Various disposal methods for spent nuclear fuels (SNFs) are being researched, and one of these methods involves separating high heat-generating nuclear isotopes such as Strontium-90 (90Sr) and Cesium-137 (137Cs) for deep disposal. These isotopes has relatively short half-lives and substantial decay energies. Especially, 90Sr undergoes decay through Yttrium-90 to Zirconium-90, emitting intense heat with beta radiation. Therefore, the removal of these high heat-generating isotopes will significantly contribute to reducing disposal site area. To remove 90Sr from SNFs, molten salt was utilized in KAERI. During this process, it was discovered that 90Sr dissolves in the molten salt in the form of SrCl2 and/or Sr4OCl6. Afterwards, it is crucial to recover 90Sr in the form of oxide from the salt to create immobilized forms for disposal. This can be achieved by reactive distillation with K2CO3. However, the amount of 90Sr within the SNFs is only 0.121wt%, and even if all the 90Sr in the SNFs were to leach into the molten salt, the quantity of 90Sr in the molten slat would still be very small. Therefore, adding K2CO3 to the molten salt for reactive distillation could result in significant possibilities of side reactions occurring. In this study, a two-step process was employed to mitigate the side reactions: the 1st step involves evaporating the all molten salts and the 2nd step includes adding K2CO3 to make oxides through solid-solid reaction. Eutectic LiCl-KCl, which is the most commonly used salt, was employed. The eutectic LiCl-KCl with SrCl2 was heated at 850°C for 2 h to evaporate the salts under a vacuum (> 0.02 torr). However, after examining the distillation product before the solid-solid reaction, it was observed that SrCl2 reacted with KCl in the salt, resulting in the formation of KSr2Cl5. It means that salts containing KCl are not suitable candidates for reactive distillation aimed at producing immobilized forms. As an alternative, MgCl2 could be a highly promising candidate because it is inert to SrCl2 and according to a recent study in KAERI, MgCl2 exhibited the most efficient separation of Sr among various salts. Therefore, we plan to proceed with the two-step reactive distillation using MgCl2 for the future work.

It has been investigated on the management of Strontium-90 in KAERI. It is needed to separate the solute from the salt solution for the recovery of strontium after the chlorination of the strontium oxide in molten salt. A vacuum distillation technology was used for the separation of strontium from the molten salt in our previous study. Strontium chloride was successfully carbonated by reactive distillation of SrCl2 – K2CO3 – LiCl – KCl system. In this study, it was tried to develop another route to recover strontium from the salt solution by a solid-solid reaction for avoiding the entrainment of product and the salt-K2CO3 reaction. Reactive distillation experiments were carried out for SrCl2 - K2CO3 – LiCl – KCl system. The carbonation temperature and pressure were 520°C and 0.8 bar. After the carbonation reaction, the temperature was elevated to 820°C to remove KCl from the reaction product. SrCO3 and KCl peaks were found in the XRD analysis of the residual product. It could be concluded that SrCl2 can be successfully carbonated after salt removal by the solid-solid reaction.

It has been investigated on the management of the nuclides in KAERI. Strontium-90 is a high heatgenerating nuclide in spent nuclear fuel. It is needed to separate the salt from the salt solution for the recovery of strontium after the chlorination of the strontium oxide in molten salt. A vacuum distillation technology was used for the separation of strontium from the molten salt. It was investigated on operating conditions of reactive distillation process for the recovery of the strontium from the salt solution. At a reduced pressure, considerable amount of the carbonation agents such as K2CO3 and Li2CO3 were reduced during heating in the distiller due to the thermal decomposition. Therefore, the two step process was proposed, which is composed of a reaction step at an atmospheric pressure and a salt distillation step at a reduced pressure. In the reaction step, the condition of low temperature and high pressure is suitable to suppress the decomposition of the carbonation agent. In the salt distillation step, reduced pressure is preferable at a suitable temperature depending on the evaporation rate of the salt.

It has been studied on the disposal area reduction for the used nuclear fuel by the management of high decay-heat nuclides, long-lived nuclides, and highly mobile nuclides. It was investigated on the management of the nuclides in KAERI. Strontium-90 is a high heat-generating nuclide in spent nuclear fuel. It is needed to separate the salt from the salt solution for the recovery of strontium after the chlorination of the strontium oxide in molten salt. Vacuum distillation was used for the separation of strontium from the molten salt. Potassium carbonate was chosen as a reactive distillation reagent for SrCl2 – LiCl – KCl system by the thermodynamic calculation. Reactive distillation experiments were carried out. The residual was mainly SrCO3 in the XRD analysis. It could be concluded that K2CO3 could be one of the suitable reagents for the reactive distillation. The salt in the long–lived nuclide powders should be removed to prepare the block for disposal. Experiments were carried out using W powders (surrogate) and U3O8 powders to develop a process for the removal of the residual salt from UOx powders. The salts were successfully removed from the W and U3O8 powders by distillation.

Strontium-90 is a high heat-generating nuclide in spent nuclear fuel. The removal of the nuclide separation is indispensable to reduce the burden of storage and disposal of high-level radioactive waste. Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute has developed the molten salt immersion technique to separate the strontium by the chlorination of the strontium oxide in molten salt. It is needed to separate the salt for the recovery of strontium from the salt solution after the chlorination reaction. In this study, it was investigated on the recovery of the strontium from the salt. Vacuum distillation was used for the separation of strontium from the molten salt. The vapor pressures of the candidate salts were calculated by HSC chemistry and the apparent evaporation rates (AER) were measured at 830°C to evaluate the salts for strontium recovery. The candidate salts were LiCl, KCl, MgCl2, NaCl and CaCl2. The AERs of MgCl2 and NaCl were 1.9 and 1.3 g/cm2-h, respectively. Those two salts can be separated from the strontium compound even though the AER values are much lower than those of LiCl-KCl (~ 8 g/cm2-h). CaCl2 salt was rarely evaporated (AER < 0.03 g/cm2-h) and it is not suitable to use as a strontium recovery salt. Therefore, MgCl2, NaCl, LiCl and KCl can be regarded as candidates for a strontium recovery salt.

It is well known that atmospheric environments, including both meteorology and air quality, significantly affect public health, such as chronic lung disease and cancer, and respiratory infections. In this study, we have analyzed correlations between the number of daily respiratory outpatients and the atmospheric environments data for about ten years for the city of Busan, South Korea. The respiratory problem patients data have been categorized into two health-vulnerable groups by age over 65(DayPA_O65) and under 20(DayPA_U20), each of which shows relatively higher correlations with air quality and meteorology, respectively. However, time series analysis with factor separation results in that DayPA_O65 and DayPA_U20 show a higher relation with variance components and daily irregular factors of atmospheric concentrations, respectively.

Recently, a variety of modeling studies have been conducted to examine the air quality over South Korea during the Korea United States Air Quality (KORUS-AQ) campaign period (May 1 to June 10, 2016). This study investigates the impact of different meteorological initializations on atmospheric modeling results. We conduct several simulations during the KORUS-AQ period using the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model with two different initial datasets, which is FNL of NCEP and ERA5 of ECMWF. Comparing the raw initial data, ERA5 showed better accuracy in the temperature, wind speed, and mixing ratio fields than those of NCEP-FNL. On the other hand, the results of WRF simulations with ERA5 showed better accuracy in the simulated temperature and mixing ratio than those with FNL, except for wind speed. Comparing the nudging efficiency of temperature and wind speed fields, the grid nudging effect on the FNL simulation was larger than that on the ERA5 simulation, but the results of mixing ratio field was the opposite. Overall, WRF simulation with ERA5 data showed a better performance for temperature and mixing ratio simulations than that with FNL data. For wind speed simulation, however, WRF simulation with FNL data indicated more accurate results compared to that with ERA5 data.

In this study, we investigated the impact of different initial data on atmospheric modeling results using the Weather Research and Forecast (WRF) model. Four WRF simulations were conducted with different initialization in March 2015, which showed the highest monthly mean PM10 concentration in the recent ten years (2006-2015). The results of WRF simulations using NCEP-FNL and ERA-Interim were compared with observed surface temperature and wind speed data, and the difference of grid nudging effect on WRF simulation between the two data were also analyzed. The FNL simulation showed better accuracy in the simulated temperature and wind speed than the Interim simulation, and the difference was clear in the coastal area. The grid nudging effect on the Interim simulation was larger than that of the FNL simulation. Despite of the higher spatial resolution of ERA-Interim data compared to NCEP-FNL data, the Interim simulation showed slightly worse accuracy than those of the FNL simulation. It was due to uncertainties associated with the Sea Surface Temperature (SST) field in the ERA-Interim data. The results from the Interim simulation with different SST data showed significantly improved accuracy than the standard Interim simulation. It means that the SST field in the ERA-Interim data need to be optimized for the better WRF simulation. In conclusion, although the WRF simulation with ERA-Interim data does not show reasonable accuracy compared to those with NCEP-FNL data, it would be able to be Improved by optimizing the SST variable.

Numerical Weather Prediction (NWP) models such as the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model are essential for forecasting one-day-ahead solar irradiance. In order to evaluate the performance of the WRF in forecasting solar irradiance over the Korean Peninsula, we compared WRF prediction data from 2008 to 2010 corresponding to weather observation data (OBS) from the Korean Meteorological Administration (KMA). The WRF model showed poor performance at polluted regions such as Seoul and Suwon where the relative Root Mean Square Error (rRMSE) is over 30%. Predictions by the WRF model alone had a large amount of potential error because of the lack of actual aerosol radiative feedbacks. For the purpose of reducing this error induced by atmospheric particles, i.e., aerosols, the WRF model was coupled with the Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ) model. The coupled system makes it possible to estimate the radiative feedbacks of aerosols on the solar irradiance. As a result, the solar irradiance estimated by the coupled system showed a strong dependence on both the aerosol spatial distributions and the associated optical properties. In the NF (No Feedback) case, which refers to the WRF-only stimulated system without aerosol feedbacks, the GHI was overestimated by 50–200 W m-2 compared with OBS derived values at each site. In the YF (Yes Feedback) case, in contrast, which refers to the WRF–CMAQ two-way coupled system, the rRMSE was significantly improved by 3.1–3.7% at Suwon and Seoul where the Particulate Matter (PM) concentrations, specifically, those related to the PM10 size fraction, were over 100 g m-3. Thus, the coupled system showed promise for acquiring more accurate solar irradiance forecasts.

The Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model and Vegetation Photosynthesis and Respiration Model (VPRM) were coupled to simulate atmospheric CO2 concentrations. The performance of the WRF-VPRM to simulate regional scale CO2 concentration was estimated over coastal basin areas. Either Hestia 2011(HST) or Vulcan 2002(VUL) anthropogenic CO2 emission data were used in two numerical experiments for the study regions. Simulated meteorological variables were validated with ground and background CO2 measurement data, and the results show that the model captured temporal variations of CO2 concentration on a daily basis. CO2 directional analysis revealed that the dominant CO2 emission sources are located S and SW. The simulated Net Ecosystem Exchange (NEE) agreed relatively well with measured CO2 fluxes at each vegetation class site, showing approximately 40% at max improvement at shrub areas.

In this study the urban atmospheric environment map in Busan was made and it consist of the atmospheric environment element map and the atmospheric environment analysis map. The atmospheric environment element map covered the topography, the urban climate, the air pollutant emission, ozone and PM10 concentrations in Busan and the atmospheric environment analysis map included the thermal environment and the wind flow by using WRF meteorological numerical simulation. The meteorological elements from 2007 to 2011 in Busan were used in this study. As a result, in the center of Busan and Buk-gu along to the Nakdong river was the temperature high. To analyze the air flow of Busan 3 clusters depending on the wind direction were extracted with the cluster analysis. The results of the analysis on the detailed wind field of each cluster showed that the weak ventilation could be happened locally at the specific meteorological condition.

This work investigates the relationship between the sea breeze circulation and ozone concentrations during cold water events in the southeastern coastal area of the Korean Peninsula, where coastal upwelling frequently occur. This analysis was performed based on the classification of two categories, such as cold water and non-cold water events, over the period of 2000-2009. The low air temperature (0.5℃), low SST (5℃) and the wind direction(southerly) are the features of the cold water events in the Southeastern coastal area. Moreover, ozone concentrations in the cases of the sea breeze circulation and cold water events were significantly lower (below 30 ppb) than those (70∼100 ppb) in the non-clod water events, because of the low air temperature (10∼20℃) and high wind speed (3∼5 m/s) around the southeastern coastal area.

This paper investigates the characteristics of high PM2.5 episodes occurred at Anmyeondo area in spring time, 2009. The monthly mean PM2.5 concentration during April was the highest in the year and especially, high levels of PM2.5 exceeding standard regulation level were sustained consecutively during 5 to 13 April. To analyze more detailed PM2.5 characteristics, numerical simulations were carried out using CMAQ(Community Multi-scale Air Quality) with IPR(Integrated Process Rate) and DDM-3D(Decoupled Direct Method). PM2.5 level was lower in daytime than that in nighttime due to vigorous vertical mixing during daytime. The chemical composition was showed that ratio of primary ion components such as sulfate(SO4 2-), nitrate(NO3 -) and ammonium(NH4 +) were nearly half of total amount of PM2.5. Aerosol and transport process dominantly contributed to PM2.5 concentration in Anmyeondo area and contribution rate of local emissions was nearly zero since Anmyeondo area has rare anthropogenic PM emission sources. DDM-3D analysis result showed that PM2.5 in Anmyeondo area was influenced by emissions from Shanghai and Shandong region of China.

PM10 concentration is related to the meteorological variables including to local and synoptic meteorology. In this study the PM10 concentrations of Busan in 2007~2011 were analyzed and the days of yellow sand or rainfall which is more than 5 mm were excluded. The sections of PM10 concentration were divided according to 10-quantiles, quartiles and 90-quantiles. The 90-quantiles of daily PM10 concentration were selected as high concentration dates. In the high concentration dates the daily mean averaged cloudness, mean daily surface wind speed, daily mean surface pressure and PBL height were low and diurnal variation of surface pressure and daily maximum surface temperature were high. When the high PM10 dates occurred, the west and south wind blew on the ground and the west wind blew strongly on the 850 hPa. So it seemed that long range transboundary air pollutants made effects on the high concentration dates. The cluster analysis using Hysplit model which is the backward trajectory was made on the high concentration dates. As a result, 3 clusters were extracted and on the short range transboundary cluster the daily mean relative humidity and cloudness were high and PBL height was low.

Ozone is the secondary photochemical pollutant formed from ozone precursor such as nitrogen dioxide and non-methane volatile organic compounds(VOCs). The ambient concentration of ozone depends on several factors: sunshine intensity, atmospheric convection, the height of the thermal inversion layer, concentrations of nitrogen oxides and VOCs. Busan is located in the southeast coastal area of Korea so the ozone concentration of Busan is mainly affected from the meteorological variables related to the sea such as sea breeze. In this study the ozone concentrations of Busan in 2008~2010 were used to analyse the cause of the regional ozone difference in eastern area of Busan. The average ozone concentration of Youngsuri was highest in Busan however the average ozone concentration of Gijang was equal to the average ozone concentration of Busan in 2008~2010. The two sites are located in eastern area of Busan but the distance of two sites is only 9km. To find the reason for the difference of ozone concentration between Youngsuri and Gijang, the meteorological variables in two sites were analyzed. For the analysis of meteorological variables the atmospheric numerical model WRF(Weather Research and Forecasting) was used at the day of the maximum and minimum difference in the ozone concentration at the two sites. As a result of analysis, when the boundary layer height was lower and the sea breeze was weaker in Youngsuri, the ozone concentration of Youngsuri was high. Furthermore when the sea breeze blew from the south in the eastern area of Busan, the sea breeze at Youngsuri turned into the southeast and the intensity of sea breeze was weaker because of the mountain in the southern region of Youngsuri. In that case, the difference of ozone concentration between Youngsuri and Gijang was considerable.

In order to clarify the impact of emissions reductions on the air quality over Metropolitan area of Korean Peninsula, several numerical experiment and analysis of integrated process rate(IPR) of ozone were carried out. Numerical models used in this study are WRF for the estimate the meteorological elements and CMAQ for assessment of ozone concentration. As result in the sensitive test of VOC/NOx reduction experiments, although VOC reduction tends to induce the different impact on the advection and photochemical reaction rate of ozone in urban area and rural area, the mechanism of ozone appeared to be more sensitive to the reduction of VOC than that of NOx over the metropolitan and its surround area. So the control of VOC emission inventories is an effective means to decrease the ozone concentrations around this area.