• Title/Summary/Keyword: nuclear power industry

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Public Perception and Communication Patterns Pertaining to Nuclear Power in Korea: Focusing on the Transition Period from Pro-nuclear to De-nuclear Policy

  • Eunok Han;Yoonseok Choi
    • Journal of Radiation Protection and Research
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    • v.47 no.4
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    • pp.226-236
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    • 2022
  • Background: An effective communication strategy for reducing conflicts in South Korea has been designed through the analysis of public perception and communication variables on nuclear power under the conditions of rapidly changing nuclear power policies. Materials and Methods: This study conducted both qualitative research through group discussions based on social psychology and quantitative research through surveys. Results and Discussion: Nuclear power plant (NPP) area residents in favor of nuclear power indicated higher levels of communication, safety perception, and contribution than those against it. NPP area residents trusted the civilian expert groups (18.3%) and local government (17.3%) the most, while metropolitan city residents trusted the Nuclear Safety and Security Commission and the Korea Institute of Nuclear Safety (20.7%) the most. In determining nuclear power policy, both the NPP area residents (18.1%) and metropolitan city residents (17.1%) prioritized safety, health, and the environment. While metropolitan city residents thought that energy security and economic growth (16.4%) were important, NPP area residents thought the current issue of spent fuel rods (14.1%) to be important. Conclusion: It is necessary for the nuclear power industry to have and actively implement communication and conflict resolution strategies based on the patterns obtained in the study results.

Review of Contamination and Monitoring of On-site Groundwater at Foreign Nuclear Power Plants due to Unplanned Release (비계획적 방출에 의한 해외 원전 부지 지하수 오염 및 감시 기술현황 분석)

  • Sohn, Wook;Lee, Gab-Bok;Yang, Yang-Hee
    • Journal of Radiation Protection and Research
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    • v.38 no.2
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    • pp.124-131
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    • 2013
  • Utilities have tried to ensure that radiological hazards to the environment and residents are kept as low as reasonably achievable by monitoring and controlling planned releases. However, since groundwater contamination was reported to occur due to unplanned releases mostly in the United States nuclear power plants, the interest of the stakeholders has increased to a point where it is now one of the most important issues in the United States nuclear power industry. This paper aims to help to implement an effective on-site groundwater monitoring program at domestic nuclear power plants by briefing the experiences of the United States nuclear power plants on groundwater contaminations and groundwater monitoring, and responses of the United States nuclear industry and regulator body for them.

Human resource planning for authorized inspection activity

  • Lee, Seung-hee;Field, Robert Murray
    • Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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    • v.51 no.2
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    • pp.618-625
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    • 2019
  • When newcomer countries consider a nuclear power programme, it is recognized that the most important organizations are the Nuclear Energy Programme Implementing Organization (NEPIO), the regulator, and an operating organization. Concerning the number of construction delays these days, one of the essential organizations is an Authorized Inspection Agency (AIA). According to World Nuclear Industry Status Report, all of the reactors under construction in eight out of the thirteen countries have experienced delays. Globally, the Flamanville 3 project and Sanmen Unit 1 are 6.5 years and 5 years late respectively. One of the major reasons of delay is due to inappropriate manufacturing and inspection on safety class components. The recommendations are made to develop such an organization: (i) find existing inspection organizations in relevant industries, (ii) contract with expatriates who have experience on nuclear inspection, (iii) develop a legislative framework to authorize the inspection organization with enforcement, (iv) include a contract clause in the BIS for developing the AIA, (v) hold training programmes from vendor country, (vi) during manufacturing and construction, domestic AIA shall be involved.

CONDITION MONITORING USING EMPIRICAL MODELS: TECHNICAL REVIEW AND PROSPECTS FOR NUCLEAR APPLICATIONS

  • Heo, Gyun-Young
    • Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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    • v.40 no.1
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    • pp.49-68
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    • 2008
  • The purpose of this paper is to extensively review the condition monitoring (CM) techniques using empirical models in an effort to reduce or eliminate unexpected downtimes in general industry, and to illustrate the feasibility of applying them to the nuclear industry. CM provides on-time warnings of system states to enable the optimal scheduling of maintenance and, ultimately, plant uptime is maximized. Currently, most maintenance processes tend to be either reactive, or part of scheduled, or preventive maintenance. Such maintenance is being increasingly reported as a poor practice for two reasons: first, the component does not necessarily require maintenance, thus the maintenance cost is wasted, and secondly, failure catalysts are introduced into properly working components, which is worse. This paper first summarizes the technical aspects of CM including state estimation and state monitoring. The mathematical background of CM is mature enough even for commercial use in the nuclear industry. Considering the current computational capabilities of CM, its application is not limited by technical difficulties, but by a lack of desire on the part of industry to implement it. For practical applications in the nuclear industry, it may be more important to clarify and quantify the negative impact of unexpected outcomes or failures in CM than it is to investigate its advantages. In other words, while issues regarding accuracy have been targeted to date, the concerns regarding robustness should now be concentrated on. Standardizing the anticipated failures and the possibly harsh operating conditions, and then evaluating the impact of the proposed CM under those conditions may be necessary. In order to make the CM techniques practical for the nuclear industry in the future, it is recommended that a prototype CM system be applied to a secondary system in which most of the components are non-safety grade. Recently, many activities to enhance the safety and efficiency of the secondary system have been encouraged. With the application of CM to nuclear power plants, it is expected to increase profit while addressing safety and economic issues.