• Title/Summary/Keyword: Shut-down

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Beyond SARS-CoV-2: Lessons That African Governments Can Apply in Preparation for Possible Future Epidemics

  • Oboh, Mary Aigbiremo;Omoleke, Semeeh Akinwale;Imafidon, Christian Eseigbe;Ajibola, Olumide;Oriero, Eniyou Cheryll;Amambua-Ngwa, Alfred
    • Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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    • v.53 no.5
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    • pp.307-310
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    • 2020
  • Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) has placed unprecedented pressure on healthcare systems, even in advanced economies. While the number of cases of SARS-CoV-2 in Africa compared to other continents has so far been low, there are concerns about under-reporting, inadequate diagnostic tools, and insufficient treatment facilities. Moreover, proactiveness on the part of African governments has been under scrutiny. For instance, issues have emerged regarding the responsiveness of African countries in closing international borders to limit trans-continental transmission of the virus. Overdependence on imported products and outsourced services could have contributed to African governments' hesitation to shut down international air and seaports. In this era of emerging and re-emerging pathogens, we recommend that African nations should consider self-sufficiency in the health sector as an urgent priority, as this will not be the last outbreak to occur. In addition to the Regional Disease Surveillance Systems Enhancement fund (US$600 million) provided by the World Bank for strengthening health systems and disease surveillance, each country should further establish an epidemic emergency fund for epidemic preparedness and response. We also recommend that epidemic surveillance units should create a secure database of previous and ongoing pandemics in terms of aetiology, spread, and treatment, as well as financial management records. Strategic collection and analysis of data should also be a central focus of these units to facilitate studies of disease trends and to estimate the scale of requirements in preparation and response to any future pandemic or epidemic.

Evaluation on Radioactive Waste Disposal Amount of Kori Unit 1 Reactor Vessel Considering Cutting and Packaging Methods (고리 1호기 원자로 압력용기 절단과 포장 방법에 따른 처분 물량 산정)

  • Choi, Yujeong;Lee, Seong-Cheol;Kim, Chang-Lak
    • Journal of Nuclear Fuel Cycle and Waste Technology(JNFCWT)
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    • v.14 no.2
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    • pp.123-134
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    • 2016
  • Decommissioning of nuclear power plants has become a big issue in South Korea as some of the nuclear power plants in operation including Kori unit 1 and Wolsung unit 1 are getting old. Recently, Wolsung unit 1 received permission to continue operation while Kori unit 1 will shut down permanently in June 2017. With the consideration of segmentation method and disposal containers, this paper evaluated final disposal amount of radioactive waste generated from decommissioning of the reactor pressure vessel in Kori unit 1 which will be decommissioned as the first in South Korea. The evaluation results indicated that the final disposal amount from the top and bottom heads of the reactor pressure vessel with hemisphere shape decreased as they were cut in smaller more effectively than the cylindrical part of the reactor pressure vessel. It was also investigated that 200 L and 320 L radioactive waste disposal containers used in Kyung-Ju disposal facility had low payload efficiency because of loading weight limitation.

Preparation of Radiological Environmental Impact Assessment for the Decommissioning of Nuclear Power Plant in Korea (국내 원전 해체시 방사선환경영향평가 방안)

  • Lee, Sang-Ho;Seo, Hyung-Woo;Kim, Chang-Lak
    • Journal of Nuclear Fuel Cycle and Waste Technology(JNFCWT)
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    • v.16 no.1
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    • pp.107-122
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    • 2018
  • Kori unit 1, the oldest commercial nuclear power plant in South Korea, was permanently shut down in June 2017. There are a lot of things to consider in decommissioning nuclear power plants, and one of them is the radiological environmental impact assessment. Performed to promote the health and safety of residents around the nuclear power plant, radiological environmental impact assessment aims to confirm that off-site radiological dose from radioactive material released from the facility does not exceed the regulatory criteria. There are three main parts of environmental impact assessment: pre-decommissioning environmental monitoring, environmental monitoring during decommissioning, and impact on nearby residents. At present, although the Korea Nuclear Safety Act stipulates that radiological environmental impact assessment resulting from decommissioning should be carried out, the details have not been specified. Therefore, this paper compares and analyzes guidelines for evaluation of radiological environmental impacts of nuclear power plants overseas, and presents a draft on the assessment of radiological dose resulting from decommissioning according to the Korean situation.

A Comparative Case Study of 2016 Gyeongju and 2011 Virginia Earthquakes (2016년 경주지진과 2011년 미국 버지니아지진에 대한 비교 연구 및 사례 분석)

  • Kang, Thomas H.K.;Jeong, Seung Yong;Kim, Sanghee;Hong, Seongwon;Choi, Byong Jeon
    • Journal of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea
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    • v.20 no.7_spc
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    • pp.443-451
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    • 2016
  • A Gyeongju earthquake in the magnitude of 5.8 on the Richter scale (the moment magnitude of 5.4), which was recorded as the strongest earthquake in Korea, occurred in September 12, 2016. Compared with the 2011 Virginia earthquake, the moment magnitude was slightly smaller and its duration was 3 seconds, much shorter than 10 seconds of the Virginia earthquake, resulting in relatively minor damage. But the two earthquakes are quite similar in terms of the overall scale, unexpectedness, and social situation. The North Anna Nuclear Power Plant, which is a nuclear power plant located at 18 km away from the epicenter of the Virginia earthquake, had no damage to nuclear reactors because the reactors were automatically shut down as the design basis earthquake value was exceeded. Ground accelerations of the 2016 Gyeongju earthquake did not exceed the threshold value but the manual shutdown was carried out so that Wolsong Nuclear Power Site was not damaged. Damaged historic homestead house and masonry structures due to the Virginia earthquake have been repaired, reinforced, and rebuilt based on a long-term earthquake recovery project. Likewise, it will be necessary to carefully carry out an earthquake recovery planning program to improve overall seismic performance and to reconstruct the historic buildings and structures damaged as a result of the Gyeongju earthquake.

Open Switch Fault Tolerance Control of Active NPC Inverters With HF/LF Modulation (HF/LF 변조를 적용한 Active NPC 인버터의 개방 고장 허용 제어)

  • Jung, Won Seok;Kim, Ye-Ji;Kim, Seok-Min;Lee, Kyo-Beum
    • Journal of IKEEE
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    • v.24 no.1
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    • pp.170-177
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    • 2020
  • This paper presents an open-fault tolerance control method for active neutral point clamped (ANPC) inverter with high frequency/low frequency (HF/LF) modulation. By applying the ANPC inverter with SiC MOSFETs and Si IGBTs, the system efficiency and performance can be improved compared to a Si-based inverter. HF/LF modulation is used for a megawatt-scale inverter to minimize the commutation loop. The open-switch failure in megawatt-scale inverter causes severe damage to load and huge expenses when the inverter has been shut-down. The proposed tolerance control of open-switch failure provides continuous operation and improved reliability to the ANPC inverter. The effectiveness of the proposed fault tolerance control is verified by simulation results.

Analysis on Emergency Power Supplies in Buildings and a Model for Safe Operation of the Emergency Power System (건축물의 비상전원 적용실태 및 자가발전설비의 안전 운전 모델에 관한 연구)

  • Lee, Won-Kang;Choi, Chung-Seog
    • Journal of the Korean Society of Safety
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    • v.27 no.3
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    • pp.49-56
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    • 2012
  • The purpose of this paper is to present a model for operating an emergency power system(EPS) that can secure a sufficient power supply used in case of a fire by analyzing the status of power supplies for emergency and firefighting operations. Investigations on the one of the causes of the operational failure of firefighting systems show evidence of EPS. Generally, when power to a building is interrupted, EPS supplies the emergency load(excepted firefighting load) first. When a power outage and a fire occur simultaneously, the EPS must be able to supply both the emergency load and the firefighting load, especially the firefighting load to the end. However, in order to save construction costs, emergency power generators in apartment, commercial, and business buildings can satisfy only one of the required loads. In cases like this, when a power outage and a fire occur simultaneously, there is a danger of firefighting equipment not operating due to insufficient power supply from the emergency generator. Therefore, an EPS must have a reserved firefighting power that can supply both the firefighting and the emergency load. Such EPS, when faced with a danger of an overload, will shut down the supply to all or part of the emergency load, thus securing a continuous power supply to the firefighting equipment. The generator power system with reserved firefighting power (RFP) will also have an indicator to show that the selective control is being used. General power generation systems for emergency load and firefighting load were found to have a demand factor of 50-60% with a lump. However, when installing an EPS, the builders must choose the higher demand factor suggested according to the official approval demand factor of the building.

A Simulation Method of PID Tuning with Process Modeling in Operating Nuclear Power Plants (가동원전에서 공정모델링을 통한 PID 튜닝 시뮬레이션 방법)

  • Min, Moon-Gi;Jung, Chang-Gyu;Lee, Kwang-Hyun;Lee, Jae-Ki;Kim, Hee-Je
    • The Transactions of the Korean Institute of Electrical Engineers P
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    • v.63 no.4
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    • pp.290-294
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    • 2014
  • PID(Proportional, Integral, Derivative) controller is the most popular process controllers in nuclear power plants. The optimized parameter setting of the process controller contributes to the stable operation and the efficiency of the operating nuclear power plants. PID parameter setting is tuned when new process control systems are installed or current process control systems are changed. When the nuclear plant is shut down, a lot of PID tuning methods such as the Trial and Error method, Ultimate Oscillation method operation, Ziegler-Nichols method, frequency method are used to tune the PID values. But inadequate PID parameter setting can be the cause of the unstable process of the operating nuclear power plant. Therefore the results of PID parameter setting should be simulated, optimized and finally verified. This paper introduces the simulation method of PID tuning to optimize the PID parameter setting and confirms them of the actual PID controller in the operating nuclear power plants. The simulation method provides the accurate process modeling and optimized PID parameter setting of the multi-loop control process in particular.

A Study on the Distress Prediction in the Fishery Industry (수산기업의 부실화 요인 및 예측에 관한 연구)

  • Lee, Yun-Won;Jang, Chang-Ik;Hong, Jae-Beom
    • Proceedings of the Fisheries Business Administration Society of Korea Conference
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    • 2007.12a
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    • pp.167-184
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    • 2007
  • The objectives of this paper are to identify the causes of the corporate distress and to develop a distress prediction model with the financial information in fishery industry. In this study, the corporate distress is defined as economic failure and technical insolvency. Economic failure occurs by reduction, shut-down, or change of the business and technical insolvency results from failure to pay the financial debt of companies. The 33 distressed firms from 1991 to 2003 were composed by 14 economic failure companies, 15 technical insolvency companies. 4 companies applied to the both cases. The analysis of distress prediction of fishery companies were accomplished according to the distress definition. The analysis was carried out as two steps. The first step was the univariate analysis, which was used for checking the prediction power of individual financial variable. The t-test is used to identify the differences in financial variables between the distressed group and the non-distressed group. The second step was to develop distress prediction model with logistic regression. The variables showed the significant difference in univariate analysis were selected as the prediction variables. The financial ratios, used in the logistic regression model, were selected by backward elimination method. To test stability of the distress prediction model, the whole sample was divided as three sub-samples, period 1(1990$\sim$1993), period 2(1994$\sim$1997), period 3(1998$\sim$2002). The final model built from whole sample appled each three sub-samples. The results of the logistic analysis were as follows. the growth, profitability, stability ratios showed the significant effect on the distress. the some different result was found in the sub-sample (economic failure and technical insolvency). The growth and the profitability were important to predict the economic failure. The profitability and the activity were important to predict technical insolvency. It means that profitability is the really important factor to the fishery companies.

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The Construction Status of Fuel Test Loop Facility (핵연료 노내조사시험설비의 시공 현황)

  • Park, Kook-Nam;Lee, Chung-Young;Kim, Hark-Rho;Yoo, Hyun-Jae;Yoo, Seong-Yeon
    • Proceedings of the SAREK Conference
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    • 2007.11a
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    • pp.305-309
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    • 2007
  • FTL(Fuel Test Loop) is a facility that confirms performance of nuclear fuel at a similar irradiation condition with that of nuclear power plant. FTL construction work began on August, 2006 and ended on March, 2007. During Construction, ensuring the worker's safety was the top priority and installation of the FTL without hampering the integrity of the HANARO was the next one. The installation works were done successfully overcoming the difficulties such as on the limited space, on the radiation hazard inside the reactor pool, and finally on the shortening of the shut down period of the HANARO. The Commissioning of the FTL is to check the function and the performance of the equipment and the overall system as well. The FTL shall start operation with high burn up test fuels in early 2008 if the commissioning and licensing progress on schedule.

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A Study on the Distress Prediction in the Fishery Industry (수산기업의 부실화 요인과 그 예측에 관한 연구)

  • Jang, Chang-Ick;Lee, Yun-Weon;Hong, Jae-Bum
    • The Journal of Fisheries Business Administration
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    • v.39 no.2
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    • pp.61-79
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    • 2008
  • The objectives of this paper are to identify the causes of the corporate distress and to develop a distress prediction model with the financial information in fishery industry. In this study, the corporate distress is defined as economic failure and technical insolvency. Economic failure occurs by reduction, shut - down, or change of the business and technical insolvency results from failure to pay the financial debt of companies. The 33 distressed firms from 1991 to 2003 were composed by 14 economic failure companies, 15 technical insolvency companies. 4 companies applied to the both cases. The analysis of distress prediction of fishery companies were accomplished according to the distress definition. The analysis was carried out as two steps. The first step was the univariate analysis, which was used for checking the prediction power of individual financial variable. The t - test is used to identify the differences in financial variables between the distressed group and the non - distressed group. The second step was to develop distress prediction model with logistic regression. The variables showed the significant difference in univariate analysis were selected as the prediction variables. The financial ratios, used in the logistic regression model, were selected by backward elimination method. To test stability of the distress prediction model, the whole sample was divided as three sub-samples, period 1(1990 - 1993), period 2(1994 - 1997), period 3(1998 - 2002). The final model built from whole sample appled each three sub - samples. The results of the logistic analysis were as follows. the growth, profitability, stability ratios showed the significant effect on the distress. the some different result was found in the sub - sample (economic failure and technical insolvency). The growth and the profitability were important to predict the economic failure. The profitability and the activity were important to predict technical insolvency. It means that profitability is the really important factor to the fishery companies.

  • PDF