"Marine Radioactive Contamination Testing Twice as Fast"

UST-Nuclear Research Institute, Successful Development and Commercialization of Latest Equipment

Domestic researchers have developed and commercialized equipment that can detect marine radioactive contamination twice as fast as before.

ST-KAERI School Master’s Student Ga-hyun Kim (left), Professor Hyun-chul Kim (right), and the self-developed radiation measurement device ‘SALT-100’ (center)

The University of Science and Technology (UST) announced on the 9th that it developed this technology in collaboration with the Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute, published it in an international academic journal, and transferred it to private companies for commercialization. The related paper was published in the August issue of 'Marine Pollution Bulletin,' a journal ranked in the top 1.7% (JCR DB) in the field of marine and freshwater biology.

Following Japan's decision to discharge contaminated water, South Korea, which is geographically close, has been analyzing marine radioactivity more frequently and across more items and points. Therefore, there is a strong need for faster, simpler, and more accurate analysis technology for marine radioactivity. However, the analysis of strontium-90 (90Sr), one of the key monitoring radionuclides for nuclear environmental assessment, has faced several challenges, including the use of harmful chemicals, analysis times exceeding three weeks, and accuracy variations depending on the analyst's expertise.

To address this, the research team devised an indirect verification method by measuring yttrium-90 (90Y). Strontium-90 decays into yttrium-90 over time, and after 20 days, the radioactivity levels of the two substances become equal. Based on this characteristic, the team had already developed a method in 2021 to indirectly confirm the radioactivity level of strontium-90 by using a resin that adsorbs yttrium-90 and their self-developed automatic radionuclide separation device (Kaeri eXtraction Technology-Hybrid). This method reduced the analysis time to one-tenth of the conventional method, attracting attention.

The research team further advanced this by utilizing a self-developed large-capacity seawater pretreatment device, doubling the sample processing capacity. The required time was also halved, and the recovery rate of yttrium-90 from the input seawater was improved to about 90%.

Additionally, the technology was transferred to a private company last year and commercialized this year as equipment named ‘SALT-100.’ This equipment has been supplied to three institutions: Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power Hanbit Nuclear Power Plant, Kyungpook National University, and Korea Radioactive Waste Agency (KORAD). KORAD plans to use this technology for actual sample analysis after receiving the technology transfer for the strontium-90 analysis method.

Using the newly developed analysis method and equipment, after a pretreatment process of less than three hours for 50 liters of seawater, radioactivity results for strontium-90 can be obtained the next day, with significantly reduced analyst intervention.

UST stated, "With this research and commercialization, marine radioactivity analysis can be conducted with less time and manpower, greatly enhancing South Korea's marine radioactivity monitoring capabilities." They added, "Especially, given recent expansions of domestic representative beach radioactivity survey points by the Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries, demand for SALT-100 is expected to increase further."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.