Discharge limits for nuclear power plant gaseous effluents are presented as dose constraints or on the basis of radioactivity or radioactivity concentration. Accordingly, the operator evaluates the amount of radioactive material discharged from a specific nuclear power plant to the environment and periodically reports them to regulators. Multi-step sampling and analysis and calculation are performed during the radioactivity evaluation process of radioactive effluent, and the uncertainty generated in each step causes the uncertainty of the final radioactivity. Considering that the purpose of evaluating radioactivity discharged from nuclear power plants to the environment is to verify the satisfaction of discharge limits and safety margins, it is necessary to accurately evaluate the discharged radioactivity as much as possible, understanding of the uncertainty contained in the reported value of radioactivity and efforts to reduce it. In this study, modelling of the radioactivity evaluation procedure in gaseous effluent discharged as batch mode from nuclear power plant has performed, a generalized framework was established to evaluate the uncertainty based on ISO/IEC Guide 98-3 (GUM: 1995) involved in the whole process, and the uncertainty contained in the calculated radioactivity of each radionuclide (group) was evaluated and its characteristics. In addition, through probabilistic evaluation, the actual probabilistic distribution and statistical characteristics of radioactive effluent releases reported as a single value were confirmed. As a result, the range of values expected to be included in the confidence level of approximately 95% of the distribution of values for radioactivity in a gaseous effluent discharged as a batch mode from nuclear power plant was calculated. And, the priority of each input parameter turned out to be (1) gaseous waste volume, (2) sample bottle volume, and (3) measured radioactivity of the sample. In addition, the probability distribution of the radioactivity was simulated by Monte Carlo method. As such, the mean, minimum, and maximum values in confidence level of 95% were obtained, and they were reasonably matched the calculated value within 5% deviation. It was shown that radioactivity to the environment, which has been reported as a single value, has a specific probabilistic distribution form.
This research investigated the feasibility of rice husk as a biosorbent for removal of ammonium ion from aqueous solutions. To improve the sorption functionality of rice husk, the carboxyl groups were chemically bound to the surface of the rice husk by graft polymerization of acrylic acid using potassium peroxydisulphate as a redox initiator. The removal of ammonium ion by rice husk grafted with acrylic acid (RH-g-AA) was studied in a batch mode and fixed bed columns. The kinetic and equilibrium data obtained from batch experiments follow the second-order kinetics and fit well with the Langmuir isotherm model. The sorption energy determined from D-R model was 8.61 kJ/mol indicating an ion-exchange process as the primary sorption mechanism. To determine the characteristic parameters of the column useful for process design, four mathematical models; Bed Depth Service Time (BDST), Bohart-Adams, Clark and Wolborska models were applied to experimental data obtained from the fixed bed columns with varying bed heights. All models were found to be suitable for simulating the whole or a definite part of breakthrough curves, but the Wolborska model was the best. The fixed bed sorption capacity determined from the Wolborska model was in the range 33.3 ~ 40.5 mg/g close to the value determined in the batch process. The thickness of mass-transfer zone was calculated to be approximately 40 mm from DBST model. The RH-g-AA sorbent could be regenerated by a simple acid washing process without a serious lowering the sorption capacity or physical durability.