• Journal of Hydrogen and New Energy
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• v.33 no.4
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• pp.383-390
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• 2022

Appropriate explosion proof electrical equipment should be installed in hazardous areas. In areas where hydrogen is handled, explosion proof electrical equipment adjacent to the hydrogen handing facility must be reviewed for selection of gas group IIC (or IIB+H₂) equipment. When selecting explosion proof electrical equipment for the flammable substance handling facility in areas where hydrogen and flammable substance are handled, the method to avoid gas group IIC (or IIB+H₂) equipment has been suggested by using the operating pressure of the hydrogen handling facility. When the operating pressure of the outdoor hydrogen handling facility is 1.065 MPa or less, it has been confirmed that there is no need to install gas group IIC (or IIB+H₂) equipment for the flammable substance handling facility adjacent to the hydrogen handling facility. And the method of selecting explosion proof electrical equipment for the flammable substance handling facility has been suggested as a flowchart, so it will be able to be utilized when selecting appropriate explosion proof electrical equipment.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.46 no.4
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• pp.489-500
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• 2014

In this study, remote handling strategies for a large-scale argon cell facility were considered. The suggested strategies were evaluated by several types of field test. The teleoperation tasks were performed using a developed remote handling system, which enabled traveling over entire cell area using a bridge transport system. Each arm of the system had six DOFs (degrees of freedom), and the bridge transport system had four DOFs. However, despite the dexterous manipulators and redundant monitoring system, many operators, including professionals, experienced difficulties in operating the remote handling system. This was because of the lack of a strategy for handling the installed camera system, and the difficulty in recognizing the gripper pose, which might fall outside the FOV (field of vision) of the system during teleoperation. Hence, in this paper, several considerations for the remote handling tasks performed in the target facility were discussed, and the tasks were analyzed based on ergonomic factors such as the workload. Toward the development of a successful operation strategy, several ergonomic issues, such as active/passive view of the remote handling system, eye/hand alignment, and FOV were considered. Furthermore, using the method for classifying remote handling tasks, several unit tasks were defined and evaluated.

• Journal of the Ergonomics Society of Korea
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• v.32 no.1
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• pp.17-26
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• 2013

Objective: The aim of this study is ergonomic analysis of tele-operation tasks using modified remote handling devices dedicated to the cell of PRIDE(PyRoprocess Integrated inactive DEmonstration facility) in KAERI(Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute). Background: Tele-operation manipulators of the PRIDE are applied to perform the remote handling and management of pyroprocessing facilities. Generally, these kinds of systems are composed of master-slave system and its peripherals installed along a wall or ceiling of the cell, and the manipulators transmit the user's own motion to grippers directly. However, a user convenience and intuitiveness while operating the manipulators have not been fully considered in research fields. Method: This study tries to analyze the ergonomic performance of remote handling manipulators in the developed cell facility. It was included that the analysis of operator's capability for his/her own motion range of upper arm while manipulating the MSM, considerations of its manipulation margin and related tool modifications to improve the remote handling performance. Conclusion: The test results of several remote handling tasks performed in PRIDE are represented, and adequate operation strategies for the tele-operation system of hot-cell type facilities are proposed. Application: The knowledge represented in this study can be utilized to improve a tele-operation system operated in a large-scale hot-cell system.

• Safety and Health at Work
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• v.11 no.1
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• pp.109-117
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• 2020

Background: Ammonia and hydrogen sulfide are harmful gases generated during aerobic/anaerobic bacterial decomposition of livestock manure. We evaluated ammonia and hydrogen sulfide concentrations generated from workplaces at livestock farms and determined environmental factors influencing the gas concentrations. Methods: Five commercial swine farms and five poultry farms were selected for monitoring. Real-time monitors were used to measure the ammonia and hydrogen sulfide concentrations and environmental conditions during the manure-handling processes. Monitoring was conducted in the manure storage facility and composting facility. Information on the farm conditions was also collected through interview and walk-through survey. Results: The ammonia concentrations were significantly higher at the swine composting facilities (9.5-43.2 ppm) than at other manure-handling facilities at the swine and poultry farms, and high concentrations of hydrogen sulfide were identified during the manure agitation and mixing process at the swine manure storage facilities (6.9-19.5 ppm). At the poultry manure-handling facilities, the ammonia concentration was higher during the manure-handling processes (2.6-57.9 ppm), and very low hydrogen sulfide concentrations (0-3.4 ppm) were detected. The air temperature and relative humidity, volume of the facility, duration of manure storage, and the number of animals influenced the gas concentrations. Conclusion: A high level of hazardous gases was generated during manure handling, and some levels increased up to risk levels that can threaten workers' health and safety. Some of the farm operational factors were also found to influence the gas levels. By controlling and improving these factors, it would be possible to protect workers' safety and health from occupational risks.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.55 no.1
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• pp.378-390
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• 2023

The SPES (Selective Production of Exotic Species) facility, currently under development at Legnaro National Laboratories of INFN, aims at the production of intense RIB (Radioactive Ion Beams) employing the Isotope Separation On-Line (ISOL) technique for interdisciplinary research. The radioactive isotopes of interest are produced by the interaction of a multi-foil uranium carbide target with a 40 MeV 200 μA proton beam generated by a cyclotron proton driver. The Target Ion Source (TIS) is the core of the SPES project, here the radioactive nuclei, mainly neutron-rich isotopes, are stopped, extracted, ionized, separated, accelerated and delivered to specific experimental areas. Due to efficiency reasons, the TIS unit needs to be replaced periodically during operation. In this highly radioactive environment, the employment of autonomous systems allows the manipulation, transport, and storage of the TIS unit without the need for human intervention. A dedicated remote handling infrastructure is therefore under development to fulfill the functional and safety requirement of the project. This contribution describes the layout of the SPES target area, where all the remote handling systems operate to grant the smooth operation of the facility avoiding personnel exposure to a high dose rate or contamination issues.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.50 no.3
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• pp.478-487
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• 2018

Pyroprocessing technology has been regarded as a promising solution for recycling spent fuel in nuclear power plants. The Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute has been studying the current status of equipment and facilities for pyroprocessing and found that existing facilities are manually operated; therefore, their applications have been limited to laboratory scale because of low productivity and safety concerns. To extend the pyroprocessing technology to a commercial scale, the facility, including all the processing equipment and the material-handling devices, should be enhanced in view of automation. In an automated pyroprocessing facility, a supervised control system is needed to handle and manage material flow and associated operations. This article provides a preliminary design of the supervising system for pyroprocessing. In particular, a manufacturing execution system intended for an automated pyroprocessing facility, named Pyroprocessing Execution System, is proposed, by which the overall production process is automated via systematic collaboration with a planning system and a control system. Moreover, a simulation-based prototype system is presented to illustrate the operability of the proposed Pyroprocessing Execution System, and a simulation study to demonstrate the interoperability of the material-handling equipment with processing equipment is also provided.

• 제어로봇시스템학회:학술대회논문집
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• 1993.10a
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• pp.821-824
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• 1993

In hazardous conditions, where entry of human operators is restricted, such as high radiation regions in nuclear facilities, a lot of remote inspections and remote handling tasks must be performed. In this study, the stereo imaging system has been developed and the remote handling technique, has been studied to enhance the efficiency of tele-operation. The nozzle dam handling robot is one of the most important robots applied to nuclear facility. The robot will be equipped with the developed stereo imaging system. The stereo imaging system will outstandingly improve the tele installing/removal tasks for nozzle dam.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Gas
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• v.21 no.4
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• pp.21-29
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• 2017

Small and medium industry facility handling hazardous chemicals was inspected and summarized. The inspection results were summarized in four categories such as hazards to process, storage, workers, and the others. The result was applied to further improvement of the facility. In conclusion, the industry intented to satisfy minimum requirement of regulation and they do not pay attention to keep maintaining the facility in integrity condition.

• Journal of Korean Society of Industrial and Systems Engineering
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• v.32 no.4
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• pp.93-100
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• 2009

This paper addresses the facility layout problem in multi-bay environments, where the bays are connected at one or both ends by an inter-bay material handling system. In most previous studies, the main concern is to allocate facilities or departments to the bays whose widths are fixed. In this research, we suggest the efficient models that provide the optimal layout solution under flexible bay width environments. We also suggest a mathematical model that provides the optimal solution using two-way facility allocation approach instead of one-way allocation technique. This paper also shows the approach of TABU search to the assignment and layout design of the departments. The results generated from TABU search are compared to the result from the mathematical model. Models are developed using mixed integer programming for various test problems and solved by CPLEX.

• Korean Journal of Hazardous Materials
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• v.3 no.1
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• pp.59-64
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• 2015

Semiconductor industry has large number of chemical inventory and is easily exposed to chemical release incidents. Toxic release is one of the most interested area in evaluating consequence to the vicinity of industry facilities handling hazardous materials. Hydrofluoric acid is one of the typical chemical used in semiconductor facility and is selected and toxic release is evaluated to assess the risk impacted to its off-site. Accident scenarios were listed using process safety information. The scenarios having effect to the off-site were selected and assessed further according to guideline provided by Korea government. Worst case and alternative scenarios including other interested scenarios were evaluated using ALOHA. Each evaluated scenario was assessed further considering countermeasures. The results showed that the facility handling hydroflooric acid is safe enough and needed no further protections at the moment.