본 연구에서는 한국산 맵시벌과 3종 (운문점박이납작맵시벌, 잎말이나방살이뭉툭맵시벌, 안경꼬마자루맵시벌)의 새로운 숙주를 보고하고 자 한다. 새로운 숙주는 각각 자나방과, 잎말이나방과, 풀명나방과에 속하며, 이 중 자나방과와 풀명나방과는 각각 쌍점박이납작맵시벌속, 안경꼬 마자루맵시벌속의 숙주로써 처음으로 기록된다. 여기에 맵시벌과 3종의 간략한 특징과 우화된 표본의 사진, 숙주의 성충 사진을 제공하였다.

Corrosion-related challenges remain a significant research topic in developing next-generation Molten Salt Reactors (MSRs). To gain a deeper understanding of preventing corrosion in MSRs, previous studies have attempted to improve the corrosion resistance of structural alloys by coating surfaces such as alumina coating. To conduct a corrosion test of coating alloys fully immersed in molten salt, it’s important to ensure that the coating application process is carefully carried out. Ideally, coating all sides of the alloy is necessary to avoid gaps like corners of the alloy, while only applying a one-sided coating alloy can lead to galvanic corrosion with the base metals. Using the droplet shape of eutectic salt applied to only one side of the coating alloy would avoid these problems in conventional corrosion immersion tests, as corrosion would occur solely on the coating surface. Although the droplet method for corrosion tests cannot fully replicate corrosion in the MSRs environment, it offers a valuable tool for comparing and evaluating the corrosion resistance of different coating surfaces of alloys. However, the surface area is important due to the effect of diffusion in the corrosion of alloy in molten salt environments, but it is difficult to unify in the case of droplet tests. Therefore, understanding the droplet-alloy properties and corrosion mechanism is needed to accurately predict and analyze these test systems’ behavior highlighting unity for corrosion tests of different coating surfaces of alloys. To analyze the molten salt droplet behavior on various samples, pelletized eutectic NaCl-MgCl2 was prepared as salt and W-, Mo-coating, and base SS316 as samples. At room temperature, the same mass of pelletized eutectic NaCl-MgCl2 was placed on different samples under an argon atmosphere and heated to a eutectic point of 500°C in a furnace. After every hour, the molten droplets were hardened by rapid cooling at room temperature outside the furnace. The mass loss of salts and the contact area of the samples were measured by mass balance and SEM. The shape, surface area to volume ratio, and evaporation of the droplets of NaCl-MgCl2 per each coating sample and hour were analyzed to identify the optimal mass to equalize the contact coating surface of alloys with salts. Furthermore, We also analyzed whether their results reached saturation of corrosion products through ICP-MS. This will be significant research for the uniformity of the liquid-drop shape corrosion test of the coating sample in molten eutectic salts.

LiCl-KCl eutectic possesses unique properties such as a low melting point, high thermal conductivity, and good electrical conductivity. These properties make it suitable for various applications, including nuclear power generation, pyroprocessing in nuclear waste management, and thermal energy storage systems. In most experiments using LiCl-KCl, the molten salt composition is an important factor; therefore, periodic analysis through sampling is necessary for monitoring compositional changes. Although manual sampling is typically used, it is time-consuming and can introduce errors due to low reproducibility. To address this issue, we have developed an automatic molten salt sampling device using the cold-finger method. This method involves immersing the tip of a tungsten rod in hightemperature LiCl-KCl, removing it after a few seconds, and allowing the adhered molten salt to solidify instantly. A collector then scratches and drops the solidified sample. These processes are carried out automatically using servo motors, enabling the sampling device to move around the molten salt system. We have optimized the sampling conditions, such as insertion and withdrawal rate, immersion time, and the interval between continuous sampling, based on the molten salt temperature. The temperature was set between 500°C and 850°C, considering the operating temperatures of the applications. In addition to sampling speed, the sampling depth is a key condition for determining the sampling mass. Therefore, we examined the amount of sample depending on the sampling depth and, particularly, considered the change in salt height when sampling is performed continuously. As a result, we determined the number of sampling iterations required to reach the target sample mass. Furthermore, to minimize the initial salt loss, we noted that sampling from the salt surface resulted in less representative samples. To determine the reliability, we compared the results of surface sampling with those obtained when sampling at the middle of the salt. This study will enable highly reproducible and reliable sampling by providing a prototype for an automatic sampling device for molten salt along with guidelines.

Aluminum’s exceptional properties, such as its high strength-to-weight ratio, excellent thermal conductivity, corrosion resistance, and low neutron absorption cross-section, make it an ideal material for diverse nuclear industry applications, including aluminum plating for the building envelope of nuclear power plants. However, plating aluminum presents challenges due to its high reactivity with oxygen and moisture, thus, complicating the process in the absence of controlled environments. Plating under an inert atmosphere is often used as an alternative. However, maintaining an inert atmosphere can be expensive and presents an economic challenge. To address these challenges, an innovative approach is introduced by using deep eutectic solvents (DES) as a substitute for traditional aqueous electrolytes due to the high solubility of metal salts, and wide electrochemical window. In addition, DESs offer the benefits of low toxicity, low flammability, and environmentally friendly, which makes DESs candidates for industrial-scale applications. In this study, we employed an AlCl3-Urea DES as the electrolyte and investigated its potential for producing aluminum coatings on copper substrates under controlled conditions, for example, current density, deposition duration, and temperature. A decane protective layer, non-polar molecular, has been used to shield the AlCl3-Urea electrolyte from the air during the electrodeposition process. The electrodeposition was successful after being left in the air for two weeks. This study presents a promising and innovative approach to optimizing aluminum electrodeposition using deep eutectic solvents, with potential applications in various areas of the nuclear industry, including fuel cladding, waste encapsulation, and radiation shielding.

Establishing a ship's passage plan is an essential step before it starts to sail. The research related to the automatic generation of ship passage plans is attracting attention because of the development of maritime autonomous surface ships. In coastal water navigation, the land, islands, and navigation rules need to be considered. From the path planning algorithm's perspective, a ship's passage planning is a global path-planning problem. Because conventional global path-planning methods such as Dijkstra and A* are time-consuming owing to the processes such as environmental modeling, it is difficult to modify a ship's passage plan during a voyage. Therefore, the D* algorithm was used to address these problems. The starting point was near Busan New Port, and the destination was Ulsan Port. The navigable area was designated based on a combination of the ship trajectory data and grid in the target area. The initial path plan generated using the D* algorithm was analyzed with 33 waypoints and a total distance of 113.946 km. The final path plan was simplified using the Douglas–Peucker algorithm. It was analyzed with a total distance of 110.156 km and 10 waypoints. This is approximately 3.05% less than the total distance of the initial passage plan of the ship. This study demonstrated the feasibility of automatically generating a path plan in coastal navigation for maritime autonomous surface ships using the D* algorithm. Using the shortest distance–based path planning algorithm, the ship's fuel consumption and sailing time can be minimized.

For the performance analysis of deep geological repository systems, numerical simulation with multi-physics is required, which specifically covers Thermal (T), Hydraulic (H), and Mechanical (M) behaviors in the disposal environment. Numerous simulation models have been developed so far, each of which varies in the approach and methodology for solving THM problems. Fully-coupled THM simulation codes such as ROCMAS, THAMES, and CODE_BRIGHT were mainly developed in the initial stage of DEvelopment of COupled models and their VALidation against EXperiments (DECOVALEX), with the advantage of thorough calculations consisting of correlated several variables on different physics. Due to the difficulty of solving the complex Jacobian Matrix and the following burden for the computational calculation, weakly-coupled THM models have been suggested in recent researches: TOUGH2-MP with FLAC3D, TOUGH2 with UDEC and OpenGeoSys with FLAC3D. This methodology of loose coupling allows the practical use of computational code optimized for each physics, thereby increasing the efficiency in simulation. However, these suggested models require two different numerical codes to calculate THM behaviors, which leads to several inherent issues: compatibility during maintenance, updating and dependency between two codes. In this study, therefore, the authors build a unified code for simulating THM behaviors in the deep geological repository. The concept involves the iterative sequential coupling between TH and M for calculation efficiency. As having developed the simulation code, High-level rAdiowaste Disposal Evaluation System (HADES), to describe TH behavior based on Multi-physics Object-Oriented Simulation Environment (MOOSE) software, the authors make a milestone to develop and couple the MOOSE-based new code for M behavior as Sub-app, with the previous HADES set to be Main-app. New model for M behavior will be verified with the benchmark case of DECOVALEX-THMC Task D, comparing the mechanical simulation results: stress evolution over time, profiles of stress and vertical displacement. The existing simulation results from HADES will also be updated with the coupled calculations, with regard to temperature and saturation. Additionally, the effective stress evolution can be assessed in terms of repository’s stability with Spalling Strength and Mohr-Coulomb failure criterion. This concept for new simulation model has its meaning in that it aims to demonstrate the specific methodology of loosely coupling multi-physics in unified simulation code and analyze THM complex interactions with considering mutual influence on various physics. It is expected that HADES can be renewed as an integral simulation model for deep geological repository systems by possessing the capacity for analyzing and assessing mechanical behavior.

Chemical environments of near-field (Engineered barrier and surrounded host rock) can influence performance of a deep geological repository. The chemical environments of near-field change as time evolves eventually reaching a steady state. During the construction of a deep geological repository, O2 will be introduced to the deep geological repository. The O2 can cause corrosion of Cu canisters, and it is important predicting remaining O2 concentration in the near-field. The remaining O2 concentration in the near field can be governed by the following two reactions: oxidation of Cu(I) from oxidation of Cu and oxidation of pyrite in bentonite and backfill materials. These oxidation reactions (Cu(I) and pyrite oxidation) can influence the performance of the deep geological repository in two ways; the first way is consuming oxidizing agents (O2) and the second way is the changing pH in the near-field and ultimately influencing on the mass transport rate of radionuclides from spent nuclear fuel (failure of canisters) to out of the engineered barrier. Hence, it is very important to know the evolution of chemical environments of near-field by the oxidation of pyrite and Cu. However, the oxidation kinetics of pyrite and Cu are different in the order of 1E7 which means the overall kinetics cannot be fully considered in the deep geological repository. Therefore, it is important to develop a simplified Cu and pyrite oxidation kinetics model based on deep geological repository conditions. Herein, eight oxidation reactions for the chemical species Cu(I) were considered to extract a simplified kinetic equation. Also, a simplified kinetics equation was used for pyrite oxidation. For future analysis, simplified chemical reactions should be combined with a Multiphysics Cu corrosion model to predict the overall lifetime of Cu canisters.

In Korea, additional regulatory requirements are increasing due to the full-scale decommissioning of nuclear power plants following the permanent shutdown of Kori Unit 1 and Wolseong Unit 1. Accordingly, it is necessary to preemptively expand the scope of physical protection regulations from design, construction, and operation stage to back-end nuclear fuel cycle such as cessation of operation and decommissioning. According to Article 2, Paragraph 24 of the Nuclear Safety Act, the decommissioning of nuclear facilities is defined as all activities to exclude them from the application of the Nuclear Safety Act by permanently suspending the operation of nuclear facilities, demolishing the facilities and sites, or removing radioactive contamination. In other words, it refers to a series of technologies or activities to safely and efficiently dismantle nuclear power plant and remove radioactive contamination and restore them to their original state after permanently shut down of nuclear power plant. Security changes during decommissioning and decontamination since removing fuel from the reactor alters the plant’s safety status, some of the systems or components considered as vital equipment during plant operation will no longer be needed. The vital areas may be reduced as fewer buildings, equipment and systems need to be protected, which means access controls, surveillance and so on can be reduced. And also, decommissioning will probably require more workers than operation would, although this might not be the case at all times. From a security point of view, this might require more personnel or additional access points. Changing operating require changed security measures, to ensure that the required security level will be maintained while at the same time work proceeds efficiently. Once all of the fuel is removed from the plant, radiological release risk is much lower. The lower risk requires a lower level of security measures. Even during the removal of nuclear material and contaminated equipment from nuclear facilities, lower level of security measures should meet regulatory requirements based on a graded approach. Therefore, this study intends to examine the responsibilities and obligations of regulatory authorities, regulator, and nuclear operators in terms of protection after permanent shutdown and decommissioning.