An Internal Compliance Program (ICP) is a system through which enterprise internally manage their own export control processes to ensure compliance with domestic export control laws. Around the world, ICPs are actively utilized as a means of export control for strategic items. However, they are not mostly applied to the Trigger List Items. However, advanced countries such as the United States and the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) have been actively researching the potential application of ICPs to the Trigger List Items recently. This paper suggests additional considerations that should be taken into account when applying an ICP to the Trigger List Items. The key elements of classical ICP include Top-level management commitment to compliance; Risk analysis; Organizational structure/chain of responsibilities; Human and technical resources allocated to the management of exports; Workflow management and operational procedures; Record -keeping and documentation; Selection of staff; training and awareness-raising; Process-/Systemrelated controls (ICP audit)/Corrective Measures; Physical and technical security. An ICP for Trigger List Items must encompass all these core elements. Additionally, as the nuclear industry often involves collaborative projects participating with various companies, the effectiveness of the ICP could be enhanced through the operation of consultation groups among participating companies. Furthermore, enterprises must take into account the unique characteristics of Trigger List Items that differ from other strategic items, when making requirements of the ICP establishment. First, export requirements related to safety measures and physical protection should be reviewed to export the Trigger List Items. The procedure and obligations in aspects of internationally controlled items should also be reviewed. Moreover, active support from enterprises for GTGA procedures should also be included, since the Government to Government Assurance (GTGA) procedure is additionally required for the export of Trigger List Items, in contrast to other strategic items. Additionally, for materials categorized within Trigger List Items, such as deuterium and heavy water, should be controlled based on their end-use and cumulative quantity, which Government cannot effectively manage without enterprise supports. Therefore, enterprises must establish an internal material management system based on the end-use and cumulative quantity of these materials under ICP.

The Republic of Korea (ROK), as a member state of the IAEA, is operating the State’s System of Accounting for and Control (SSAC) and conducting independent national inspections. Furthermore, an evaluation methodology for the material unaccounted for (MUF) is being developed in ROK to enhance capabilities of national inspection. Generally, physical and chemical changes of nuclear material are unavoidable due to the operating system and structure of facilities, an accumulation of material unaccounted for (MUF) has been issued. IAEA developed statistical MUF evaluation method that can be applied to all facilities around the world and it mainly focuses on the diversion detection of nuclear materials in facilities. However, in terms of the national safeguard inspection, an evaluation of accountancy in facilities is additionally needed. Therefore, in this research, a new approach to MUF evaluation is suggested, based on the Guide to the Expression of Uncertainty in Measurement (GUM) that an evaluation of measurement uncertainty factors is straightforward. A hypothetical list of inventory items (LII) which has 6,118 items at the beginning and end of the material balance period, along with 360 inflow and outflow nuclear material items at a virtual fuel fabrication plant was employed for both the conventional IAEA MUF evaluation method and the proposed GUM-based method. To calculate the measurement uncertainty, it was assumed that an electronic balance, gravimetry, and a thermal ionization mass spectrometer were used for a measurement of the mass, concentration, and enrichment of 235U, respectively. Additionally, it was considered that independent and correlated uncertainty factors were defined as random factors and systematic factors for the ease of uncertainty propagation by the GUM. The total MUF uncertainties of IAEA (σMUF) and GUM (uMUF) method were 37.951 and 36.692 kg, respectively, under the aforementioned assumptions. The difference is low, it was demonstrated that the GUM method is applicable to the MUF evaluation. The IAEA method demonstrated its applicability to all nuclear facilities, but its calculated errors exhibited low traceability due to its simplification. In contrast, the calculated uncertainty based on the GUM method exhibited high reliability and traceability, as it allows for individual management of measurement uncertainty based on the facility’s accounting information. Consequently, the application of the GUM approach could offer more benefits than the conventional IAEA method in cases of national safeguard inspections where factor analysis is required for MUF assessment.

This study aims to classify R&D activities related to the nuclear fuel cycle using the deep learning methodology. First, R&D data of the Republic of Korea were collected from the National Science & Technology Information Service (NTIS) for the years 2021, 2022, and 2023. We use keywords such as ‘nuclear,’ ‘uranium,’ ‘plutonium,’ and ‘thorium’ to find nuclear-related R&D projects in the NTIS database. Among the numerous R&D projects found through keyword searches, overlapping and medical-related R&D projects were excluded. Finally, 495 R&D projects conducted in 2021, 430 R&D projects conducted in 2022, and 296 R&D projects conducted in 2023 were obtained for analysis. After that, Safeguards experts determine whether the R&D projects are subject to declaration under the AP. The values of the content validity index (CVI) and content validity ratio (CVR) were used to verify whether the experts’ judgments were valid. The 1,218 collected and labeled data were then divided 8:2 into training and test datasets to see if deep learning could be applied to classify nuclear fuel cycle-related R&D activities. We use the Python and TensorFlow packages, including RNN, GRU, and CNN methods. First, the collected text information was preprocessed to remove punctuation marks and then tokenized to make it suitable for deep learning. After 20 epochs of training to classify the nuclear fuel cycle-related R&D activities, the RNN model achieved 97.30% accuracy and a 5.85% error rate on the validation dataset. The GRU model achieved 96.53% accuracy and a 9.06% error rate on the validation dataset. In comparison, the CNN model achieved 94.61% accuracy and a 2.57% error rate on the validation dataset. When applying the test dataset to each model, the RNN model had a test accuracy of 83.20%, the GRU test accuracy of 82.79%, and the CNN model had a test accuracy of 85.66% for the same dataset. This study applied deep learning models to labeled data judged by various experts, and the CNN model showed the best results. In the future, this study will continue to develop an optimum deep learning model that can classify nuclear fuel cycle-related R&D activities to achieve the purpose of safeguards measures from open-source data such as papers and articles.

Understanding the dispersion of xenon isotopes following a nuclear test is critical for global security and falls within the remit of both the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT) and the International Noble Gas Experiment (INGE). This paper aims to show if it is possible to discriminate the source of xenon releases based on the atmospheric dispersion of xenon isotopes using HYSPLIT. Using ORIGEN and SERPENT simulations, four released scenarios are defined with four different fractionation times (i.e., 1 hour, 1 day, 10 days, and 30 days) after a 1kt TNT equivalent 235U explosion event. These time-delayed release scenarios were selected to certify the possibility of mis-determining xenon release source. We use the Lagrangian dispersion model for atmospheric dispersion to predict the concentration distribution of xenon isotopes under each scenario. The model allows us to better understand how these isotopes would distribute over time and space, offering valuable data for real-world detection efforts. To our knowledge, there have been no researches on the analysis of xenon isotopic ratios considering atmospheric dispersion. In this work, we focused on the atmospheric dispersion using HYSPLIT to characterize the xenon isotopic ratios from nuclear tests. In addition, we compared the xenon isotopic ratios obtained from the atmospheric dispersion with those from ORIGEN calculations, which would be helpful to discriminate the source of the xenon releases.

Characteristics and useful effects for human health of antioxidant carbon nanodots contained in microwave-assisted Opuntia humifusa extract (MA-OHE(CD)) were investigated in this work. MA-OHE(CD) was characterized using transmission electron microscopy, dynamic light scattering analysis, X-ray diffraction, UV–vis spectroscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, and Fourier transform-infrared spectroscopy. Besides, total phenolic content and antioxidant activity of MA-OHE(CD) were measured. It was revealed that the MA-OHE(CD) increases aquaporin-3 expression in human epidermal keratinocytes cell with hydrophilic characteristics. Moreover, the bio-active compound extraction efficacy and antioxidant activity of microwave-assisted extraction were great when compared to maceration.

In this study, Bacillus velesensis TJS119, isolated from freshwater, demonstrated growth inhibition against insect pathogenic fungi. The culture medium of the B. velezensis TJS119 strain underwent sequential fractionation with n-hexane, chloroform, ethyl acetate, n-butanol, and water. Notably, the n-butanol fraction exhibited significant antifungal activity against Metarhizium anisopliae and Beauveria bassiana. LC/MS analysis of antifungal peaks identified the production of various lipopeptides by B. velezensis TJS119, including two types of iturin A (C14, C15), four types of fengycin A (C14, C15, C16, C17), and two types of fengycin B (C16, C17). The antifungal efficacy of Iturin A and Fengycin against insect pathogenic fungi was further validated using the paper disc diffusion method. These findings underscore the potential of B. velezensis TJS119 as a promising candidate for future research and applications in the realm of agricultural biological controls against fungal diseases.

Protaetia brevitarsis seulensis larvae from industrial insects are traditionally recognized as functional health foods in South Korea. We evaluated the immuno-modulatory effects of feeding beneficial microorganism (Bacillus velezensis TJS119) to P. brevitarsis larvae as a dietary source. In this study, we investigated the immune-enhancing activities of P. brevitarsis larvae hot-water extract (PLW) and PLW after treatment with B. velezensis TJS119 (PLWB) using the RAW 264.7 macrophage cell line. We examined the effects of PLWB on cell proliferation, cytokine production, and nitric oxide production in RAW264.7 cells. PLWB showed no cytotoxicity at concentrations ranging from 7.8 to 1,000 μg/mL in RAW264.7 cells. Treatment with PLWB increased the production of nitric oxide and pro-inflammatory cytokines [tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-α), interleukin-6 (IL-6), and interleukin-1β (IL-1β)] at doses of 62.5 to 1,000 μ g/mL in RAW264.7 cells. As a result, PLWB exhibited a stronger immune-enhancing effect compared to PLW. In conclusion, the results of this study offer experimental evidence to support the potential utilization of PLWB as an immunity-enhancing nutraceutical ingredient.

Bacillus velezensis TJS119 was isolated from the freshwater, and antagonistic activity against of pathogenic fungi. Strain TJS119 showed a broad spectrum of antagonistic activities many fungal pathogens, including the green muscardine fungus Metarhizium anisopliae. The whole-genome sequence of B. velzensis TJS119 was analyzed using the illumina platform. The genome comprises a 3,809,913 bp chromosome with a G + C content of 46.43%, 3,834 total genes, 10 rRNA and 73 tRNA genes. The genome contained a total of 8 candidate gene clusters (difficidin, fengycin, bacillaene, macrolactin, bacillibactin, bacilysin, surfactin and butirosin) to synthesize secondary metabolite biosynthesis. Overall, our data will aid future studies of the biocontrol mechanisms of B. velezensis TJS119 and promote its application in insect disease control.

The striped fruit fly, Zeugodacus scutellata., is ubiquitous in agricultural areas, making it a critical pest to monitor and manage. It is necessary to develop a technique for rearing Z. scutellata in the laboratory to achieve mass production for biological control. The pumpkin is an important host plant for Z. scutellata; females lay their eggs on the tops of pumpkin flower buds, and larvae consume the stamens from top to bottom before dropping to the ground. Several types of diets are considered in the present study, including liquid, solid, and semisolid diets. Methyl benzoate, propionic acid, sodium benzoate, and citric acid were tested for their ability to suppress microbial contamination and improve the shelf life of diets. Fresh pumpkin, pumpkin flower, and pumpkin powder were used as primary ingredient. Reared adults were tested for their egg laying and survival abilities based on different diets. Approximately 86% of adults emerged from liquid and semisolid diets. Solid diets reduce pupae production and adult emergence. The diets with a total viability of less than 75% were discarded, which is considered as a reasonable threshold to determine whether a diet is nutritionally sufficient to rear the flies. Based on the results of the present study, we have developed a diet for mass rearing in laboratories, which may assist in providing a scientific basis for the effective control of Z. scutellata.

Fruit Flies (Diptera: Tephritidae) are polyphagous, highly invasive pests in which female adults lay eggs under the skin of fruit and larvae damage the fruit. Among them, the Oriental Fruit Fly, Bactrocera dorsalis (Hendel) was first reported in Taiwan and is distributed throughout much of Southeast Asia, including Vietnam, as well as on the African continent and in the Pacific region. In order to prevent the introduction of pests into country, the Animal and Plant Quarantine Agency has designated them as prohibited pests and is conducting surveillance and investigation on their occurrence. The experimental countries were Taiwan and Vietnam, and statistical analysis was conducted based on the number of B. dorsalis caught by setting up traps for about 8 months. Methly eugenol (ME; 4-allyl-1,2-dimethoxy-benzene) is a widely distributed natural plant and is used because it strongly attracts males of B. dorsalis. The experiments aimed to verify the effect of attractant formulations (liquid, solid, wax) and traps (Delta trap, Lynfield trap, Steiner trap) on B. dorsalis.

유기농업자재 제조 원료가 되는 주요 식물인 제충국, 고삼, 데리스, 님 등은 대부분 수입에 의존하고 있는 실정 으로 제품수급, 효용성 및 안전성 등에 빈번한 문제가 발생되고 있다. 이러한 문제점을 해결하기 위하여 국내 자생식물을 추출물 원료로 이용하기 위한 연구를 수행하고 있다. 이중 마트린이 함유되어 살충제로 이용되고 있는 고삼에 흰가루병, 총채벌레, 줄붉은들명나방, 담배거세미나방, 거품벌레류가 발생하여 피해를 주었다. 특 히 줄붉은들명나방(Uresiphita prunipennis)은 7월 하순부터 9월 중순까지 발생하여 엽육을 갉아먹고 엽맥만 남기는 피해를 주었고, 피해주율은 11% 였다. 이를 방제하기 위해 18종의 유기농업자재의 살충효과를 조사한 결과 주성분이 마늘추출물 80%, 데리스추출물 70% 등인 자재 6종이 80% 이상의 살충률을 나타내었다.

먹노린재의 방제시기 설정을 위하여 서식지 내 발생 양상을 조사하였다. 전라남도를 중심으로 돌발 대량 발생 한 먹노린재의 발생 조사는 2023년도 벼의 모내기가 완료된 시점부터 전남 곡성군 석곡면과 여수시 화양면 일대 의 친환경단지에서 주 1회 실시하였으며, 벼의 수확이 완료되는 시점까지 진행될 예정이다. 금년도 발생 조사 결과는 지난 2021년도 결과와 비교하여 분석하고자 하였다. 현제까지의 결과, 여수시의 친환경단지 내 먹노린재 의 발생은 모내기가 완료된 이 후 2주 경과 시점에서 발견되었으며, 곡성군은 4주 경과 시점에서 발견되었고, 발생 최고점은 여수시의 경우 모내기 후 6주 경과 시점으로, 곡성군의 경우 5주 경과 시점으로 나타났다. 먹노린재 의 대발생이 지속되던 2021년도의 결과와 비교하였을 때, 2023년도 결과도 유사한 것으로 나타났다. 이에 따라, 먹노린재 친환경제재 살포 시기는 모내기 후 2주 경과 시점이 적절한 것으로 나타났으며, 2차 방제 시점에 대해서 는 추가 조사를 통해서 제안하고자 한다.

Pine Wilt Disease (PWD) is a disease causing mass deaths of pine trees in South Korea, and the dead trees serve as breeding grounds for insect vectors responsible for spreading the disease to other host trees. Because the PWD requires early monitoring to minimize its damage on domestic forestry, this study aims to develop a species distribution model for predicting the potential distribution of PWD by using artificial neural network (ANN) with time-series data. Among the architectures, the Convolutional Neural Network exhibited the highest performance, achieving a validation accuracy of 0.854 and a cross-entropy loss of 0.401, and the InceptionTime model emerged as the second-best performer. This study identified the best-performing ANN architecture for a spatiotemporal evaluation of PWD occurrence, emphasizing the importance for determining hyperparameters with ecological characteristics and data types to apply deep learning into SDMs.

2022년 국내 노지 마늘, 대파, 양파, 부추 작물재배지에서 채집한 파총채벌레 지역집단들에 대하여 살충제 저항성을 조사하였다. 제조사 추천약량에서의 살충력은 acrinathrin SC를 제외한 6종 약제들이 안성 등 8개 집단 에서 모두 90%이상을 보였으며, Spinetoram SC와 fluxametamide EC는 추천농도의 100배 희석농도에서도 전 지역 집단에 걸쳐 높은 살충력을 보여주었다. 미리 저항성 진단농도로 코팅한 바이알을 이용한 지역집단의 저항성 검정을 실시한 결과, emamectin benzoate의 저항성이 신안 등 9개 지역집단에서 매우 높았으며, chrantraniliprole은 부산 등 4개 , spinetoram은 의성 등 3개, actamiprid와 chlorfenapyr는 각각 1개의 지역집단에서 저항성이 높게 발달 하고 있는 것을 확인할 수 있었으며, 지역별로는 주요 대파 및 양파 재배지인 안성, 서산, 진도, 신안 지역의 저항성 이 모든 약제에 대하여 전반적으로 높게 나타났다.

2022년 10월부터 2023년 5월까지 친환경 딸기재배 농가에서 점박이응애는 칠레이리애응애와 사막이리응애, 진딧물은 콜레마니진디벌을 대상으로 하는 천적처리구와 유기농자재를 사용하는 관행방제구에서 천적의 해 충 밀도억제 효과를 조사하였다. 천적처리구에서 점박이응애 성충 밀도는 잎당 1.5마리 이하, 알은 4개 이하로 관리되었고, 사막이리응애는 잎당 최대 0.4마리까지 증가하여 점박이응애 밀도억제에 많은 영향을 미친것으로 보인다. 반면, 관행방제구에서 점박이응애 밀도는 천적 방사구에 비하여 오히려 많은 발생량을 보였지만, 3월 9일부터는 사막이리응애의 증가와 유기농자재의 효과로 점박이응애 밀도는 급격하게 감소하였다. 진딧물 천적 처리구에서 진딧물 밀도는 1월부터 발생하였으며 3월 상순에 잎당 0.3마리까지 증가하였으나 이후 감소하였고, 콜레마니진디벌은 진딧물 발생이 많지 않아 3.9마리/㎡(2회) 방사하는 데 그쳤다. 한편, 관행방제구 포장의 진딧 물은 유기농자재의 영향으로 거의 발생하지 않았다.

최근 주요 절화 수입량이 증가하면서 외래 병해충 유입률 또한 증가하고 있다. 농림축산검역본부 병해충정보 시스템(PIS)에 따르면 최근 10년간(2011-2020년) 수입된 절화류에서 검출된 총채벌레목은 총 43종 6,734건이다. 그중 가장 많이 검출된 총채벌레는 Frankliniella occidentalis (2,526건), Thrips tabaci (1,470건)로 전체 검출건수의 59% 이상 차지한다. 본 연구에서는 수입 절화류에서 검출률이 가장 높은 총채벌레 두 종의 미토콘드리아 DNA CO I 유전자를 이용하여 염기변이에 의한 국가별 다양성과 유전적 다양도 분석을 실시하였다. 네덜란드, 중국 등 7개국에서 검출한 Frankliniella occidentalis 184개 개체에서 9가지의 단상형(haplotype)이 관찰되었다. 또한 페루, 네덜란드 등 6개 국가에서 검출된 Thrips tabaci 80개 개체에서는 7가지 단상형이 보였다. 본 연구에서 검출 한 mtDNA내 염기서열 다형성은 총채벌레 집단의 국가적 변이성 추정 및 연관성 분석에 기초자료로 활용할 것으 로 기대한다.

Rotylenchus pini Mamiya, 1968 was reported from rhizospheric soils of Zoysia japonica in Korea. Females and males of the characterized population conform to the original species description from Japan and also to other subsequent species descriptions with variations in a few details in morphometrics including the existence of pharyngeal gland overlap in some specimen. Bayesian analysis of all the three DNA markers consistently grouped R. pini together with Rotylenchus species including R. zhongshanensis, a morphologically close species. Additionally, the newly obtained sequences of R. pini were found to be almost identical to the sequences assigned to Rotylenchus aff. devonensis in GenBank. These Rotylenchus aff. devonensis isolates might be representatives of R. pini populations. The current and previous phylogenetic studies supported by the recorded morphological plasticity within populations of the genus validate the proposed synonymy of Pararotylenchus with Rotylenchus.

Fall armyworm Spodoptera frugiperda (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae) is a polyphagous agricultural pest that damages about 80 species of plants. It mainly damages Poaceae and plants used as food resources for humans. Its original habitat is the American continent, but it unintentionally settled in tropical and subtropical Asia, including Africa, India, and Sri Lanka. It occurs every year even in southern China, which is geographically adjacent to the Korean Peninsula, causing damage to crops. In Korea, it was first discovered on Jeju Island in June 2019 and is being discovered every year in Jeju and some inland areas. In 2023, there were a total of 13 discoveries, including those in the Jeju and Jeonbuk regions. Quarantine agency identified the maternal genotypes of all currently discovered individuals using COI and identified differences in genetic traits between individuals using the sex-related Z-chromosome. For comparison with the information on the individuals that invaded the country, 15 individuals from Guangxi and Guangdong provinces in China were collected and secured. Through the analysis of overseas samples, a database has been added to compare genetic information with domestic invasive species, and the reliability of the analysis is expected to increase.