교통사고는 인적요인, 도로 기하구조, 교통류, 환경적 요인 등 복합적인 요인에 의해 발생하고 속도는 교통사고와 밀접한 연관성이 있다. 또한, 교통사고는 교통 혼잡도와 관련이 있으며 사고와 실시간 교통상황 간의 상관관계를 통해 사고 발생 개연성을 추정하고 도 로 안전성 분석이 필요하다. 모바일 센서와 통신 기술의 급속한 발전으로 스마트폰 보급률이 증가하였으며 내장된 센서를 기반으로 생성된 차량 주행 데이터 수집이 가능하다. 기술의 발달로 데이터 수집이 쉬워졌음에도 불구하고, 스마트폰을 기반으로 수집된 위험 운전 이벤트를 활용한 도로 위험도 평가에 대한 연구는 부족한 실정이다. 본 연구는 스마트폰 센서 기반의 위험 운전 이벤트 데이터 중 하나인 급감속 위험 운전 이벤트 데이터를 도로 위험도 평가 기법에 활용하는 것을 목적으로 한다. 급감속 위험 운전 이벤트 데이 터는 주행 차량이 3초간 속도를 40km/h 이상 감소하는 위험 이벤트가 발생할 때 시간과 위치를 기록한 자료를 의미한다. 본 연구의 범위는 대한민국 내 인구와 교통량이 많은 지역인 수도권을 대상으로 서울, 경기, 인천을 연결하는 고리 형태의 도로인 수도권제1순환 선을 대상으로 하였다. 먼저, 개별 차량 데이터는 좌표 기반의 내비게이션 데이터로 집계하여 VDS 링크 데이터와 매칭하였다. 다음으 로는 개별 차량의 위험 운전 이벤트 데이터와 차량 검지기의 교통 매개변수를 결합한 새로운 지표를 개발하였다. 또한, 시·공간적 교 통류의 특성을 반영하여 다양한 도로 위험도 평가 방법에 활용하고자 하였다. 마지막으로 위험 운전 지표와 이력 자료를 기반으로 통 계적으로 유의한 안전성능함수를 개발하였으며, 다양한 시간 단위의 집계 수준을 활용하여 도로 구간별 최적의 모형을 제안하였다. 본 연구는 스마트폰 센서를 기반으로 식별한 개별 차량의 위험과 교통류 차원의 위험을 결합하여 새로운 위험 지표를 개발하고 도로 위 험도 평가에 활용한다는 것에 의의가 있다. 결과물은 향후 스마트폰 센서 기반 개별 차량 위험 운전 이벤트 데이터와 교통 조건을 통 합하는 도로 위험도 평가의 기초자료로써 활용될 것으로 기대된다.

With South Korea increasingly focusing on nuclear energy, the management of spent nuclear fuel has attracted considerable attention in South Korea. This study established a novel procedure for selecting safety-relevant radionuclides for long-term safety assessments of a deep geological repository in South Korea. Statistical evaluations were performed to identify the design basis reference spent nuclear fuels and evaluate the source term for up to one million years. Safety-relevant radionuclides were determined based on the half-life criteria, the projected activities for the design basis reference spent nuclear fuel, and the annual limit of ingestion set by the Nuclear Safety and Security Commission Notification No. 2019-10 without considering their chemical and hydrogeological properties. The proposed process was used to select 56 radionuclides, comprising 27 fission and activation products and 29 actinide nuclides. This study explains first the determination of the design basis reference spent nuclear fuels, followed by a comprehensive discussion on the selection criteria and methodology for safety-relevant radionuclides.

Activated carbon (AC) is used for filtering organic and radioactive particles, in liquid and ventilation systems, respectively. Spent ACs (SACs) are stored till decaying to clearance level before disposal, but some SACs are found to contain C-14, a radioactive isotopes 5,730 years halflife, at a concentration greater than clearance level concentration, 1 Bq/g. However, without waste acceptance criteria (WAC) regarding SACs, SACs are not delivered for disposal at current situation. Therefore, this paper aims to perform a preliminary disposal safety examination to provide fundamental data to establish WAC regarding SACs SACs are inorganic ash composed mostly of carbon (~88%) with few other elements (S, H, O, etc.). Some of these SACs produced from NPPs are found to contain C-14 at concentration up to very-low level waste (VLLW) criteria, and few up to low-level waste (LLW) criteria. As SACs are in form of bead or pellets, dispersion may become a concern, thus requiring conditioning to be indispersible, and considering VLL soils can be disposed by packaging into soft-bags, VLL SACs can also be disposed in the same way, provided SACs are dried to meet free water requirement. But, further analysis is required to evaluate radioactive inventory before disposal. Disposability of SACs is examined based on domestic WAC’s requirement on physical and chemical characteristics. Firstly, particulate regulation would be satisfied, as commonly used ACs in filters are in size greater than 0.3 mm, which is greater than regulated particle size of 0.2 mm and below. Secondly, chelating content regulation would be satisfied, as SACs do not contain chelating chemicals. Also, cellulose, which is known to produce chelating agent (ISA), would be degraded and removed as ACs are produced by pyrolysis at 1,000°C, while thermal degradation of cellulose occurs around 350~600°C. Thirdly, ignitability regulation would be satisfied because as per 40 CFR 261.21, ignitable material is defined with ignition point below 60°C, but SACs has ignition point above 350°C. Lastly, gas generation regulation would be satisfied, as SACs being inorganic, they would be targeted for biological degradation, which is one of the main mechanism of gas generation. Therefore, SACs would be suitable to be disposed at domestic repositories, provided they are securely packaged. Further analysis would be required before disposal to determine detailed radioactive inventories and chemical contents, which also would be used to produce fundamental data to establish WAC.

Among nuclear power plants in the Republic of Korea, Kori Unit 1 and Wolsong Unit 1 have been permanently shut down, and Kori Unit 1 is preparing to be decommissioned. According to the decommissioning plan (DP) of Kori Unit 1, a radioactive waste processing complex will be built on the Kori site to reduce radioactive waste generated during decommissioning actively, and various types of decommissioning waste are expected to be treated in the complex. It is judged that matters related to the safety assessment of the complex are not included in the DP since the equipment and treatment processes have not been determined. IAEA GSR Part 5 states that radioactive waste processing complex shall be operated according to national regulations and the conditions imposed by the regulatory body. However, it has been confirmed that separate regulatory requirements for the complex have not yet been established in Korea. It is expected that the Regulation on Technical Standards for Nuclear Facilities, etc. will be applied mutatis mutandis. Liquid and gaseous radioactive materials can be expected to be released into the sea or atmosphere during the operation of the complex. Accordingly, it should be proved that standards such as discharge limits of radioactive effluents are met. Although the assessment of radioactive effluent discharged from nuclear power plants to the environment is systematically conducted, it has been confirmed that the safety assessment framework for radioactive effluents discharged from the complex has not yet been established. Currently, the SAFRAN Tool is based on SADRWMS (Safety Assessment Driving Radioactive Waste Management Solutions), an IAEA safety assessment methodology for pre-disposal management, which uses Pathway Dose Factors (PDFs) derived from generic environmental models. Therefore, in order to conduct a more detailed safety assessment of the complex on a specific site, site characteristic data should be reflected. Although safety assessment using the SAFRAN Tool was conducted at the Thailand Institute of Nuclear Technology (TINT) facility, detailed data were not provided, and PDFs reflecting site characteristic data were not applied. Also, no other studies that considered many types of waste and provided detailed data on the safety assessment were not confirmed. Therefore, this study developed K-CRAFT (Kyung Hee – Comprehensive RAdioactive waste treatment Facility safety assessment Tool), this tool that can derive PDFs by reflecting site characteristic data based on the SADRWMS methodology and conducted preliminary safety assessment for the complex which will be built in Kori site by this tool.

Over the years, in the field of safety assessment of geological disposal system, system-level models have been widely employed, primarily due to considerations of computational efficiency and convenience. However, system-level models have their limitations when it comes to phenomenologically simulating the complex processes occurring within disposal systems, particularly when attempting to account for the coupled processes in the near-field. Therefore, this study investigates a machine learning-based methodology for incorporating phenomenological insights into system-level safety assessment models without compromising computational efficiency. The machine learning application targeted the calculation of waste degradation rates and the estimation of radionuclide flux around the deposition holes. To develop machine learning models for both degradation rates and radionuclide flux, key influencing factors or input parameters need to be identified. Subsequently, process models capable of computing degradation rates and radionuclide flux will be established. To facilitate the generation of machine learning data encompassing a wide range of input parameter combinations, Latin-hypercube sampling will be applied. Based on the predefined scenarios and input parameters, the machine learning models will generate time-series data for the degradation rates and radionuclide flux. The time-series data can subsequently be applied to the system-level safety assessment model as a time table format. The methodology presented in this study is expected to contribute to the enhancement of system-level safety assessment models when applied.

The effect of various physicochemical processes, such as seawater intrusion, on the performance of the engineered barrier should be closely analyzed to precisely assess the safety of high-level radioactive waste repository. In order to evaluate the impact of such processes on the performance of the engineered barrier, a thermal-hydrological-chemical model was developed by using COMSOL Multiphysics and PHREEQC. The coupling of two software was achieved through the application of a sequential non-iterative approach. Model verification was executed through a comparative analysis between the outcomes derived from the developed model and those obtained in prior investigations. Two data were in a good agreement, demonstrating the model is capable of simulating aqueous speciation, adsorption, precipitation, and dissolution. Using the developed model, the geochemical evolution of bentonite buffer under a general condition was simulated as a base case. The model domain consists of 0.5 m of bentonite and 49.5 m of granite. The uraninite (UO2) was assigned at the canister-bentonite interface as the potential source of uranium. Assuming the lifetime of canister as 1,000 years, the porewater mixing without uranium leakage was simulated for 1,000 years. After then, the uranium leakage through the dissolution of uraninite was initiated and simulated for additional 1,000 years. In the base case model, where the porewater mixing between the bentonite and granite was the only considered process, the gypsum tended to dissolve throughout the bentonite, while it precipitated in the vicinity of bentonite-granite boundary. However, the precipitation and dissolution of gypsum only showed a limited effect on the performance of the bentonite. Due to the low solubility of uraninite in the reduced environment, only infinitesimal amounts of uranium dissolved and transported through the bentonite. Additional cases considering various environmental processes, such as seawater or cement porewater intrusion, will be further investigated.

Since the first operation of the Gori No. 1 nuclear power plant in Korea was started to operate in 1978, currently 24 nuclear power plants have been being operated, out of which 21 plants are PWR types and the rest are CANDU types. About 30% of total electricity consumed in Korea is from all these nuclear power plants. The accumulated spent nuclear fuels (SFs) generated from each site are temporarily being stored as wet or dry storage type at each plant site. These SFs with their high radiotoxicity, heat generating, and long-lived radioactivity are actually the only type of high-level radioactive waste (HLW) in Korea, which urgently requires to be disposed of in deep geological repository. Studies on disposal of HLW in various kind of geological repositories have been carried out in such countries as Sweden, Finland, United States, and etc. with their own methodologies and management policies in consideration of their situations. In Korea long-term R&D research program for safe management of SF has also been conducted during last couple of decades since around 1997, during which several various alternative type of disposal concepts for disposal of SNFs in deep geological formations have been investigated and developed. The first concept developed was KAERI Reference Disposal System (KRS) which is actually very much similar to Swedish KBS-3, a famous concept of direct disposal of SF in stable crystalline rock at a depth of around 500 m which has been regarded as one of the most plausible method worldwide. The world first Finnish repository which is expected to begin to operate sooner or later will be also this type. Since the characteristics of SF discharged from domestic nuclear reactors have been changed and improved, and burnup has sometimes increased, a more advanced deep geological repository system has been needed, KRS-HB (KRS with High Burnup SF) has been developed and in consideration of the dimensions of SNFs and the cooling period at the time point of the disposal time, KRS+, a rather improved disposal concept has also been subsequently developed which is especially focused on the efficient disposal area. Recently research has concentrated on rather advanced disposal technology focused on a safer and more economical repository system in recent view of the rapidly growing amount of accumulated SF. Especially in Korea the rock mass and the footprint area for the repository extremely limited for disposal site. Some preliminary studies to achieve rather higher efficiency repository concept for disposal of SF recently have already been emphasized. Among many possible ones for consideration of design for high-efficiency repository system, a double-layered system has been focused which is expected to maximize disposal capacity within the minimum footprint disposal area. Based on such disposal strategy a rather newly designed performance assessment methodology might be required to show long-term safety of the repository. Through the study some prerequisites for such methodological development has been being roughly checked and investigated, which covers FEP identification and pathway and scenario analyses as well as preliminary conceptual modeling for the nuclide release and transport in nearfield, far-field, and even biosphere in and around the conceptual repository system. Through the study such scenarios and models has been implemented to development of a safety assessment by utilizing GoldSim development tool for a rough quantitative comparison with existing disposal options and simple illustration purpose as well as for showing how to develop and implementation of the model to GoldSim templet.

원자력발전소 지진 확률론적 안전성 평가인 PSA(Probabilistic Safety Assessment)는 오랜 기간에 걸쳐 확고히 구축되어 왔다. 반면 에 다양한 공정 기반의 산업시설물의 경우 화재, 폭발, 확산(유출) 재난에 대해 주로 연구되어 왔으며, 지진에 대해서는 상대적으로 연 구가 미미하였다. 하지만, 플랜트 설계 당시와 달리 해당 부지가 지진 영향권에 들어갈 경우 지진 PSA 수행은 필수적이다. 지진 PSA 를 수행하기 위해서는 확률론적 지진 재해도 해석(Probabilistic Seismic Hazard Analysis), 사건수목 해석(Event Tree Analysis), 고장수 목 해석(Fault Tree Analysis), 취약도 곡선 등을 필요로 한다. 원자력 발전소의 경우 노심 손상 방지라는 최우선 목표에 따라 많은 사고 시나리오 분석을 통해 사건수목이 구축되었지만, 산업시설물의 경우 공정의 다양성과 최우선 손상 방지 핵심설비의 부재로 인해 일 반적인 사건수목 구축이 어렵다. 따라서, 본 연구에서는 산업시설물 지진 PSA를 수행하기 위해 고장수목을 바탕으로 확률론적 시각 도구인 베이지안 네트워크(Bayesian Network, BN)로 변환하여 리스크를 평가하는 방법을 제안한다. 제안된 방법을 이용하여 임의로 생성된 가스플랜트 Plot Plan에 대해 최종 BN을 구축하고, 다양한 사건 경우에 대한 효용성있는 의사결정과정을 보임으로써 그 우수 성을 확인하였다.

PURPOSES : This study establishes a methodology for evaluating traffic safety in response to the introduction of one-way traffic using surrogate safety measures and analyzes the impact of one-way traffic safety through a case analysis. METHODS : The SSAM(Surrogate Safety Assessment Measure) was used to analyze traffic conflicts (TTC(Time to Collision) and PET(Post Encroachment Time)), which are safety indicators. The SSAM input variable dataset was constructed using a VISSIM(Verkehr In Städten - SIMulationsmodell) simulation. RESULTS : Introducing one-way traffic rather than the pending issue (two-way operation) improved traffic safety as the possibility of TTC or PET was reduced. In addition, the analysis results showed that the average TTC time and average PET time increased with the introduction of the one-way system. It is anticipated that the avoidance action time taken by the driver to avoid dangerous situations will also increase, which will help improve traffic safety. CONCLUSIONS : As an alternative to solving traffic safety and communication problems occurring at the study site, it was determined that a one-way system would be effective. Furthermore, a one-way system that allows two-lane roads on both sides to move one-way and allows parking in pockets on both sides of the road would be appropriate.

국제유가가 배럴당 85달러에서 하반기에는 최대 100달러까지 오를 것으로 예상하여 세계 시장에서 해양플랜트 발주가 늘어 날 가능성이 크다. 해양플랜트의 주요 특징 중 한 가지는 탑사이드에 대형 헬리데크가 위치하며 경량화 및 내부식성을 위하여 알루미 늄 합금을 구조의 기본 재료로 사용하고 있다. 선주사는 긴급 상황 발생 시 신속한 인명 대피를 위하여 헬리콥터 크기를 대형화하는 추세이고, 헬리콥터를 데크에 안정적으로 고박할 수 있는 장치의 안전사용하중도 증가가 필요하다. 알루미늄 재질의 특성상 용접에 의 한 구조 강도 저하가 크기 때문에, 고정 장치는 데크에 매립하여 볼트로 고정하는 방식으로 설계가 필요하다. 본 연구에서는 대형 헬 리데크(직경=28m)에 사용이 가능한 헬리콥터 고정 장치를 개발하기 위하여 알루미늄 합금 6082-T6를 적용한 모델을 개발하였다. 개발 된 고정 장치는 실제 고박에 사용하는 하중 조건을 만족하도록 비선형구조 강도 계산을 통하여 검증하였다. 45도 경사각을 갖는 하중 조건은 국부적인 소성 붕괴로 인하여 90도 조건에 비해 낮은 최종강도를 나타냈다. 최종 모델에 대한 비선형 구조 붕괴 거동은 강도 실험과 경향이 유사하게 나타났다. 본 연구에서 도출한 주요 내용은 유사 알루미늄 기자재의 구조 강도 검토 시 참고 문헌이 될 것으 로 판단된다.

Kori Unit 1 was permanently shut down in 2017 and is preparing to be dismantled. Decommissioning nuclear power plants is expected to generate a lot of decommissioning waste. Therefore, a radioactive waste treatment complex will be built on the site to safely and effectively the process of decommissioning waste generated from the Kori Unit 1, and the details are specified in the decommissioning plan. Therefore, a safety assessment should be conducted according to the facility’s normal and abnormal operations to construct a radioactive waste treatment complex. Currently, a safety assessment for a radioactive waste treatment complex can be conducted by the Safety Assessment Framework (SAFRAN) Tool based on the Safety Assessment Driving Radioactive Waste Management Solutions (SADRWMS) methodology developed by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). The SAFRAN Tool can be calculated radiation dose and hazard quotient (HQ) for workers and the public under normal and abnormal conditions of the radioactive waste treatment complex. When evaluating the radiation dose for the public due to releasing radioactive materials into the air or discharging radioactive materials into liquids, the radiation dose is calculated using the amount discharged or released from the treatment complex, and the Pathway Dose Factors (PDFs) derived from the generic environmental model given in the IAEA Safety Reports Series No.19. PDFs, which reflect the specific site data rather than the generic environmental model data, should be calculated and evaluated when performing the safety evaluation of the radioactive waste treatment complex to be built on the Kori site. In addition, in the SAFRAN tool, there is an inconvenience in that it must be calculated separately by radionuclides to calculate the contribution of dose or HQ for each radionuclide. Therefore, in this study, a safety assessment tool for a radioactive waste treatment complex was developed using Visual Basic by supplementing the limitations of the SAFRAN tool. This tool was developed to allow users to choose whether to apply PDFs based on the IAEA SRS-19 based on the generic environmental model or PDFs calculated to reflect the specific site data. Furthermore, the tool considered all types of decommissioning wastes that may occur during the decommissioning of the Kori Unit 1 and the treatment process scheduled to be introduced. Therefore, this study is expected to be used as basic data when conducting the safety assessment of radioactive waste treatment complex scheduled to be introduced in Korea.

Concerns with colloids, dispersed 1~1,000 nm particles, in the LILW repository are being raised due to their potential to enhance radionuclide release. Due to their large surface areas, radionuclides may sorb onto mobile colloids, and drift along with the colloidal transport, instead of being sorbed onto immobile surfaces. To prevent adverse implications on the safety of the repository, the colloidal impact must be evaluated. In this paper, colloid analysis done by SKB is studied, and factors to be considered for the safety assessment of colloids are analyzed. First, the colloid generation mechanism should be analyzed. In a cementitious repository, due to a highly alkaline environment, colloid formation from wastes may be promoted by the decomposition of organic materials, dissolution of inorganic materials, and corrosion of metals. Radiolysis is excluded when radionuclide inventory is moderate, as in the case of SKB. Second, colloid stability should be evaluated to determine whether colloids remain in dispersion. Stable colloids acquire electric charges, allowing particles to continuously repel one another to prevent coagulation. Thus, stability depends on the pH and ionic condition of the surroundings, and colloid composition. For instance, under a highly alkaline cementitious environment, colloids tend to be negatively charged, repelling each other, but Ca2+ ion from cement, acting as a coagulant, makes colloid unstable, promoting sedimentation. As in the case of SKB, the colloidal impact is assumed negligible in the silo, BMA, and BTF due to their extensive cement contents, but for BLA, with relatively less cement source, the colloidal impact is a potential concern. Third, colloid mobility should be assessed to appraise radionuclide release via colloid transport. The mobility depends on the density and size of colloids, and flow velocity to commence motion. As a part of the assessment, the filtration effect should also be included, which depends on pore size and structure. As in the case of SKB, due to static hydraulic conditions and engineering barriers, acting as efficient filters, colloidal transport is expected to be unlikely. In the domestic underground repository, the highly alkaline environment would lead to colloid formation, but due to high Ca2+ concentration and low flow velocity, colloids would achieve low stability and mobility, thus colloidal impact would be a minor concern. In the future, with further detailed analysis of each factor, waste composition, and disposal condition, reliable data for safety evaluation could be generated to be used as fundamental data for planning waste acceptance criteria.

The timescale of safety assessment for a geological disposal system is considered up to hundreds of thousands of years when the radionuclides in spent nuclear fuel decay to levels comparable to natural radioactivity. During this long period, a variety of climate changes are expected to occur, including variations in temperature and precipitation as well as long-term sea level changes and glacial cycles. These climate changes can either directly affect water balance components or indirectly affect water balance by altering terrain and vegetation that have an impact on water balance. Water balance is a significant element of safety assessment, because it affects the radionuclide transport via groundwater flow, which in turn affects the radiological risk to humans and other biotas. Therefore, it is important to understand the hydrologic response to climate changes for proving the long-term safety of the disposal system. To this end, this study performed hydrological simulations using the SWAT (Soil and Water Assessment Tool) for several climate change scenarios. SWAT is the watershed-scale hydrological model developed by the USDA-ARS (United States Department of Agriculture - Agricultural Research Service) and has been widely used to quantify the water balance in a watershed. It calculates the hydrologic cycle based on the water balance equation with different physical processes for water balance components such as evapotranspiration, surface runoff, and groundwater recharge. This study assumed several climate change scenarios (e.g., variations in temperature and precipitation, sea level change, and formation of permafrost) and analyzed how the components of the water balance would respond under different scenarios and which scenarios would have the greatest impact on the water balance. These findings can provide valuable insights for future long-term safety assessments on the Korean Peninsula and can also be used as input data for the biosphere module of APro (Adaptive process-based total system performance assessment framework).

Two sets of analyses for the cases of groundwater release to well and sea ecosystems were conducted for the environmental impact assessment of high-level radioactive waste disposal facilities. After obtaining the respective BDCF (Biosphere Dose Conversion Factor) results for the scenarios of well-farming and marine water fishing using different biosphere assessment conceptual models implemented in ECOLEGO, they were compared each other. The purposes of these analyses are to identify reference generic biosphere conceptual models and to get insight on model uncertainty. In this study, the endpoint used for the comparison of the ECOLEGO biosphere models was the socalled Biosphere Dose Conversion Factor (BDCF), which is defined as the maximum value of the total dose to the exposed group, in Sv/yr, resulting from a continuous unit release of 1 Bq/yr during the whole simulation time either to the well compartment (BDCF_Well) or to the marine water compartment (BDCF_Sea). The radionuclides considered in the comparison were Cs-137, I-129, Nb-94, Ni-59, Ni- 63, Sr-90 and Tc-99. The conceptual models used in the biosphere assessment of the releases to a well are based on models that have been used by the DOE (simple-soil model) and SKB (complex-soil model) in safety assessments of radioactive waste repositories, respectively. Difference between two conceptual models used in the assessment of the releases to a sea is the number of compartments representing the sea; i.e., one model represents the sea with one compartment for the water and one for the sediment (singlecompartment model), whereas the alternative model uses two compartments for the water and the sediments: one for the inner coast and one for the outer coast (double-compartment model). The results of the BDCF_Well to a farmer obtained with the DOE and SKB models are shown to be very close to each other. Despite the differences in conceptual models and parameters, the results are within a maximum difference of a factor of 4. The results from the SKB model were higher for all radionuclides. The values of the BDCF_Sea obtained with the single- and double-compartment models are shown to be larger differences with a maximum order of 2. For all studied radionuclides, the double-compartment model produces higher BDCFs than does the single-compartment model. The differences would be due to activity concentrations in both water and sediments. Since the hydrodynamic behavior assumed for flow in the sea could significantly influence the dilution volumes and hence the concentrations, it is found that site-specific investigations are necessary to establish an appropriate marine biosphere conceptual model.

The deep geologic repository (DGR) concept is widely accepted as the most feasible option for the final disposal of spent nuclear fuels. In this concept, a series of engineered and natural barrier systems are combined to safely store spent nuclear fuel and to isolate it from the biosphere for a practically indefinite period of time. Due to the extremely long lifetime of the DGR, the performance of the DGR replies especially on the natural geologic barriers. Assessing the safety of the DGR is thus required to evaluate the impacts of a wide range of geological, hydrogeological, and physicochemical processes including rare geological events as well as present water cycles and deep groundwater flow systems. Due to the time scale and the complexity of the physicochemical processes and geologic media involved, the numerical models used for safety evaluation need to be comprehensive, robust, and efficient. This study describes the development of an accessible, transparent, and extensible integrated hydrologic models (IHM) which can be approved with confidence by the regulators as well as scientific community and thus suitable for current and future safety assessment of the DGR systems. The IHM under development can currently simulate overland flow, groundwater flow, near surface evapotranspiration in a modular manner. The IHM can also be considered as a framework as it can easily accommodate additional processes and requirements for the future as it is necessary. The IHM is capable of handling the atmospheric, land surface, and subsurface processes for simultaneously analyzing the regional groundwater driving force and deep subsurface flow, and repository scale safety features, providing an ultimate basis for seamless safety assessment in the DGR program. The applicability of the IHM to the DGR safety assessment is demonstrated using illustrative examples.

Probiotics are live microorganisms that confer health benefits onto the host when administered at adequate doses. Most widely used probiotics, such as lactobacilli and bifidobacteria, are known to be elements of healthy gut microflora and hence are not considered a threat to the host. However, probiotics may pose a risk in certain populations with compromised immune systems or defects in gut barrier functions. Herein, we evaluated the safety of Bifidobacterium breve BB077, according to the safety evaluation guidelines for probiotics produced by the National Institute of Food and Drug Safety Evaluation (NIFDS). The results show that B. breve BB077 is both non-hemolytic and non-cytolytic. In contrast, B. breve BB077 exhibited higher streptomycin and tetracycline resistance than the suggested NIFDS standard cut-off values. Hence, a genetic analysis of the streptomycin and tetracycline resistance genes was performed to determine the origin of antimicrobial resistance. Streptomycin and tetracycline resistance was shown have arisen from chromosomal mutations and considered intrinsic to the taxonomic group. In conclusion, the B. breve BB077 strain might be safe for human consumption.