The saturation rates of the spent fuel (SF) wet storage at the Kori Nuclear Power Plant (NPP), Hanbit, and Hanul are 83.3%, 74.2%, and 80.8% as of the fourth quarter of 2021. The storages of Kori NPP and Hanbit NPP are expected to be saturated in 2031, and Hanul is expected to be saturated in 2032. Therefore, the construction of an interim storage facility to store the SF temporarily stored in the NPP was planned, and preparations for the safe transport of the SF are required. In this paper, radiological preliminary assessment using NRC-RADTRAN in the process of sea transport of SF from the wet storage or ISFSI of the Hanbit NPP to the optional interim storage facility was performed. Since domestic SF transport vessels are not currently in operation, the specifications of the UK Pacific Grebe vessel which can carry up to 20 casks were used. The transport cask used the specifications of KORAD-21, a transport container developed in Korea. Because it can carry more SF assemblies than the existing KN-18. In addition, a land transport safety test was conducted in 2020 and a sea transport test is planned. The sea transport route was entered by referring to the transport route of domestic low and intermediate level waste. The accidents rate was calculated using statistics on maritime accidents from 2017 to 2021. The probability accidents along the transportation route were evaluated as 3.152E -10. When transporting to an interim storage facility, the SF expected to be the main transport target was selected as WH 17X17, combustion 45,000 MWD/MTU, and concentration of 4.5%. The source term was calculated and entered according to this data and the release fraction was entered with reference to the DOE report. In the case of normal transport without accident, the individual dose of the crew member and public residents were estimated to be 0.0525% and 0.000492% of the annual limit of 1 mSv/yr for the general public. Under the accident conditions, the annual individual doses of residents were 0.0011%, 0.0023%, 0.0034%, and 0.0046% of the annual limit of 1 mSv/yr when carrying 5, 10, 15, and 20 casks. Currently, the site of the interim storage facility has not been precisely determined, but a preliminary radiation assessment through sea transport resulted in a significantly lower than the limit. Combined scenario sea transport followed by land transport will be carried out in the next stage of study.

The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of isolated lactic acid bacteria (LAB) on the quality of high moisture rye silage. Rye forage (Secale cereale L.) was harvested at the heading stage (27.3% of dry matter (DM)) and cut into approximately 3-5 cm lengths. Then, the forage divided into 4 treatments with different inoculants: 1) No additives (CON); 2) Lactobacillus brevis strain 100D8 at a 1.2 x 105 colony-forming unit (cfu)/g of fresh forage (LBR); 3) Leuconostoc holzapfelii strain 5H4 at a 1.0 x 105 cfu/g of fresh forage (LHO); and 4) Mixture of LBR and LHO (1:1 ratio) applied at a 1.0 x 105 cfu/g of fresh forage (MIX). About 3 kg of forage from each treatment was ensiled into a 20 L mini-bucket silo in quadruplicate for 100 days. After silo opening, silage was collected for analyses of chemical compositions, in vitro nutrient digestibilities, fermentation characteristics, and microbial enumerations. The CON silage had the highest concentrations of neutral detergent fiber and acid detergent fiber (p = 0.006; p = 0.008) and a lowest in vitro DM digestibility (p < 0.001). The pH was highest in CON silage, while lowest in LBR and MIX silages (p < 0.001). The concentrations of ammonia-N, lactate, and acetate were highest in LBR silage (p = 0.008; p < 0.001; p < 0.001). Propionate and butyrate concentrations were highest in CON silage (p = 0.004; p < 0.001). The LAB and yeast counts were higher in CON and LHO silages compare to LBR and MIX silages (p < 0.001). However, the mold did not detect in all treatments. Therefore, this study could conclude that L. brevis 100D8 and Leu. holzapfelii strain 5H4 can improve the digestibility and anti-fungal activity of high moisture rye silage.

Predicting remaining useful life (RUL) becomes significant to implement prognostics and health management of industrial systems. The relevant studies have contributed to creating RUL prediction models and validating their acceptable performance; however, they are confined to drive reasonable preventive maintenance strategies derived from and connected with such predictive models. This paper proposes a data-driven preventive maintenance method that predicts RUL of industrial systems and determines the optimal replacement time intervals to lead to cost minimization in preventive maintenance. The proposed method comprises: (1) generating RUL prediction models through learning historical process data by using machine learning techniques including random forest and extreme gradient boosting, and (2) applying the system failure time derived from the RUL prediction models to the Weibull distribution-based minimum-repair block replacement model for finding the cost-optimal block replacement time. The paper includes a case study to demonstrate the feasibility of the proposed method using an open dataset, wherein sensor data are generated and recorded from turbofan engine systems.

Background: A recent study found that pain neuroscience education (PNE) alters pain intensity, knowledge of pain, disability, psychological function, and pain behavior in patients with musculoskeletal pain. However, they noted that PNE alone was not sufficient to affect chronic low back pain (CLBP) reduction. Objectives: To investigated the effect of CLBP on the PNE combined with lumbar mobilization. Design: Quasi-experiment study. Methods: A total of 33 patients aged 25 to less than 65, recruited from L-hospital for low back pain in Chungcheongnam-do. Out of 33 subjects, 17 were pain neuroscience education combined with lumbar mobilization group (PLMG) and 16 were lumbar mobilization group (LMG). The outcome was visual analogue scale (VAS), oswestry disability index (ODI) and the fear avoidance beliefs questionnaire (FABQ). The collected data was analyzed using the SPSS ver. 21.0 program by paired t-test and independent t-test. Results: PLMG was indicated statistically significant decrease in VAS, ODI and FABQ before and after intervention. However, there were statistically significant changes in VAS and ODI before and after intervention in LMG. PLMG and LMG before and after intervention indicated statistically significant differences in VAS, ODI and FABQ. Conclusion: The inclusion of PNE combined with lumbar mobilization in patients with CLBP is a promising and feasible approach to the management of CLBP.

The purpose of this study is to explore relationships between company’s characteristics, the status of business ethics education, employee perceptions of corporate business ethics, and organizational performance. A total of 161 small- and medium-sized apparel companies participated in a survey and data was analyzed using cross-tabulation, ANOVA, and SPSS PROCESS. The results show that, larger companies involved with export are more likely to implement business ethics education, whereas no company characteristic is associated with perceptions of corporate business ethics. Furthermore, apparel companies that implemented or planned to implement business ethics education, have employees with more positive perceptions of corporate business ethics and better organizational performance than fashion companies that have no plan to implement such education. In addition, companies in the apparel sector with higher employee perceptions of corporate business ethics had greater organizational performance than apparel companies with lower employee perceptions of corporate business ethics. This study emphasizes the need to implement business ethics education to enhance employee perceptions of company business ethics, which in turn promotes organizational performance. It is expected that the results of this study will positively affect the development and expansion of business ethics education programs and contribute to the foundation of knowledge for business ethics education for fashion companies.

Currently, the Gyeongju disposal facility is planned to be operated as a complex disposal facility with three types: cave disposal, surface disposal, and landfill disposal. Approximate method and arrangement have been decided up to the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd stage disposal facilities, but the optimal method for the arrangement of the entire complex disposal facility has not been established. When establishing the subsequent disposal facility arrangement plan, the generation prospect and disposal capacity setting plan for each level of radioactive waste was established, and the disposal capacity of the subsequent disposal facility, the disposal facility method, etc. were reviewed and reflected. Among the items for deriving an efficient management plan, KEPCO E&C is going to first derive a site arrangement plan for each disposal facility of 800,000 drums of radioactive waste, and has drawn up a plan for each scenario through collaboration with other organizations. When establishing the subsequent disposal facility arrangement plan, the generation prospect and disposal capacity setting plan for each level of radioactive waste was established, and the disposal capacity of the subsequent disposal facility, the disposal facility method, etc. were reviewed and reflected.

High-intensity focused ultrasonic (HIFU) decontamination technology to decontaminate complex metal radioactive waste was developed and verified. Ultrasonic decontamination technology is a method widely used in this field, but its energy strength is weak, so it cannot be applied to fixed contamination. The HIFU developed in this study can eliminate a wide range of fixed contamination due to the advantage of maintaining a high frequency while having hundreds of times the energy intensity compared to conventional general ultrasonic method. In addition, there is a merit in that there is no work that generates a lot of secondary wastes such as chemical decontamination method or threatens the safety of workers. In particular, high ultrasonic energy is transmitted to curved parts and inside pipes that cannot be decontaminated with blasting method, so various types of metal wastes can be treated with the HIFU method. In this study, the performance of the HIFU was verified for zirconium chips, and the radioactivity after decontamination was reduced to less than MDA in all subjects.