The Improvement of the Regional Regulatory Governance System for Radiation Risk Management: Spatial Analysis on Radiation Hazards in South Korea

Since the 2011 Fukushima nuclear power plant accident, nuclear regulators have strengthened safety standards or decided to decommission the nuclear power plant. The vast majority of radiation is from nuclear power plants, so safety measures are also concentrated in nuclear power plants. Radioactive materials located much closer to the people are scattered around the nation. However, it is difficult for citizens to predict the radiation risk around them because regulatory agencies do not provide adequate information on radiation. The main goal of this study is to analyze the spatial distribution patterns of radioactive materials that serve as indicators for potential risk from a radiological hazard. The empirical findings in this study demonstrate the presence of spatial autocorrelation for the number of radiation licenses among 244 regions in the Republic of Korea. The policy implications are three-fold: (1) it is necessary to improve regulatory governance in consideration of permitted use; (2) the regional offices of regulatory agency can be established based on the identified spatial distribution of permitted use; (3) it is required to improve the information-disclosure system for materials. This study provides an opportunity to create a safer society by understanding the radiation around the public in general.

The Radiological Background Inside and Outside the Libyan Iron and Steel Company in Misurata City, Northwest of Libya

Radioactive background is very important with regard to the exposure of the population to radiation, many countries of the world measure the rate of exposure caused by natural radiation for different purposes, where radioactive pollution represents an important problem as a result of the spread and the frequent use of radioactive materials in different applications, such as medicine, agriculture, industry, and others, and some industrial facilities in the city of Misurata like Libyan Iron Company use some techniques that depend on radioactive sources. In this study, over a whole year with its four seasons, the levels of radiation background were evaluated in the area surrounding the Libyan Iron and Steel Company in the Qasr Ahmed region in Misurata city and within the company’s. It is measured for primary and secondary directions for a distance of 8 km. The radiation levels outside and inside the company’s perimeter were within the natural limits of the radiation background in the area, radiation levels do not different between the monitoring points that were measured within the company’s borders from those that were measured in the area surrounding the company. The radiation levels are not affected by the measurement season, and therefore that the obsession of radioactive contamination that some people have is unfounded and that the situation from this aspect is reassuring.

Measurement and Analysis of Natural Radioactive Elements in Salty Sediments from Central and Southern Iraq

Purification of fifteen NaCl samples from natural and different area in the middle and south of Iraq are prepared and studied the structural characteristics of samples by powder X-ray diffraction analysis at 𝛌=1.542Å. The present work considered the specific activities of naturally occurring radioactive materials in salt samples, which are measured and analyzed using high resolution HPGe system. Also, the radiological parameters have been considered in this work. The average specific concentration (in Bq.kg-1) of the salt samples is found 16.864.92 for 226Ra, 5.972.05 for 232Th and 9.852.8 for 40K, respectively, which are below the national levels, 40Bq.kg-1, 30Bq.kg-1 and 400Bq.kg-1, respectively (UNSCEAR, 2000). Similarly the absorb dose rates are in the range3.71 nGy.h-1 to 12.591nGy.h-1.The measured radiation hazard indices show that the concentrations of these radionuclides in all samples are within the allowable limits.

Application of response surface method in the separation of radioactive material: a review

Response Surface Method (RSM) is one of the most popular and powerful tools for experimental design and optimization. This paper first reviewed the research progress of RSM in the separation and recovery of various radioactive materials, and verified the application of RSM in adsorption isotherm analysis and thermodynamic calculation. The main advantage of RSM in radioactive material separation is the reduction in the number of experiments required, resulting in considerably less radioactive material consumption, secondary waste generation, workload and radiation dose, which is valuable for the research of radioactive material separation.