• Journal of the Korean Society of Systems Engineering
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• v.16 no.2
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• pp.47-58
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• 2020

Most of the reactor trips in Korean NPPs related to core protection systems were caused not because of proximity of boiling crisis and, consequently, a damage in the core, but due to particular miscalculations or component failures related to the core protection system. The most common core protection system applied in Korean NPPs is the Core Protection Calculator System (CPCS), which is installed in OPR1000 and APR1400 plants. It generates a trip signal to scram the reactor in case of low Departure from Nucleate Boiling Ratio (DNBR) or high Local Power Density (LPD). However, is a reactor trip necessary to protect the core? Or could a fast power reduction be enough to recover the DNBR/LPD without a scram? In order to analyze the online calculation of DNBR/LPD, and the use of fast power reduction as trip avoidance methodology, a concept of CPCS with fast power reduction function was developed in Matlab® Simulink using systems engineering approach. The system was validated with maximum of 0.2% deviation from the reference and the dynamic deviation was maximum of 12.65% for DNBR and 6.72% for LPD during a transient of 16,000 seconds.

• Journal of Korea Society of Digital Industry and Information Management
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.35-44
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• 2021

With the development of information technology, the cybersecurity threat continues as digital-related technologies are applied to the instrumentation and control system of nuclear power plants. The malfunction of the instrumentation and control system can cause economic damage due to shutdown, and furthermore, it can lead to national disasters such as radioactive emissions, so countering cybersecurity threats is an important issue. In general, the study of cybersecurity in instrumentation and control systems is concentrated on safety systems, and diverse protection systems perform protection and reactor shutdown functions, leading to reactor shutdown or, in the worst case, non-stop situations. To accurately analyze cyber threats in the diverse protection system, its linked facilities should be analyzed together. Risk analysis should be conducted by analyzing the potential impact of inter-facility cyberattacks on related facilities and the impact of cybersecurity on each configuration module of the diverse protection system. In this paper, we analyze the linkage of the diverse protection system and discuss the cybersecurity linkage threat by analyzing the availability of equipment, the cyber threat impact of the linked equipment, and the configuration module's cybersecurity vulnerability.

• Proceedings of the KIEE Conference
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• 2002.07a
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• pp.265-267
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• 2002

This paper deals with an I/O simulator design for performance evaluation of reactor protection systems in nuclear power plants. The I/O simulator provides input signals for the reactor protection system, and acquires output signals from the initiation circuits. The simulator is based on VMEbus system, and all VMEbus boards are developed within the country.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.54 no.10
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• pp.3595-3603
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• 2022

Nuclear safety-class DCS is used for nuclear reactor protection function, which is one of the key facilities to ensure nuclear power plant safety, the maintenance for DCS to keep system in a high reliability is significant. In this paper, Nuclear safety-class DCS system developed by the Nuclear Power Institute of China is investigated, the model of reliability estimation considering nuclear power plant emergency trip control process is carried out using Markov transfer process. According to the System-Subgroup-Module hierarchical iteration calculation, the evolution curve of failure probability is established, and the preventive maintenance optimization strategy is constructed combining reliability numerical calculation and periodic overhaul interval of nuclear power plant, which could provide a quantitative basis for the maintenance decision of DCS system.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Pressure Vessels and Piping
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• v.12 no.1
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• pp.23-29
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• 2016

The Second Shutdown Drive Mechanism (SSDM) provides an alternate and independent means of reactor shutdown. The Second Shutdown Rods (SSRs) of SSDMs are poised at the top of the core by the hydraulic force driven from a hydraulic system during normal operation. The rods drop by gravity when a trip is commended by a Reactor Protection System, Alternate Protection System, Automatic Seismic Trip System or operator by means of power off solenoid valves of hydraulic system. This paper describes the test results of seismic qualification of a prototype SSDM hydraulic system to demonstrate that its structural integrity and operability (functionality) are maintained during and after seismic excitations, that is, an adequacy of the SSDM design. From the results, this paper shows that the SSDM hydraulic system satisfies all its design requirements without any malfunctions during and after seismic excitations.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2010.02a
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• pp.314-314
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• 2010

The design of the blanket and shield play a key role in determining the size of a reactor since it has an impact on the various reactor components. The blanket should produce enough tritium for tritium self-sufficiency and the shield should provide sufficient protection for the superconducting TF coil. Neutronic optimization of the blanket and the shield is necessary, and we coupled the system analysis with a neutronic calculation to account for the interrelation of the blanket and shield with the plasma performance of a reactor system in a self-consistent manner. By using the coupled system analysis code, the operational space for a low aspect ratio (LAR) tokamak reactor with a superconducting toroidal field (TF) coil is investigated with an spect ratio in the range of 1.5 - 2.5. The minimum major radius which satisfies all the physics and engineering requirements increases with the magnetic field at the magnetic axis. A required inboard shield thickness is mainly determined by the requirement on the protection of the TF coil against radiation damage. It is shown that to have a fusion power bigger than 3,000 MW in the LAR tokamak with a superconducting TF coil, a major radius bigger than 4.0 m is required.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.55 no.8
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• pp.2952-2965
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• 2023

Advanced reactors, such as Small Modular Reactors or existing Nuclear Power Plants, often use Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) based controllers in new Instrumentation and Control (I&C) system architectures or as an alternative to existing analog-based I&C systems. Compared to CPU-based Programmable Logic Controllers (PLCs), FPGAs offer better overall performance. However, programming functions on FPGAs can be challenging due to the requirement for a hardware description language that does not explicitly support the operation of real numbers. This study aims to implement the Reactor Trip (RT) functions of the existing analog-based Reactor Protection System (RPS) using FPGAs. The RT equations for Overtemperature delta Temperature and Overpower delta Temperature involve dynamic compensators expressed with the Laplace transform variable, 's', which is not directly supported by FPGAs. To address this issue, the trip equations with the Laplace variable in the continuous-time domain are transformed to the discrete-time domain using the Z-transform. Additionally, a new operation based on a relative value for the equation range is introduced for the handling of real numbers in the RT functions. The proposed approach can be utilized for upgrading the existing analog-based RPS as well as digitalizing control systems in advanced reactor systems.

• Journal of Radiation Protection and Research
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• v.26 no.3
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• pp.225-229
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• 2001

In Korea, an advanced reactor system of 330MWt power called SMART (System integrated Modular Advanced ReacTor) is being developed by KAERI to supply energy for seawater desalination as well as electricity generation. A shielding design of the SMART core with 49 CEDM is established by a two-dimensional discrete ordinates radiation transport analyses. The DORT two-dimensional discrete ordinates transport code is used to evaluate the SMART shielding designs. Three axial regions represent the SMART reactor assembly, each of which is modeled in the R-Z geometry. The BUGLE-96 library is used in the analyses, which consists of 47 neutron and 20 gamma energy groups. The results indicate that the maximum neutron fluence at the bottom of reactor vessel is $5.89 {\times} 10^{17}\;n/cm^2$ and that on the radial surface of reactor vessel is $4.49 {\times} 10^[16}\;n/cm^2$. These results meet the requirement, $1.0 {\times} 10^{20}\;n/cm^2$, in 10 CFR 50.61 and the integrity of SMART reactor vessel during the lifetime of the reactor is confirmed.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.19 no.4
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• pp.279-291
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• 1987

The event tree/fault tree techniques used in the current probabilistic risk assessment (PRA) of nuclear power plants are based on the binary and static description of the components and the system. While these techniques Bay be adequate in most of the safety studies, more advanced techniques, e.g., the Markov reliability analysis, are required to accurately study such problems as the plant availability assessments and technical specifications evaluations that are becoming increasingly important. This paper describes a Markov model for the Reactor Protection System of a pressurized water reactor and presents results of model evaluations for two testing policies in technical specifications.

• Journal of Radiation Protection and Research
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• v.30 no.1
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• pp.39-44
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• 2005

A new developing reactor isn't fixed the structure and the materials of reactor components. To perform the shielding analysis for a reactor vessel by $R-\theta$ geometry, it takes much effort and time to modeling of source term according to the change of reactor components every time. Therefore, we developed the shielding analysis system for the reactor vessel by $R-{\theta}$ geometry, which wasn't affected by the reactor core geometry. By using the developed shielding analysis system, we performed the shielding analysis for the reactor vessel of an integral reactor which has the hexagonal geometry of nuclear fuel assemblies in reactor core. We compared the results obtained from the developed system with those obtained from MCNP analysis. Because the results of developed shielding analysis system were more conservative than those of MCNP calculation, it is useful for shielding analysis. As we had developed the new shielding analysis system for a reactor vessel by $R-{\theta}$ geometry, we reduced error of model for reactor core which was formerly designed by hand and saved the time and the effort to design source term model of reactor core.