• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.55 no.3
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• pp.1167-1180
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• 2023

Due to the tightened regulatory environment since the Fukushima accident, the capacity factor of Korean nuclear power plants has been declining since 2011. To overcome this circumstance, a shift from 18-month to 24-month cycle operation is being considered in Korea. Therefore, in this study, loading patterns(LPs) for 24-month cycle operation of the Korean standard nuclear power plant(OPR-1000) are suggested and economic evaluations are performed. A single-zone LP with 89 fresh fuels was evaluated to be optimal for 24-month operation of OPR-1000 in terms of economic gain. The 24-month operation of OPR-1000 with this LP gives a profit of 7.073 million dollars per year compared to 18-month operation.

• Journal of Advanced Marine Engineering and Technology
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• v.40 no.3
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• pp.165-173
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• 2016

On March 11, 2011, a massive earthquake measuring 9.0 on the Richter scale and subsequent 10-.14 m waves struck the Fukushima Daiichi (FD) Nuclear Power Plant. The main and backup electric power was damaged preventing the cooling system from functioning. Fuel rods overheated and led to hydrogen explosions. If heat in the fuel rods is not dissipated, the nuclear fuel coating material (e.g., Zircaloy) reacts with water vapor to generate hydrogen at high temperatures. This hydrogen is released into the containment area. If the released hydrogen burns, the stability of the containment area is significantly impacted. In this study, researchers performed an explosion analysis in a high-risk explosion area, analyzing the hydrogen distribution in a containment building [1] and the effects of a hydrogen explosion on containment safety. Results indicated that a hydrogen explosion was possible throughout the containment building except the middle area. If an explosion occurs at the top of the containment building with more than 40% of the hydrogen collected or in the bottom right or left side of the of containment building, safety of the containment building could be threatened.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.45 no.5
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• pp.625-636
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• 2013

Pressing demands of economic competitiveness, the need for large-scale deployment, minimizing the need of human intervention, and experience from the past events and incidents at operating reactors have guided the evolution and innovations in reactor technologies. Indian innovative reactor 'AHWR' is a pressure-tube type natural circulation based boiling water reactor that is designed to meet such requirements, which essentially reflect the needs of next generation reactors. The reactor employs various passive features to prevent and mitigate accidental conditions, like a slightly negative void reactivity coefficient, passive poison injection to scram the reactor in event of failure of the wired shutdown systems, a large elevated pool of water as a heat sink inside the containment, passive decay heat removal based on natural circulation and passive valves, passive ECC injection, etc. It is designed to meet the fundamental safety requirements of safe shutdown, safe decay heat removal and confinement of activity with no impact in public domain, and hence, no need for emergency planning under all conceivable scenarios. This paper examines the role of the various passive safety systems in prevention and mitigation of severe plant conditions that may arise in event of multiple failures. For the purpose of demonstration of the effectiveness of its passive features, postulated scenarios on the lines of three major severe accidents in the history of nuclear power reactors are considered, namely; the Three Mile Island (TMI), Chernobyl and Fukushima accidents. Severe plant conditions along the lines of these scenarios are postulated to the extent conceivable in the reactor under consideration and analyzed using best estimate system thermal-hydraulics code RELAP5/Mod3.2. It is found that the various passive systems incorporated enable the reactor to tolerate the postulated accident conditions without causing severe plant conditions and core degradation.

• Journal of Navigation and Port Research
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• v.35 no.5
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• pp.455-462
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• 2011

The accident in the Fukushima nuclear plant caused by the Great East Japan Earthquake on March 11, 2011 is raising voices concerning over radioactive contamination losses. In particular, radioactive contamination losses threaten the safe navigation of vessels, and may impair seafarers' safety and impede the healthy growth of world economy through marine transportation. In case vessels or cargos suffer radioactive contamination losses, it will take a high cost to remove the radioactive contaminants, and in worse cases the contaminated vessels or cargos may have to be abandoned. Furthermore, if seamen are exposed to radioactivity, their treatment can be raised as a crucial issue. Nevertheless, it has not been reviewed clearly by what method and on what ground such losses should be covered in case radioactive contamination losses take place. Thus, this study purposed to review coverage for radioactive contamination losses in marine insurance as an ex post preparation for damages caused by radioactive contamination.

• The KSFM Journal of Fluid Machinery
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• v.17 no.6
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• pp.104-108
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• 2014

The recent Fukushima nuclear power plant accidents shows that the core make up at high RCS pressure condition is very important to prevent core melting. The core make up flow at high pressure condition should be driven by gravity force or passive forces because the AC-powered safety features are not available during a Station Black Out (SBO) accident. The reactor Coolant System (RCS) mass inventory is continuously decreased by releasing steam through the pressurizer safety valves after reactor trip during a SBO accident. The core will be melted down within 2~3 hours without core make up action by active or passive mode. In the new design concept of a Hybrid Safety Injection Tank (Hybrid SIT) both for low and high RCS pressure conditions, the low pressure nitrogen gas serves as a charging pressure for a LBLOCA injection mode, while the PZR high pressure steam provides an equalizing pressure for a high pressure injection mode such as a SBO accident. After the pressure equalizing process by battery driven initiation valve at a high pressure SBO condition, the Hybrid SIT injection water will be passively injected into the reactor downcomer by gravity head. The SBO simulation by MARS code show that the core makeup injection flow through the Hybrid SIT continued up to the SIT empty condition, and the core heatup is delayed as much.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Radiology
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• v.6 no.6
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• pp.435-440
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• 2012

The purpose of this study was to examine the impact of the Fukushima nuclear power plant accident of Japan in 2011 on kindergarten parents' perception about irradiated foods and radioactive-contaminated foods. This study analysed the 178 questionnaire forms out of 205 parents of 'K' and 'M' kindergarten in the region of 'J' city. The findings of the study indicated that the Japanese nuclear power plant accident exerted an influence on anxious of kindergarten parents about irradiated foods and radioactive-contaminated foods. In conclusion, The full-fledged publicity and parent education are required to improve the perception and understanding of kindergarten parents about irradiated foods and the differences between it and radioactive-contaminated foods.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.48 no.4
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• pp.881-892
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• 2016

Following the Fukushima accident and its extended station blackout, attention was brought to the importance of the spent fuel pools' (SFPs) behavior in case of a prolonged loss of the cooling system. Since then, many analytical works have been performed to estimate the timing of hypothetical fuel uncovery for various SFP types. Experimentally, however, little was done to investigate issues related to the formation of a flammable gas mixture, distribution, and stratification in the SFP building itself and to some extent assess the capability for the code to correctly predict it. This paper presents the main outcomes of the Experiments on Spent Fuel Pool (ESFP) project carried out under the auspices of Swissnuclear (Framework 2012-2013) in the PANDA facility at the Paul Scherrer Institut in Switzerland. It consists of an experimental investigation focused on hydrogen concentration build-up into a SFP building during a predefined scaled scenario for different venting positions. Tests follow a two-phase scenario. Initially steam is released to mimic the boiling of the pool followed by a helium/steam mixture release to simulate the deterioration of the oxidizing spent fuel. Results shows that while the SFP building would mainly be inerted by the presence of a high concentration of steam, the volume located below the level of the pool in adjacent rooms would maintain a high air content. The interface of the two-gas mixture presents the highest risk of flammability. Additionally, it was observed that the gas mixture could become stagnant leading locally to high hydrogen concentration while steam condenses. Overall, the experiments provide relevant information for the potentially hazardous gas distribution formed in the SFP building and hints on accident management and on eventual retrofitting measures to be implemented in the SFP building.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Systems Engineering
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• v.18 no.2
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• pp.94-107
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• 2022

Accidents prevention and mitigation is the highest priority of nuclear power plant (NPP) operation, particularly in the aftermath of the Fukushima Daiichi accident, which has reignited public anxieties and skepticism regarding nuclear energy usage. To deal with accident scenarios more effectively, operators must have ample and precise information about key safety parameters as well as their future trajectories. This work investigates the potential of machine learning in forecasting NPP response in real-time to provide an additional validation method and help reduce human error, especially in accident situations where operators are under a lot of stress. First, a base-case SGTR simulation is carried out by the best-estimate code RELAP5/MOD3.4 to confirm the validity of the model against results reported in the APR1400 Design Control Document (DCD). Then, uncertainty quantification is performed by coupling RELAP5/MOD3.4 and the statistical tool DAKOTA to generate a large enough dataset for the construction and training of neural-based machine learning (ML) models, namely LSTM, GRU, and hybrid CNN-LSTM. Finally, the accuracy and reliability of these models in forecasting system response are tested by their performance on fresh data. To facilitate and oversee the process of developing the ML models, a Systems Engineering (SE) methodology is used to ensure that the work is consistently in line with the originating mission statement and that the findings obtained at each subsequent phase are valid.

• Journal of Radiation Protection and Research
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• v.42 no.1
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• pp.42-47
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• 2017

Background: One of the most urgent issues following the accident at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant (FDNPP) was the remediation of the land, in particular, for residential area contaminated by the radioactive materials discharged. In this study, the effect of decontamination on reduction of ambient dose equivalent outdoors and indoors was evaluated. The latter is essential for residents as most individuals spend a large portion of their time indoors. Materials and Methods: From December 2012 to November 2014, thirty-seven Japanese single-family detached wooden houses were investigated before and after decontamination in evacuation zones. Outdoor and indoor dose measurements (n = 84 and 114, respectively) were collected based on in situ measurements using the NaI (Tl) scintillation surveymeter. Results and Discussion: The outdoor ambient dose equivalents [$H^*(10)_{out}$] ranged from 0.61 to $3.71{\mu}Sv\;h^{-1}$ and from 0.23 to $1.32{\mu}Sv\;h^{-1}$ before and after decontamination, respectively. The indoor ambient dose equivalents [$H^*(10)_{in}$] ranged from 0.29 to $2.53{\mu}Sv\;h^{-1}$ and from 0.16 to $1.22{\mu}Sv\;h^{-1}$ before and after decontamination, respectively. The values of reduction efficiency (RE), defined as the ratio by which the radiation dose has been reduced via decontamination, were evaluated as $0.47{\pm}0.13$, $0.51{\pm}0.13$, and $0.58{\pm}0.08$ ($average{\pm}{\sigma}$) when $H^*(10)_{out}$ < $1.0{\mu}Sv\;h^{-1}$, $1.0{\mu}Sv\;h^{-1}$ < $H^*(10)_{out}$ < $2.0{\mu}Sv\;h^{-1}$, and $2.0{\mu}Sv\;h^{-1}$ < $H^*(10)_{out}$, respectively, indicating the values of RE increased as $H^*(10)_{out}$ increased. It was found that the values of RE were $0.53{\pm}0.12$ outdoors and $0.41{\pm}0.09$ indoors, respectively, indicating RE was larger outdoors than indoors. Conclusion: Indoor dose is essential as most individuals spend a large portion of their time indoors. The difference between outdoors and indoors should be considered carefully in order to estimate residents' exposure dose before their returning home.

• Journal of Nuclear Fuel Cycle and Waste Technology(JNFCWT)
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• v.14 no.3
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• pp.201-209
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• 2016

The object of this study was to evaluate the separation distance from a temporary storage facility satisfying the dose criteria. The calculation of ambient dose rates took into account cover soil thickness, facility size, and facility type by using MCNPX code. Shielding effects of cover soil were 68.9%, 96.9% and 99.7% at 10 cm, 30 cm and 50 cm respectively. The on-ground type of storage facility had the highest ambient dose rate, followed by the semi-ground type and the underground type. The ambient dose rate did not vary with facility size (except $5{\times}5{\times}2m\;size$) due to the self-shielding of decontamination waste in temporary storage. The separation distances without cover soil for a $50{\times}50{\times}2m\;size$ facility were evaluated as 14 m (minimum radioactivity concentration), 33 m (most probably radioactivity concentration), and 57 m (maximum radioactivity concentration) for on-ground storage type, 9 m, 24 m, and 45 m for semi-underground storage type, and 6 m, 16 m, and 31 m for underground storage type.