When a permanently-closed nuclear power plant is to be decommissioned, large structures targeted to be cut in the process include a steam generator, reactor, and reactor coolant pump (RCP). Although there are sufficient preliminary studies being done on these structures to assess the radiation exposure dose, relatively fewer studies are underway regarding pressurizers. Therefore, preliminary evaluations are required to prevent workers from being overexposed to radiation coming from a pressurizer and to avoid an unnecessary increase in the decommissioning cost. This study created a cutting scenario based on disposal drums for solid radioactive wastes. The cutting scenario was based on 200-liter and 320-liter drums for solid wastes and on the assumption that all cutting operations were done 100 centimeters away from the structure to be cut. When are cutting process of a Pressurizer is carried out per scenario, the 200-liter drum produces 272 pieces, whereas the 320-liter counterpart generates 234 pieces. Given that South Korea allocates 75,550 KRW per liter (based on 200 L) for the disposal cost, an increase in the number of drums leads to an exponential growth of the decommissioning cost, which fuels the need to establish more organized cutting strategies. Meanwhile, in terms of radiation dose, plasma, laser, and flame cutting techniques were estimated to record 0.232 mSv, 0.299 mSv, and 0.213 mSv respectively for 200 L, and 0.195 mSv, 0.251 mSv, and 0.179 mSv respectively for 320 L (based on DF-90). When compared with the annual dose limit of 100 mSv (0.0057 mSv·hr−1), the above numbers registered for both 200 L and 320 L were estimated to satisfy the dose limit, with only a negligible difference in the dose between the two capacities. The results generated from this study are expected to be utilized as a meaningful basis to identify applicable cutting techniques of a pressurizer as part of the decommissioning operation and to establish its cutting plans in compliance with ALARA.
A large amount of acidic wastewater was generated from the soil washing process. This study focuses on the capture for the radionuclide, especially cesium (Cs), in soil washing wastewater. We conducted the two-step process to reduce the amount of radioactive wastewater after soil washing using the coagulants and adsorbents in each step. We synthesized the adsorbent to capture Cs radionuclides in acidic wastewater (pH < 1). Based on the results, we found that the optimum ratio (NiFC:PAN) was 3.5:1 for the removal efficiency and strength of adsorbent. We compare the NiFC powder and NiFC-PAN for removal efficiency and separation of adsorbent after batch test, showing that the removal efficiency and separation of NiFC-PAN was lower and higher than NiFC power, respectively. We conducted the radioactive experiment to evaluate the satisfaction below release criteria (< 10 Bq·L−1, Cs), reporting that NIFC-PAN adsorbent meet the release criteria. These results showed that NiFC-PAN is promising adsorbent for Cs capture in strong acidic wastewater generated from soil washing and separation after capture process.
Detritiation of low-level tritiated water has become global issue after Fukushima accident. Several attempts have been made to reduce the radioactivity of Fukushima tritiated water below legal limit of nuclear plant effluents (~104 Bq·L−1). Various technologies such as water distillation, electrolysis, and catalytic exchange were tested to treat the tritiated water, however, those demand enormous expense to achieve the goal due to low process efficiency. It highlights that the performance enhancement of current technologies is necessary to improve economic feasibility. We have quantitatively evaluated the separation performance of various polymers toward low-level tritium (~105 Bq·L−1) through batch experiments. The polystyrene with grafted by 20 types of functional groups (Tris (2-aminoethyl) amine, dimethylaminomethyl, isocyanate, mercaptomethyl, aminomethyl, hydroxymethyl, triphenylphosphine, morpholine, 2-chlorotrityl amine, 4-(dimethylamino) pyridine, poly (vinyl chloride) carboxylated, poly (4-vinyl pyridine), p-toluenesulfonic acid, p-toluenesulfonyl hydrazide, piperidine, acetyl polystyrene, 2-chlorotrityl chloride, piperazine, diethylene triamine, poly (vinyl chloride)) were suspended in HTO solution (initial activity = 4.7 × 105 Bq·L−1). After the equilibration, the suspension was filtered using 3 kDa membrane filter and the activity in filtrates were quantified by LSC (HIDEX-300 SL). The results demonstrate the detritiation efficiency and separation factors of functional groups toward tritium. Carboxylic group (COOH) showed the most reactive performance as detritiation efficiency of ~4%. Compared to other functional groups, styrene sulfonyl groups including sulfonyl amide (SNH2) and sulfonyl hydrazide (SNHNH2) revealed promising performance for tritium separation as separation factor of 10.97 and 3.85, respectively. However, sulfonyl hydroxide (SOH) which is known as reactive functional group to tritium exchange showed the poor performance (detritiation efficiency: 0.68%; separation factor: 3.02). This study could suggest the promising functional groups for detritiation of low-level tritiated water which can be utilized to enhance the performance of current technologies. For example, reactive functional groups can be grafted on the surface of packing material within distillation tower resulting in the increasing detritiation efficiency.
The decommissioning of Kori unit 1 is just around the corner. Accordingly, it is required to construct a hot cell facility for decommissioning nuclear power plants to analyze the characteristics of intermediate-level waste and low-level waste generated in the decommissioning process. In this study, a Design Base Accident (DBA) scenario of the facility is developed. To identify and characterize potential hazards at the facility, a Preliminary Fact Sheet (PFS) is filled out and consider external events in consideration of the surrounding site environment. The external event screening and evaluation method is based on the external event evaluation method covered in the probabilistic risk assessment. In PFS, only natural and artificial hazards that may have a meaningful impact on the facility are considered as the sources of the accident, and accident prevention and mitigation systems, etc., which exist in each compartment or facility, are described. Based on PFS and external events, potential hazard assessment is systematically performed using each potential hazards, impact and defense function identified using the preliminary hazard analysis (PHA) methodology. The potential hazard analysis methodology applied to this assessment is a qualitative assessment method consistent with the US DOE Hazard Analysis methodology (DOE 1992b; DOE 1994b). After that, the potential mitigation functions that can be used under normal, abnormal and accident conditions are examined, and the contribution of public and workers to safety is evaluated. The results of the PHA are basic data that prioritize potential hazards and can be used to develop potential accident scenarios. Among potential hazards generally considered for non-reactor facilities, only possible accidents during operation of the facilities are selected as potential hazards. The level of potential hazards is obtained by qualitatively examining the frequency and consequence estimates for each hazard or accident scenario developed in PHA. Based on the results of the potential hazards assessment, representative accidents that require further quantitative analysis are screened. Selected accidents are DBA and are the most dangerous and most significant impacts on workers.
The decommissioning cost of a nuclear power plant (NPP) is largely composed of activitydependent costs, period-dependent costs, and collateral costs. And activity-dependent costs for each decommissioning activity are composed of five cost elements: Removal, decontamination, packaging, shipping and disposal. Among these, the removal cost elements are calculated by multiplying the appropriate inventory data element by the corresponding unit factors (UF), which are developed in terms of labor hours to perform an activity on a per unit basis. The labor hours included in UF is calculated under theoretical working conditions, which, after being multiplied by labor rates, composes unit cost factor (UCF) along with material cost. In the actual working conditions, there are number of factors that increase the time needed for performing a task. The effects of these factors are taken into consideration by means of work difficulty factor (WDF), expressed as a percentage of increase of the working time, comparing to an unimpeded working situation. WDF, by increasing the labor hours and consequential labor cost in UCF, makes it possible to calculate the actual removal cost. There are about five types of adjustment factors commonly used as WDF: Height, Respiratory protection, Radiation, Protective clothing, Work break. Considering the different working conditions, all of the five factors’ combination could be used theoretically, which results in the huge increase of the number of WDFs. For practical purpose, two representative WDF application methods has been used in the dismantling decommissioning cost evaluation program: A separate development of the UCFs, WDFs applied to the decommissioning area. In the first method, all of the UCFs, having different working environment, should be developed separately by the cost estimator. In the second method, UCFs are to be allocated to the relevant decommissioning areas where WDF sets are predefined by the cost estimator. In this study, the components of the decommissioning cost, the relation between UCF and WDF, and WDF application methods were reviewed. The result of review implies that WDF has a great influence on decommissioning cost. Additionally, since WDF application methods have somewhat limitations and complexity, their characteristics should be sufficiently examined by the user before being used.
Activated corrosion products deposited on the reactor coolant system in a nuclear power plant should be removed to reduce the radiation exposure to workers. Chemical decontamination processes using organic acids have been widely applied to remove the activated corrosion products. However, they are highly corrosive to the base metal and generate a considerable amount of ion exchange resin waste, which is hard to be treated. In order to resolve this problem, KAERI has been developed a chemical decontamination process using chelate-free inorganic acid, HyBRID (Hydrazine Based Reductive metal Ion Decontamination) process. Especially, the Cyclic SP (Sulfuric acid/Permanganate)- HyBRID process was suggested as the decontamination process for applying to the remove the double oxide layer generated on the reactor coolant system in the pressurized water reactor (PWR). During the Cyclic SP-HyBRID process, the process is continuously applied without discharging or recharging of the decontamination process solution from the primary circuit. Thus, it is necessary to include the removal processes of the decontamination reagents middle of the Cyclic SP-HyBRID process, e.g., ‘Mn removal step’ for removing the permanganate ions and ‘hydrazine decomposition step’ for decomposition of the remaining hydrazine. During these removal processes, the metal ions can also be removed from the process solution. In this study, the behaviors of metals were investigated during the Cyclic SP-HyBRID process. The concentration changes of metal ions in the process solution were analyzed using atomic absorption (AA) spectroscopy. The metal precipitates generated during the process were characterized using X-ray diffraction (XRD) and Fourier Transform Infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy. From the results of the analysis, it was observed that the metal ions dissolved in the process solution were converted into metal hydroxides and precipitated at the Mn removal process. It was confirmed by equilibrium calculation result that the OH− ions generated at the Mn removal can react with the metal ions and form the metal hydroxides. It is considered that this removal behaviors of the metals can contribute the decontamination performance.
Sulfate-rich waste powder containing a radioactive nuclide is generated from chemical decontamination process and radioactive liquid waste treatment using ion exchange resin. The radioactive sulfate-rich waste powder should be stabilized for final disposal. The techniques for immobilization of the radioactive sulfate-rich waste powder such as hydraulic cement, geopolymer, and iron phosphate glass have been applied, however, there are limitation in these techniques. Firstly, the hydraulic cement cannot applied to the wastes containing high concentration of sulfate because the expansion, cracks, and disintegration can be happened in the waste form. Geopolymer has a low density although they can be used as a good binder. The iron phosphate glass can be utilized, however, a considerable amount of SO2 gas is emitted due to the high sintering temperature. In this study, immobilization of radioactive sulfate-rich waste powder was carried out to resolve above problems by applying low temperature sintering method using a low-melting glass. As a result, it was confirmed that the waste form has a high bulk density. The compressive strength of the waste form was over 40 MPa, which is higher than the acceptance criteria (≥ 3.44 MPa). From ANS 16.1 test, it was verified that the waste form met the acceptance criteria of the leachability index (≥ 6). It was also confirmed that the waste form was chemically durable through product consistency test (PCT). In addition, the chemical stabilities of waste forms were compared following the sintering condition and the composition of the waste forms. The difference of the chemical stability was explained by difference in the abundance of chemical form obtained from the sequential extraction test.
In a nuclear facility, the base metal can be radiologically contaminated during the operation. They must be decontaminated to reduce the radiation exposure to workers before decommissioning of the nuclear facility. In order to decontaminate the nuclear facility, it is possible to apply a perfluorocarbon (PFC) based emulsion consisted of surfactant and decontamination reagent. The PFC has high resistance for the radiation decomposition, and PFC based emulsion can be easily stabilized using the ultrasonication method. During decontamination process, a dispersion stability of the emulsion affects to the decontamination performance because the decontamination reagents dispersed in the emulsion contact contaminated surface. In this study, the dispersion stability the PFC based emulsion was evaluated following the composition of the emulsion and dispersion condition such as temperature, ultrasonication time. It was confirmed that the concentration of surfactant is highly related to the dispersion stability from the result of Turbiscan analysis using the multiple light scattering method. It was also verified that the droplet size of the decontamination reagent in the stable emulsion was smaller than that in the unstable emulsion. This phenomena can be explained by the relationship between the interfacial tension and droplet size. Finally, the recovering test of the PFC from the spent PFC-based decontamination emulsion was conducted using distillation method. The distillation test was performed using vacuum distillation unit, and the distillation temperature was 80°C. From the distillation test, about 95 % of PFC was recovered by distillation. From this result, it is considered that PFC-based decontamination emulsion reduces the volume of the secondary waste.
Various cutting technologies are being developed for dismantling nuclear power plants. these technologies are including mechanical and thermal methods. For example, mechanical cutting methods include sawing, drilling and milling. But, due to the strength of material, mechanical cutting methods have limits of cutting depth and tool life. Therefore, this milling machine assisted plasma torch was developed to improve the limits. And this machine has the principle of softening effect caused by the high temperature. In this work, this developed device was evaluated in view of the cutting depth and tool life in cutting process. For this process, a plasma torch was attached to the front of the endmill processing path to heat the Inconel 600. As results, compare to conventional milling, when the plasma torch power is 6.4 kW, the cutting depth was increased by 4 mm at condition (feed rate is 100 mm·min−1, tool diameter is 10 mm, rotating speed is 1,000 rpm). And cutting length increase 2 times from 300 mm to 600 mm at 16 mm of tool diameter.
Many countries are developing various mechanical cutting technologies to dismantle nuclear facility. However, most of mechanical cutting technologies have a problem like the degradation of tool life due to the Hard-Machining materials. To solve this problem, lab-scale test was performed with a Plasma Assisted Machining (PAM) technology and 25 mm of thickness Inconel 600 plate. Commonly, the strength of metals decreases by exposure at high temperature. And, previous study reported that strength of Inconel 600 is degraded above 500°C. This softening effect was applied to Inconel 600 cutting test. The optimal conditions such as the plasma torch power and the feed rate were determined by this study. As a result, the surface temperature of Inconel 600 was reached up to 500°C under the conditions which is 8.4 kW of plasma torch power and 150–250 mm·min−1 of feed rate. And it was confirmed that the tool life was improved under the conditions. In order to apply PAM for various Hard- Machining materials, it is necessary to investigate the softening temperature of Hard-Machining materials, the plasma torch power and feed rate.
Currently, dismantling technology for decommissioning nuclear power plants is being developed around the world. This study describes the cutting technology and one of the technologies being considered for the RV/RVI cutting of Kori Unit 1. The dismantling technology for nuclear power plants include mechanical and thermal methods. Mechanical cutting methods include milling, drill saw, and wire cutting. The advantages of the mechanical method are less generating aerosol and less performance degradation in water. However, the cutting speed is slow and the reaction force is large. Thermal cutting methods use heat sources such as plasma arcs, oxygen, and lasers. The advantages of thermal method are fast cutting speed, low reaction force and thick material cutting. On the other hand, they have problems with fume and melt. Among them, the cutability of the oxygen cutting method is better in carbon steel than in stainless steel. In order to cut the RV/RVI of the Kori Unit 1, the applicability of fine plasma, arc saw, and band/ wheel saw is being reviewed. For RV cutting, the applicability of arc saw and oxy-propane is being considered Because RV is mostly made of carbon steel. However, since the flange is cladded with stainless steel, the use of mechanical methods such as wire saws should be considered. In the case of RVI, since it has a complicated shape and is made of stainless steel, it seems necessary to review various cutting methods. In addition, it will be necessary to minimize radiation exposure of workers by cutting underwater cutting.
Inorganic and organic ion exchange materials were generally applied to liquid processes in nuclear reactor. In the case of heavy-water reactor (HWR), zeolite, active carbon, anion resin, and cation resin were used to treat liquid processes such as reactor primary coolant cleanup and liquid radioactive waste management system. Then, used ion exchangers were stored at storage tanks. Various kinds of nuclides were adsorbed in ion exchange materials. Especially, C-14, long half-life nuclide, was highly concentrated in anion resin, and waste resin was treated as intermediated level radioactive waste (ILW). Thermal and non-thermal methods such as pyrolysis, incineration, catalytic extraction, acid digestion, and wet oxidation have been studied for treating spent resin. However, destructive methods are not suitable due to massive off gas waste containing radioactive species. To solve this problem, various kinds of processes were developed such as acid stripping, PLO process, activity stripping, thermal treatment, and etc. In this study, microwave method is suggested to treat HWR waste resin. C-14 nuclide was selectively removed from waste resin without decomposition of main structure in waste resin. Radioactive waste resin generated from Wolsung HWR unit 1 and unit 2 was treated using microwave method and 95% of C-14 was successfully removed from the radioactive waste resin.
Water electrolysis is a representative technology for tritium enrichment in water. Proton exchange membrane (PEM) water electrolysis has received great attention to replace traditional alkaline water electrolysis which generates concentrated tritiated water containing a large amount of salts. Nafion has been widely used as a polymeric electrolyte for the PEM electrolyzer. However, its low gas barrier property causes explosion, corrosion or degradation of electrolyzer. Furthermore, the traditional polymeric electrolytes have negligible differences in conductivity between hydrogen isotopes. To enhance the tritium separation by water electrolysis, we designed a composite membrane (Nafion/ hexagonal boron nitride (hBN)). The monolayer hBN has a high proton conductivity and gas barrier property, and the hBN can enhance conductivity differences between hydrogen isotopes. We prepared Nafion/hBN composite membranes, and water electrolysis performances and proton/deuterium separation behaviors were investigated.
As the number of nuclear power plants whose design life has expired worldwide increases, the attempts are continuing to complete the project of nuclear back-end cycle, the last task of the nuclear industry. Decontamination is essential in the process of dismantling nuclear facilities and restoration sites to remove all or some of the regulatory controls from an authorized facility. Among radioactive wastes, particularly contaminated soil is characterized by difficult physical decontamination because radionuclides are adsorbed between soil particles, that is, pores. Therefore, chemical decontamination is mainly used, which has the disadvantage of generating a lot of secondary waste. In order to overcome these disadvantages, an eco-friendly soil decontamination process is being developed that can drastically reduce the amount of secondary waste generated by using supercritical carbon dioxide. Supercritical carbon dioxide can easily control its physical properties and has both liquid and gas properties. However, since supercritical carbon dioxide is non-polar, additives are needed to extract polar metal ions, which are the goal of decontamination. Therefore, ligand with both CO2-philic and metal binding regions was selected. In previous studies, the decontamination efficiency of soil was evaluated by reacting contaminated soil with solid ligand and co-ligand at once. When solid ligands were used, the decontamination efficiency was lower than expected, which was expected because chemical substances were somewhat difficult to exchange in the closed process. In this study, in order to increase the efficiency of the decontamination process, the need for a process of liquefying ligand and continuously flowing it has been raised. Therefore, a co-solvent that dissolves well at the same time in SCCO2, ligand, and co-ligand was selected. In the selection process, a total of eight substances were selected by dividing into six polar substances and two non-polar substances through various criteria such as economic feasibility, eco-friendliness, and harmlessness. Thereafter, ethanol was finally selected through solubility evaluation for SCCO2 and additives. It is expected that a more effective decontamination process can be constructed when the additive is liquefied using a solvent selected from the results of this study.
It is important to ensure worker’s safety from radiation hazard in decommissioning site. Real-time tracking of worker’s location is one of the factors necessary to detect radiation hazard in advance. In this study, the integrated algorithm for worker tracking has been developed to ensure the safety of workers. There are three essential techniques needed to track worker’s location, which are object detection, object tracking, and estimating location (stereo vision). Above all, object detection performance is most important factor in this study because the performance of tracking and estimating location is depended on worker detection level. YOLO (You Only Look Once version 5) model capable of real-time object detection was applied for worker detection. Among the various YOLO models, a model specialized for person detection was considered to maximize performance. This model showed good performance for distinguishing and detecting workers in various occlusion situations that are difficult to detect correctly. Deep SORT (Simple Online and Realtime Tracking) algorithm which uses deep learning technique has been considered for object tracking. Deep SORT is an algorithm that supplements the existing SORT method by utilizing the appearance information based on deep learning. It showed good tracking performance in the various occlusion situations. The last step is to estimate worker’s location (x-y-z coordinates). The stereo vision technique has been considered to estimate location. It predicts xyz location using two images obtained from stereo camera like human eyes. Two images are obtained from stereo camera and these images are rectified based on camera calibration information in the integrated algorithm. And then workers are detected from the two rectified images and the Deep SORT tracks workers based on worker’s position and appearance between previous frames and current frames. Two points of workers having same ID in two rectified images give xzy information by calculating depth estimation of stereo vision. The integrated algorithm developed in this study showed sufficient possibility to track workers in real time. It also showed fast speed to enable real-time application, showing about 0.08 sec per two frames to detect workers on a laptop with high-performance GPU (RTX 3080 laptop version). Therefore, it is expected that this algorithm can be sufficiently used to track workers in real decommissioning site by performing additional parameter optimization.
The spent filters stored in Kori Unit 1 are planned that compressed and disposed for volume reduction. However, shielding reinforcement is required to package high-dose spent filters in a 200 L drum. So, in this study suggests a shielding thickness that can satisfy the surface dose criteria of 10 mSv·h−1 when packaging several compressed spent filters into 200 L drums, and the number of drums required for the compressed spent filter packaging was calculated. In this study, representative gamma-emitting nuclides in spent filter are assumed that Co-60 and Cs-137, and dose reduction due to half-life is not considered, because the date of occurrence and nuclide information of the stored spent filter are not accurate. The shielding material is assumed to be concrete, and the thickness of the shielding is assumed to 18 cm considering the diameter of the spent filter and compression mold. Considering the height of the compressed spent filter and the internal height of the shielding drum, assuming the placement of the compressed spent filter in the drum in the vertical direction only, the maximum number of packaging of the compressed spent filter is 3. When applying a 18 cm thick concrete shield, the maximum dose of the spent filter can packaged in the drum is 125 mSv·h−1, so when packaging 3 spent filters of the same dose, the dose of a spent filter shall not exceed 41 mSv·h−1 and not exceed 62 mSv·h−1when packing 2 spent filters. Therefore, the dose ranges of spent filters that can be packaged in a drum are classified into three groups: 0–41 mSv·h−1, 41–62 mSv·h−1, and 62–125 mSv·h−1based on 41 mSv·h−1, 62 mSv·h−1, and 125 mSv·h−1. When 227 spent filters stored in the filter room are classified according to the above dose group, 207, 3 and 4 spent filters are distributed in each group, and the number of shielding drums required to pack the appropriate number of spent filters in each dose group is 75. Meanwhile, 8 spent filters exceeding 125 mSv·h−1 and 5 spent filters that has without dose information are excluded from compression and packaging until the treatment and disposal method are prepared. In the future, we will segmentation of waste filter dose groups through the consideration of dose reduction and horizontal placement of compressed spent filters, and derive the minimum number of drums required for compressed spent filter packaging.
Magnesium potassium phosphate cements (MKPCs) are prepared by the acid-base reaction of dead burned magnesia (MgO) and monopotassium phosphate (KH2PO4). Low-pH cementitious materials such as MKPCs are currently of interest for the geological disposal of nuclear waste. MKPCs have advantages such as high early strength, high bonding strength, small drying shrinkage, low permeability, and high sulfate resistance. According to the results of previous studies, it is known that cesium, strontium, and cobalt are immobilized in the form of MgCsxK1−xPO4·6H2O, MgxSr1−xKPO4·6H2O, and Co3(PO4)2, respectively, in MKPCs. However, these results were predicted based on thermodynamic data, not directly observed precipitates to clearly show the evidence. Therefore, in this study, we directly analyzed the immobilized forms of Cs, Sr, and Co, respectively. CsNO3, Sr(NO3)2, and Co(NO3)2·6H2O powders (0.3 mol each) were mixed individually in each of the MKPC suspensions. The suspensions in which KH2PO4 was dissolved were pH 4.3 and the dissolution of MgO decreased the H+ concentration, raising the pH close to 11. The hydration products according to pH evolution in the MKPC suspensions were analyzed, and the change in the concentration of ions in the aqueous solution was also measured. An aqueous solution was obtained using a syringe filter (0.45 μm) to analyze the ion concentrations in the solution of the suspension. The collected solutions were diluted with nitric acid and analyzed using inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry. To characterize the solid phases, the suspensions were obtained with a pipette at specific times and filtered under a vacuum in a Buchner funnel. Because the amounts of hydration products including Cs, Sr, and Co were small, it was not observed by XRD and TGA analysis, but their components could be analyzed by SEM-EDS. The final precipitate forms of Cs, Sr, and Co in the MKPC matrix are MgCsPO4·6H2O, SrHPO4, and Co3(PO4)2·8H2O, respectively.
The Kori Unit 1 and Wolsong Units 1, commercial reactors in South Korea, were permanently shut down due to the expiration of their design lifetime. Therefore, nuclear power plants that have been permanently shut down must be dismantled, and the site must be finally released after removing the remaining radionuclides. Domestic regulatory standards for site remediation should not exceed 0.1 mSv per year based on effective dose. In addition, it is necessary to calculate the preliminary Derived Concentration Guideline Levels (DCGL) to prove that the conditions are met. Therefore, in this study, the input factor considering the geological characteristics of the site of Kori Unit 1 was investigated, and the preliminary Derived Concentration Guideline Levels were calculated and compared with the results of previous studies. As a result of comparative analysis, 60Co, 134Cs, and 137Cs, which are gamma-ray emitting radionuclides, had similar values to DCGL of previous studies A and B. However, 63Ni, a beta-rayemitting nuclide, was 5.94×104 Bq·g−1 in this study and 8.47×101 Bq·g−1in previous study B, resulting in a difference of about 700 times. In addition, in the case of 90Sr, this study and previous study A were derived similarly, but this study was 5.34×101 Bq·g−1 and previous study B was 1.18×10−1 Bq·g−1, resulting in a difference of about 450 times. This difference is judged to be because, unlike this study using only the industrial worker scenario, in the case of previous study B, the resident farmer scenario was mixed and used, which considers the internal exposure caused by ingestion of food produced in the contaminated area. In this study, it was confirmed that DCGL according to the change of geological factors of the site did not have a significant effect on gamma-ray-emitting nuclides. However, it was confirmed that considering the intake of food affects the DCGL of beta-ray-emitting nuclides. Therefore, there is a need to conduct future studies applying intake input factors that meet domestic conditions.
Self-Powered Neutron Detector (SPND) is one of devices for in-core fluxes detecting without external electricity source. SPND consisted with emitter, insulator and collector. When neutrons reacted with emitter material, it generates electrons and these electrons cross insulator area to make electric signal in collector area. For calculating sensitivity of SPND with Monte-Carlo code such as MCNP, many physical components must be considered. Cobalt shows that prompt signal and relatively low signal comparing with other delayed signal SPNDs. Initial sensitivity was calculated as 4.28×10−22 A/nv-cm for one electron. Due to Cobalt’s complex decay chain and maintaining high efficiency of SPND, it is necessary to analysis the effect of activation of emitter. Therefore, the DPA (Displacements Per Atom) assessment and activation analysis of the detector components have been evaluated with MCNP 6.2 and ORIGEN-S. With these activation analysis results, that is expected to be used to determine the shielding thickness of the storage system.
Radioactively contaminated metal components from a nuclear power plant must be decontaminated to reduce the risk of radiation exposure to workers, which can be cleaned using a foam decontamination used to reduce the amount of wastewater significantly. Metal components with a fixed radioactive contamination can be effectively decontaminated using a foam consist of 0.5wt% nonionic surfactant, 0.5 M H2SO4, and 0.2 M Ce(SO4)2. However, strongly acidic wastewater is generated from the decontamination method, which contains a high concentration of the nonionic surfactant and ionic materials with radioactive nuclides. This wastewater must be treated as a stable form. In this study, an integrated process of precipitation and low pressure distillation was evaluated for the treatment of wastewater. It was confirmed that the surfactant and ionic materials were effectively removed from the wastewater through the integrated process.