirements. However, some non-safety related SSCs such as underground pipes may be constructed only according to commercial standards, causing the leakage of radioactive fluids usually containing tritium ($^3H$). This paper discusses SSCs of NPPs and introduces several cases of unplanned releases at foreign NPPs. The current regulation on the environmental radiological surveillance and assessment around the NPPs in South Korea are also examined.

• Journal of Nuclear Fuel Cycle and Waste Technology(JNFCWT)
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• v.5 no.1
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• pp.65-78
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• 2007

The pollutants (Rn, CH, CO, HS, radioactive gas from radiolysis) were generated from the process of construction and operation of underground repository, and after disposal of low-intermediate radioactive waste inside there must be controlled by a ventilation system to distribute them in area where enough air is supported. Therefore, a suitable technical approach is needed especially at an underground repository that is equipped with many entry tunnels, storage tunnels, exhaust-blowing tunnels, and vertical shafts in complicated network form. For the technical approach of such a ventilation system, WIPP (Waste Isolation Pilot Plant) in U. S and SFR (Slutforvar for Reaktorafall) low-intermediate radioactive waste repository in Sweden were selected as the models, for calculating the required air quantity, organizing a ventilation network considering cross section, length, surface roughness of the air passage, and describing a calculation of resistance of each circuit. Based on these procedures, a best suited ventilation system was completed with designing proper capacity of fans and operating plan of vertical shafts. As a result of comparing the two repositories based on the geometry dimensions and ventilation facility equipment operation, more parallel circuit as in WIPP, brought decrease in resistance for entire system leading to reduce of operating costs, and the larger cross-sectional area of the SFR, the greater the percentage of disposal capacity. Accordingly, the mixture of parallel circuit of WIPP repository for reducing resistance and SFR repository formation for enlargement of disposal capacity would be the most rational and efficient ventilation system.

• Korean Journal of Construction Engineering and Management
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• v.23 no.6
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• pp.111-118
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• 2022

Recently, as underground facilities buried under roads in Korea are aging, the amount of underground facility maintenance work is rapidly increasing. For the maintenance and management of such underground facilities, the cutting work of the road pavement should be preceded. However, the conventional road pavement cutters used in Korea are not eco-friendly, and the reality is that they generate a lot of noise and cutting sludge (scattering dust). Therefore, in this study, the concept of the cutting sludge recovery device was derived, and an eco-friendly pavement cutter including this function was designed and manufactured. The developed equipment took about 20 to 30 seconds to cut 1m to a depth of 100 to 150mm. Also, the sludge suction performance was good in most sections, and the noise level of the equipment briefly measured at a distance of 2m was 82.7dB on average. However, due to the limitation that the developed equipment was at the level of the first prototype, the driving stability was somewhat low, and equipment abnormalities such as engine shutdown and sludge recovery performance decreased in some cases. The cutting performance and sludge recovery function will be more stable through tuning and improvement of the developed prototype in the future. In addition, we plan to quantitatively compare and analyze productivity by applying the improved prototype to actual field conditions.

• Journal of Korean Tunnelling and Underground Space Association
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• v.26 no.4
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• pp.365-384
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• 2024

The development of scanning technology is accelerating for safer and more efficient automated inspection than human-based inspection. Research on automatically detecting facility damage from images collected using computer vision technology is also increasing. The pixel size, quality, and quantity of an image can affect the performance of deep learning or image processing for automatic damage detection. This study is a basic to acquire high-quality raw image data and camera performance of a mobile tunnel scanning system for automatic detection of damage based on deep learning, and proposes a method to quantitatively evaluate image quality. A test chart was attached to a panel device capable of simulating a moving speed of 40 km/h, and an indoor test was performed using the international standard ISO 12233 method. Existing image quality evaluation methods were applied to evaluate the quality of images obtained in indoor experiments. It was determined that the shutter speed of the camera is closely related to the motion blur that occurs in the image. Modulation transfer function (MTF), one of the image quality evaluation method, can objectively evaluate image quality and was judged to be consistent with visual observation.

• Journal of Wetlands Research
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• v.21 no.3
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• pp.191-198
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• 2019

High impervious surfaces increase the surface runoff during rainfall and reduces the underground infiltration thereby leading to water cycle distortion. The distortion of water cycle causes various urban environmental problems such as urban flooding, drought, water pollutant due to non-point pollution runoff, and water ecosystem damage. Climate change intensified seasonal biases in urban rainfall and affected urban microclimate, thereby increasing the intensity and frequency of urban floods and droughts. Low impact development(LID) technology has been applied to various purposes as a technique to reduce urban environmental problems caused by water by restoring the natural water cycle in the city. This study evaluated the contribution of hydrologic characteristics and water cycle recovery after LID application using long-term monitoring results of various LID technology applied in urban areas. Based on the results, the high retention and infiltration rate of the LID facility was found to contribute significantly to peak flow reduction and runoff delay during rainfall. The average runoff reduction effect was more than 60% at the LID facility. The surface area of the LID facility area ratio(SA/CA) was evaluated as an important factor affecting peak flow reduction and runoff delay effect.

• Tunnel and Underground Space
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• v.33 no.6
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• pp.435-444
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• 2023

In the licensing application for the deep geological disposal system of high-level radioactive waste in Finland, the disposal tunnel backfilling has been changed from the block/pellet (for the construction) to the granular type (for the operation). Accordingly, for establishing the design concept for backfilling, it is necessary to examine applicability to the domestic facility through analyzing problems of the existing method and improvements in the alternative design. In this paper, we first reviewed the principal studies conducted for changing the backfill method in the licensing process of the Finnish facility, and identified the expected problems in applying the block/pellet backfill method. In addition, we derived the evaluation factors to be considered in terms of technical and operational aspects for the backfilling solution, and then conducted a comparative analysis for two types of backfill methods. This analysis confirmed the overall superiority of the design change. It is expected that these results could be utilized as the technical basis for deriving the optimum design plan in development process of the Korean-specific deep disposal facility. However, applicability should be reviewed in advance based on the latest technical data for the detailed evaluation factors that must be considered for selecting the backfilling method.

• Journal of Korean Tunnelling and Underground Space Association
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• v.23 no.6
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• pp.577-587
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• 2021

Room and Pillar method is an underground facility construction method that maximizes the strength of the in-situ ground. In order to secure the safety of the underground space, it is necessary to secure the safety of the room actually used in addition to the safety of pillar of the room and Pillar method. In this study, the evaluation method for the safety of the room and rock pillar in the room and pillar method was studied through numerical analysis. Numerical analysis was performed for a total of 125 cases using ground conditions, pillar width, and room width as parameters, and the results were derived. As for the safety factor of the pillar, it was confirmed that the safety factor increased when the strength of the ground increased, and it was confirmed that the increment in the safety factor decreased when the width of the pillar was widened. The room strain was evaluated by applying the Critical strain. As the width of the pillar became narrower, the Critical strain was higher, and as the width of the room became smaller, the Critical strain was smaller. As a result of the correlation analysis between the safety factor of the pillar and the room strain, it was possible to derive the upper limit of the room strain that can secure the standard safety factor of the pillar according to the width of the pillar. It is judged that the results derived from this study can be used as a guideline to secure the safety of the room when the actual design is performed in consideration of the ground conditions and room width.

• Tunnel and Underground Space
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• v.34 no.4
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• pp.267-282
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• 2024

This study aims to develop a wireless communication system for long-term monitoring of high-level radioactive waste disposal facilities. Conventional wired sensors can lead to a deterioration in buffer quality and management difficulties due to the use of cables for power supply and data transmission. This study proposes the adoption of a wireless communication system and compares the received signal strengths within bentonite using modules such as WiFi, ZigBee, and LoRa. Increases in dry density of bentonite and distance between transceivers led to reduced received signal strength. Additionally, using the low-frequency band exhibited less signal attenuation. Based on these findings, a conceptual design for a wireless network-based THM integrated sensor system was proposed. Results of this study can be used as foundational data for long-term monitoring of disposal facility.

• Journal of Korea Water Resources Association
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• v.52 no.4
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• pp.235-243
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• 2019

Recently, urban inundation was frequently occurred due to the intensive rainfall exceeding marginal capacity of the flood control facility. Furthermore, needs for the underground storage facilities to mitigate urban flood are increasing according to rapidly accelerating urbanization. Thus, in this study, drainage efficiency in drain tunnel connecting to underground storage was investigated from the air-core measurements in the drop shaft against two types of inlet structure. In case of the spiral inlet, the multi-stage structure is introduced at the bottom of the inlet to improve the vortex induction effect at low inflow discharge (multi-stage spiral inlet). The average cross-sectional area of the air-core in the multi-stage spiral inlet is 10% larger than the tangential inlet, and show the highly air emission effect and the highly inflow efficiency at the high inflow discharge. In case of the tangential inlets, the air emission effect decreased after exceeding the maximum inflow discharge, which is required to maintain the inherent performance of the tangential inlet. From the measurements, the empirical formula for the cross-sectional area of the air-core according to locations inside the drop shaft was proposed in order to provide the experimental data available for the inlet model used in experiments.

• Asian Journal of Atmospheric Environment
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• v.8 no.1
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• pp.35-47
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• 2014

The purpose of the study is to evaluate the pollution level (gaseous and particle phase) in the public facilities for the PAHs, non-regulated materials, forecast the risk level by the health risk assessment (HRA) and propose the guideline level. PAH assessments through sampling of particulate matter of diameter < 2.5 ${\mu}m$ ($PM_{2.5}$). The user and worker exposure scenario for the PAHs consists of 24-hour exposure scenario (WIES) assuming the worst case and the normal exposure scenario (MIES) based on the survey. This study investigated 20 PAH substances selected out of 32 substances known to be carcinogenic or potentially carcinogenic. The risk assessment applies major toxic equivalency factor (TEF) proposed from existing studies and estaimates individual Excess Cancer Risk (ECR). The study assesses the fine dusts ($PM_{2.5}$) and the exposure levels of the gaseous and particle PAH materials for 6 spots in each 8 facility, e.g. underground subway stations, child-care facilities, elderly care facilities, super market, indoor parking lot, terminal waiting room, internet caf$\acute{e}$ (PC-rooms), movie theater. For internet caf$\acute{e}$ (PC-rooms) in particular, that marks the highest $PM_{2.5}$ concentration and the average concentration of 10 spots (2 spots for each cafe) is 73.3 ${\mu}g/m^3$ (range: 6.8-185.2 ${\mu}g/m^3$). The high level of $PM_{2.5}$ seen in internet cafes was likely due to indoor smoking in most cases. For the gaseous PAHs, the detection frequency for 4-5 rings shows high and the elements with 6 rings shows low frequency. For the particle PAHs, the detection frequency for 2-3 rings shows low and the elements with 6 rings show high frequency. As a result, it is investigated that the most important PAHs are the naphthalene, acenaphthene and phenanthrene from the study of Kim et al. (2013) and this annual study. The health risk assessment demonstrates that each facility shows the level of $10^{-6}-10^{-4}$. Considering standards and local source of pollution levels, it is judged that the management standard of the benzo (a)pyrene, one of the PAHs, shall be managed with the range of 0.5-1.2 $ng/m^3$. Smoking and ventilation were considered as the most important PAHs exposure associated with public facility $PM_{2.5}$. This study only estimated for inhalation health risk of PAHs and focused on the associated cancer risk, while multiple measurements would be necessary for public health and policy.