Tritium is radioactive isotope, emitting beta ray, released as tritiated water from nuclear power plants. Due to the danger of radioactive isotope, the appropriate separation of tritium is essentially carried out for environment and safety. Further, it is also promising material for energy production and research. The tritiated water can be treated by diverse techniques such as water distillation, cryogenic distillation, Girdler-sulfide process, and catalytic exchange. After treatment, it is more desirable to convert as gas phase for storage, comparing to liquid phase. However, achieving complete separation of hydrogen gases with very similar physical and chemical properties is significantly challenging. Thus, it is necessary to develop materials with effective separation properties in gas separation. In this presentation, we present hydrogen isotope separation in the gas phase using modified mesoporous silica. Mesoporous silica is a form of silica that is characterized by its mesoporous structure possessing pores that range from 2 to 50 nm in diameter. This material can be functionalized to selectively capture and separate molecules having specific size and affinity. Here, the silver and copper incorporated mesoporous silica was synthesized to tailor a chemical affinity quantum sieving effect, thereby providing separation efficiency in D2/H2. The adsorption quantities of H2 and D2 were determined by sorption study, and the textural properties of each mesoporous silica were analyzed using N2 physisorption. The selectivity (D2/H2) in diverse feed composition (1:1, 1:9, and 1:99 of D2/H2) was estimated by applying ideal adsorbed solution theory to predict the loading of the gas mixture on bare, Ag- and Cu-mesoporous silica based on their sorption study. Further, the performance of each mesoporous silica was evaluated in the breakthrough adsorption under 1:1 mixture of D2 and H2 at 77 K.

Concrete waste generated in the result of dismantling a concrete structure in a radiation control area and refractory brick waste generated from uranium pellet sintering furnace are surface-contaminated by uranium particle of which the enrichment is below 5%. These wastes are hard to decontaminate so it was necessary to develop the process for its disposal. So, we developed the Process Control Plan (PCP) for disposal of radioactive concrete waste describing a whole sequence of disposal and inspecting procedures based on the KNF Radioactive Waste Quality Assurance Plan (KN-WQAP) established in 2021. Based on the PCP, we crushed the concrete waste by jaw-crusher. Then we sieved the crushed concrete waste and removed the particle of which size is below 0.3 mm, using sieve-vibrator where the 0.3 mm mesh-sized sieve is installed inside. Before conducting the crush-sieving method based on the PCP, we conducted Process Control Assessment (PCA) based on the KN-WQAP. The purpose of the PCA is to check whether the output of the process satisfies the Acceptance Criteria of Korea Radioactive Waste Agency (KORAD) so that we could confirm the validity of the PCP. The evaluation item of the PCA is a particulate size verification test. The test is passed only if the component ratio of a particle size below 0.2 mm is less than 15% and the particle size below 0.01 mm is less than 1%. The very first 3 drums passed the test, so we began applying the PCP to whole target drums. In the process of conducting the crush-sieving method in earnest, qualified inspectors based on KNWQAP participated conducting sampling, measuring and checking whether a foreign material was included. They tested samples and packaged drums regarding 5 spheres of general, radiological, physical, chemical and biological characteristic. KNF disposed concrete and refractory brick waste by the crush-sieving method so that KNF could take over 100 drums to KORAD in 2021. But, it is needed to be improved that a dust size below 0.3 mm is generated as a secondary waste which needs to be solidified for the final disposal and the work environment is not good enough because of the dust.

Deuterium is a crucial clean energy source required for nuclear fusion and is a future resource needed in various industries and scientific fields. However, it is not easy to enrich deuterium because the proportion of deuterium in the hydrogen mixture is scarce, at approximately 0.016%. Furthermore, the physical and chemical properties of the hydrogen mixture and deuterium are very similar. Therefore, the efficient separation of deuterium from hydrogen mixtures is often a significant challenge when using modern separation technologies. Recently, to effectively separate deuterium, studies utilizing the ‘Kinetic Quantum Sieving Effect (KQS)’ of porous materials are increasing. Therefore, in this review, two different strategies have been discussed for improving KQS efficiency for hydrogen isotope separation performance using nanoporous materials. One is the gating effect, which precisely controls the aperture locally by adjusting the temperature and pressure. The second is the breathing phenomenon, utilizing the volume change of the structure from closed system to open system. It has been reported that efficient hydrogen isotope separation is possible using these two methods, and each of these effects is described in detail in this review. In addition, a specific-isotope responsive system (e.g., 2nd breathing effect in MIL-53) has recently been discovered and is described here as well.

분리막(Separation membrane)을 이용하여 기체 또는 액체상태로 존재하는 분자들을 선택적으로 분리하는 기술은 화학, 생물, 제약, 석유화학 등의 산업에서 매우 다양하게 응용되고 있으며 산업적으로 매우 큰 비중을 차지하고 있다. Anodic aluminum oxide (AAO) 막은 nanochannel의 직경, nanochannel 간의 거리 및 원통형 nanochannel의 길이 등을 정밀하게 조절 할 수 있어 AAO 막을 이용하여 혼합분자를 효과적으로 분리하려는 다양한 연구가 진행되고 있다. 본 연구에서는 양 말단이 열려있어 through-hole 구조로 다양한 직경의 nanochannel을 가지는 AAO 막을 제작하였으며, 이것을 이용하여 용매에 녹아 있는 고분자 사슬의 수력학적 부피에 따른 선택적 투과를 관찰하였다. Nanochannel을 투과한 고분자 사슬의 회전반지름과 nanochannel의 직경 사이에 정량적인 관계가 있음을 확인하였다. 또한 AAO 막의 nanochannel을 흐르는 고분자 용액의 유동 률(flow rate)이 Hagen-Poiseuille 관계식으로 정확하게 설명될 수 있음을 확인하여 AAO 내에 존재하는 원통형태의 nanochannel 내에서 흐르는 용액의 나노흐름(nanoflow)에 대한 이론적 해석이 가능함을 증명하였다.

Gas transport through graphene-derived membranes has gained much interest recently due to its promising potential in filtration and separation applications. In this work, we explore Kr-85 gas radionuclide sequestration from natural air in nanoporous graphene oxide membranes in which different sizes and geometries of pores were modeled on the graphene oxide sheet. This was done using atomistic simulations considering mean-squared displacement, diffusion coefficient, number of crossed species of gases through nanoporous graphene oxide, and flow through interlayer galleries. The results showed that the gas features have the densest adsorbed zone in nanoporous graphene oxide, compared with a graphene membrane, and that graphene oxide was more favorable than graphene for Kr separation. The aim of this paper is to show that for the well-defined pore size called P-7, it is possible to separate Kr-85 from a gas mixture containing Kr-85, O2 and N2. The results would benefit the oil industry among others.

Molecular sieving carbon (MSC) for separating O2-N2 and CO2-CH4 has been prepared through chemical vapor deposition (CVD) of methane and benzene on activated carbon spheres (ACS) derived from polystyrene sulfonate beads. The validity of the material for assessment of molecular sieving behavior for O2-N2 and CO2-CH4 pair of gases was assessed by the kinetic adsorption of the corresponding gases at 25℃. It was observed that methane cracking on ACS lead to deposition of carbon mostly in whole length of pores rather than in pore entrance, resulting in a reduction in adsorption capacity. MSC showing good selectivity for CO2-CH4 and O2-N2 separation was obtained through benzene cracking on ACS with benzene entrantment of 0.40×10-4 g/ml at cracking temperature of 725℃ for a period of 90 minutes resulting in a selectivity of 3.31:1.00 for O2-N2 and 8.00:1.00 for CO2-CH4 pair of gases respectively.