A disposal of radioactive wastes is one of the urgent issues in worldwide. Considering upcoming plans for decommissioning of nuclear power plants, this problem is unavoidable and should be discussed very thoughtfully before long. There are variety of methods to deal with radioactive wastes, including Incineration process, conventional gasification process and plasma gasification process and so on. Among them, plasma gasification process is in the limelight due to its ecofriendly features and very large volume reduction effects. So, lots of countries like Japan, Taiwan, Russia, Bulgaria are already utilizing commercial plasma melting facilities and researching their own characteristics & disposal abilities and so on. Within the scope of this paper, I would like to introduce other countries current status of plasma melting facilities, and reach the conclusion on the directions to go for realistic radioactive wastes treatment.

APro, a process-based total system performance assessment (TSPA) tool for a geological disposal system, has a framework for simulating the radionuclide transport affected by thermal, hydraulic, mechanical or geochemical changes occurred in the disposal system. APro aims to be applied for the TSPA to long-term (> 100,000) evolution scenarios in real-world repository having more than 10,000 boreholes. In this large-scale TSPA, it is important not only to develop a high-performance numerical approach, but also to apply an efficient post-processing approach to massive spatiotemporal data. The post-processing refers to validating numerical analysis results, analyzing and evaluating target systems through data processing or visualization. Since APro uses COMSOL interface, the postprocessing function in COMSOL can be used. However, when the data size increases due to largescale numerical analysis, the time for the COMSOL post-processing increases, resulting in a problem that the analysis and evaluation are not performed effectively. In this case, it is possible to extract necessary data using the COMSOL exporting function and importing it into an external postprocessing program for the analysis and evaluation. In this study, the efficiency of external post-processing with extracted data from COMSOL was reviewed. And, we derived a proper data extraction approach (format and structure) that can increase efficiency of external post-processing.

Spent nuclear fuel management is a high-priority issue in South Korea, and addressing it is crucial for the country’s long-term energy sustainability. The KORAD (Korea Radioactive Waste Agency) is leading a comprehensive, long-term project to develop a safe and effective deep geological repository for spent nuclear fuel disposal. Within this framework, we have three primary objectives in this work. First, we conducted statistical analysis to assess the inventory of spent nuclear fuel in South Korea as of 2021. We also projected future generation rates of spent nuclear fuels to identify what we refer to as reference spent nuclear fuels. These reference spent nuclear fuels will be used as the design basis spent fuels for evaluating the safety of the repository. Specifically, we identified four types of design basis reference spent nuclear fuels: high and low burnup from PLUS7 (with a 16×16 array) and ACE7 (with a 17×17 array) assemblies. Second, we analyzed radioactive nuclides’ inventory, activities, and decay heats, extending up to a million years after reactor discharge for these reference spent nuclear fuels. This analysis was performed using SCALE/TRITON to generate the burnup libraries and SCALE/ORIGEN for source term evaluation. Third, to assess the safety resulted from potential radioactive nuclides’ release from the disposal canister in future work, we selected safety-related radionuclides based on the ALI (Annual Limit of Intake) specified in Annex 3 of the 2019-10 notification by the NSSC (Nuclear Safety and Security Commission). Conservative assumptions were made regarding annual water intake by humans, canister design lifetime, and aquifer flow rates. A safety margin of 10-3 of the ALI was applied. We selected 56 radionuclides that exceed the intake limits and have half-lives longer than one year as the safety-related radionuclides. However, it is crucial to note that our selection criteria focused on ALI and half-lives. It did not include other essential factors such as solubility limits, distribution coefficients, and leakage processes. So, some of these nuclides can be removed in a specific analysis area depending on their properties.

Deep borehole drilling is essential not only to select the host rock type for deep geological disposal of high-level radioactive waste (HLW), but also to identify the characteristics of the disposal site during the site selection process. In particular, since the disposal depth of HLW is considered to be over 300 m, deep borehole drilling must be performed. In deep borehole drilling, drilling design, excavation, and operation may vary depending on the rock type, drilling depth, and drilling purpose etc. This study introduced cases in which Korea was divided into four geotectonic structures and four representative rock types and conducted with a goal of 750 m drilling depth. Prior to this, a review of deep drilling cases conducted at domestic and abroad was presented. If sufficient time and cost are available, several drilling holes can be excavated for various purposes, but if not, one or two drilling holes should be used to achieve the objectives of various fields related to HLW disposal. The presence of bedding, strata or fault zones depending on the type of rock, etc. may affect drilling deviation or circulating water management. In addition, unlike drilling in general geotechnical investigation drilling, the use of polymers or grouting agents is limited to determine hydraulic and geochemical characteristics. This report introduces the experience considered during the design and drilling process of deep drilling in granite, gneiss, sedimentary rock, volcanic rock, etc., and is expected to be used as basic data when carrying out future HLW projects.

For the sake of future generations, the management of radioactive waste is essential. The disposal of spent nuclear fuel (SNF) is considered an urgent challenge to ensure human safety by storing it until its radioactivity drops to a negligible level. Evaluating the safety of disposal facilities is crucial to guarantee their durability for more than 100,000 years, a period sufficient for SNF radioactivity to become ignored. Past studies have proposed various parameters for forecasting the safety of SNF disposal. Among these, radiochemistry and electrochemistry play pivotal roles in predicting the corrosion-related chemical reactions occurring within the SNF and the structural materials of disposal facilities. Our study considers an extreme scenario where the SNF canister becomes compromised, allowing underground water to infiltrate and contact the SNF. We aim to improve the corrosion mechanism and mass-balance equation compared with what Shoesmith et al. proved under the same circumstances. To enhance the comprehensibility of the chemical reactions occurring within the breached SNF canister, we have organized these reactions into eight categories: mass diffusion, alpha radiolysis, adsorption, hydrate formation, solidification, decomposition, ionization, and oxidation. After categorization, we define how each species interacts with others and calculate the rate of change in species’ concentrations resulting from these reactions. By summing up the concentration change rates of each species due to these reactions, we redefine the mass-balance equations for each species. These newly categorized equations, which have not been explained in detail previously, offer a detailed description of corrosion reactions. This comprehensive understanding allows us to evaluate the safety implications of a compromised SNF canister and the associated disposal facilities by numerically solving the mass-balance equations.

The radionuclide management process is a conditioning technology to reduce the burden of spent fuel management, and refers to a process that can separate and recover radionuclides having similar properties from spent fuels. In particular, through the radionuclide management process, high heat- emitting, high mobility, and high toxicity radionuclides, which have a significant impact on the performance of disposal system, are separated and managed. The performance of disposal system is closely related to properties (decay heat and radioactivity) of radioactive wastes from the radionuclide management process, and the properties are directly linked to the radionuclide separation ratio that determines the composition of radionuclides in waste flow. The Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute have derived process flow diagrams for six candidates for the radionuclide management process, weighing on feasibility among various process options that can be considered. In addition, the GoldSim model has been established to calculate the mass and properties of waste from each unit process of the radionuclides management process and to observe their time variations. In this study, the candidates for the radionuclide management process are evaluated based on the waste mass and properties by using the GoldSim model, and sensitivity analysis changing the separation ratio are performed. And the effect of changes in the separation ratio for highly sensitive radionuclides on waste management strategy is analyzed. In particular, the separation ratio for high heat-emitting radionuclides determines the period of long-term decay storage.

Globally, the operation of nuclear power plants results in the production of a tremendous quantity of spent nuclear fuel. The methods for handling spent nuclear fuel can be categorized into three: storage, direct disposal and recycling. A technology designed to recycle accumulated spent nuclear fuel is pyropocessing. In pyroprocessing, various fission products (FPs) such as C-14, H-3, I-129 and Cs-137 are generated. Among these FPs, technetium (Tc-99) is a gaseous nuclear isotope with a long half-life and high mobility in the form of TcO4 - in aqueous solutions, making it essential to capture strictly in order to prevent radioactive contamination of the environment. In previous studies, ion-exchange or adsorption using MOFs (Metal Organic Frameworks) have been used to remove Tc-99. These methods, however, involve separation in aqueous solutions, not in the gaseous state. In this study, we developed a CaO-based adsorbent for capturing Re as a surrogate for radioactive Tc-99. Isopropyl alcohol (IPA) was employed as a pore-forming agent during the preparation of the adsorbents, and its effects on characteristics and adsorption performance were investigated. The size of the pores were analyzed from nitrogen (N2) adsorption isotherm analysis and mercury (Hg) intrusion curves. As a result, it was confirmed that the addition of IPA had a significant impact on the formation of macro-pores. Furthermore, this macroporous structure was found to enhance the adsorption performance of Re.

While many countries consider direct disposal of the spent nuclear fuels, they need to consider long-term disposal scenarios with severe accidents such as the contact between underwater and the spent nuclear fuel due to large defect of the canister. Radionuclides releases rapidly with contacting water or slowly with dissolution of UO2 matrix. The former is known as the ‘Instant Release’, and the latter is ‘Congruential Release’. Even though the instant release fractions (IRF) are much smaller than the congruential ones, IRF has to be treated carefully due to the fact that the instant releases lead to much larger value of the exposure dose rates than the congruential ones which proceed very slowly. It is known that the exposure dose rates by the instant releases are ~25 times larger than the one by the congruent release. The radionuclides from UO2 matrix migrate to the grain boundary, make bubbles, and make tunnels, which leads to instant releases of some radionuclides. The radionuclides in the gap between UO2 pellet and cladding can be also instantly released. In addition, the radionuclides in the crud are instantly released. But in this paper, nuclides from the crud are not regarded, due to the lack of the leaching data. Meanwhile, there’re some nuclides that released from the construction materials like the cladding, the Rod Cluster Control Assembly (RCCA), or the other metal parts. In this work, IRF values for major IRF nuclides such as Cs, I, Cl, Se for the reference PWR spent fuels of South Korea were evaluated based on the rationale from literatures’ review. In particular, these evaluations were done as the function of fission gas release (FGR), average discharge burnup, and fuel dimensions. In addition, the values of IRF for the other nuclides were also suggested based on the other institutes.

The thermocatalytic decomposition of methane is a promising method for hydrogen production. To determine the cause of carbonaceous catalyst deactivation and to produce high-value carbon, methane decomposition behavior and deactivated catalysts were analyzed. The surface properties and crystallinity of a commercial activated carbon material, MSP20, used as a methane decomposition catalyst, varied with the reaction time at a reaction temperature of 900 °C. During the initial reaction, MSP20 provided a methane conversion of ≥ 50%; however, the catalyst exhibited rapid deactivation as crystalline carbon grew at surface defects; after 15 min of reaction, approximately 33% methane conversion was maintained. With increasing reaction time, the specific surface area of the catalyst decreased, whereas crystallinity increased. The R-square value of the conversion–crystallinity relationship was significantly higher than that of the conversion–specific surface area relationship; however, neither profile was linear. The activity of the activated carbon catalyst for methane decomposition is mainly determined by the complex actions of the specific surface area and defect sites. The activity was maintained after an initial sharp decline caused by the continuous growth of crystalline carbon product. This study presents the application of carbonaceous catalysts for the decomposition reaction of methane to form COx- free hydrogen, while simultaneously yielding porous carbon materials with an improved electrical conductivity.

This paper proposes the optimal molecular weight for a petroleum-based binder pitch to enhance the density and strength of the prepared graphite block. The effect of the molecular weight on the binder properties, which was quantified using solvent fractionation, was considered based on the evaluation of the coking and viscosity characteristics. The affinity of the pitch to coke influenced the carbonization yield of the block, and the proportion of closed pores was reduced via the use of a highaffinity binder pitch. In addition, the viscosity was found to influence the uniformity of the coke and pitch dispersions, and numerous open pores were formed in the graphite block under high-viscosity conditions. In terms of the molecular weight, a reduction in the content of the insoluble 1-methyl-2-pyrrolidone (NMP) fraction, which was the heaviest fraction present in the pitch, was found to reduce the affinity of the binder to coke while increasing its viscosity. Therefore, the density and strength of the prepared graphite block were reduced upon increasing the insoluble NMP content of the binder pitch. Consequently, it was necessary to control the content of this fraction within < 13.81 wt% to obtain high-density and high-strength graphite blocks.

2022년 10월부터 2023년 5월까지 친환경 딸기재배 농가에서 점박이응애는 칠레이리애응애와 사막이리응애, 진딧물은 콜레마니진디벌을 대상으로 하는 천적처리구와 유기농자재를 사용하는 관행방제구에서 천적의 해 충 밀도억제 효과를 조사하였다. 천적처리구에서 점박이응애 성충 밀도는 잎당 1.5마리 이하, 알은 4개 이하로 관리되었고, 사막이리응애는 잎당 최대 0.4마리까지 증가하여 점박이응애 밀도억제에 많은 영향을 미친것으로 보인다. 반면, 관행방제구에서 점박이응애 밀도는 천적 방사구에 비하여 오히려 많은 발생량을 보였지만, 3월 9일부터는 사막이리응애의 증가와 유기농자재의 효과로 점박이응애 밀도는 급격하게 감소하였다. 진딧물 천적 처리구에서 진딧물 밀도는 1월부터 발생하였으며 3월 상순에 잎당 0.3마리까지 증가하였으나 이후 감소하였고, 콜레마니진디벌은 진딧물 발생이 많지 않아 3.9마리/㎡(2회) 방사하는 데 그쳤다. 한편, 관행방제구 포장의 진딧 물은 유기농자재의 영향으로 거의 발생하지 않았다.

We investigated the behavioral attractive responses of a lepidopteran larva parasite, Exorista japonica to 10 synthetic herbivore-induced plant volatiles (HIPVs). These synthetic HIPVs have been revealed the attractive effect on several parasites. For each of the HIPVs, we asked the following two questions : (1) Which volatiles show the attractiveness to this parasitoid, (2) Whether the attractant directly or indirectly affects the host settlement and parasitism of the parasitoid. To experimentally address these questions, we performed 2 and 4 choice indoor cage tests. E. japonica adults were significantly attracted to benzaldehyde and (Z)-3-hexen-1-ol showing higher settlement and parasitic rates on Spodoptera litura of treatments. Compared to the untreated plots, the average parasitism of E. japonica on S. litura larvae in the benzaldehyde treatments increased by approximately 20%.

강원특별자치도 18개 시군을 대상으로 감나무와 콩에 발생하는 미국선녀벌레, 썩덩나무노린재, 담배거세미 나방의 발생을 조사하였다. 돌발해충인 미국선녀벌레는 약충기인 6월과 성충기인 10월에 발생조사를 진행하고 남방계해충인 담배거세미나방과 썩덩나무노린재는 7월과 9월 콩 재배기에 발생조사를 진행하였다. 미국선녀 벌레는 강원지역에 있는 감나무에서 발생을 확인할 수 없었고. 감나무 주변 기타 수목에서 가지당 평균 6.7마리 발생하였다. 담배거세미나방은 7월, 속초를 제외한 모든 시군에서 발생이 되었으며, 춘천, 횡성에서 트랩당 60마 리가 넘는 발생밀도를 보였으며, 원주, 강릉, 화천 등 에서는 트랩당 1마리로 낮은 발생밀도를 나타냈다. 썩덩나무 노린재는 7월 춘천, 속초, 홍천 등 7개 시군을 제외한 11개 시군에서 트랩에 포획되는 것을 확인하였으며, 화천에 서 트랩당 26마리로 최고발생밀도를 보였다.

The onion thrips, Thrips tabaci, is a serious global pest attacking many agricultural crops such as onion and Welsh onion. The thrips, assumed to originate in the Mediterranean region, has been reported for a long time in South Korea. According to worldwide molecular works, the species composes of three genetic lineages (LI, L2 and T) which related to reproductive mode (arrhenotoky vs. thelotoky). To understand the genetic diversity of T. tabaci in South Korea, we investigated genetic lineage and haplotype composition, using about 80 mitochondrial COI gene sequences (369bp) along with foreign sequences from GenBank and BOLD. The COI gene analysis shows that both of thelotokous L1 and arrhenotokous L2 population distribute in South Korea. Among 97 COI-haplotypes worldwide, only six haplotypes are found and thelotokous H1 dominantly distributes.

Ctenoplusia agnata (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae) is a polyphagous pest that damage on crops belonging to the Fabaceae and Brassicaceae, and it is known as a migratory pest. In this study, we investigated pattern of occurrence to trace invasion characteristics using sex pheromone traps and conducted genetic analysis of captured individuals while also exploring their correlation with air currents. Our findings suggest that C.agnata exhibits an annual occurrence of four generations in Korea, with the second or third generation, primarily active from July to September, posing a significant threat to soybean. Genetic analysis revealed the presence of 17 haplotypes, and trajectory modeling confirmed the influence of air currents from Kyushu, Japan and Zhejiang, China etc. These results are expected to be used as a comprehensive management of C.agnata and other migratory moth species.

The members of genus Donacia are aquatic leaf beetles in the subfamily Donaciinae. Their larvae feed on submerged portions of aquatic plants and adults live on surface parts of the same plants. This genus includes 6 species belonging to 2 subgenera in the Korean Peninsula, of which there have been questions about the record of D. (Donacomima) japana. Chûjô and Goecke (1956) described a new species, D. japana, based on specimens collected in Japan and Korea (Unggi, Hamgyeongbuk-do), and Hayashi (2020) stated that records of this species from Korea and NE China may be misidentification of D. aquatica (Linnaeus, 1758). In this study, as a result of comparing specimens collected in South Korea (Gwangneung, Gyeonggi-do) with descriptions of D. japana, male genitalia (Hayashi, 2020) and gene sequences of COI region, we conclude that records of D. japana replace with D. aquatica in the Korean Peninsula, and D. japana is endemic to Japan.

Plant biosecurity refers to measures that aim to prevent the introduction and spread of pests that pose potential risks to plant health. This core concept underpins the approach undertaken by the National Plant Protection Organization (NPPO), where pre-border, border, and post-border biosecurity activities focus on early detection and rapid response. The approach recognizes the continuum from pre- to post-border, resource allocation is currently being reviewed to ensure an appropriate balance for effective risk mitigation. National Priority Plant Pests with contingency plans highlight the types of threats facing the Korean peninsula faces from exotic plant pests. This will lead to transparency of NPPO activities and ensure that it has the people, resources, tools and systems to address its most important priorities and effectively manage current and future biosecurity challenges.