From Fukushima nuclear disaster, as the water which is supplied by rain and groundwater flow into reactor building, contaminated water which contains radioactive nuclides is occurred. Although about 600 tons of contaminated water was generated at the early of accident, as the groundwater management system is developing, about 150 tons of contaminated water is generated now. Tokyo Electric Power Holdings (TEPCO) operate a multi-nuclide removal equipment which is called ‘ALPS’ and store purified water (ALPS treated water) in the Fukushima NPP site by tank. From 2023, the Japanese government decided to dilute the stored ALPS treated water and discharge it into the ocean to secure space on the site. In this study, based on the data opened to the public by TEPCO, the current status of ALPS is investigated. The dilution and discharge process under conceptual design was investigated. In addition, the treatment capacity of ALPS was analyzed based on the radioactivity concentration data of 7 nuclides. And then, two points to be checked found. First, it was confirmed that the performance of ALPS temporarily decreased between 2015 and 2018 due to reduced replacement cycle of filter and absorbent. Second, it was confirmed that the ALPS treated water from specific ALPS still haven’t satisfied the discharge limit for I-129, Sr-90, and Cs-137. In the case of Cs-137, about 1.7 times the radioactivity concentration was detected compared to the discharge limit. For I-129 and Sr-90, about 2.4 times and 2.1 times of radioactivity concentration was detected compared to the discharge limit. From this study, some of the ALPS treated water are confirmed that the radioactivity concentration exceeds the discharge limit, and the treatment capacity of ALPS might be unstable depend on the ALPS operation such as replacement cycle. Therefore, before the discharging of contaminated water on 2023, it is necessary to inspect ALPS if it purifies contaminated water with reliability or not, and to secure the reliable evaluation method to measure radioactivity concentration.

Tributyl phosphate (TBP) is a well-known and important compound in the nuclear industry for the nuclear fuel reprocessing, and it is also used in a various field such as plastic industry as antifoaming agent. Untreated organic pollutants in TBP can remain in the soil water and cause serious environmental pollution, thus it should be degraded through environmentally friendly methods. The non-thermal plasma-based advanced oxidation process (AOP) is one of the most widely studied and best developed processes owing to its simple structure and ease of operation. In this study, a plasma-based AOP was stably generated using submerged multi-hole dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) and applied to relatively high concentration of TBP solution. A submerged DBD plasma system was designed to directly interact with water, thereby producing reactive oxygen species (ROS) and functioning as a powerful oxidizer. Additionally, UV, O3, and H2O2 are generated by the developed plasma system without using any other additives to produce OH radicals for degrading organic pollutants; therefore, this system circumvents the use of complex and advanced oxidation processes. The electrical properties and concentrations of the active species were analyzed to establish optimal plasma operating conditions for degrading TBP solution. The results were analyzed by measuring the total organic carbon (TOC) and changes in solution properties. Based on these results, a degradation mechanism of TBP solution is proposed. After 50 min of plasma treatment, the concentration of TOC was gradually decreased. Consequently, we found that plasma-based AOP using submerged multi-hole DBD has advantages as an alternative technology for degrading organic pollutants such as TBP solution.

The optical fibers tend to have poor machinability because of its hardness and brittleness. In the previous study, we applied the electrochemical discharge machining to fabricate the tip of the optical fiber. We could machine the optical fiber using the electrochemical discharge machining however the machined optical fiber tip had rough surface. In this study, we use electrochemical discharge machining with rotation tool which of the rough-grinding and finishing-grinding process to obtain a smooth surface of the side firing fiber. As a result, we are able to machine the optical fiber tip with smooth surface effectively from the proposed fiber machining process and the emission from the side-firing fiber clearly demonstrated the directional emission as the emission beam was reflected at 80 ° relative to the fiber axis.

The biodiesel production characteristics in a pulsed-corona plasma reactor has been investigated through parametric tests. Transesterification of rapeseed oil together with camelina oil was done with the change of such variables as voltage of power, molar ratio, KOH catalyst and temperature. The energetic electrons emitted from pulsed-corona plasma has contributed to the enhancement of yield on rapeseed oil in short time (15 min). The higher yield on camelina oil was observed in 5 min. The optimal parameters were shown as the voltage of 23 kV, the molar ratio of 5/1, the content of KOH catalyst of 0.6 wt% and the temperature of 28℃ under the rotating rate of spark gap of 900 rpm.

The present study focused on the synthesis of a bismuth-antimony-tellurium-based thermoelectric nanopowders using plasma arc discharge process. The chemical composition, phase structure, particle size of the synthesized powders under various synthesis conditions were analyzed using XRF, XRD and SEM. The powders as synthesized were sintered by the plasma activated sintering. The thermoelectric properties of sintered body were analyzed by measuring Seebeck coefficient, specific electric resistivity and thermal conductivity. The chemical composition of the synthesized Bi-Sb-Te-based powders approached that of the raw material with an increasing DC current of the are plasma. The synthesized Bi-Sb-Te-based powder consist of a mixed phase structure of the , and phases. This powder has homogeneous mixing state of two different particles in an average particle size; about 100nm and about 500nm. The figure of merit of the sintered body of the synthesized 18.75 wt.%Bi-24.68 wt.%Sb-56.57 wt.%Te nanopowder showed higher value than one of the sintered body of the mechanically milled 12.64 wt.%Bi-29.47 wt.%Sb-57.89 wt.%Te powder.

The present study was focused on the synthesis of a zirconium-based alloyed nanopowder by the plasma arc discharge process. The chemical composition, phase structure, particle size and hydrogen sorption property of the synthesized powders under various synthesis conditions were analyzed using XRF, XRD, SEM, XPS and the ASTM-F798 method. The chemical composition of the synthesized Zr-V-Fe-based powders approached that of the raw material with an increasing hydrogen fraction in the powder synthesis atmosphere. The synthesized powder consist of a mixed phase structure of the phases. This powder has an average particle size of about 20 nm. The synthesized nanopowder showed getter characteristics, even though it had a lower hydrogen sorption speed than the getter powder. However, the synthesized Zr nanopowder with an average particle size of 20 nm showed higher hydrogen sorption speed than the getter powder.

In the present study, ultrafined Zr-V-Fe based alloy powder prepared by a plasma arc discharge process with changing process parameters. The chemical composition of synthesized powder was strongly influenced by the process parameters, especially the hydrogen volume fraction in the powder synthesis atmosphere. The synthesized powder had an average particle size of 50 nm. The synthesized Zr-V-Fe based particles had a shell-core structure composed of metal in the core and oxidse in the shell.

The nano-sized Fe powders were prepared by plasma arc discharge process using pure Fe rod. The microstructure and the sintering behavior of the prepared nanopowders were evaluated. The prepared Fe nanopowders had nearly spherical shapes and consisted of metallic core and oxide shell structures. The higher volume shrinkage at low sintering temperature was observed due to the reduction of surface oxide. The nanopowders showed 6 times higher densification rate and more significant isotropic shrinkage behavior than those of micron sized Fe powders.

Nano sized FeAl intermetallic particles were successfully synthesized by plasma arc discharge pro-cess. The synthesized powders shouted core-shell structures with the particle size of 10-20 nm. The core was metallic FeAl and shell was composed of amorphous Because of the difference of Fe and Al vapor pressure during synthesis, the Al contents in the nanoparticles depended on the Al contents of master alloy.

Iron-carbon nanocapsules were synthesized by plasma arc discharge (PAD) process under various atmosphere of methane, argon and hydrogen gas. Characterization and surface properties were investigated by means of HRTEM, XRD, XPS and Mossbauer spectroscopy. Fe nanocapsules synthesized were composed of three phases with core/shell structures. The surface of nanocapsules was covered by the shell of graphite phase in the thickness of nm.

Fe nanopowders were successfully synthesized by plasma arc discharge (PAD) process using Fe rod. The influence of chamber pressure on the microstructure was investigated by means of X-ray Diffraction (XRD), Field Emission Scanning Electron Microscope (FE-SEM), Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM) and X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy (XPS). The prepared particles had nearly spherical shapes and consisted of metallic cores (a-Fe) and oxide shells (FeO), The powder size increased with increasing chamber pressure due to the higher dissolution and ejection rate of H and gas density in the molten metal.

To investigate the effect of the parameters of the plasma arc discharge process on the particle formation and particle characteristics of the iron nano powder, the chamber pressure, input current and the hydrogen volume fraction in the powder synthesis atmosphere were changed. The particle size and phase structure of the synthesized iron powder were studied using the FE-SEM, FE-TEM and XRD. The synthesized iron powder particle had a core-shell structure composed of the crystalline -Fe in the core and the crystalline in the shell. The powder generation rate and particle size mainly depended on the hydrogen volume fraction in the powder synthesis atmosphere. The particle size increased simultaneously with increasing the hydrogen volume fraction from 10% to 50%, and it ranged from about 45nm to 130 nm.