• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.55 no.5
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• pp.1814-1820
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• 2023

Safety classification of systems, structures, and components (SSC) is an essential activity for nuclear reactor design and operation. The current regulatory trend is to require risk-informed safety classification that considers first, the severity, but also the frequency of SSC failures. While safety classification for nuclear power plants is covered in many regulatory and scientific publications, research reactors received less attention. Research reactors are typically of lower power but, at the same time, are less standardized i.e., have more variability in the design, operational modes, and operating conditions. This makes them more challenging when considering safety classification. This work presents the Integrated Risk-Informed Safety Classification (IRISC) procedure which is a novel extension of the IAEA recommended process with dedicated probabilistic treatment of research reactor designs. The article provides the details of probabilistic analysis performed within safety classification process to a degree that is often missing in most literature on the topic. The article presents insight from the implementation of the procedure in the safety classification for the MARIA Research Reactor operated by the National Center for Nuclear Research in Poland.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.55 no.6
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• pp.2047-2052
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• 2023

Risk-informed approach has been widely applied in the safety design, regulation, and operation of nuclear reactors. It has been commonly accepted that risk-informed design optimization should be used in the innovative reactor designs to make nuclear system highly safe and reliable. In spite of the risk-informed approach has been used in some advanced nuclear reactors designs, such as Westinghouse IRIS, Gen-IV sodium fast reactors and lead-based fast reactors, the process of risk-informed design of nuclear reactors is hardly to carry out when passive system reliability should be integrated in the framework. A practical method for new passive safety reactors based on probabilistic safety assessment (PSA) and passive system reliability analyze linking is proposed in this paper. New three-dimension frequency-consequence curve based on risk concept with three variables is used in this method. The proposed method has been applied to the determination optimization of design options selection in a 10 MWth lead-based research reactor(LR) to obtain one optimized system design in conceptual design stage, using the integrated reliability and probabilistic safety assessment program RiskA, and the computation resources and time consumption in this process was demonstrated reasonable and acceptable.

• Proceedings of the Korean Nuclear Society Conference
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• 2004.10a
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• pp.499-500
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• 2004

• Proceedings of the Korean Nuclear Society Conference
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• 2005.05a
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• pp.793-794
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• 2005

• Proceedings of the Korean Nuclear Society Conference
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• 2005.10a
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• pp.612-613
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• 2005

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.34 no.4
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• pp.331-343
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• 2002

We performed an importance analysis of In-Service Testing (157) components for Ulchin Unit 3 using the integrated evaluation method for categorizing component safety significance developed in this study. The developed method is basically aimed at having a PSA expert perform an importance analysis using PSA and its related information. The importance analysis using the developed method is initiated by ranking the component importance using quantitative PSA information. The importance analysis of the IST components not modeled in the PSA is performed through the engineering judgment, based on the expertise of PSA, and the quantitative and qualitative information for the 157 components. The PSA scope for importance analysis includes not only Level 1 and 2 internal PSA but also Level 1 external and shutdown/low power operation PSA. The importance analysis results of valves show that 167 (26.55%) of the 629 IST valves are HSSCs and 462 (73.45%) are LSSCs. Those of pumps also show that 28 (70%)of the 40157 pumps are HSSCs and 12 (30%) are LSSCs.

• Journal of the Ergonomics Society of Korea
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• v.30 no.1
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• pp.55-64
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• 2011

Objective: The aim of this paper is to introduce the activities and research trends of human reliability analysis including brief summary about contents and methods of the analysis. Background: Various approaches and methods have been suggested and used to assess human reliability in field of risk assessment of nuclear power plants. However, it has noticed that there is high uncertainty in human reliability analysis which results in a major bottleneck for risk-informed activities of nuclear power plants. Method: First and second generation methods of human reliability analysis are reviewed and a few representative methods are discussed from the risk assessment perspective. The strength and weakness of each method is also examined from the viewpoint of reliability analyst as a user. In addition, new research trends in this field are briefly summarized. Results: Human reliability analysis has become an important tool to support not only risk assessment but also system design of a centralized complex system. Conclusion: Human reliability analysis should be improved by active cooperation with researchers in field of human factors. Application: The trends of human reliability analysis explained in this paper will help researchers to find interest topics to which they could contribute.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Safety
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• v.30 no.5
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• pp.123-130
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• 2015

Wolsong Unit 2,3&4 has been performing a containment integrity test during power operation. This test could impact to the safe operation during test. If an accident occurs during pressure dropping phase, reactor trip can be delayed because of the increased pressure difference which causes a time delay to reach the trip set-point. On the contrary, if an accident occurs during pressure increasing phase, reactor trip could be accelerated because the pressure difference to the trip set-point decrease. Point Lepreau nuclear power plant, which installed GCLMS (Gross Containment Leakage Monitoring System) in 1990, has discontinued the test since 1992 due to these adverse effects. Therefore, we evaluated the risk to obviate the GCLMS test based on PWR's ILRT (Integrated Leak Rate Test) extension methodologies. The results demonstrate that risk increase rate is not high in case of performing only ILRT test at every 5 years instead of doing GCLMS test at every 1.5 years. In addition, the result shows that GCLMS test can be removed on a risk-informed perspective since risk increasement is in acceptable area of regulatory acceptance criteria.

• International conference on construction engineering and project management
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• 2022.06a
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• pp.721-727
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• 2022

Construction safety remains an ongoing concern, and project managers have been increasingly forced to cope with myriad uncertainties related to human operations on construction sites and the lack of a skilled workforce in hazardous circumstances. Various construction fatality monitoring systems have been widely proposed as alternatives to overcome these difficulties and to improve safety management performance. In this study, we propose an intelligent, automatic control system that can proactively protect workers using both the analysis of big data of past safety accidents, as well as the real-time detection of worker non-compliance in using personal protective equipment (PPE) on a construction site. These data are obtained using computer vision technology and data analytics, which are integrated and reinforced by lessons learned from the analysis of big data of safety accidents that occurred in the last 10 years. The system offers data-informed recommendations for high-risk workers, and proactively eliminates the possibility of safety accidents. As an illustrative case, we selected a pilot project and applied the proposed system to workers in uncontrolled environments. Decreases in workers PPE non-compliance rates, improvements in variable compliance rates, reductions in severe fatalities through guidelines that are customized according to the worker, and accelerations in safety performance achievements are expected.

• International Journal of Reliability and Applications
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• v.4 no.4
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• pp.183-190
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• 2003

Rail breaks and derailments can cause a huge loss to rail players due to loss of service, revenue, property or even life. Maintenance has huge impact on reliability and safety of railroads. It is important to identify factors behind rail degradation and their risks associated with rail breaks and derailments. Development of mathematical models is essential for prediction and prevention of risks due to rail and wheel set damages, rail breaks and derailments. This paper addresses identification of hazard modes, estimation of probability of those hazards under operating, curve and environmental condition, probability of detection of potential hazards before happening and severity of those hazards for informed strategic decisions. Emphasis is put on optimal maintenance and operational decisions. Real life data is used for illustration.