• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
• /
• v.53 no.3
• /
• pp.967-973
• /
• 2021

In 2011, an earthquake and subsequent tsunami hit the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant, causing simultaneous accidents in several reactors. This accident shows us that if there are several reactors on site, the seismic risk to multiple units is important to consider, in addition to that to single units in isolation. When a seismic event occurs, a seismic-failure correlation exists between the nuclear power plant's structures, systems, and components (SSCs) due to their seismic-response and seismic-capacity correlations. Therefore, it is necessary to evaluate the multi-unit seismic risk by considering the SSCs' seismic-failure-correlation effect. In this study, a methodology is proposed to obtain the seismic-response-correlation coefficient between SSCs to calculate the risk to multi-unit facilities. This coefficient is calculated from a probabilistic multi-unit seismic-response analysis. The seismic-response and seismic-failure-correlation coefficients of the emergency diesel generators installed within the units are successfully derived via the proposed method. In addition, the distribution of the seismic-response-correlation coefficient was observed as a function of the distance between SSCs of various dynamic characteristics. It is demonstrated that the proposed methodology can reasonably derive the seismic-response-correlation coefficient between SSCs, which is the input data for multi-unit seismic probabilistic safety assessment.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Safety
• /
• v.38 no.3
• /
• pp.110-120
• /
• 2023

Following the Fukushima accident, portable equipment employed as accident mitigating systems have been installed and operated to reduce core damage and large early release frequencies. In addition, the establishment of an accident management strategy has gained importance. This study investigated the current status of portable equipment including the international portable equipment FLEX (diverse and flexible coping strategies), and domestic portable equipment multi-barrier accident coping strategy (MACST). Research on optimal utilization of MACST remains insufficient. As a preliminary study for establishing an optimal strategy, sensitivity studies were conducted to facilitate the priority of use on portable equipment, number of portable equipment, and dependency of operator actions based on a multi-unit probabilistic safety assessment model. The results revealed the conditions that reduced the multi-unit and site conditional core damage probabilities, indicating the optimal strategy of MACST. The results of this study can be used as a reference for establishing an optimal strategy that utilizes domestic safety equipment in the future.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
• /
• v.51 no.1
• /
• pp.104-115
• /
• 2019

Since the Fukushima Daiichi accident, there has been an emphasis on the risk resulting from multi-unit accidents. Human reliability analysis (HRA) is one of the important issues in multi-unit probabilistic safety assessment (MUPSA). Hence, there is a need to properly identify all the human and organizational factors relevant to a multi-unit incident scenario in a nuclear power plant (NPP). This study identifies and categorizes the human and organizational factors relevant to a multi-unit incident scenario of NPPs based on a review of relevant literature. These factors are then analyzed to ascertain all possible unit-to-unit interactions that need to be considered in the multi-unit HRA and the pattern of interactions. The human and organizational factors are classified into five categories: organization, work device, task, performance shaping factors, and environmental factors. The identification and classification of these factors will significantly contribute to the development of adequate strategies and guidelines for managing multi-unit accidents. This study is a necessary initial step in developing an effective HRA method for multiple NPP units in a site.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Safety
• /
• v.33 no.6
• /
• pp.144-156
• /
• 2018

Level 3 Probabilistic Safety Assessment (PSA) is performed for the risk assessment that calculates radioactive material dispersion to the environment. This risk assessment is performed with a tool of MELCOR Accident Consequence Code System (MACCS2 or WinMACCS). For the off-site consequence analysis of multi-unit nuclear power plant (NPP) accident, the single location (Center Of Mass, COM) method has been usually adopted with the assumption that all the NPPs in the nuclear site are located at the same COM point. It was well known that this COM calculation can lead to underestimated or overestimated radionuclide concentration. In order to overcome this underestimation or overestimation of radionuclide concentrations in the COM method, Multiple Location (ML) method was developed in this study. The radionuclide concentrations for the individual NPPs are separately calculated, and they are summed at every location in the nuclear site by the post-processing of radionuclide concentrations that is based on two-dimensional Gaussian Plume equations. In order to demonstrate the efficiency of the ML method, radionuclide concentrations were calculated for the six-unit NPP site, radionuclide concentrations of the ML method were compared with those by COM method. This comparison was performed for conditions of constant weather, yearly weather in Korea, and four seasons, and the results were discussed. This new ML method (1) improves accuracy of radionuclide concentrations when multi-unit NPP accident occurs, (2) calculates realistic atmospheric dispersion of radionuclides under various weather conditions, and finally (3) supports off-site emergency plan optimization. It is recommended that this new method be applied to the risk assessment of multi-unit NPP accident. This new method drastically improves the accuracy of radionuclide concentrations at the locations adjacent to or very close to NPPs. This ML method has a great strength over the COM method when people live near nuclear site, since it provides accurate radionuclide concentrations or radiation doses.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
• /
• v.52 no.10
• /
• pp.2221-2229
• /
• 2020

After the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant (NPP) accident, level 3 probabilistic safety assessment (PSA) has emerged as an important task in order to assess the risk level of the multi-unit NPPs in a single nuclear site. Accurate calculation of the radionuclide concentrations and exposure doses to the public is required if a nuclear site has multi-unit NPPs and large number of people live near NPPs. So, there has been a great need to develop a new method or procedure for the fast and accurate offsite consequence calculation for the multi-unit NPP accident analysis. Since the multi-unit level 3 PSA is being currently performed assuming that all the NPPs are located at the same position such as a center of mass (COM) or base NPP position, radionuclide concentrations or exposure doses near NPPs can be drastically distorted depending on the locations, multi-unit NPP alignment, and the wind direction. In order to overcome this disadvantage of the COM method, the idea of a new multiple location (ML) method was proposed and implemented into a new tool MURCC (multi-unit radiological consequence calculator). Furthermore, the MURCC code was further improved for the multi-unit level 3 PSA that has the arbitrary number of multi-unit NPPs. The objectives of this study are to (1) qualitatively and quantitatively compare COM and ML methods, and (2) demonstrate the strength and efficiency of the ML method. The strength of the ML method was demonstrated by the applications to the multi-unit long-term station blackout (LTSBO) accidents at the four-unit Vogtle NPPs. Thus, it is strongly recommended that this ML method be employed for the offsite consequence analysis of the multi-unit NPP accidents.

• Journal of Electrical Engineering and Technology
• /
• v.4 no.3
• /
• pp.346-352
• /
• 2009

The eventual goal of this paper is to help the generating companies and load-serving entities to choose appropriate relative levels of interconnected system versus bilateral trades while considering risk, and economic performance. In competitive power markets, electricity prices are determined by balance between demand and supply in electric power exchanges or bilateral contracts. The problem formulation is bilateral contract incorporated into Multi-area unit commitment with import/export and tie-line constraints. This proposed method considers maximizing own profit or minimize the operating cost among the generating companies in multi-area system. The feasibility of the proposed algorithm has been demonstrated using IEEE system with four areas and experimental results shows that proposed method is reliable, fast and computationally efficient

• Journal of Korea Water Resources Association
• /
• v.41 no.4
• /
• pp.365-377
• /
• 2008

In this study, PROMETHEE(Preference Ranking Organization METHod for Enrichment Evaluations) which is one of the multi criteria decision making methods is applied to estimate the relative inundation risk of the urban subcatchment. For this purpose, several factors which have an effect on the inundation risk are selected and used to perform PROMETHEE. Those are elevation average, slope average, density of conduit, population and sediment yields per unit area of each subcatchment. Based on them, PROMETHEE is performed and the relative inundation risk for each subcatchment is estimated. For the validation of the suggested method, the results from the suggested method are compared with the historical inundation records occured on 1998 and the relative inundation risk estimated by the method considering sediment yields per unit area only. From the comparison, it is found that the suggested method may generate better results to estimate the relative inundation risk of each subcatchment than the method considering sediment yields per unit area only. Also, it can be applied to establish a rehabilitation order of subcatchments for mitigating the inundation risk.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Safety
• /
• v.34 no.5
• /
• pp.159-166
• /
• 2019

The seismic PSA is to probabilistically estimate the potential damage that a large earthquake will cause to a nuclear power plant. It integrates the probabilistic seismic hazard analysis, seismic fragility analysis, and system analysis and is utilized to identify seismic vulnerability and improve seismic capacity of nuclear power plants. Recently, the seismic risk of domestic multi-unit nuclear power plant sites has been evaluated after the Great East Japan Earthquake and Gyeongju Earthquake in Korea. However, while the currently available methods for system analysis can derive basic required results of seismic PSA, they do not provide the detailed results required for the efficient improvement of seismic capacity. Therefore, for in-depth seismic risk evaluation, improved system analysis method for seismic PSA has become necessary. This study develops a system analysis method that is not only suitable for multi-unit seismic PSA but also provides risk information for the seismic capacity improvements. It will also contribute to the enhancement of the safety of nuclear power plants by identifying the seismic vulnerability using the detailed results of seismic PSA. In addition, this system analysis method can be applied to other external event PSAs, such as fire PSA and tsunami PSA, which require similar analysis.

• Proceedings of the Korean Nuclear Society Conference
• /
• 2001.10a
• /
• pp.181.2-181
• /
• 2001

• Journal of the Korean Society of Safety
• /
• v.39 no.1
• /
• pp.96-103
• /
• 2024

The demand for mass calculation of offsite consequence analysis to conduct exhaustive single-unit or multi-unit Level 3 PSA is increasing. In order to perform efficient offsite consequence analyses, the Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute is conducting model optimization studies to minimize the analysis time while maintaining the accuracy of the results. A previous study developed a model optimization method using efficient plume segmentation and verified its effectiveness. In this study, we investigated the possibility of optimizing the model through particle size distribution setting by checking the reduction in analysis time and deviation of the results. Our findings indicate that particle size distribution setting affects the results, but its effect on analysis time is insignificant. Therefore, it is advantageous to set the particle size distribution as fine as possible. Furthermore, we evaluated the effect of multithreading and confirmed its efficiency. Future optimization studies should be conducted on various input factors of offsite consequence analysis, such as spatial grid settings.