• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.53 no.5
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• pp.1454-1463
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• 2021

Demographics, personality traits and attitudes are related to safety behaviors in varied workplaces, but their roles in nuclear power plants (NPPs) have not been fully understood. This study was conducted to explore the roles of a set of demographic, personality and attitudinal factors on self-reported safety behaviors (including safety participation and human errors) among NPP commissioning workers. Survey data were collected from 157 Chinese commissioning workers. Results showed that age and work experience were significantly associated with human errors, but not with safety participation. Neuroticism and conscientiousness were significantly related to human errors, while neuroticism, conscientiousness and agreeableness were significantly related to safety participation. Attitude towards questioning was observed as an antecedent of safety participation, and functioned as a mediating variable in the relation between conscientiousness and safety behaviors. The findings provide evidence-based implications on the design of diverse interventions and strategies for the promotion of safety behaviors in NPPs.

• Proceedings of the Korean Nuclear Society Conference
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• 2005.10a
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• pp.1049-1050
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• 2005

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.56 no.2
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• pp.389-401
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• 2024

In recent decades, numerous instances of blockages have been reported in coastal nuclear power plants globally, leading to serious safety accidents such as power reduction, manual or automatic power loss, or shutdown of nuclear power units. Loss or shortage of cooling water may compromise the reliability of the cooling water system, thus threatening the operational safety of power plants and resulting in revenue reduction. This study provides a comprehensive review of the current state of cooling water system safety in coastal nuclear power plants worldwide and the common challenges they face, as well as the relevant research on cooling water system safety issues. The research overview and progress in investigation methods, outbreak mechanisms, prevention and control measures, and practical cases of blockages were summarized. Despite existing research, there are still many shortcomings regarding the pertinence, comprehensiveness and prospects of related research, and many problems urgently need to be solved. The most fundamental concern involves understanding the list of potential risks of blockages and their spatially distributed effects in surrounding waters. Furthermore, knowledge of the biological cycles and ecological habits of key organisms is essential for implementing risk prevention and control and for building a scientific and effective monitoring system.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.53 no.7
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• pp.2184-2194
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• 2021

The Free-Piston Stirling engine (FPSE) is of interest for many research in aerospace due to its advantages of long operating life, higher efficiency, and zero maintenance. In this study, a 1-kW FPSE was proposed by analyzing the requirements of Space Reactor Power Systems (SRPS), of which performance was evaluated by developing a code through the Simple Analysis Method. The results of SAM showed that the critical parameters of FPSE could satisfy the designed requirements. The heater of the FPSE was designed with the copper rectangular fins to enhance heat transfer, and the parametric study of the heater was performed with Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) software STAR-CCM⁺. The Performance Evaluation Criteria (PEC) was used to evaluate the heat transfer enhancement of the fins in the heater. The numerical results of the CFD program showed that pressure drop and Nusselt number ratio had a linear growth with the height of fins, and PEC number decreased as the height of fins increased, and the optimum height of the fin was set as 4 mm according to the minimum heat exchange surface area. This paper can provide theoretical supports for the design and numerical analysis of an FPSE for SRPSs.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Systems Engineering
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• v.11 no.2
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• pp.31-40
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• 2015

KEPCO International Nuclear Graduate School (KINGS) is dedicated to nurturing leadership-level professionals in nuclear power plant (NPP) engineering. KINGS have designed curriculum based on two philosophies. First, we balance aspects of discipline engineering, specialty engineering, and management engineering in the framework of systems engineering. Second, KINGS have designed the curriculum so that students can learn and experience the know-what, know-how and know-why level knowledge of NPP engineering and management. The specialization programs are opened during the 2nd year for 3 trimesters and those are a process of learning through practical project courses. The objectives of the specialization programs are to help students to learn the NPP life cycle technologies in highly structured and systematic ways. The systems engineer program (SEP) is one of the specialization programs. A practical case of the SEP which was applied to the project course for the NPP electric power system design education will be elaborated in this paper.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.55 no.4
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• pp.1410-1419
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• 2023

Public perception plays a crucial role in the successful completion of a nuclear power project. As a newcomer country to nuclear power, there are lots of misconceptions among the Bangladeshi people about nuclear energy. Consequently, it is crucial to minimize all the doubts among mass people and build up their positive outlook toward nuclear power. This demands a comprehensive survey to figure out the public opinion, concerns, false impressions, and knowledge gap regarding nuclear power. In the present study, these issues were addressed by a survey that was responded to by 661 persons for the 24 survey questions. The questions were categorized based on information, knowledge, faith, benefit, awareness, and technology. Feedback and responders' basic demographic and socioeconomic information were collected from various locations in Bangladesh through online and in-person surveys. The responses were analyzed in both statistical and descriptive ways. Some of the feedback was found to vary with age, sex, and education level while others were quite independent of these parameters. It is found that socioeconomic development and energy security can be achieved by the inclusion of nuclear energy in the power system master plan of the country. However, huge knowledge gaps and misconceptions were found among the public regarding nuclear energy. As per feedback, political instability and corruption may affect the national nuclear power project in Bangladesh. Low faith in the existing rules & regulations for nuclear power programs was also observed. The result of this study will be handy to develop the communication and public awareness strategy for a successful nuclear power project in Bangladesh.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.53 no.1
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• pp.121-130
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• 2021

Cascading failure is the main cause of large blackouts in electrical power systems; this paper analyzes a cascading failure in Hanbit nuclear power plant unit two (2) caused by a circuit breaker (CB) operation failure. This malfunction has been expanded to the loss of offsite power (LOOP). In this study, current practices are reviewed and then the methodologies of how to prevent cascading failures in protection power systems are introduced. An overview on the implementation of IEC61850 GOOSE messaging-based zone selective interlocking (ZSI) scheme as key solution is proposed. In consideration of ZSI blocking time, all influencing factors such as circuit breaker opening time, relay I/O response time and messages travelling time in the communication network should be taken into account. The purpose of this paper is to elaborate on the effect of cascading failure in NPP electrical power protection system and propose preventive actions for this failures. Finally, the expected advantages and challenges are elaborated.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.53 no.3
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• pp.763-775
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• 2021

The thermal hydraulic performances of Steam Generator (SG) under both steady and transient operation conditions are of great importance for the safety and economy in nuclear power plants. In this paper, based on our self-developed SG thermal hydraulic analysis code STAF (Steam-generator Thermalhydraulic Analysis code based on Fluent), an improved new version STAF-CT (fully Coupling and Transient) is developed and introduced. Compared with original STAF, the new version code STAF-CT has two main functional improvements including "Transient" and "Fully Three Dimensional Coupling" features. In STAF-CT, a three dimensional energy transferring module is established which can achieve energy exchange computing function at the corresponding position between two sides of SG. The STAF-CT is validated against the international benchmark experiment data and the results show great agreement. Then the U-shaped SG in AP1000 nuclear power plant is modeled and simulated using STAF-CT. The results show that three dimensional flow fields in the primary side make significant effect on the energy source distribution between two sides. The development of code STAF-CT in this paper can provide an effective method for further SG high fidelity research in the nuclear reactor system.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.55 no.6
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• pp.2011-2017
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• 2023

Gas submerged jet is an outstanding thermohydraulic phenomenon in pool scrubbing of fission products during a severe nuclear accident. Experiments were performed on the hydraulic characteristics in the ranges of air mass flux 0.1-1400 kg/m²s and nozzle diameter 10-80 mm. The results showed that the dependence of inlet pressure on the mass flux follows a power law in subsonic jets and a linear law in sonic jets. The effect of nozzle submerged depth was negligible. The isolated bubbling regime, continuous bubbling regime, transition regime, and jetting regime were observed in turn, as the mass flux increased. In the bubbling regime and jetting regime, the air volume fraction distribution was approximately symmetric in space. Themelis model could capture the jet trajectory well. In the transition regime, the air volume fraction distribution loses symmetry due to the bifurcated secondary plume. The Li correlation and Themelis model showed sufficient accuracy for the prediction of jet penetration length.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.53 no.6
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• pp.1858-1868
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• 2021

Resisting an accidental impact of large commercial aircrafts is an important aspect of advanced nuclear power plant (NPP) design. Especially after the 9·11 event, some regulations were enacted, which required the design of NPPs should consider the accidental impact of large commercial aircrafts. Normal working of equipment is important for stopping reactor under an impact when an NPP is in operation. However, there is a lack of reliable analysis and research on the impact test of nuclear prototype equipment. Therefore, in order to study the response of the equipment under high acceleration impact, a centrifugal pump is selected as the research object to perform the impact test. A horizontal half-sinusoidal pulse wave was applied to the working pump. The test results show that the horizontal response of the motor and flange is greater compared to other parts, as well as the vertical response of the coupling. The stress response of the pump body support and motor support is high, hence these parts should be considered in the design of the pump. Finally, combined with the damage and stress evaluation results of the pump under different amplitudes, the ultimate impact acceleration that the pump can withstand is given.