Joonhong Ahn

Professor Ahn teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in radioactive waste management and nuclear fuel cycle. The courses cover various aspects of radioactive waste management, including high-level radioactive waste disposal into deep geologic formations, the nuclear fuel cycle, and the environmental impact of nuclear power utilization. His research interests involve mathematical analyses of radionuclide transport in heterogeneous geologic formations and radionuclide release from man-made waste disposal systems, integrating these into an overall performance assessment model, and analyzing the nature of uncertainty incorporated in long-term assessments for radioactive waste disposal. He has been actively conducting research also in the fields of nuclear power utilization in Asia-Pacific region and Science-Technology-Society (STS) interaction in the back-end of fuel cycle.

Selected Publications:

Liu, X., J. Ahn, and F. Hirano, Conditions for criticality by uranium deposition in water-saturated geological formations. Journal of Nuclear Science and Technology, 2014. Link

Orucoglu, E., B. P. van den Akker, and J. Ahn, Effects of depth on transport of 129I in crystalline rock. Annals of Nuclear Energy 73, 304–316, 2014. Link.

Ahn, J., Roles and Effects of Pyroprocessing for Spent Nuclear Fuel Management in South Korea, Progress in Nuclear Energy, 75, 49--62, 2014. Link.

van den Akker, B.P., and J. Ahn, 1-D modeling of radionuclide transport via heterogeneous geological formations for arbitrary length decay chains using numerical inversion of Laplace transforms, Annals of Nuclear Energy, 63, 763–773, 2014. Link.

Borrelli, R.A., O. Thivent, J. Ahn, Parametric studies on confinement of radionuclides in the excavated damaged zone due to bentonite type and temperature change, Physics and Chemistry of the Earth, 65, 32–41, 2013. Link.

van den Akker , B. P., and J. Ahn, Performance Assessment for Geological Disposal of Graphite Waste Containing TRISO Particles, Nuclear Technology, 181, 408-426, 2013. Link.

Blandford, E. D., and J. Ahn, Examining the Nuclear Accident at Fukushima Daiichi, Elements, 8(3), 189-194, 2012.Link.

Craplet, R., and J. Ahn, Mathematical Modeling and Its Applications for Mass Flow in Nuclear Fuel Cycle, Nuclear Technology, 177(3), 314—335, 2012. Link.

Murakami, H., and J. Ahn, Development of Compartment Models with Markov-Chain Processes for Radionuclide Transport in Repository Region, Annals of Nuclear Energy, 38, 511–519, 2011. Link.

Yoon, J., and J. Ahn, A Systems Assessment for the Korean Advanced Nuclear Fuel Cycle Concept From the Perspective of Radiological Impact, Nuclear Engineering and Technology, 42(1), 17-36, February 2010 (invited).Link.

Fowler, T. K., and J. Ahn, Toward On-Site Closed Nuclear Cycles Not Requiring Deep Burial of Waste, Journal of Fusion Energy, 29, 188-195, 2010. Link.