Properties of bentonite, mainly used as buffer and/or backfill materials, will evolve with time due to thermo-hydro-mechanical-chemical (THMC) processes, which could deteriorate the long-term integrity of the engineered barrier system. In particular, degradation of the backfill in the evolution processes makes it impossible to sufficiently perform the safety functions assigned to prevent groundwater infiltration and retard radionuclide transport. To phenomenologically understand the performance degradation to be caused by evolution, it is essential to conduct the demonstration test for backfill material under the deep geological disposal environment. Accordingly, in this paper, we suggest types of tests and items to be measured for identifying the performance evolution of backfill for the Deep Geological Repository (DGR) in Korea, based on the review results on the performance assessment methodology conducted for the operating license application in Finland. Some of insights derived from reviewing the Finnish case are as follows: 1) The THMC evolution characteristics of backfill material are mainly originated from hydro-mechanical and/or hydrochemical processes driven by the groundwater behavior. 2) These evolutions could occur immediately upon installation of backfill materials and vary depending on characteristics of backfill and groundwater. 3) Through the demonstration experiments with various scales, the hydro-mechanical evolution (e.g. advection and mechanical erosion) of the backfill due to changes in hydraulic behavior could be identified. 4) The hydro-chemical evolution (e.g. alteration and microbial activity) could be identified by analyzing the fully-saturated backfill after completing the experiment. Given the findings, it is judged that the following studies should be first conducted for the candidate backfill materials of the domestic DGR. a) Lab-scale experiment: Measurement for dry density and swelling pressure due to saturation of various backfill materials, time required to reach full saturation, and change in hydraulic conductivity with injection pressure. b) Pilot-scale experiment: Measurement for the mass loss due to erosion; Investigation on the fracture (piping channel) forming and resealing in the saturation process; Identification of the hydro-mechanical evolution with the test scale. c) Post-experiment dismantling analysis for saturated backfill: Measurement of dry density, and contents of organic and harmful substances; Investigation of water content distribution and homogenization of density differences; Identification of the hydro-chemical evolution with groundwater conditions. The results of this study could be directly used to establishing the experimental plan for verifying performance of backfill materials of DGR in Korea, provided that the domestic data such as facility design and site characteristics (including information on groundwater) are acquired.

Despite the accident rate for fishing vessels accounts for 70% of all maritime accidents, few studies on such accidents have been done and most of the them mainly focus on causes and mitigation policies to reduce that accident rate. Thus, this risk analysis on sea accidents is the first to be performed for the successful and efficient implementation of accident reducing measures. In risk analysis, risk is calculated based on the combination of frequency and the consequence of an accident, and is usually expressed as a single number. However, there exists uncertainty in the risk calculation process if one uses a limited number of data for analysis. Therefore, in the study we propose a probabilistic simulation method to forecast risk not as a single number, but in a range of possible risk values. For the capability of the proposed method, using the criteria with the ALARP region, we show the possible risk values spanning across the different risk regions, whereas the single risk value calculated from the existing method lies in one of the risk regions. Therefore, a decision maker could employ appropriate risk mitigation options to handle the risks lying in different regions. For this study, we used fishing vessel accident data from 1988 to 2016.

Lithium silicate, a lithium-ion conducting ceramic, is coated on a layer-structured lithium nickel manganese oxide (LiNi0.7Mn0.3O2). Residual lithium compounds (Li2CO3 and LiOH) on the surface of the cathode material and SiO2 derived from tetraethylorthosilicate are used as lithium and silicon sources, respectively. Powder X-ray diffraction and scanning electron microscopy with energy-dispersive spectroscopy analyses show that lithium silicate is coated uniformly on the cathode particles. Charge and discharge tests of the samples show that the coating can enhance the rate capability and cycle life performance. The improvements are attributed to the reduced interfacial resistance originating from suppression of solid-electrolyte interface (SEI) formation and dissolution of Ni and Mn due to the coating. An X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy study of the cycled electrodes shows that nickel oxide and manganese oxide particles are formed on the surface of the electrode and that greater decomposition of the electrolyte occurs for the bare sample, which confirms the assumption that SEI formation and Ni and Mn dissolution can be reduced using the coating process.

A strategic decision making on location selection for product transportation includes many tangible and untangible factors. To choose the best locations is a difficult job in the sense that objectives usually conflict with each other. In this paper, we consider a multi stage multi criteria transshipment problem with different types of items to be transported from the sources to the destination points. For the optimization of the problem, a goal programming formulation will be presented in which the location selection for each product type will be determined under the multi objective criteria. In the study, we generalize the transshipment model with a variety of product types and finite number of different intermediate nodes between origins and destinations. For the selection of the criteria we selected the costs(fixed cost and transportation cost), location numbers, and unsatisfied demand for each type of products in multi stage transportation, which are the main goals in transshipment modelling problems. The related conditions are also modelled through linear formats.