United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission (U.S. NRC) specifies regulations on obtaining licenses and describes the technical position on the average waste concentration, also known as Concentration Averaging and Encapsulation Branch Technical Position (CA BTP); CA BTP helps classify blendable waste and discrete items and address concentration averaging. The technical position details are reviewed and compared in a real environment in Korea. A few cases of concentration averaging based on the application of CA BTP to domestic radioactive waste are presented, and the feasibility of the application is assessed. The radioactive waste considered herein does not satisfy the Disposal Concentration Limit (DCL) of the second-phase disposal facility while applying the preliminary classification. However, if CA BTP is applied when the radioactive waste is mixed with other radioactive waste items in a large and heavy container, it can be disposed of at the second-phase disposal facility in Gyeongju Repository. To apply the CA BTP of the U.S. NRC, it is necessary to investigate the safety assessment conditions of the US and Korea.

Radioactive waste is classified into Intermediate level, low level, and very low potential based on the amount of radioactivity per unit gram, that is, the concentration limit. This method of classifying radioactivity per unit weight is not a problem if all packaged wastes are homogeneous. However, the reality is that not all waste is homogeneous. Relative hotspots may exist. Also, when several items are mixed, if one item has a relatively higher concentration than other items, it can become a relative hotspot. In Korea, even if all nuclides in a single radioactive waste package satisfy the low level concentration limit, if even one nuclide exceeds the concentration limit, the radioactive waste package becomes the intermediate level. In case of the United States, the US NRC provides regulations related to obtaining license as well as presents the technical position on the average waste concentration called Concentration Averaging and Encapsulation Branch Technical Position (CA BTP). CA BTP classifies waste into four types : Blendable Waste, Encapsulated items, Single Discrete Items, and Mixture of Discrete Items, and presents each approach to concentration averaging. In general, this is a method that suggests an acceptable ratio in case of the waste, which relatively high concentration waste is mixed. In order to apply this in Korea, we compare the classification standards for low and Intermediatelevel waste in Korea and the United States, related laws and backgrounds, and the application methods of CA BTP.

This paper describes the development of a hand module of NREX (National Rehabilitation Center Robotic Exoskeleton) designed to assist individuals with sustained neurological impairments such as stroke and spinal cord injuries. To construct a simple and lightweight hand module, the robotic hand adopts a mechanism driven by a motor and moved by two four-bar linkages. The motor facilitates the flexion-extension movements of the thumb and the other four fingers simultaneously. Thus, an individual using the robotic hand module can effectively grip and release objects related to daily life activities. The robotic hand module has been designed to cover the range of motion with respect to its link distance. This hand module can be used in therapeutic rehabilitation as well as for daily life assistance. In addition, this hand module can either be mounted on an NREX or used as a standalone module.