• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.51 no.2
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• pp.402-409
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• 2019

When a loss of coolant accident (LOCA) occurs in a nuclear power plant, accident scenarios which can prevent core damage are defined based on break size. Current probabilistic safety assessment evaluates that core damage can be prevented under small-break LOCA (SBLOCA) and steam generator tube rupture (SGTR) with rapid cool down (RCD) strategy when all safety injection systems are unavailable. However, previous research has pointed out a limitation of RCD in terms of initiation time. Therefore, RCD success criteria estimation based on allowable coping time under a SBLOCA or SGTR when all safety injection systems are unavailable was performed based on time-line and thermal-hydraulic analyses. The time line analysis assumed a single emergency operating procedure flow, and the thermal hydraulic analysis utilized MARS-KS code with variables of break size, cooling rate, and operator allowable time. Results show while RCD is possible under SGTR, it is impossible under SBLOCA at the APR1400's current cooling rate limitation of 55 K/hr. A success criteria map for RCD under SBLOCA is suggested without cooling rate limitation.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Safety
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• v.37 no.2
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• pp.43-53
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• 2022

This paper describes an attempt to improve and optimize the operational safety level of a domestic research reactor by conducting a probabilistic safety assessment (PSA) under full-power operating conditions. The PSA was undertaken to assess the level of safety at an operating research reactor in Korea, to evaluate whether it is probabilistically safe and reliable to operate, and to obtain insights regarding the requisite procedural and design improvements for achieving safer operation. The technical objectives were to use the PSA to identify the accident sequences leading to core damage, and to conduct sensitivity analyses based thereon to derive insights regarding potential design and procedural improvements. Based on the dominant accident sequences identified by the PSA, eight types of sensitivity analysis were performed, and relevant insights for achieving safer operation were derived. When these insights were applied to the reactor design and operating procedure, the risk was found to be reduced by approximately ten times, and the safety was significantly improved. The results demonstrate that the PSA methodology is very effective for improving reactor safety in the full-power operating phase. In particular, it is a highly suitable approach for identifying the deficiencies of a reactor operating at full power, and for improving the reactor safety by overcoming those deficiencies.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.54 no.9
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• pp.3324-3335
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• 2022

Several countries show interest in the Generation-IV power reactor innovative small module (PRISM), including: Canada, Japan, Korea, Saudi Arabia and the United Kingdom. Generation IV International Forum (GIF) has recommended the utilizing of probabilistic safety assessment (PSA) in evaluating the safety of Generation-IV reactors. This paper reviews the PSA performed for PRISM using SAPHIRE 7.27 code. This work shows that the core damage frequency (CDF) of PRISM for a single module is estimated by 8.5E-8/year which is lower than the Generation-IV target that is 1E-6 core damage per year. The social risk of PRISM (likelihood of latent cancer fatality) with evacuation is estimated by 9.0E-12/year which is much lower than the basic safety objective (BSO) that is 1E-7/year. The social risk without evacuation is estimated by 1.2E- 11/year which is also much lower than the BSO. For the individual risk (likelihood of prompt fatality), it is concluded that it can be considered negligible with evacuation (1.0E-13/year). Assuming no evacuation, the individual risk is 2.7E-10/year which is again much lower than the BSO. In comparison with other PSAs performed for similar sodium fast reactors (SFRs), it shows that PRISM concept has the lowest CDF.

• Proceedings of the Korean Nuclear Society Conference
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• 1998.05a
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• pp.899-905
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• 1998

The analysis priority makings the recommendation to reduce the total core damage frequency (CDF) of Wolsong nuclear Power Plant nits 2/3/4 was Performed in this paper. In order to derive the recommendation, the sensitivity analysis of CDF on which major contributors effect m performed based on the accident quantification results during Level 1 Probabilistic safety assessment (PSA). Priorities were ranked in tile way that compares the CDF reduction rate with efforts required to implement those recommendations using risk matrix

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.40 no.4
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• pp.285-298
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• 2008

This study evaluates the performance of a coil spring-viscous damper system for the vibration and seismic isolation of an Emergency Diesel Generator (EDG) by measuring its operational vibration and seismic responses. The vibration performance of a coil spring-viscous damper system was evaluated by the vibration measurements for an identical EDG set with different base systems - one with an anchor bolt system and the other with a coil spring-viscous damper system. The seismic performance of the coil spring-viscous damper system was evaluated by seismic tests with a scaled model of a base-isolated EDG on a shaking table. The effects of EDG base isolation on the fragility curve and core damage frequency in a nuclear power plant were also investigated through a case study.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.30 no.6
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• pp.557-569
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• 2022

Vibration-based structural health monitoring (SHM) is crucial for the dynamic maintenance of civil building structures to protect property security and the lives of the public. Analyzing these vibrations with modern artificial intelligence and deep learning (DL) methods is a new trend. This paper proposed an unsupervised deep learning method based on a convolutional autoencoder (CAE), which can overcome the limitations of conventional supervised deep learning. With the convolutional core applied to the DL network, the method can extract features self-adaptively and efficiently. The effectiveness of the method in detecting damage is then tested using a benchmark model. Thereafter, this method is used to detect damage and instant disaster events in a rubber bearing-isolated gymnasium structure. The results indicate that the method enables the CAE network to learn the intact vibrations, so as to distinguish between different damage states of the benchmark model, and the outcome meets the high-dimensional data distribution characteristics visualized by the t-SNE method. Besides, the CAE-based network trained with daily vibrations of the isolating layer in the gymnasium can precisely recover newly collected vibration and detect the occurrence of the ground motion. The proposed method is effective at identifying nonlinear variations in the dynamic responses and has the potential to be used for structural condition assessment and safety warning.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.44 no.1
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• pp.105-117
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• 2022

Impact resistance efficiency of the newly designed sandwich beam with a laterally arched core as bio-inspired by the woodpecker is numerically investigated. The principal components of the beam comprise a dual-core system sandwiched by the top and bottom laminated CFRP skins. Different materials, including hot melt adhesive, high-density polyethylene (HDPE), acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS), epoxy resin (EPON862), aluminum (Al6061), and mild carbon steel (AISI1018), are considered for the side-arched core layer of the beam for impact efficiency assessment. The aluminum honeycomb takes the role of the second core. Contact force, stress, damage formation, and impact energy for beams equipped with different materials are examined. A diversity in performance superiority is noticed in each of these indicators for different core materials. Therefore, for overall performance appraisal, the impact resistance efficiency index, which covers several chief impact performance parameters, of each sandwich beam is computed and compared. The impact resistance efficiency index of the structure equipped with the AISI1018 core is found to be the highest, about 3-10 times greater than other specimens, thus demonstrating its efficacy as the optimal material for the bio-inspired dual-core sandwich beam system.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Safety
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• v.28 no.3
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• pp.123-128
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• 2013

The Advanced Power Reactor Plus(APR+), which is a GEN III+ reactor based on the APR1400, is being developed in Korea. In order to enhance the safety of the APR+, a passive auxiliary feedwater system(PAFS) has been adopted in the APR+. The PAFS replaces the conventional active auxiliary feedwater system(AFWS) by introducing a natural driving force mechanism while maintaining the system function of cooling the primary side and removing the decay heat. As the PAFS completely replaces the conventional AFWS, it is required to verify the cooling capacity of PAFS for the core damage frequency(CDF) evaluation. For this reason, this paper discusses the cooling performance of the PAFS during transient accidents. The test case and scenarios were picked from the result of the sensitivity analysis in APR+ Probabilistic Safety Assessment(PSA). The analysis was performed by the best estimate thermal-hydraulic code, RELAP5/.MOD3.3. This study shows that the plant maintains the stable state without the core damages under the given test scenarios. The results of PSA considering this analysis' results shows that the CDF values are decreased. The analysis results can be used for more realistic and accurate performance of a PSA.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Pressure Vessels and Piping
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• v.9 no.1
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• pp.15-19
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• 2013

The auxiliary feedwater is an important to remove the heat from the reactor core when the main feedwater system is unavailable. In most initiating events in Probabilistic Safety Assessment(PSA), the operaton of this system is required to mitigate the accidents. For one of domestic nuclear power plants, a design change of a turbine-driven auxiliary feedwater pump(TD-AFWP), pipe, and valves in the auxiliary system is implemented due to the aging related deterioration by long time operation. This change includes the replacement of the TD-AFWP, the relocation of some valves for improving the system availability, a new cross-tie line, and the installation of manual valves for maintenance. The design modification affects the PSA because the system is critical to mitigate the accidents. In this paper, the safety effect of the change of the auxiliary feedwater system is assessed with regard to the PSA view point. The results demonstrate that this change can supply the auxiliary feedwater from the TD-AFWP in the accident with the motor-driven auxiliary feedwater pump(MD-AFWP) unavailable due to test or maintenance. In addition, the change of MOV's normal position from "close" to "open" can deliver the water to steam generator in the loss of offsite power(LOOP) event. Therefore, it is confirmed that the design change of the auxiliary feedwater system reduces the total core damage frequency(CDF).

• Journal of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea
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• v.25 no.2
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• pp.53-58
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• 2021

Nuclear power plant's safety against seismic events is evaluated as risk values by probabilistic seismic safety assessment. The risk values vary by the seismic failure correlation between the structures, systems, and components (SSCs). However, most probabilistic seismic safety assessments idealized the seismic failure correlation between the SSCs as entirely dependent or independent. Such a consideration results in an inaccurate assessment result not reflecting real physical phenomenon. A nuclear power plant's seismic risk should be calculated with the appropriate seismic failure correlation coefficient between the SSCs for a reasonable outcome. An accident scenario that has an enormous impact on a nuclear power plant's seismic risk was selected. Moreover, the probabilistic seismic response analyses of a nuclear power plant were performed to derive appropriate seismic failure correlations between SSCs. Based on the analysis results, the seismic failure correlation coefficient between SSCs was derived, and the seismic fragility curve and core damage frequency of the loss of essential power event were calculated. Results were compared with the seismic fragility and core damage frequency of assuming the seismic failure correlations between SSCs were independent and entirely dependent.