• Journal of Nuclear Fuel Cycle and Waste Technology
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• 제1권1호
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• pp.37-47
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• 2013

This paper describes basic plans for the development of a radioactive waste disposal facility with the introduction of Nuclear Power Plants (NPPs) for Kenya. The specific objective of this study was to estimate the total projected waste volumes of low- and intermediate-level radioactive waste (LILW) expected to be generated from the Kenyan nuclear power programme. The facility is expected to accommodate LILW to be generated from operation and decommissioning of nuclear power plants for a period of 50 years. An on-site storage capacity of 700 $m^3$ at nuclear power plant sites and a final disposal repository facility of more than 7,000 $m^3$ capacity were derived by considering Korean nuclear power programme radioactive waste generation data, including Kori, Hanbit, and APR 1400 nuclear reactor data. The repository program is best suited to be introduced roughly 10 years after reactor operation. This study is important as an initial implementation of a national LILW disposal program for Kenya and other newcomer countries interested in nuclear power technology.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• 제25권3호
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• pp.430-436
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• 1993

원자력 발전소의 제어계측 장비의 노후화 때문에, 원자력 발전소에서는 제어계측 장비의 고장으로 인한 발전소 불시정지가 가끔 일어난다. 원자력 발전소의 불시정지는 커다란 경제적 손실과 발전소의 신뢰도를 떨어뜨리고 대중적인 인식을 좋지 않게 한다. 그러므로 불필요한 불시정지를 방지하기 위해서 제어계측 부품의 노후화를 고려한 부품교체를 해주는 것이 필요하다. 이 논문은 월성 원자력 발전소의 제어 컴퓨터 부품의 최적교체주기에 대해 연구했다. 우리는 먼저 월성 디지탈 제어 컴퓨터 부품의 최적교체주기에 대한 수학적 모델을 유도했고, 해석적으로 최적교체주기를 계산했다. 우리는 그결과를 현재 월성 원자력 발전소에서 쓰이는 방법과 비교했다. 월성에서 사용되는 방법은 수학적 분석 방법이 아닌 경험적 지식을 토대로 한것이다. 결과적으로 해석적으로 얻어진 최적 교체주기와 월성에서 사용되는 교체주기와는 약간의 차이를 보이고 있다.

• 전기학회논문지
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• 제64권2호
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• pp.254-259
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• 2015

On January 30, 2012 an auxiliary component of Byron Unit 2 was tripped on bus under voltage. The cause of the event was the failure of the C-phase insulator track for the Unit 2 station auxiliary transformer(SAT) revenue metering transformer. In addition to this event, other events have occurred at other plants resulting in an open-phase condition.[1] Therefore, Nuclear Regulatory Commission(NRC) has requested that not only nuclear power plant(NPP) operating company but also its Design Certification(DC) applicant have to prepare open-phase detecting system in their operating plants and design document. In this paper, various open-phase conditions are simulated in NPP using Electromagnetic Transient Program(EMTP) and Atpdraw, and open-phase condition detecting system is proposed for Main Transformer(MT), Unit Auxiliary Transformer(UAT) and SAT connected power line in NPP.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• 제52권1호
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• pp.192-205
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• 2020

Seismic design practices and seismic response analyses of civil structures and nuclear power plants (NPPs) have conventionally used the peak ground acceleration (PGA) or spectral acceleration (S_a) as an intensity measure (IM) of an earthquake. However, there are many other earthquake IMs that were proposed by various researchers. The aim of this study is to investigate the correlation between seismic responses of NPP components and 23 earthquake IMs and identify the best IMs for correlating with damage of NPP structures. Particularly, low- and high-frequency ground motion records are separately accounted in correlation analyses. An advanced power reactor NPP in Korea, APR1400, is selected for numerical analyses where containment and auxiliary buildings are modeled using SAP2000. Floor displacements and accelerations are monitored for the non- and base-isolated NPP structures while shear deformations of the base isolator are additionally monitored for the base-isolated NPP. A series of Pearson's correlation coefficients are calculated to recognize the correlation between each of the 23 earthquake IMs and responses of NPP structures. The numerical results demonstrate that there is a significant difference in the correlation between earthquake IMs and seismic responses of non-isolated NPP structures considering low- and high-frequency ground motion groups. Meanwhile, a trivial discrepancy of the correlation is observed in the case of the base-isolated NPP subjected to the two groups of ground motions. Moreover, a selection of PGA or S_a for seismic response analyses of NPP structures in the high-frequency seismic regions may not be the best option. Additionally, a set of fragility curves are thereafter developed for the base-isolated NPP based on the shear deformation of lead rubber bearing (LRB) with respect to the strongly correlated IMs. The results reveal that the probability of damage to the structure is higher for low-frequency earthquakes compared with that of high-frequency ground motions.

• 한국전자통신학회논문지
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• 제11권1호
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• pp.1-8
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• 2016

원자력발전소는 주요 국가기반시설로 보호되고 있으며, 계측제어계통은 보호, 제어 및 감시등의 기능을 수행하는 원전을 구성하는 핵심 설비로서, 과거의 아날로그 장비에서 컴퓨터와 네트워크에 기반 한 디지털 기술로 진화하고 있다. 또한, 계측제어계통에서는 대부분 원전용 제어기를 사용하지만, 일반적인 IT 자원의 사용도 증가하고 있는 실정이다. 스턱스넷으로 인한 원자력 시설의 제어기 침해 사고 및 여타 원전의 사이버 사고로 인해 원자력발전소에 대한 사이버보안 문제가 대두되고 있다. 본 논문에서는 원전 사이버 보안을 위해 규제지침의 접근제어 요건분석을 통하여 원전 계측제어계통에 적용 가능한 혼합형 접근제어 모델을 제시하였다. 제안하는 혼합형 접근제어 모델은 가동 중인 국내 원전 및 건설 중인 신규 원전에 구현하여, 원전의 안전성을 효율적으로 증대 시킬 수 있을 것으로 판단된다.

• 한국콘크리트학회:학술대회논문집
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• 한국콘크리트학회 2006년도 추계 학술발표회 논문집
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• pp.237-240
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• 2006

Almost 30 years have been passed since the first nuclear power plant was operated in Korea. Many studies have been actively conducted from the early 1990's in order to develop the deterioration management system for concrete structures in NPPs(Nuclear Power Plants) accordingly. Base on these studies, a systematic deterioration management program has developed and operated since 1997. According to this program, systematic inspections to provide database and evaluation were periodically performed (every overhaul at intervals of $12{\sim}18$ month and every five years). Accumulated deterioration database was usefully utilized for the NPP PSR (Periodic Safety Review). In this paper, the long-term durability and integrity of Kori 1,2 NPP concrete structures which are the oldest ones in Korea were evaluated based on the precise inspection database and regulatory inspection results including compressive strength, depth of carbonation, amount of chlorination and spontaneous potential of reinforcing bar, etc. It was noted that Kori 1,2 NPP structures have not any serious durability problems.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• 제53권3호
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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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• 제53권9호
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• pp.2888-2898
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• 2021

Vital area identification (VAI) is an essential procedure for the design of physical protection systems (PPSs) for nuclear power plants (NPPs). The purpose of PPS design is to protect vital areas. VAI has been improved continuously to overcome the shortcomings of previous VAI generations. In first-generation VAI, a sabotage fault tree was developed directly without reusing probabilistic safety assessment (PSA) results or information. In second-generation VAI, VAI model was constructed from all PSA event trees and fault trees. While in third-generation VAI, it was developed from the simplified PSA event trees and fault trees. While VAIs have been performed for NPPs in full-power operations, VAI for NPPs in low-power and shutdown (LPSD) operations has not been studied and performed, even though NPPs in LPSD operations are very vulnerable to sabotage due to the very crowded nature of NPP maintenance. This study is the first to research and apply VAI to LPSD operation of NPP. Here, the third-generation VAI method for full-power operation of NPP was adapted to the VAI of LPSD operation. In this study, LPSD VAI for a few plant operational states (POSs) was performed. Furthermore, the operation strategy of vital areas for both full-power and LPSD operations was discussed. The LPSD VAI method discussed in this paper can be easily applied to all POSs. The method and insights in this study can be important for future LPSD VAI that reflects various LPSD operational states. Regulatory bodies and electric utilities can take advantage of this LPSD VAI method.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• 제47권2호
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• pp.176-186
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• 2015

Pattern classifications have become important tools for fault diagnosis in nuclear power plants (NPP). However, it is often difficult to obtain training data under fault conditions to train a supervised classification model. By contrast, normal plant operating data can be easily made available through increased deployment of supervisory, control, and data acquisition systems. Such data can also be used to train classification models to improve the performance of fault diagnosis scheme. In this paper, a fault diagnosis scheme based on semisupervised classification (SSC) scheme is developed. In this scheme, new measurements collected from the plant are integrated with data observed under fault conditions to train the SSC models. The trained models are subsequently applied to new measurements for fault diagnosis. In comparison with supervised classifiers, the proposed scheme requires significantly fewer data collected under fault conditions to train the classifier. The developed scheme has been validated using different fault scenarios on a desktop NPP simulator as well as on a physical NPP simulator using a graph-based SSC algorithm. All the considered faults have been successfully diagnosed. The results have demonstrated that SSC is a promising tool for fault diagnosis in NPPs.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• 제56권8호
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• pp.3167-3179
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• 2024

In abnormal states of nuclear power plants (NPPs), operators undertake mitigation actions to restore a normal state and prevent reactor trips. However, in abnormal states, the NPP condition fluctuates rapidly, which can lead to human error. If human error occurs, the condition of an NPP can deteriorate, leading to reactor trips. Sudden shutdowns, such as reactor trips, can result in the failure of numerous NPP facilities and economic losses. This study develops a remaining trip time (RTT) prediction system as part of an operator support system to reduce possible human errors and improve the safety of NPPs. The RTT prediction system consists of an algorithm that utilizes artificial intelligence (AI) and explainable AI (XAI) methods, such as autoencoders, light gradient-boosting machines, and Shapley additive explanations. AI methods provide diagnostic information about the abnormal states that occur and predict the remaining time until a reactor trip occurs. The XAI method improves the reliability of AI by providing a rationale for RTT prediction results and information on the main variables of the status of NPPs. The RTT prediction system includes an interface that can effectively provide the results of the system.