• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.2 no.4
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• pp.273-278
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• 1970

The Contents of uranium and thorium in radioactive ores produced in Korea were determined by gamma-ray spectrometry utilizing Ge (Li) diode detector. Both methods, namely, gamma-ray spectrometries of activated samples and non-activated samples, were tested and compared for their accuracies and rapidness in determination of contents. Also the useful-ness of application of Ge(Li) diode detector to the determination of uranium and thorium contents in ores was discussed in detail.

• Analytical Science and Technology
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• v.10 no.5
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• pp.307-314
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• 1997

Inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectrometry(ICP/AES) was used for the determination of uranium and thorium in geological materials. Samples were predecomposed by mixed acid digestion technique. The separation of the uranium and thorium was achieved by systematic solvent extraction with TTA(thenoyltrifluoroacetone) and TOA (tri-n-octylamine) and back extraction into HCl. The results for standard rock sample, NIST SRM 278, showed a good agreement with those certified from NIST as well as found values by other non-destructive techniques. Additional purification for extracted portions was carried out by anion exchange chromatography for measurement of several natural radioisotopes of uranium and thorium by alpha spectrometry.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.12 no.2
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• pp.106-110
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• 1980

The radio-equilibrium conditions of uranium and thorium in the Okcheon black shales and monazites have been studied. As the results. a radiometric method based on the measurements of gamma ray activity has been suggested for the simple analysis of many samples in the process of the prospecting and the grading of uranium and thorium minerals.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.54 no.5
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• pp.1560-1569
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• 2022

Liquid fueled molten salt reactors (MSRs) have seen renewed interest because of their inherent safety features, higher thermal efficiency and potential for efficient thorium utilisation for power generation. Thorium fluoride is one of the salts used in liquid fueled MSRs employing Th-U cycle. In the present study, ThF₄ was prepared by hydro-fluorination of ThO₂ using anhydrous HF gas. Process parameters viz. bed depth, hydrofluorination time and hydrofluorination temperature, were optimized for the preparation of ThF₄ in a static bed reactor setup. The products were characterized with X-Ray diffraction and experimental conditions for complete conversion to ThF₄ were established which also corroborated with the yield values. Hydrofluorination of ThO₂ at 450 ℃ for half an hour at a bed depth of 6 mm gave the best result, with a yield of about 99.36% ThF₄. No unconverted oxide or any other impurity was observed. Rietveld refinement was performed on the XRD data of this ThF₄, and Chi2 value of 3.54 indicated good agreement between observed and calculated profiles.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.41 no.6
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• pp.867-874
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• 2009

Solubility of a radionuclide is important for defining the release source term of a radioactive waste in the safety and performance assessments of a radioactive waste repository. When the pH and redox potential of the KURT groundwater were changed by an electrical method, the concentrations of uranium and thorium released from $UO_2$(cr) and $ThO_2$(cr) at alkali pH(8.1 ${\sim}$ 11.4) and reducing potential (Eh < -0.2 V) conditions were less than $10^{-7}mole/L$. Unexpectedly, the concentration of tetravalent thorium is slightly higher than that of uranium at pH = 8.1 and Eh= -0.2 V conditions, and this difference may be due to the formation of hydroxide-carbonate complex ions. When $UO_2$(s) and $UO_2$(am, hyd.), and $ThO_2$(s) and $Th(OH)_4(am)$ were assumed as solubility limiting solid phases, the concentrations of uranium and thorium in the KURT groundwater calculated by the PHREEQC code were comparable to the experimental results. The dominating aqueous species of uranium and thorium were presumed as $UO_2(CO_3)_3^{4-}$ and $Th(OH)_3CO_3^-$ at pH = 8.1 ${\sim}$ 9.8, and $UO_2(OH)_3^-$ and $Th(OH)_4(aq)$ at pH = 11.4.

• Proceedings of the Korean Nuclear Society Conference
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• 1998.05a
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• pp.52-57
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• 1998

In this paper, we performed a design study of a thorium fueled reactor according to the design concept of the Radkowsky Thorium Reactor (RTR) and evaluated its overall performance. To enhance its performance and alleviate its problems, we introduced a new metallic uranium fuel, uranium-zirconium hydride (U-Zr $H_{1.6}$), as a seed fuel. For comparison, typical ABB/CE-type PWR based on SYSTBM 80+ and standard RTR-type thorium reactor were also studied. From the results of performance analysis, we could ascertain advantages of RTR-type thorium fueled reactor in proliferation resistance, fuel cycle economics, and back-end fuel cycle. Also, we found that enhancement of proliferation resistance and safer operating conditions may be achieved by using the U-Zr $H_{l.6}$ fuel in the seed region without additional penalties in comparison with the standard RTR's U-Zr fuelr fuelel

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.50 no.5
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• pp.794-800
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• 2018

The proliferation resistance (PR) of Th/U and Th/Pu fuels used in CANada Deuterium Uranium for the deep geological repository was assessed by combining the multiattribute utility analysis proposed by Chirayath et al., 2015 with the transport model of radionuclides in the repository and comparing with that of the used natural U fuel case. It was found that there was no significant advantage for Th/U and Th/Pu fuels from the viewpoint of the PR in the repository. It was also found that the PR values for used nuclear fuels in the repository of Th/U, Th/Pu, and natural U was comparable with those for enrichment and reprocessing facilities in the pressurized water reactor (PWR) nuclear fuel cycle. On the other hand, the PR values considering the transport of radionuclides in the repository were found to be slightly smaller than those without their transport after the used nuclear fuels started dissolving after 1,000 years.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.6 no.2
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• pp.80-88
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• 1974

A small modification in the procedure of Amiel's delayed neutron counting method is attempted for the simultaneous determination of uranium and thorium in geological samples. This analytical procedure is found to hold good accuracy over the wide range of concentration ratio of two elements. Details of the development and evaluation of the method are described. The sensitivity obtained from tile method is less than 0.1 $\mu\textrm{g}$ for uranium and it is about 5$\mu\textrm{g}$ for thorium.

• Proceedings of the Korean Nuclear Society Conference
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• 1997.05a
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• pp.21-26
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• 1997

Recently, thorium is receiving increasing attention as an important fertile material for the expanding nuclear power programs around the world. The superior nuclear and physical properties of thorium-based fuels could lead to very low fuel cycle cost and make thorium reactors economically attractive. In addition, the use of thorium in reactors would permit more efficient utilization of low cost uranium reserves and reduction nuclear wastes. In this work, the nuclear characteristics of a new type thorium fueled reactor (Radkowsky Thorium Reactor) consisting seed-blanket assemblies are addressed and compared with those typical assemblies of a PWR (CE type). Also, an assessment on several advantages of thorium fueled reactors is provided. All these results are based on the HELIOS code calculation.

• Journal of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.38 no.7
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• pp.502-508
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• 1994

The measurement of trace amounts of uranium(VI) and thorium(VI) in the solutions containing high concentration of dissolved salts was carried out. The procedure using reversed phase liquid chromatography with trace enrichment techniques has been developed to cope with the high salt content of the samples. 2 ml of sample were passed through a small C_{18}$ reversed phase enrichment column with ${\alpha}$-HIBA eluent (0.11 M, pH 5.5) where the uranium and thorium were separated from other constituents and concentrated. The uranium and thorium were then backflushed from the column onto a deactivated C_{18}$ reversed phase analytical column where furthe separation was achieved with a mixed eluent (pH3.0, 0.17M ${\alpha}$-HIBA/0.0038 M 1-pentanesulfonate). The separated species were determined spectrophotometrically by postcolumn reaction with Arsenazo III, the chromogenic reagent. Detection limits were found within 1 ppb range for both species.