• Journal of the Korean Society of Safety
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• v.31 no.1
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• pp.111-117
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• 2016

Natural disasters can cause major accidents in chemical facilities where they can lead to the release of hazardous materials which in turn can result in fires, explosions or toxic dispersion. Technological disasters triggered by natural disasters are referred to as NaTech(Natural Disaster Triggered Technological Disaster). These trends increase the probability of catastrophic future disasters and the potential for mass human exposure to hazardous materials released during disasters. In the present study, we proposed some methods for effective disaster management by conducting case study of major NaTech. First, establishing information sharing system of chemical accident for stakeholders and improving disaster manuals and standards of central and local government and co-operation support system. Second, activating information service of emergency planning and community right to know. Third, improving the integrated chemical accident database including NaTech accidents.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• v.57 no.5
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• pp.637-651
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• 2019

In the event of a major accident such as an explosion in a refinery or a petrochemical plant, it has caused a serious loss of life and property and has had a great impact on the insurance market. In the case of catastrophic incidents occurring in process industries such as refinery and petrochemical plants, only the proximate causes of loss have been drawn and studied from inspectors or claims adjustors responsible for claims of property insurers, incident cause investigators, and national forensic service workers. However, it has not been done well for conducting root cause analysis (RCA) and identifying the factors that contributed to the failure and establishing preventive measures before leading to chemical plant's catastrophic incidents. In this study, the criteria of warning signs on CCPS catastrophic incident waning sign self-assessment tool which was derived through the RCA method and the contribution factor analysis method using the swiss cheese model principle has been reviewed first. Secondly, in order to determine the major incident warning signs in an actual chemical plant, 614 recommendations which have been issued during last the 17 years by loss control engineers of global reinsurers were analyzed. Finally, in order to facilitate the assessment index for catastrophic incident warning signs, the criteria for the catastrophic incident warning sign index at chemical plants were grouped by type and classified into upper category and lower category. Then, a catastrophic incident warning sign index for a chemical plant was developed using the weighted values of each category derived by applying the analytic hierarchy process (pairwise comparison method) through a questionnaire answered by relevant experts of the chemical plant. It is expected that the final 'assessment index for catastrophic incident warning signs' can be utilized by the refinery and petrochemical plant's internal as well as external auditors to assess vulnerability levels related to incident warning signs, and identify the elements of incident warning signs that need to be tracked and managed to prevent the occurrence of serious incidents in the future.

• Journal of Digital Contents Society
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• v.19 no.4
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• pp.673-683
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• 2018

The accident of Sewol Ferry is a disaster that provoked serious mental shock to the Korean people way beyond the level of generally-perceived catastrophic aftermaths. The purpose of this study is to examine the relationship between vicarious disaster experiences through media and post-traumatic stress(PTSD) symptoms of media users related to the accident. The responses of 417 people consisted of college, middle and high school students, and adults in a metropolitan area were collected for 12 days from the April 28, 2014 right after the accident. The results showed that the level of PTSD of social media users were higher than that of traditional media (newspapers or TV news) users on the accident. Also, the amount of use of disaster news information and social media revealed positive correlations with PTSD. Implications of this study are to demonstrate possible mechanisms of psychological trauma mediated by media on a disaster and its empirical data and to facilitate further research.

• Journal of Korean Institute of Industrial Engineers
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• v.16 no.2
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• pp.135-147
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• 1990

A nuclear power plant can be viewed as a large complex man-machine system where high system reliability is obtained by ensuring that sub-systems are designed to operate at a very high level of performance. The chance of severe accident involving at least partial core-melt is very low but once it happens the consequence is very catastrophic. The prediction of risk in low probability, high-risk incidents must be examined in the contest of general engineering knowledge and operational experience. Engineering knowledge forms part of the prior information that must be quantified and then updated by statistical evidence gathered from operational experience. Recently, Bayesian procedures have been used to estimate rate of accident and to predict future risks. The Bayesian procedure has advantages in that it efficiently incorporates experts opinions and, if properly applied, it adaptively updates the model parameters such as the rate or probability of accidents. But at the same time it has the disadvantages of computational complexity. The predictive distribution for the time to next incident can not always be expected to end up with a nice closed form even with conjugate priors. Thus we often encounter a numerical integration problem with high dimensions to obtain a predictive distribution, which is practically unsolvable for a model that involves many parameters. In order to circumvent this difficulty, we propose a method of approximation that essentially breaks down a problem involving many integrations into several repetitive steps so that each step involves only a small number of integrations.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Safety
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• v.14 no.4
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• pp.120-125
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• 1999

This study evaluated the effect of the accidents caused by fire, explosion, and toxic gas release by using SuperChems, quantitative hazardous material release modeling software, which estimates the potential area of damage. According to the loss severity, the appropriate risk management principles can be applied. Risk management is divided into the two methods which are risk control and risk financing. Risk control includes risk avoidance, risk spreading and diversification, and risk reduction. Risk financing includes risk retention and risk transfer. The results of this study can help the related company determine the appropriate reserve fund and the amount to be insured against the third party losses according to the estimated loss severity.

• Sleep Medicine and Psychophysiology
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• v.10 no.2
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• pp.77-83
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• 2003

Industrialization has brought great changes in human life. Human sleep patterns have also been much influenced by industrialization and the invention of electricity and the light bulb. Insufficient sleep is a common problem with considerable health, social, and economical impacts on modern society. In this review, we will outline the present state of insufficient sleep in our society, especially catastrophic accidents related with chronic sleep insufficiency. We will discuss the effect of sleep deprivation on human performance by reviewing the literature. We will also emphasize the role of sleep specialists in this issue and highlight the areas in which the principles of sleep medicine can constructively improve public policy and public health.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Railway
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• v.6 no.3
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• pp.156-162
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• 2003

Due to almost all tracks of new Kyoungbu high-speed lines(HSL) consisting of bridges and tunnels, HSR operational safety management is very important factor for passenger safety and preventing catastrophic event. Especially, it is important to approach the scene of the accident and assist in saving lives as soon as possible under emergency conditions. Therefore it is essential to prepare access methods and available resources in advance in order to support emergency correspodances promptly and effectively. This paper persents an application of geographical information system(GIS) for developing emergency management system as well as batabase system on tracks and facilities, electric/communication equipment and safety equipment required to support emergencies. The on-site information on the proximity of HSL is expressed on the numerical map, which can be helpful to call external supports such as medical service, local authorities, police offices, fire brigades, and etc. for the emergency situations.

• Journal of Computational Design and Engineering
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• v.2 no.2
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• pp.119-127
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• 2015

In the case of a high-valuable asset, the Operation and Maintenance (O&M) phase requires heavy charges and more efforts than the installation (construction) phase, because it has long usage life and any accident of an asset during this period causes catastrophic damage to an industry. Recently, with the advent of emerging Information Communication Technologies (ICTs), we can get the visibility of asset status information during its usage period. It gives us new challenging issues for improving the efficiency of asset operations. One issue is to implement the Condition-Based Maintenance (CBM) approach that makes a diagnosis of the asset status based on wire or wireless monitored data, predicts the assets abnormality, and executes suitable maintenance actions such as repair and replacement before serious problems happen. In this study, we have addressed several aspects of CBM approach: definition, related international standards, procedure, and techniques with the introduction of some relevant case studies that we have carried out.

• The Transactions of the Korean Institute of Electrical Engineers B
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• v.53 no.11
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• pp.641-646
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• 2004

Computer system is widely used for controlling systems such as nuclear power plant, train speed control and air plane control. The failure of computerized controlling system can be arrived to catastrophic accident, so the safety ensuring of computerized controlling system is very important. This paper shows how to improve and ensure the safety of computerized systems. In this paper, we show how to identify, analyze hazards of the computerized system and to demonstrate risk of the system. Finally, we show how to adopt safety techniques for improving safety of the target system.

• Journal of Navigation and Port Research
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• v.36 no.7
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• pp.577-583
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• 2012

The transport of radioactive material by sea is strictly governed by the international regulatory regime which is established by both IAEA and IMO. Nonetheless, although the current regime is well established, due to catastrophic results of potential accident, it is essential to keep identifying areas where further enhancement is necessary. This paper reviews the current regulatory regime governing sea transport, such as IAEA Regulations, IMDG Code and INF Code. Then, specific requirements of the INF Code are analyzed for the purpose of identifying areas where improvement is necessary from the perspective of ships. Through this analysis, this paper identifies areas to be improved and proposes to improve the INF Code which can supplement the current regulatory regime for sea transport of radioactive material.