• Environmental and Resource Economics Review
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.291-336
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• 2005

This paper investigates how oil price changes have an impact on the Korean manufacturing production activities. For this investigation, we use a structural VAR motel to estimate impulse response functions of industrial production, producer price and export price to an oil price increase over manufacturing industries. It finds that in most manufacturing industries, an oil price increase leads to decreases in industrial productions and domestic prices except energy intensive industries, but to increases in industrial export prices except non-metallic (26), computers and offic machinery (30), electronic components, radio, television and communication (32) industries. This result explains that an oil price increase makes negative impacts on the manufacturing production activities not only through demand slowdown in the domestic markets but also through supply contraction in the export markets.

• Environmental and Resource Economics Review
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• v.20 no.1
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• pp.61-98
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• 2011

This study conducts economic evaluation of alternatives for $CO_2$ reduction of thermal power plants. Two alternatives in reducing $CO_2$ emission are considered for the evaluation under the RPS(Renewable Portfolio Standard) system; one is to perform renewable energy quotas and another is to construct green thermal power plants using CCS(Carbon Capture and Sequestration). As evaluation methods, DCF(Discount Cash Flow) and ROPM(Real Options Pricing Method) are employed. At a discount rate of 7.5% applied to the Electricity Supply and Demand Plan, it is shown that green thermal power generation has economic dominance under both evaluation methods.

• Journal of Electrical Engineering and Technology
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• v.7 no.2
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• pp.178-183
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• 2012

The design of the integrated quench protection (QP) system for the high current superconducting magnet (SCM) has been fabricated and tested for the toroidal field (TF) coil system of the Korea Superconducting Tokamak Advanced Research (KSTAR) device. The QP system is capable of protecting the TF SCM, which consists of 16 identical coils serially connected with a stored energy of 495 MJ at the design operation level at 35.2 kA per turn. Given that the power supply for the TF coils can only ramp up and maintain the coil current, the design of the QP system includes two features. The first is a basic fast discharge function to protect the TF SCM by a dump resistor circuit with a 7 s time constant in case of coil quench event. The second is a slow discharge function with a time constant of 360 s for a daily TF discharge or for a stop demand from the tokamak control system. The QP system has been successfully tested up to 40 kA with a short circuit and up to 34 kA with TF SCM in the second campaign of KSTAR. This paper describes the characteristics of the TF QP systems and test results of the plasma experiment of KSTAR in 2009.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Marine Environment & Safety
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• v.27 no.6
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• pp.890-897
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• 2021

Since the enforcement of strict regulations on marine fuel oil sulfur content, demand for Low Sulfur Fuel Oil (LSFO) has been increasing. However, as LSFO properties vary greatly depending on the supply timing, region, and supplier, LSFOs can experience problems with sludge formation, blending compatibility, and stability once mixed into storage tanks. This study investigates using ultrasound cavitation effects to improve the quality of LSFOs in storage tanks. For marine gas oil (MGO), the results showed that the relative ratio of high molecular weight compounds to those of low molecular weight decreased after ultrasonic irradiation, due to cavitation-induced cracking of chemical bonds. For marine diesel oil (MDO) and blended oil, a small increase in the relative abundance of low weight molecular compounds was observed after treatment. However, no correlation between time and relative abundance was observed.

• Journal of Nuclear Fuel Cycle and Waste Technology(JNFCWT)
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• v.4 no.1
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• pp.87-93
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• 2006

Inventories, and characteristics such as dimension, fuel rod array, weight, $^{235}U$ enrichment, and discharge burnup of spent nuclear fuel (SNF) generated from existing and planed nuclear power plants based on National 2nd Basic Plan for Electric Power Demand and Supply were investigated and projected to support geological disposal system design. The historical and projected inventory by the end 2057 is expected to be 20,500 and 14,800MTU for PWR and CANDU spent nuclear fuel, respectively. The quantity of SNF with initial $^{235}U$ enrichment of 4.5 wt.% and below was shown to be 96.5% in total. Average burnup of SNF revealed $\sim36$ GWD/MTU and $\sim40$ GWD/MTU for the period of 1994-1999 and 2000-2003, respectively. It is expected that the average burnup of SNF will be $\sim45$ GWD/MTU at the end of 2000's. From the comprehensive study, it was concluded that the imaginary SNF with $16\times16$ Korean Standard Fuel Assembly, cross section of $21.4cm\times21.4cm$, length of 453cm, mass of 672 kg, initial $^{235}U$ enrichment of 4.5 wt.%, discharge burnup of 55 GWD/MTU could cover almost all SNFs to be produced by 2057.

• Environmental and Resource Economics Review
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• v.27 no.2
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• pp.261-286
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• 2018

This paper evaluated the economic feasibility of the life extension of Kori unit 1 and Wolsong unit 1 according to the types of the nuclear power plants (NPPs) and the life extension period comparing to the levelized costs of energy (LCOE) of the new NPPs, coal-fired plants (CFPs), and combined cycle gas turbine (CCGTs) which proposed in the $7^{th}$ Basic Plan for Electricity Supply and Demand. The economic feasibility of the life extension of NPPs using LCOE method is affected by the types of NPPs, lifetime extension periods, discount rate, and capacity factor. According to the analysis results, the pressurized light water reactor (PWR) is more economical than the pressurized heavy water reactor (PHWR). Comparing the economical efficiency between the life extension of NPPs and other alternatives, the operation of the PWR for 20 years is more economical than the one of new NPPs and CFPs. However, 20 years of life extension of PHWR is more economical than the CCGTs, but less economical than new NPPs and CFPs. In summary, the 20 years of life extension of the NPPs seems to be more, especially for the PWR, which is more cost effective than other generation alternatives. Therefore, the government policy of the life extension of NPPs need to be a selective approach that simultaneously considers both safety and economics rather than closing all NPPs.

• Journal of Korea Water Resources Association
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• v.52 no.5
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• pp.373-380
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• 2019

In this study, the optimum pump operation technique is suggested to decrease the damage rate of water distribution system. Pump operation system was developed to achieve the effective pump operation. Pressure sensors which can communicate with pumps are installed at the end of water distribution system. Pump operation system can control the pressure of water pump according to data sent from the pressure sensors. Therefore, water distribution system can reduce the pressure and maintain enough pressure which can supply the demand of water users. For proving effectiveness of new system, reliability model was introduced to compare the results of damage rates between the maintaining high pressure and selective pressure in water pump. Unsteady analysis was conducted with several scenarios. And the results were used to calculate the probability of pipe breakage. From the results, it was found that new pump operation system can reduce the energy usage and probability of pipe breakage by applying to pumps.

• Journal of Wetlands Research
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• v.21 no.spc
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• pp.69-79
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• 2019

In Korea, more than 60% of the whole lands are mountainous area. Since many decades ago, hydroelectric power plants have been constructed and eco-friendly energy has been produced. Hydropower can cope with the rapidly changing energy supply and demand, and produce eco-friendly energy. However, when the reservoir is built, it is often inevitable to damage the environment due to construction of large structure. In this study, the optimal reservoir operation model was developed to maximize power generation by monthly operation for long-term operation planning. The dam operation model was developed using the linear programming which is widely used in the optimal resources allocation problems. And the reservoir operation model can establish monthly operation plan for 1 year. Linear programming requires both object function and constraints to be linear. However, since the power generation equation is nonlinear, it is linearized using the Taylor Expansion technique. The optimization results were compared with the 2009-2018 historical data of five hydropower reservoirs. As a result, the total optimal generation is about 10~37% higher than the historical generation.

• Journal of Energy Engineering
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• v.23 no.4
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• pp.256-262
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• 2014

Cycle length of domestic nuclear power plants is determined by the demand-supply plan of utility company. The target cycle length is achieved by adjusting the number of feed fuel assembly and fuel enrichment. Traditionally, utility company first select the number of feed fuel assembly and then find out the fuel enrichment to achieve the special cycle length. But it is difficult to find out if this method is most economical than any other combinations of the enrichment and batch size satisfying the same cycle length. In this paper, core depletion calculation is performed to find out the optimum combination of the enrichment and batch size for given target cycle length in terms of fuel cycle cost using commercial core design code; CASMO/MASTER code. To minimize the uncertainty resulting from transition core analysis, levelized fuel cycle cost analysis was applied to the equilibrium cycle core in order to determine the optimum combination. The sensitivity study of discount rate was also carried out to analyze the levelized fuel cycle cost applicable to countries with different discount rates. From the levelized fuel cycle cost analysis results, the combination with smaller batch size and higher fuel enrichment becomes more economical as the discount rate becomes lower. On the other hand, the combination with higher batch size and lower fuel enrichment becomes more economical as the discount rate becomes higher.

• Journal of Environmental Impact Assessment
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• v.24 no.4
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• pp.317-331
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• 2015

A major barrier to the spread and vitalization of renewable energy lies in its economic infeasibility. And yet, there is a disparity in estimating the economic feasibility between supply and demand sides. Taking this into account, we calculate an appropriate level of mini-solar panel subsidies provided by the Seoul metropolitan government. More pointedly, this research investigates the receptivity and social equity of the subsidy program based on the analysis of the program's financial feasibility. The results show that the subsidies can have anticipated effects for the heavy electricity consumption group but not for the low electricity consumption group. Specifically, estimated pay-back periods for groups of 401kWh ~ 500kWh (per month) users, 201 kWh ~ 400kWh users and 101kWh ~ 200kWh were approximately 5years, 8 ~ 9 years and 12 years, respectively. This implies that differential scales of the subsidies can better contribute to reducing regressive difference between the groups and meeting the goal of social equity in regards to energy justice.