• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.50 no.6
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• pp.963-970
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• 2018

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Regulatory Guide 1.20 needs to perform a comprehensive vibration assessment program for reactor internals during preoperational and startup testing for nuclear power plants and extended power uprate. Although the measurement program is one of the core programs, it is rarely carried out except for a first-of-a-kind or a unique design. This article describes measurement results of vibration and stress for the comprehensive vibration assessment program for an APR-1400 reactor internals. The measurement was performed at an upper guide structure during the pre-core hot functional test of Shin Kori unit 4 reactor internals because the Shin Kori unit 3 and 4 are the first construction project for the APR-1400, and the upper guide structure assembly was to design change compared with the valid prototype. We confirmed that all measured results are within the test acceptance criteria. It means that the structural integrity of the APR-1400 reactor internals was secured for the flow-induced vibration.

• Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.11 no.5
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• pp.277-284
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• 2006

The genetic toxicity of environmental pollutants, namely, nonylphenol (NP), bisphenol A (BPA) and chloropyriphos (CP) was investigated in aquatic sentinel species, freshwater crustacean, Daphnia magna, and larva of aquatic midge, Chironomus tentans, using Comet assay. Physiological effect of such pollutants was also investigated by studying the specimens' rates of reproduction, growth and survival. Acute toxicity results showed that, as expected, Daphnia was more sensitive than Chironomus to chemical exposure. The order of acute toxicity was CP > NP > BPA in D. magna and NP > CP > BPA in C. tentans. BPA may exert a genotoxic effect on D. magna and C. tentans, given that DNA strand breaks increased in both species exposed to this compound, whereas NP- and CP-induced DNA damage occurred only in C. tentans. In vivo genotoxic data obtained in aquatic sentinel species could provide valuable information for freshwater quality monitoring. The experiments with NP-exposed D. magna showed that the pollutant has long-term effects on reproduction, whereas no short-term effect on DNA integrity was found, being an example of a false-negative result from the biomarkers perspective. This result could be interpreted that other mechanism than genetic alteration might be involved in NP-induced reproduction failure in D. magna. False-positive results from the genotoxic biomarker obtained in BPA-exposed D. magna and in NP-exposed C. tentans make it difficult to use DNA integrity as an early warning biomarker. However, as the mere presence of genotoxic compounds, which are potentially carcinogenic, is of high concern to human and ecosystem health, it could also be important to rapidly and effectively detect genotoxic compounds in the aquatic system in ways that do not necessarily accompany a higher level of alteration. Considering the potential of D. magna and C. tentans as bioindicator species, and the importance of genotoxic biomarkers in ecotoxicity monitoring, DNA damage in these species could provide useful information for environmental risk assessment.

• Journal of Environmental Impact Assessment
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• v.21 no.5
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• pp.631-648
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• 2012

The integrative ecological approaches of chemical assessments, physical habitat modelling, and multi-metric biological health modelling were applied to Gwanpyeong Stream within Gap-Stream watersheds to evaluate environmental impacts on the constructions of residential and commercial complex. For the analysis, the surveys conducted from 45 sites of reference streams within the Gap-Stream watershed and 3 regular sites during 2009 - 2010. Physical habitat health, based on the habitat model of Qualitative Habitat Evaluation Index(QHEI) declined from the headwaters(good - fair condition) to the downstream(poor condition). Chemical water quality, based turbidity and electric conductivity(EC), was degraded toward to the downstream, and especially showed abrupt increases, compared to the values of control streams(CS). Also, concentrations of chlorophyll-a in the downstreams were greater compared to the control stream(CS), indicating an eutrophication. Biological health conditions, based on the Index of Biological Integrity(IBI) using fish assemblages, averaged 19.3 which is judged as a fair condition by the biological criteria of the Ministry of Environment, Korea. The comparisons of model metric values in sensitive species and riffle-benthic species on the Maximum Species Richness Line(MSRL) of 45 reference streams indicated a massive disturbances in all sampling locations. Also, tolerance guild and trophic guild analyses suggest that dominances of tolerant species and omnivores were evident, indicating a biological degradation by habitat disturbances and organic matter pollutions. There was no distinct longitudinal variations of IBI model values from the headwater to the downstream in spite of slight chemical and habitat health gradients among the sampling sites. Overall, integrative ecological health(IEH) scores, based on the chemical, physical, and biological parameters, were low compared to the 45 reference streams due to physical and chemical disturbances of massive constructions of the residential and commercial complex. This stream, thus showed a tendency of typical urban streams which are disturbed in the chemical water quality, habitat structures, and biological integrity. Effective stream management plans and restoration strategies are required in this urban stream for improving integrative stream health.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Manufacturing Technology Engineers
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• v.22 no.3_1spc
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• pp.518-524
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• 2013

Recently, probabilistic assessments of nuclear power plant components have generated interest in the nuclear industries, either for the efficient inspection and maintenance of older nuclear plants or for improving the safety and cost-effective design of newly constructed nuclear plants. In the present paper, the partial safety factor (PSF) of wall-thinned nuclear piping is evaluated based on a reliability index method, from which the effect of each statistical variable (assessment parameter) on a certain target probability is evaluated. In order to calculate the PSF of a wall-thinned pipe, a limit state function based on the load and resistance factor design (LRFD) concept is first constructed. As for the reliability assessment method, both the advanced first-order second moment (AFOSM) method and second-order reliability method (SORM) are employed to determine the PSF of each probabilistic variable. The present results can be used for developing maintenance strategies considering the priorities of input variables for structural integrity assessments of wall-thinned piping, and this PSF concept can also be applied to the optimal design of the components of newly constructed plants considering the target reliability levels.

• Journal of the Korea institute for structural maintenance and inspection
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• v.18 no.4
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• pp.107-117
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• 2014

This study tests homogeneity and performs multiple comparison analysis among treatment levels of each factor group through t-test by materials and analysis of variance by structural type and service period. For that descriptive statistical analysis is performed for static and dynamic response characteristics and their ratios of calculated versus measured values based on a good many safety assessment reports for bridges. Homogeneity and post hoc test based on descriptive statistical analysis provide the measures for homogeneity identification among comparison groups in addition to the statistical reference values such as central tendency, variation and shape. This study is expected to be valuable for structural integrity assessment and design by comparing the measured and calculated values with the reference values for the homogeneous group identified, which can help the engineers review the adequacy of the values and put the group database to practical use.

• Proceedings of the KSME Conference
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• 2004.11a
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• pp.85-89
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• 2004

The inner side between HP stationary blades in #1 turbine of Nuclear Power Plant A is damaged by the FAC(flow assisted corrosion) which is exposed to moisture. For many years the inner side is repaired by welding the damaged part, however, FAC continues to deteriorate the original material of the welded blade ring. In this study, we have two stages to verify the integrity of stationary blade ring in nuclear power plant A. In the stage I, replication of blade ring is performed to survey the microstructure of blade ring. In the stage II, the stress analysis of blade ring is performed to verify the structural safety of blade ring. Throughout the two stages analysis of blade ring, the stationary blade ring had remained undamaged.

• Proceedings of the KWS Conference
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• 1998.10a
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• pp.11-24
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• 1998

The invention of fusion wilding technology has brought on a revolutionary change in manufacturing industry which enables the construction of large scale high temperature plants in chemical, petrochemical and power generation industries. However, among the failure cases of high temperature components, premature failures of weldments have taken a large percentage that indicates the detrimental effect of welding on structural integrity. The accurate prediction of the high temperature behaviour of welded components is thus becoming increasingly important in order to realise an optimised design and maintenance of a plant life. In the present paper, recent research activities on high temperature behaviour of welded structures are briefly summarised. A local deformation measuring technique is proposed to determine the creep properties of weldment constituents. A damage mechanics approach is introduced to study the life reduction and ductility reduction due to the presence of a weld in high temperature structures. Finally, the high temperature creep crack growth in weldments is discussed.

• BMB Reports
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• v.44 no.4
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• pp.285-290
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• 2011

Caenorhabditis elegans undergoes a developmental molting process that involves a coordinated interplay among diverse intracellular pathways. Here, we investigated the functions of two fatty acid biosynthesis genes; pod-2, encoding acetyl-CoA carboxylase, and fasn-1, encoding fatty acid synthase, in the C. elegans molting process. Although both the pod-2 and fasn-1 genes were expressed at constant levels throughout C. elegans development, knockdown of the proteins encoded by these genes using RNA interference produced severe defects in triglyceride production, molting, and reproduction that were coupled to suppression of NAS-37, a metalloprotease. An assessment of the structure and integrity of the cuticle using a COL-19::GFP marker and Hoechst 33258 staining showed that downregulation of either pod-2 or fasn-1 impaired cuticle formation and disrupted the integrity of the cuticle and the hypodermal membrane.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Safety
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• v.17 no.3
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• pp.66-72
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• 2002

During the last ten years, effort has been made for reducing maintenance cost for aged equipments and ensuring safety, efficiency and profitability of petrochemical and refinery plants. Hence, it was required to develop advanced methods which meet this need. RBI(Risk Based Inspection) methodology is one of the most promising technology satisfying the requirements in the field of integrity management. In this study, a qualitative assessment algorithm for RBI based on the API 581 code was reconstructed for developing an RBI software. The user-friendly realRBI software is developed with a module for evaluating qualitative risk category using the potential consequence factor and the likelihood factor.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Safety
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• v.29 no.5
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• pp.160-165
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• 2014

The realistic cases causing severe core damage should be analyzed and arranged systematically for preparing an accident management of the specific nuclear power plant. The objective of this paper is to establish basic technical information for reactor safety and reactor building integrity management strategies in CANDU reactor severe accident. For the development of severe accident management strategies, plant specific features and behaviors must be studied by detailed analysis works. This analysis scope will serve to cover overall methods and analyzing results to understand the reactor building integrity status in the most likely severe accident sequences that could occur at CANDU reactor. Also analysis results could help prevent or mitigate severe accidents for the identification of any plant specific vulnerabilities to severe accidents using the probabilistic safety assessment (PSA) quantified results.