• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.53 no.1
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• pp.121-130
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• 2021

Cascading failure is the main cause of large blackouts in electrical power systems; this paper analyzes a cascading failure in Hanbit nuclear power plant unit two (2) caused by a circuit breaker (CB) operation failure. This malfunction has been expanded to the loss of offsite power (LOOP). In this study, current practices are reviewed and then the methodologies of how to prevent cascading failures in protection power systems are introduced. An overview on the implementation of IEC61850 GOOSE messaging-based zone selective interlocking (ZSI) scheme as key solution is proposed. In consideration of ZSI blocking time, all influencing factors such as circuit breaker opening time, relay I/O response time and messages travelling time in the communication network should be taken into account. The purpose of this paper is to elaborate on the effect of cascading failure in NPP electrical power protection system and propose preventive actions for this failures. Finally, the expected advantages and challenges are elaborated.

• Journal of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea
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• v.21 no.6
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• pp.265-275
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• 2017

In order to improve the seismic performance of structures, friction pendulum system (FPS) is the most commonly used seismic isolation device in addition to lead rubber bearing (LRB) in high seismicity area. In a nuclear power plant (NPP) with a large self weight, it is necessary to install a large number of seismic isolation devices, and the position of the center of rigidity varies depending on the arrangement of the seismic isolation devices. Due to the increase in the eccentricity, which is the difference between the center of gravity of the nuclear structure and the center of stiffness of the seismic isolators, an excessive seismic response may occur which could not be considered at the design stage. Three different types of eccentricity models (CASE 1, CASE 2, and CASE 3) were used for seismic response evaluation of seismically isolated NPP due to the increase of eccentricity (0%, 5%, 10%, 15%). The analytical model of the seismic isolation system was compared using the equivalent linear model and the bilinear model. From the results of the seismic response of the seismically isolated NPP with increasing eccentricity, it can be observed that the effect of eccentricity on the seismic response for the equivalent linear model is larger than that for the bilinear model.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Systems Engineering
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• v.12 no.1
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• pp.73-87
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• 2016

Combining power generation and water production by desalination is economically advantageous. Most desalination projects use fossil fuels as an energy source, and thus contribute to increased levels of greenhouse gases. Environmental concerns have spurred researchers to find new sources of energy for desalination plants. The coupling of nuclear power production with desalination is one of the best options to achieve growth with lower environmental impact. In this paper, we will per-form a sensitivity study of coupling nuclear power to various combinations of desalination technology: {1} thermal (MSF [Multi-Stage Flashing], MED [Multi-Effect Distillation], and MED-TVC [Multi-Effect Distillation with Thermal Vapour Compression]); {2} membrane RO [Reverse Osmosis]; and {3} hybrid (MSF-RO [Multi-Stage Flashing & Reverse Osmosis] and MED-RO [Multi-Effect Distillation & Reverse Osmosis]). The Korean designed reactor plant, the APR1400 will be modeled as the energy production facility. The economical evaluation will then be executed using the computer program DEEP (Desalination Economic Evaluation Program) as developed by the IAEA. The program has capabilities to model several types of nuclear and fossil power plants, nuclear and fossil heat sources, and thermal distillation and membrane desalination technologies. The output of DEEP includes levelized water and power costs, breakdowns of cost components, energy consumption, and net saleable power for any selected option. In this study, we will examine the APR1400 coupled with a desalination power plant in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) as a prototypical example. The KSA currently has approximately 20% of the installed worldwide capacity for seawater desalination. Utilities such as power and water are constructed and run by the government. Per state practice, economic evaluation for these utilities do not consider or apply interest or carrying cost. Therefore, in this paper the evaluation results will be based on two scenarios. The first one assumes the water utility is under direct government control and in this case the interest and discount rate will be set to zero. The second scenario will assume that the water utility is controlled by a private enterprise and in this case we will consider different values of interest and discount rates (4%, 8%, & 12%).

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.53 no.3
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• pp.866-878
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• 2021

Procedures play a key role in ensuring safe operation at nuclear power plants (NPPs). Development and maintenance of a large number of procedures reflecting the best knowledge available in all relevant areas is a complex job. This paper introduces a newly developed methodology and the implemented software, called iExtractor, for the extraction of syntactic and semantic information from NPP procedures utilizing natural language processing (NLP)-based technologies. The steps of the iExtractor integrated with sets of rules and an ontology for NPPs are described in detail with examples. Case study results of the iExtractor applied to selected procedures of a U.S. commercial NPP are also introduced. It is shown that the iExtractor can provide overall comprehension of the analyzed procedures and indicate parts of procedures that need improvement. The rich information extracted from procedures could be further utilized as a basis for their enhanced management.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.56 no.6
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• pp.1989-2001
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• 2024

Artificial intelligence (AI) techniques are now being considered in the nuclear field, but application faces with the lack of actual plant data. For this reason, most previous studies on AI applications in nuclear power plants (NPPs) have relied on simulators or thermal-hydraulic codes to mimic the plants. However, it remains uncertain whether an AI model trained using a simulator can properly work in an actual NPP. To address this issue, this study suggests the use of metadata, which can give information about parameter trends. Referred to here as robust AI, this concept started with the idea that although the absolute value of a plant parameter differs between a simulator and actual NPP, the parameter trend is identical under the same scenario. Based on the proposed robust AI, this study designs an event diagnosis algorithm to classify abnormal and emergency scenarios in NPPs using prototypical learning. The algorithm was trained using a simulator referencing a Westinghouse 990 MWe reactor and then tested in different environments in Advanced Power Reactor 1400 MWe simulators. The algorithm demonstrated robustness with 100 % diagnostic accuracy (117 out of 117 scenarios). This indicates the potential of the robust AI-based algorithm to be used in actual plants.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Pressure Vessels and Piping
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• v.5 no.1
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• pp.32-37
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• 2009

The emergency diesel generator (EDG) in a nuclear power plant (NPP) shall start within 10 secondss and supply electrical power to engineered safety features within one minute and less if a loss of offsite power (LOOP), A design-basis event, or their combination occur. Each NPP has an EDG set consisting of two diesel generators for redundancy. In addition to the EDG set, an alternate Alternating Current Diesel Generator (AAC DG) is installed and shared by several units to cope with a station black out (SBO), i.e., loss of the offsite power concurrent with reactor trip and unavailability of the EDG set. The objective of this study is to analyze the failure data of emergency diesel generators reported in overseas nuclear power plants.

• Proceedings of the Korean Nuclear Society Conference
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• 1997.05a
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• pp.587-591
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• 1997

The DGs (Diesel Generators) in NPP (Nuclear Power Plant) has been used for the emergency electric power source to shut down the nuclear reactor safely in case of station blackout. The RCM (Reliability Centered Maintenance) has been applied to DGs for increasing the safety of NPP. The structured defects of DG were not remedied by the improvement of maintenance method. As the first stage of RCM, to find the structured defects, its failure modes were searched and analyzed through the ten year maintenance information. The structured defects such as the air compressor, the lubricating oil pressure, and the insufficient load were the root causes of main failures. The air reservoir reinstallation, the lubricating oil tube modification, the load bank installation, and the qualitative instrumentation were the solutions for the hardware oriented RCM of DGs. There remains the software oriented RCM such as the rejection of useless maintenance, the preventive maintenance, the database of maintenance information, and the predictive maintenance.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.50 no.3
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• pp.504-511
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• 2018

In Lithuania, all spent nuclear fuel (SNF) resulted from the operation of the Ignalina Nuclear Power Plant (INPP), which had two Russian Acronym for "Channelized Large Power Reactor"-type reactors. After the final shutdown, the total amount of SNF at the INPP was approximately 22,000 fuel assemblies. All these assemblies will be stored for about 50 years and disposed of after that. The decision to shut down and decommission both reactors in Lithuania before termination of design period raises a significant challenge for the treatment of accumulated SNF. Therefore, various techniques and technologies for SNF management were developed and justified for that specific case, and a set of special equipment was installed at the INPP, the effectiveness of which was demonstrated during its operation. This article presents unique techniques related to the management of SNF adopted and commissioned at the INPP after its operation shutdown, namely fuel rod cladding leak tightness control system and special equipment for collection of possible spillage during handling of SNF assembly in the hot cell. The operational experience and measurement results of fuel rod cladding leak tightness control system are presented.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.25 no.3
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• pp.430-436
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• 1993

Due to the failure of the instrument and control devices of nuclear power plants caused by aging, nuclear power plants occasionally trip. Even a trip of a single nuclear power plant (NPP) causes an extravagant economical loss and deteriorates public acceptance of nuclear power plants. Therefore, the replacement of the instrument and control devices with proper consideration of the aging effect is necessary in order to prevent the inadvertent trip. In this paper we investigated the optimal replacement periods of the control computer's components of Wolsung nuclear power plant Unit 1. We first derived mathematical models for optimal replacement periods to the digital control computer's components of Wolsung NPP Unit 1 and calculated the optimal replacement periods analytically. We compared the periods with the replacement periods currently used at Wolsung NPP Unit 1. The periods used at Wolsung is not based on mathematical analysis, but on empirical knowledge. As a consequence, the optimal replacement periods analytically obtained and those used in the field show a little difference.

• Journal of IKEEE
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• v.23 no.2
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• pp.667-674
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• 2019

The recent incidents of Nuclear Power Plant(NPP) gave rise to a total power outage caused by the loss of the functions of the off-site and the emergency power supply. Currently, emergency power supply of NPP have been taken into account by Li-ion batteries instead of existing lead-acid batteries. In order to judge the applicability of the cylindrical Li-ion battery, it is necessary to analysis the results of various electrical tests. This paper investigates the basic electrical characteristics test of three types of cylindrical batteries in order to select the most suitable battery and estimate state of battery through equivalent circuit model and propose method to solve the problem.