The efficient fabrication of uranium-based liquid fuels and the structural integrity of reactor materials are critical challenges for the deployment of chloride-based molten salt reactors (MSRs). As part of KAERI’s ongoing MSR development, this study investigates an optimized uranium chlorination process and a corrosion assessment of candidate structural materials under conditions more closely resembling actual reactor cores. To enhance process efficiency and scalability, metallic uranium was converted into uranium trihydride (UH3) via hydriding, achieving 34.1% efficiency. UH3 was chlorinated with ammonium chloride (NH4Cl), yielding uranium trichloride (UCl3) with a conversion rate over 98% and purity above 99%, as confirmed by ICP-OES. The UCl3 was used to fabricate various uranium-based liquid fuels for MSR applications. Simultaneously, the corrosion behavior of SS304, SS316, and Hastelloy-N was evaluated using a natural convection loop filled with a NaCl– MgCl2 eutectic salt mixture. The system operated for 500 hours at 500–580°C to replicate MSR conditions. Corrosion analysis revealed that SS304 suffered severe degradation, SS316 showed moderate resistance, and Hastelloy-N demonstrated superior stability, although some cold leg samples experienced mass gain due to corrosion product deposition. These findings provide key insights into optimizing liquid fuel synthesis and selecting corrosion-resistant materials for safe, long-term MSR operation.

도로분야와 관련된 기준에서 도로법, 도로의 구조·시설 기준에 관한 규칙, 도로 건설기준(KDS/KCS 44 00 00) 등 관련 법령을 근거로 제정된 기준은 상위기술기준으로 분류되며 그 외 지침, 편람, 매뉴얼, 가이드라인 등은 하위기술기준으로 구분된다. 상위기술기준은 도 로법, 건설기술진흥법 등을 근거로 제정되어 활용되고 있으나, 지침, 편람, 가이드라인 등으로 분류되는 하위기술기준은 소관부서에서 주관하여 필요한 상황에 따라 제정하여 현장에서 활용되고 있다. 법령을 근거로 하는 상위기술기준은 국가건설기준센터, 소관부서 등 에 의해 지속적으로 관리되고 있는 반면에 하위기술기준은 제정 당시 시점의 상위기술기준을 준용하여 제정 후 현행화 등의 후속 관 리가 체계적으로 수행되고 있지 않아 현행 상위기술기준과의 연계성이 떨어지고, 상충되는 문제가 야기되고 있다. 본 연구에서는 현재 까지 발행, 고시 또는 배포된 도로분야의 하위기술기준의 관리를 위한 현황 조사와 함께 전문가 검토를 통한 하위기술기준의 활용성 을 확보하기 위한 방안을 모색하기 위한 기초자료를 마련하고자 하였다. 도로분야 하위기술기준에 대한 현황 조사를 수행한 결과에서 는 현재 150여 개의 하위기술기준이 배포된 것으로 파악되었다. 조사 결과를 바탕으로 도로분야 설계 및 도로 시공 분야 전문가 검토 를 통해 현장에서의 활용 가치가 있는 하위기술기준은 존치하는 방향으로, 현행 상위기술기준과의 연계성, 현장 활용도가 떨어지는 하 위기술기준은 폐지하는 방향으로 분석하여 도로분야 하위기술기준의 현장 활용성 확보를 위한 자료를 마련하였다.

Over the past decades, particle physics has made significant progress in characterizing neutrinos even if neutrinos have extremely small cross-section (~10-44 cm2), allowing them to penetrate any object. More recently, neutrino detection and analysis have indeed become valuable tools in various aspects of nuclear science and technology. Neutrinos are detected using various methods, including Inverse Beta Decay (IBD), Neutrino-electron scattering, and Coherent Neutrino-Nucleus Scattering (CNNS). For the detection of anti-neutrinos from nuclear reactor, the Inverse Beta Decay (IBD) is commonly considered with scintillators. Notable experiments in Korea, such as RENO and NEOS, have been conducted using the IBD method at the Hanbit Nuclear Power Plant since 2006. Additionally, the NEON experiment, which employs CNNS, which has a significantly larger reaction cross-section than IBD but its low-energy signal detection difficulty, has been ongoing since 2021. Based on the results of NEOS (2015-2020) the signal to noise is ~30 and IBD detection rate is ~2000 counts per day. The IBD event in nuclear power plants provides valuable information about reactor behavior. IBD count rates are in good agreement with the thermal power of the reactor. Furthermore, the neutrino energy spectrum can be used to estimate the fission isotope ratio of the reactor core, showing promise for obtaining reactor core information from antineutrino detection techniques. Neutrino detection in nuclear facilities provides valuable information about reactor behavior. However, as a surveillance technology neutrino detection faces challenges due to the very low cross-section, requiring efforts to overcome limitations related to detector size and signal acquisition time. In 2008, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) included neutrino detection in its Research and Development (R&D) program for reactor safeguards. In January 2023, the IAEA organized a “Technical Meeting on Nuclear Data Needs for Antineutrino Spectra Applications” to discuss the latest developments and research results in this field. In summary, the use of neutrino detection in the nuclear field, particularly for reactor monitoring and safeguarding, has advanced significantly. Ongoing research and collaboration are expected to enhance our understanding of neutrinos and their applications in nuclear science and technology.

Around the 1980s, with government’s promotion and dissemination policies for FRP (Fiberglass Reinforced Plastics) of the government as a main material of fishing boats, approximately 97% of the entire fishing boats in Korea have utilized FRP until now. Nevertheless, diverse social and environmental issues have emerged due to the susceptibility to fire and the generation of substances detrimental to human health during the construction process of FRP fishing vessels. Especially, the high disposal cost and the limitation of recycling technology in the disposal process of FRP fishing boats have elicited attention to circular economy. This research intended to grasp the management status and problems of disposed FRP fishing boats in Korea, and to assess the level of competitive advantage of FRP fishing boats’ recycling technologies of FRP fishing boats based on VRIO (Value, Rarity, Imitability, Organization) analysis through domestic and foreign management policies and related recycling examples. According to the survey of 161 respondents, including the industry, stakeholders and experts related to the collection, treatment and recycling of fisheries wastes, it was revealed that FRP fishing boats’ recycling technologies of FRP fishing boats are at the level of ‘unused competitive advantage’ that satisfied the level of value, rarity and imitability, but not the level of organization.

The intermediate level spent resins waste generated from water purification for the the moderator and primary heat transport system during operaioin of heavy water reactor (HWR). Especially, moderator resins contain high level activity largely because of their C-14 content. So spent resins are considered as a problematirc solid waste and require special treatment to meet the waste acceptance criteria for a disposal site. Various methods have been studied for the treatment of spent resins which include thermal, destructive, and stripping methods. In the case of solidification methods, cement, bitument or organic polymers were suggested. In the 1990s, acid stripping using nitric acid and thermal treatment methods were actively investigated in Canada to remove C-14 nuclide from waste resin. In Japan, thermal distructive method was studied in the 1990s. Since 2005, KAERI developed acid stripping method using phosphate salt. However, acid stripping method are not suitable due to large amounts of 2nd waste containing acid solution with various nuclides. To solve this probelm, KAERI has been suggested the microwave treatment method for C-14 selective removal from waste resin in the 2010s. Pilot scale demonstration tests using radioactive waste resin generated from Wolsung unit 1 and unit 2 were successfully conducted and 95% of C-14 was selectively removed from the radioactive waste resin. In recent years, price of C-14 source is dramatically increased due to market growth of C-14 utilization and exclusive supply chain depending on China and Russia. High purity of C-14 were captured in HWR waste resin. Interest of C-14 recovery research from HWR waste resin is currently increased in Canada. In this study, microwave method is suggested to treat HWR waste resin with C-14 recovery process. Additionally, status of waste resin management and research trends of HWR waste resin treatment are introduced.

Given the limited terrestrial reserves of uranium (about 4.6 million tons), exploring alternative resources is essential to ensure the long-term supply and sustainability of nuclear energy. Uranium extraction from seawater (UES) is a potential solution to this issue since the amount of uranium dissolved in seawater (about 4.5 billion tons) is approximately 1000 times that of terrestrial reserves. However, the ultra-low concentration of uranium in seawater (about 3.3 ppb) makes it a challenging task to make UES economically feasible. This paper provides an overview of the current status of UES technology, which has evolved over the past seven decades. Starting from inorganic adsorbents such as hydrous titanium oxide in the 1960s, amidoxime-based fibrous adsorbents gained the most attention until the early 2010s due to their ease of deployment in actual seawater conditions and high affinity for uranium. Nowadays, research on organic adsorbents with microstructures is prevailing due to their ability to easily control surface area and compositions. In addition, this study identifies the key issues that need to be addressed to make UES technology economically viable.

Titanium is the ninth most abundant element in the Earth’s crust and is the fourth most abundant structural metal after aluminum, iron, and magnesium. It exhibits a higher specific strength than steel along with an excellent corrosion resistance, highlighting the promising potential of titanium as a structural metal. However, titanium is difficult to extract from its ore and is classified as a rare metal, despite its abundance. Therefore, the production of titanium is exceedingly low compared to that of common metals. Titanium is conventionally produced as a sponge by the Kroll process. For powder metallurgy (PM), hydrogenation-dehydrogenation (HDH) of the titanium sponge or gas atomization of the titanium bulk is required. Therefore, numerous studies have been conducted on smelting, which replaces the Kroll process and produces powder that can be used directly for PM. In this review, the Kroll process and new smelting technologies of titanium for PM, such as metallothermic, electrolytic, and hydrogen reduction of TiCl4 and TiO2 are discussed.

The Transgenic livestock can be useful for the production of disease-resistant animals, pigs for xenotranplantation, animal bioreactor for therapeutic recombinant proteins and disease model animals. Previously, conventional methods without using artificial nuclease-dependent DNA cleavage system were used to produce such transgenic livestock, but their efficiency is known to be low. In the last decade, the development of artificial nucleases such as zinc-finger necleases (ZFNs), transcription activator-like effector nucleases (TALENs) and clustered regulatory interspaced short palindromic repeat (CRISPR)/Cas has led to more efficient production of knock-out and knock-in transgenic livestock. However, production of knock-in livestock is poor. In mouse, genetically modified mice are produced by co-injecting a pair of knock-in vector, which is a donor DNA, with a artificial nuclease in a pronuclear fertilized egg, but not in livestock. Gene targeting efficiency has been increased with the use of artificial nucleases, but the knock-in efficiency is still low in livestock. In many research now, somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT) methods used after selection of cell transfected with artificial nuclease for production of transgenic livestock. In particular, it is necessary to develop a system capable of producing transgenic livestock more efficiently by co-injection of artificial nuclease and knock-in vectors into fertilized eggs.

한국원자력연구원에서 개발 중인 해체기술 현황 및 전망에 대해 기술하였다. 특히, 해체의 핵심기술인 제염, 원격절단, 해체 폐기물처리 및 부지 복원 분야를 중점적으로 다루었다. 제염기술로는 부품제염과 원자력시스템제염 부분을 고찰하였고, 원격절단기술 관련해서는 절단기술, 원격제어 및 해체공정 모사기술이 다루어졌다. 해체 폐기물처리기술 관련해서는, 비록 해체 후 다양한 폐기물이 발생하지만, 주 폐기물인 금속, 가연성폐기물과 난처리성 특수 폐기물인 고염 고방사성 폐액, 유기혼 성폐기물 및 우라늄 복합폐기물 처리기술 등을 주로 기술하였다. 마지막으로, 해체부지 복원 분야에서는 방사선 측정, 부지 재이용의 안전성평가 그리고 부지 복원기술 등을 중점적으로 기술하였다.