This study presents distribution of naturally occurring radioactive materials in groundwater in Jeju island. Radon (222Rn) and potassium (40K) concentrations were performed by using Liquid Scintillation Counter and Ion Chromatograph respectively. In addition, the activities of uranium and thorium nuclides were analyzed by Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectroscopy. Groundwater samples were collected from 9 sites of water intake facilities for wide area supply in Jeju island from September 2022 to September 2023. The 40K concentrations of groundwater ranged between 0.050 and 0.400 Bq·L-1. The radon concentrations in groundwater were in the range of 0 to 60 Bq L-1, and there was no groundwater exceeding the range of 148 Bq L-1 proposed by the US EPA. The distribution of uranium and thorium in groundwater varied from 0 to 500 ng L-1 and 0 to 2.4 ng L-1, respectively. The concentrations of uranium did not exceed 30 μg L-1, thresholds indicated by the US EPA. By analyzing the concentrations of 40K, 222Rn, 238U and 232Th, the annual effective dose of residents can be assessed. The evaluated residents’ effective dose from natural radionuclides due to intake of drinking water is less than the recommended value of 100 μSv y-1. Consequently, this study indicates that the cancer risks of the residents in Jeju island from naturally occurring radioactive materials ingested with water is insignificant.

The potential impact of hypothetical accidents that occur during the immediate and deferred dismantling of the Kori Unit 1 steam generator has been comprehensively evaluated. The evaluation includes determining the inventory of radionuclides in the Steam Generator based on surface contamination measurements, assuming a rate of release for each accident scenario, and applying external and internal exposure dose coefficients to assess the effects of radionuclides on human health. The evaluation also includes calculating the atmospheric dispersion factor using the PAVAN code and analyzing three years of meteorological data from Kori NPP to determine the degree of diffusion of radionuclides in the atmosphere. Overall, the effective dose for residents living in the Exclusion Area Boundary (EAB) of Kori NPP is predicted, an it is found that the maximum level of the dose is 0.034% compared to the annual dose limit of 1 mSv for the general public. This implies that the potential impact of hypothetical accidents on human health discussed above is within acceptable limits.

Radiation workers receive exposure during radiation works such as decontamination or cutting of metals and concrete in decommissioning nuclear power plants. To reduce occupational exposure, various radiation protection measures should be prepared by estimating the exposure dose in advance. RESRAD-RECYCLE, the computer code, is generally used for estimating occupational dose due to handling metals contaminated with radioactive materials. However, RESRAD-RECYCLE used the dose conversion factors (DCF) of EPA FGR No. 11 based on ICRP Publications 30 and 48 published in the 1980s for internal exposure estimation. This study compared the DCFs of RESRAD-RECYCLE with those of the relatively recently published ICRP Publications 119 and 141. In addition, the internal exposure dose was evaluated by changing the value of the DCFs of RESRAD-RECYCLE. As a result of the comparison, ICRP Publication 119 showed that the DCF values of most nuclides were significantly lowered. On the other hand, in the case of nuclides emitting gamma rays, there was generally no significant change in the value of DCFs. In addition, in the case of 65Zn and 94Nb, the DCF increased compared to the previous ICRP publications. The exposure dose of the decommissioning workers of Hanul Units 1 and 3 and Hanbit Unit 4 was also calculated in this study. The expected radioactivity concentration of the steam generator chamber of each unit was used as the source term. The concentration of metal dust in the air generated during cutting was calculated and applied to evaluate the internal exposure dose. As a result of the dose evaluation, there was a difference in exposure dose up to 0.2 mSv in the scrap cutter scenario of Hanbit Unit 4, which generated a lot of dust and had a high radioactivity concentration. On the other hand, in the case of the slag worker, there was no difference in the dose because the working time was very short, and the inhalation of metal dust was small, even if the latest DCF was applied.

In the dismantling process of a reactor coolant system (RCS) piping, a radiation protection plan should be established to minimize the radiation exposure doses of dismantling workers. Hence, it is necessary to estimate the individual effective dose in the RCS piping dismantling process when decommissioning a nuclear power plant. In this study, the radiation exposure doses of the dismantling workers at different positions was estimated using the MicroShield dose assessment program based on the NUREG/CR-1595 report. The individual effective dose, which is the sum of the effective dose to each tissue considering the working time, was used to estimate the radiation exposure dose. The estimations of the simulation results for all RCS piping dismantling tasks satisfied the dose limits prescribed by the ICRP-60 report. In dismantling the RCS piping of the Kori-1 or Wolsong-1 units in South Korea, the estimation and reduction method for the radiation exposure dose, and the simulated results of this study can be used to implement the radiation safety for optimal dismantling by providing information on the radiation exposure doses of the dismantling workers.

라돈은 자연방사성원소로 호흡을 통해 인체에 피폭된다. 본 연구에서는 2017년 6월 1일부터 2017년 8월 28일까지 3개월 동안 A대학의 8개 건축물에 대해 실내 라돈농도를 측정하여 비교하였고, 연간 유효선량을 도출하였다. 본 연구에서 A대학의 건축물 Hall G 와 Hall F의 라돈농도는 각각 81 Bq/㎥, 14 Bq/㎥ 로 나타났으며, 전체 조사 건축물의 평균 실내 라돈농도는 41.63 Bq/㎥로 나타났다. 대학 내 학습공간과 생활공간에 대한 연간 유효선량 환산치의 평균은 0.40 mSv/y이며 최대 연간 유효선량은 0.78 mSv/y, 최소 연간 유효선량은 0.13 mSv/y로 나타났다. 학교는 학생들이 오랜 시간 머무르는 공간이므로 건축물에 대한 적절한 환기와 관리를 통해 실내라돈 농도를 낮추는 것이 라돈에 대한 자연방사선 피폭을 낮추는 방법이다.

방사선의 치료효과 증대를 위해 최근에는 기존의 Photon치료를 대체한 중입자치료가 증가하고 있다. 중입자 치료는 기존 Photon치료 대비 높은 에너지와 거대한 시설로 인해 방사선안전성평가에 더욱 신경을 써 야 한다. 이러한 방사선안전성평가는 주로 Monte Carlo simulation을 이용하여 차폐 및 방사화 평가를 수행 하는데, 가장 우선적으로 수행해야하는 것은 기하학적 모델링이다. 중입자 치료시설은 가속장치를 싱크로 트론을 사용하게 되는데 정확한 기하학적 모델링이 어려워 대부분 간략하게 모델링 한다. 본 연구는 싱크 로트론 가속장치의 구성요소 중에서 Dipole magnet을 간략화 한 것과 정밀하게 구현한 것이 방사선안전성 평가에 어떠한 영향을 미치는지 알아보았다. 결과에 의하면 간략하게 구현한 기하학적 모델이 정밀하게 구 현된 기하학적 모델보다 과대평과 되는 결과를 얻었다. 따라서 방사선안전성 평가는 정밀한 기하하적 모델 링이 더욱 신뢰할 수 있는 결과를 얻는다고 판단된다.

We calculated dose rate using radiative transfer equations to consider radiative processes distinctly. The dose rate at Pohang(36°02'N, 129°23'E) was calculated using measured ozone and meteorological data and two-stream approximations(quadrature, Eddington, delta Eddington, PIFM(practical improved flux method), discrete ordinate, delta discrete ordinate) are used in solving equation. The purpose of this study is to determine the most compatible radiative transfer approximation for simulating the radiative and photochemical processes of atmosphere through comparision between calculated and measured values. Dose rate of the biologically effective irradiance in the region 0.28-0.32μm showed the highest value when quadrature and Eddington was used and lower value on condition that delta scaling was applied. Correlation coefficient between dose rate at surface using radiation transfer equation and measured UV-B at Pohang was 0.78, 0.79 and 0.81 when detla Eddington, PIFM and delta discrete ordinate were used. Also, in case of above approximations were used, MBE(Mean Bias Error) was within -0.3MED/30min and RMBE(Relative Mean Bias Error) was below 10% between 1200 LST and 1400 LST. Approximations which are compatible in estimating radiative process are detla Eddington, PIFM and delta discrete ordinate. Especially, in case that radiative process is considered more detail, delta discrete ordinate increased the number of stream is proper.