The initial development plans for the six reactor designs, soon after the release of Generation IV International Forum (GIF) TRM in 2002, were characterized by high ambition [1]. Specifically, the sodium-cooled fast reactor (SFR) and very-high temperature reactor (VHTR) gained significant attention and were expected to reach the validation stage by the 2020s, with commercial viability projected for the 2030s. However, these projections have been unrealized because of various factors. The development of reactor designs by the GIF was supposed to be influenced by events such as the 2008 global financial crisis, 2011 Fukushima accident [2, 3], discovery of extensive shale oil reserves in the United States, and overly ambitious technological targets. Consequently, the momentum for VHTR development reduced significantly. In this context, the aims of this study were to compare and analyze the development progress of the six Gen IV reactor designs over the past 20 years, based on the GIF roadmaps published in 2002 and 2014. The primary focus was to examine the prospects for the reactor designs in relation to spent nuclear fuel burning in conjunction with small modular reactor (SMR), including molten salt reactor (MSR), which is expected to have spent nuclear fuel management potential.

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.

The most important thing in development of a process-based TSPA (Total System Performance Assessment) tool for large-scale disposal systems (like APro) is to use efficient numerical analysis methods for the large-scale problems. When analyzing the borehole in which the most diverse physical phenomena occur in connection with each other, the finest mesh in the system is applied to increase the analysis accuracy. Since thousands of such boreholes would be placed in the future disposal system, the numerical analysis for the system becomes significantly slower, or even impossible due to the memory problem in cases. In this study, we propose a tractable approach, so called global-local iterative analysis method, to solve the large-scale process-based TSPA problem numerically. The global-local iterative analysis method goes through the following process: 1) By applying a coarse mesh to the borehole area the size of the problem of global domain (entire disposal system) is reduced and the numerical analysis is performed for the global domain. 2) Solutions in previous step are used as a boundary condition of the problem of local domain (a unit space containing one borehole and little part of rock), the fine mesh is applied to the borehole area, and the numerical analysis is performed for each local domain. 3) Solutions in previous step are used as boundary conditions of boreholes in the problem of global domain and the numerical analysis is performed for the global domain. 4) steps 2) and 3) are repeated. The solution derived by the global-local iterative analysis method is expected to be closer to the solution derived by the numerical analysis of the global problem applying the fine mesh to boreholes. In addition, since local problems become independent problems the parallel computing can be introduced to increase calculation efficiency. This study analyzes the numerical error of the globallocal iterative analysis method and evaluates the number of iterations in which the solution satisfies the convergence criteria. And increasing computational efficiency from the parallel computing using HPC system is also analyzed.

Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute is developing a radionuclide management processes as a conditioning technology to reduce the burden of spent fuel disposal. The radionuclide management process refers to a process managing radionuclides with similar properties by introducing various technology options that can separate and recover radionuclides from spent fuels. In particular, it is a process aimed at increasing disposal efficiency by managing high-heat, high-mobility, and high-toxic radionuclides that can greatly affect the performance of the disposal system. Since the radionuclide management process seeks to consider various technology options for each unit process, it may have several process flows rather than have a single process flow. Describing the various process flows as a single flow network model is called the superstructure model. In this study, we intend to develop a superstructure model for the radionuclide management process and use it as a model to select the optimal process flow. To find the optimal process flow, an objective function must be defined, and at the fuel cycle system level multiple objectives such as effectiveness (disposal area), safety (explosure dose), and economics (cost) can be considered. Before performing the system-level optimization, it is necessary to select candidates of process flow in consideration of waste properties and process efficiency at the process level. In this study, a sensitivity analysis is conducted to analyze changes in waste properties such as decay heat and radioactivity when the separation ratio varies due to the performance change for each unit process of the radionuclide management process. Through this analysis, it is possible to derive a performance range that can have waste properties suitable for following waste treatment, especially waste form manufacturing. It is also possible to analyze the effect of waste properties that vary according to the performance change on waste storage and management approaches.

The depth of geological disposal of high-level radioactive waste (HLW) varies from country to country, but it is generally considered below 300 m underground. As one of the reliable methods to understand the geological characteristics of these deep areas, the site investigation through drilling is recommended. This paper deals with multidisciplinary research that evaluates the geological characteristics of the site using deep drilling. The deep drilling is 750 m, which is higher than the planned disposal depth. Prior to drilling, literature and surface geological surveys of the target area were conducted, and during drilling, real-time measurement of excavated information for obtaining drilling information, circulating water management and chemical composition through a closed system were monitored. After drilling, field tests such as geophysical borehole logging, deep groundwater sampling, constant pressure injection test, and hydraulic fracturing test were performed. Analysis of the recovered drilling core from a geological point of view such as age dating, rock formation and structural geological analysis, and from geochemical perspectives such as concentration of major/ minor cationic elements, major anions, and trace elements along with the water quality parameters pH, DO, Ec, Eh, etc., from geothermal perspective such as thermal conductivity and coefficient of thermal expansion, from rock mechanical aspects such as physical and mechanical properties of intact rocks and joints, joint distribution, etc. Deep drilling has been completed with 2 holes for granite and 2 holes for sedimentary rocks, and further drilling for gneiss and sedimentary rocks is in progress.

Objective: To evaluate item-factor structures of the 15 sensory items from the Survey of Pathways to Diagnosis and Services (Pathways) and examine the best fitting model. Methods: The study subjects were 1,968 children aged 6-17 years, who had ever been diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and/or Intellectual Disability (ID). Factor analyses and item response theory models were used to determine the best fitting item-factor structure of the sensory items. The Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaires (SDQ) was used to test the concurrent validity of the sensory severity estimates. Results: A bifactor MIRT model (a general and four sensory factors) was selected as the best fitting model. All items statistically fitted to the bifactor model (p > .01) and showed moderate correlations with all five subscales of the SDQ (r s = .31 ~.51, p < .0001). The general sensory score differentiated the four different diagnostic groups (ASD, ID, ASD with ID, and no current symptoms) [F (3,1961) = 207.4, p < .0001]. Conclusion: The Pathways sensory items yielded reliable estimates of the general and each corresponding sensory factor by applying a bifactor MIRT model. The sensory score can be used as a valid sensory measure in the population survey.

Potato leafroll virus (PLRV) can be transmitted permanently to potato plants by only several species of aphids. Myzuz persicae (Sulzer) is well-known to having the highest transmitting capability of PLRV. In order to investigate the PLRV transmission of aphids migrated to highland area in 2018, aphids caught in the yellow water-pan trap were inoculated on the young leaf of indicator plant, Physalis floridana, and inspected by visually and ELISA after 2~4 weeks. As a result, 2.8% of the totally migrated aphids showed virus infected symptom on the indicator plant. PLRV transmission rate of M. persicae and Macrosiphum euphorbiae was 15.4% and 9.1%, respectively. Also, seven aphids out of 265 unidentified aphids showed PLRV symptom in the leaves. PLRV-borne aphids started to fly into the fields from late May, and the virus infection rate was highest of 10.4% in mid-June. M. persicae caught in mid-June showed higher infection rate of 46.7%, but unidentified aphid of 8.3%. Compared with past years, PLRV transmission rate in 2018 has slightly dropped.

In recent 10 years, mushroom cultivation area and number of cultivators have decreased, but mushroom production tends to increase. This shows that mushroom cultivation is being transformed from log and bed cultivation to bottle cultivation using automated facilities with high productivity per unit area. The bottle cultivation is possible to mechanized and automated, which can save manpower, less damage to pests, can be cultivated throughout the year, and is uniform in quality and advantageous for mass production. However, the investment in production facilities and farm materials is very large compared to the production of logs and bed cultivars, which can lead to large losses in the case of failure to grow. Therefore, it is necessary for the farmers who want to start the bottle cultivation to make careful management decisions by carefully examining the investment cost, the operating cost, and the expected income that are put into the bottle cultivation system. This study was conducted to analyze the management performance of bottle cultivation in mushroom farm and use it as farming decision making data. As a result of analysis of the management performance through farmers' survey, it was found that such as cost of spawn, substrate materials, other material, employment effort, and fuels & electricity power cost accounted for a large proportion of the cost of bottle cultivation.

Chinese longhorned beetle (CLB; Anoplophora chinensis) and Asian longhorned beetle (ALB; A. glabripennis) were accidentally introduced into the US from the Asia back in 90s’ and have been causing economic damage on hardwood species in the US. An international cooperative team made field surveys in Korea to find parasitoids of CLB and ALB using sentinel logs that were infested with eggs of the two cerambycids.. As a result, two parasitic wasps of Anopolophora species were newly recognised from Korea: Aprostocetus anoplophorae Delvare (Eulophidae) as an egg parasitoid of CLB and Leluthia honshuensis Belokobylskij & Maeto (Braconidae) as a larval parasitoid of ALB. Identification was made using both morphological and molecular data. Morphological information was provided along with images of developmental stages and adults.

The Horizon Run 4 is a cosmological N-body simulation designed for the study of coupled evolution between galaxies and large-scale structures of the Universe, and for the test of galaxy formation models. Using 63003 gravitating particles in a cubic box of Lbox = 3150 h−1Mpc, we build a dense forest of halo merger trees to trace the halo merger history with a halo mass resolution scale down to Ms = 2.7 × 1011h−1M⊙. We build a set of particle and halo data, which can serve as testbeds for comparison of cosmological models and gravitational theories with observations. We find that the FoF halo mass function shows a substantial deviation from the universal form with tangible redshift evolution of amplitude and shape. At higher redshifts, the amplitude of the mass function is lower, and the functional form is shifted toward larger values of ln(1/σ). We also find that the baryonic acoustic oscillation feature in the two-point correlation function of mock galaxies becomes broader with a peak position moving to smaller scales and the peak amplitude decreasing for increasing directional cosine μ compared to the linear predictions. From the halo merger trees built from halo data at 75 redshifts, we measure the half-mass epoch of halos and find that less massive halos tend to reach half of their current mass at higher redshifts. Simulation outputs including snapshot data, past lightcone space data, and halo merger data are available at http://sdss.kias.re.kr/astro/Horizon-Run4.

The genus Sphathius is belong to the subfamily Doryctinae in the family Braconidae and are described with >300 species in the world (Shenefelt and Marsh, 1976). This genus is distinguished from other winged Doryctinae by 1) forewings with three submarginal cells; 2) first subdiscal cell of forewing closed; and 3) first metasomal segment petiolate, widening apically, lacking basal wing-like projections, and inserted on propodeum near coxal bases (Marsh, 1997). For the purpose of finding the biological agent for Asian longhorned beetle (ALB; Anoplophora glabripennis (Motschulsky)) and Citrus longhorned beetle (CLB; A. chinensis (Förster)), we had installed the ALB- and CLB-infested sentinel logs to attract parasitoids at experimental field of the Korea National Arboretum during summer season in 2014. Several L1 and L2 CLB larvae were found attacked by braconid larvae that were reared to adult stage. Their larvae are identified to Spathius gwangneungensis sp. nov. belong to the Spathius exarator species group. This new species has special characteristics as following; Body reddish brown or dark reddish brown, body length 2.5~3.7mm and forewing length 2.2~3.0mm in female and body length 2.1~2.6mm and forewing length 1.5~2.0mm in male, hind femur distinctly transversely aciculate dorsally, forewing more or less infuscate with a longitudinal hyaline band medially, vein m-cu of hind wing interstitial, second tergite entirely sculptured without striation, and third to fifth tergites basally sculptured. Ovipositor sheath 0.6 times as long as metasoma.

The insecticidal activity of cinnamon essential oils, cinnamon bark, cinnamon technical, cinnamon green leaf oils and their constituents and structurally related compounds against citrus flatid planthopper, Metcalfa pruinosa, was examined using a direct contact application. At 500 mg litre-1 very strong mortality (100%) was observed in cinnamon technical, cinnamon bark, cinnamon green leaf, mortality against flatid planthopper M. pruinosa. The cinnamon oils constituents were identified by GC-MS. The active principles were determined to be hydrocinnamic acid (24 h LC50, 30.66 mg/L), geranic acid (24 h LC50, 31.23 mg/L), cinnamaldehyde (24 h LC50, 32.65 mg/L), hydrocinnamaldehyde (24 h LC50, 39.11 mg/L) and trans-cinnamaldehyede (24 h LC50, 39.54 mg/L) were the most toxic against both nymph and adult of citrus flatid planthopper, M. pruinosa. The moderate activity was observed with cinnamyl acetate, dibutyl pthalate, anethole, α -cyano cinnamic acid, cinnamyl alcohol, methyl cinnamaldehyde, eugenol, 2.4-dihydrocyl cinnamic acid, bornyl acetate (24 h LC50, 53.35- 97.17 mg/L) respectively. The other constituents were showed less or no activity against adult of M. pruinosa. Global efforts to reduce the level of highly toxic synthetic insecticides in the agricultural environment justify further studies on the active cinnamon oils active principles act as potential insecticides for the control of M. pruinosa populations as direct spray with contact action.