Since the National Research and Development Innovation Act. was enacted, evaluation and management of research outputs become more important. The research output is defined as all types of information resources produced from the scientific research activities in each research phase, such as learning, proposing, performing, and publishing. Among them, research outputs mainly from the publishing phase have been systematically managed, including articles, books, technical reports, patents, and software. KINAC, like other Korean R&D institutions, has also achieved growth in research outputs, through continuously increased investment in R&D projects. However, R&D productivity, technology transfer, and commercialization remain low level. The importance of R&D performance diffusion has been emphasized. It’s because the creation of economic value through the utilization of research results has been emerging as a key issue in R&D policy. Therefore, various policies are being nationally pursued to promote the utilization of research achievements, but the results are not being effectively utilized and disseminated. In the field of nuclear nonproliferation and security, it is also difficult to diffuse the R&D performance. In this study, the research outputs of KINAC from 2010 to 2021 were analyzed. A number of research outputs have been made and managed, but the R&D performances have not been analyzed and identified yet. In addition, supportive methods were suggested for efficient performance management toward diffusion. For this purpose, some policies of Korea and other countries concerning performance diffusion -related policies were reviewed. The best practices of performance management and applications were also reviewed and compared to the KINAC cases. As a result, the number of research output has dramatically increased during the last 10 years, showing an average annual total output of 84 and year-on-year increase of 18%. The biggest change was in the conference papers and journals, whereas, there were no trends by year in the case of the technical reports and patents. Of course, it was proportional to the size of the organization, the number of research projects, and its budget. Because many studies highlight the importance of institutional resources, capabilities, and processes for performance management as factors affecting efficient diffusion, the current status of our process was also identified. This study is expected to be applied to the improvement of the performance management of the institute, leading to the enhancement of the R&D performance application.

게임플레이는 플레이어가 게임과 상호작용을 진행하면서 게임 상황에 대한 판단과 행동의 일련의 과정의 반복이라고 볼 수 있다. 잘 설계된 게임플레이는 플레이어로 하여금 게임에 몰입하도록 유도하며, 지속적으 로 몰입상태를 유지할 수 있도록 한다. RPG에서 게임플레이의 핵심과정중 하나는 몬스터와 상호작용하는 것이다. 일반적인 RPG의 몬스터는 패턴플레이로 구성되어 반복적으로 플레이가 진행되는 상황에서 지루함 을 유발하는 요인으로 작용한다. 이로 인해 게임을 플레이하는 플레이어중 고 레벨 플레이어는 레벨업을 위 해 습득해야 하는 경험치의 양의 증가로 인해 같은 필드에서 같은 몬스터를 오랜 시간동안 플레이하는 것 이 일반적이어서 시간이 지날수록 투자한 시간과 성취욕구 사이에서 만족도가 떨어지는 문제점이 발생한다. 본 연구에서는 플레이어의 성장과정에서 몬스터가 제공하는 정보에 대한 위계의 설정을 통하여 플레이어의 인지과정에 패턴의 변수를 인식하게 하여 다양한 게임플레이가 가능하도록 하며 이를 바탕으로 플로우 (Flow) 과정에서 경험하는 지루함의 요소를 극복하고 지속적으로 몰입과정을 느낄 수 있도록 한다.

The effect of oxidation time on the characteristics and mechanical properties of spent nuclear fuel cladding was investigated using Raman spectroscopy, tube rupture test, and tensile test. As oxidation time increased, the Raman peak associated with the tetragonal zirconium oxide phase diminished and merged with the Raman peak associated with the monoclinic zirconium oxide phase near 333 cm−1. Additionally, the other tetragonal zirconium oxide phase peak at 380 cm−1 decreased after 100 d of oxidation, whereas the zirconium monoclinic oxide peak became the dominant peak. The oxidation time had no effect on the tube rupture pressure of the oxidized zirconium alloy tube. However, the yield and tensile stresses of the oxidized nuclear fuel cladding tube decreased after 100 d of oxidation. The results of the scanning electron microscopy and transmission electron microscopy were represented with the in-situ Raman analysis result for the oxide characteristics generated on the cladding of spent nuclear fuel.

Recently, concern regarding disposal of cellulosic material is growing as cellulose is known to produce complexing agent, isosaccharinic acid (ISA), upon degradation. ISA could enhance mobility of some radionuclides, thus increasing the amount of radionuclide released into the environment. Thus, evaluation on the possible impact of the cellulose degradation would be an important aspect in safety evaluation. In this paper, safety assessments conducted in Sweden and UK are studied, and the factors required to be considered for appropriate safety assessment of cellulose is analyzed. SKB (Sweden) conducted safety assessment of cellulose degradation as a part of long-term safety assessment of SFR. SKB determined that ISA would impact sorption of trivalent and tetravalent radionuclides (Eu, Am, Th, Np, Pa, Pu, U, Tc, Zr and Nb) at concentration higher than 10−4–10−3 M, and impact sorption of divalent radionuclides (Ni, Co, Fe, Be and Pb) at concentration higher than 10−2 M. Then, SKB conservatively set the upper limit of ISA concentration to be 10−4 M and conducted cellulose degradation evaluation on each waste package type, considering the expected disposal environment of SFR. Based on the calculated results, some of the waste packages showed concentration of ISA to be higher than 10−4 M, so SKB conservatively developed waste acceptance criteria to prevent ISA being produced to an extent of affecting the safety of the repository. SKB conducted safety assessment only for the repositories with pH above 12.5 and excluded 1BLA from the safety assessment as the expected pH of 1BLA is around 12, which is insufficient for cellulose to degrade. However, SKB set disposal limit for 1BLA as well, to minimize potential impact in future. Serco (UK) conducted safety assessment of cellulose degradation for the conceptual repository, which is a concrete vault with cementitious backfill. Serco estimated that the pH of repository would maintain around 12.4. Serco conservatively assumed that the pH would be sufficient for cellulose degradation to occur partially, and suggested application of appropriate degradation ratio for safety assessment of cellulose degradation. To conduct appropriate safety assessment of cellulose degradation, an appropriate ISA concentration limit based on radionuclide inventory list, and an appropriate cellulose degradation ratio based on the pH of disposal environment should be determined. As for guidance, below pH 12.5, cellulose degradation is not expected, and between pH 12.5–13, partial cellulose degradation is expected. In future, this study could be used as fundamental data to evaluate safety of the repository.

Near-surface disposal facility is more susceptible to intrusion than underground repository, resulting in more possible pathways for contaminant release. Alike human intrusion, animals (e.g. Ants, Moles, etc.) could intrude into the disposal site to excavate burrows, which could cause direct release of contaminants to biosphere. In this paper, animal intrusion is demonstrated using GoldSim’s commercial contaminant transport module and impact on the integrity of the near-surface disposal facility is evaluated in terms of fractional release rate of the contaminants. In this study, the near-surface disposal facility is modelled with a single concrete vault to contain radionuclide according to LLW concentration limit stated in NSSC notice No.2020-6. The release of contaminants is modelled to occur directly after the institutional control period, and the contaminants are mostly transported from the concrete vault to cover layers via diffusion. To produce mathematical model of the release of the contaminants due to animal intrusion, firstly, the fraction of burrow volume for each cover layer is calculated separately for each animal species, based on their maximum possible intrusion depth. In this study, fractions of burrow volume for ants and moles are calculated based on their maximum possible intrusion depths, where for ants is 2–3 m, and for moles is 0.1–0.135 m. Then, assuming that the contaminants are distributed homogeneously throughout each cover layers by diffusion, fraction of contaminants transported into the uppermost layer via excavation of the burrow is calculated for each layer based on burrow volume, and fraction of contaminants removed from the uppermost layer to the layers below via collapse of the burrow is also calculated based on the burrow volume. Lastly, the net transportation of contaminants into and out of the burrow via excavation and collapse, respectively, is calculated and demonstrated using direct transfer rate function of the GoldSim. Based on the simulated result, the maximum mass flux is too minor to cause a meaningful impact on the safety. The peak mass flux of the most sensitive radionuclide, I-129, is witnessed at around year 1,470, with a flux value of 5.36×10−6 g·yr−1. This minor release of the contaminants could be due to cover layers being much thicker than the maximum possible intrusion depth of the animals, preventing the animal intrusion into the deeper layers of higher radionuclide concentration. In future, this study can be used to provide a guidance and fundamental data for scenario development and safety evaluation of the near-surface disposal facility.

Recently, concern regarding disposal of cellulosic material is growing as cellulose is known to produce complexing agent, isosaccharinic acid (ISA), upon degradation. ISA could enhance mobility of some radionuclides, thus increasing the amount of radionuclide released into the environment. Evaluation on the possible impact of the cellulose degradation would be an important aspect in safety evaluation. In this paper, the maximum safe disposal amount cellulose is evaluated considering the disposal environment of silos of 1st phase disposal facility. The key factor governing the impact of cellulose degradation is pH of disposal environment, as cellulose is known to degrade partially at pH above 12.5, and completely at pH above 13. Thus, disposal environment should be analyzed as to determine the extent of degradation. As silos are constructed with large amount of cement, porewater within concrete walls would be of very high pH. However, for high pH porewater to be released into the pores of crushed rock, which is filling up the silos, lower pH groundwater (commonly pH 7) should flow into the silos through the concrete walls. This causes dilution of the high pH concrete porewater, resulting in a lower pH as the silos are filled, reaching to expected pH of 11.8–12.3, which is below cellulose degradation condition. Thus, cellulose degradation is not expected, but to quantitatively evaluate safe disposal amount of cellulose, partial degradation is assumed. Upon literature review, the most conservative ISA concentration, enhancing radionuclide mobility, is determined to be 1.0×10−4 M and to reach this concentration, cellulose mass equivalent to 6wt% of cement of the repository, is required to be degraded. However, this ratio is derived based on complete degradation of cellulose into ISA, so for partial degradation, degradation ratio and yield ratio of ISA should be considered. Commonly, cellulosic material (e.g. cotton, paper, etc.) has degree of polymerization (DP) between 1,000–2,000, and with this DP, degradation ratio is estimated to be about 10%. Furthermore, yield ratio of ISA is known to be 80%. Considering all these aspects, about 1.79×107 kg of cellulose could be disposed, which if converted into number of drums, considering cellulose content of dry active waste, more than 100,000 drums (200 L) could be disposed with negligible impact on safety. Based on the result, negligible impact of cellulose degradation is expected for safety of 1st phase disposal facility. In future, this study could be used as fundamental data for revising waste acceptance criteria.

Domain decomposition method (DDM) has been widely employed for the numerical analysis of large-scale problems due to its applicability to parallel computing. DDM divides the modeling domain into a set of subdomains and obtains the entire solution iteratively until the values of each subdomain which are shared with other subdomains, such as boundary values, are converged. Therefore, in general, DDM is a memory-efficient iterative algorithm with inherent parallelism on the geometric level. APro, the process-based total system performance assessment model, aims for simulating the radionuclide transport considering coupled multi-physics phenomena occurring in large-scale geological disposal system, which are inevitably accompanied by huge memory burden. Therefore, DDM is applicable for the large-scale problem of APro and its performance in parallel computing needs to be examined. The DDM solvers provided by COMSOL which constitute APro can be classified into two methods. One is the overlapping Schwarz method that each subdomain overlaps its neighboring domains and the other is the Schur complement method that subdomains are non-overlapping and separated by boundary domains. For the Schwarz method, the additive, hybrid, multiplicative and symmetric methods can be selected according to the solution update scheme. And for the Schur method, the additive and multiplicative ordering options can be chosen for solving Schur complement system. In this study, the calculation efficiency of the DDM solvers in COMSOL and the applicability to the cluster environment were examined. In aspect of efficiency, the memory requirements with different number of subdomains and calculation schemes were compared in a single node. Then, the memory requirements with increasing number of disposal tunnels and deposition holes were investigated in multiple nodes. As a result, on the cluster environment, with the help of distributed memory architecture which enables efficient memory usage, the applicability of DDM solvers to the large-scale problem of APro was confirmed.

Non-destructive estimation of leaf area is a more efficient and convenient method than leaf excision. Thus, several models predicting leaf area have been developed for various horticultural crops. However, there are limited studies on estimating the leaf area of strawberry plants. In this study, we predicted the leaf areas via nonlinear regression analysis using the leaf lengths and widths of three-compound leaves in five domestic strawberry cultivars (‘Arihyang’, ‘Jukhyang’, ‘Keumsil’, ‘Maehyang’, and ‘Seollhyang’). The coefficient of determination (R2) between the actual and estimated leaf areas varied from 0.923 to 0.973. The R2 value varied for each cultivar; thus, leaf area estimation models must be developed for each cultivar. The leaf areas of the three cultivars ‘Jukhyang’, ‘Seolhyang’, and ‘Maehyang’ could be non-destructively predicted using the model developed in this study, as they had R2 values over 0.96. The cultivars ‘Arihyang’ and ‘Geumsil’ had slightly low R2 values, 0.938 and 0.923, respectively. The leaf area estimation model for each cultivar was coded in Python and is provided in this manuscript. The estimation models developed in this study could be used extensively in other strawberry-related studies.

Colorectal cancer causes the most cancer-associated death worldwide, having a high cancer incidence. Pectin is a complex polysaccharide present in various fruits, emerging as an anti-carcinogenic candidate. Although pectin has a suppressive capacity for colon carcinogenesis, the effect of reactive oxygen species (ROS) generation and colonic aberrant foci formation in the colon carcinogenesis mouse model remains unclear. Therefore, this study investigates the regulatory effect of pectin supplementation on colon carcinogenesis induced by azoxymethane (AOM) and dextran sodium sulfate (DSS) in mice. In an animal experiment, thirty male institute for cancer research (ICR) mice were divided into two experimental groups; AOM/DSS (control group) and AOM/DSS + pectin (5% in drinking water). Furthermore, the number of aberrant crypt foci (ACF) and aberrant crypt (AC) on colonic mucosa were counted, and thiobarbituric acid-reactive substances (TBARS) assay was performed to estimate lipid peroxidation in feces. Pectin treatment significantly decreased the number of ACF and AC per colon compared with the control. Additionally, fecal TBARS level in the pectin group was significantly lower than those in the control group. Conclusively, these findings indicate that pectin-inhibited hyperplastic alteration and oxidative stress suppress colitis-associated colon carcinogenesis.