• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.54 no.8
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• pp.2915-2923
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• 2022

There is an increasing interest in passive safety systems to minimize the need for operator intervention or external power sources in nuclear power plants. Because a passive system has a weak driving force, there is greater uncertainty in the performance compared with an active system. In previous studies, several methods have been suggested to evaluate passive system reliability, and many of them estimated the failure probability using thermal-hydraulic analyses and the Monte Carlo method. However, if the functional failure of a passive system is rare, it is difficult to estimate the failure probability using conventional methods owing to their high computational time. In this paper, a procedure for the application of the Chernoff bound to the evaluation of passive system reliability is proposed. A feasibility study of the procedure was conducted on a passive decay heat removal system of a micro modular reactor in its conceptual design phase, and it was demonstrated that the passive system reliability can be evaluated without performing a large number of thermal-hydraulic analyses or Monte Carlo simulations when the system has a small failure probability. Accordingly, the advantages and constraints of applying the Chernoff bound for passive system reliability evaluation are discussed in this paper.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.43 no.5
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• pp.437-446
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• 2011

Siting criteria for nuclear power plants require that faults be characterized as to their potential for generating earthquakes, or that the absence of the potential for these occurrences be demonstrated. Because the definition of active faults in Korea has been applied by the deterministic method, which depends on the numerical age of fault movement, the possibility of inherent uncertainties exists in determining the maximum earthquake from the fault sources for seismic design. In an attempt to overcome these problems this study suggests new criteria and a probabilistic quantitative diagnostic procedure that could estimate whether a fault is capable of generating earthquakes in the near future.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Pressure Vessels and Piping
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• v.9 no.1
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• pp.31-34
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• 2013

According to the increase in numbers and operation time of domestic Nuclear Power Plants, KHNP(Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power) has many operating experiences. These show that most of the accidents repeatedly occurred not by the new sources or mechanism like the Fukushima Accident, but by the human and equipment errors from normal habits, process, design, maintenance etc.. These lessons show that the well-established systematic approach is requested to take lessons from past experiences. For this reason, developed countries established INPO, WANO, COG as a non-profit professional organizations to actively share their operating experiences. KHNP is also trying to promote the utilization of operating experiences. As part of this effort, KHNP is developing the KHNP-JIT, reflecting the overseas JIT and the domestic experiences.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.49 no.8
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• pp.1589-1599
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• 2017

Field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) are getting more attention in safety-related and safety-critical application development of nuclear power plant instrumentation and control systems. The high logic density and advancements in architectural features make static random access memory (SRAM)-based FPGAs suitable for complex design implementations. Devices deployed in the nuclear environment face radiation particle strike that causes transient and permanent failures. The major reasons for failures are total ionization dose effects, displacement damage dose effects, and single event effects. Different from the case of space applications, soft errors are the major concern in terrestrial applications. In this article, a review of radiation effects on FPGAs is presented, especially soft errors in SRAM-based FPGAs. Single event upset (SEU) shows a high probability of error in the dependable application development in FPGAs. This survey covers the main sources of radiation and its effects on FPGAs, with emphasis on SEUs as well as on the measurement of radiation upset sensitivity and irradiation experimental results at various facilities. This article also presents a comparison between the major SEU mitigation techniques in the configuration memory and user logics of SRAM-based FPGAs.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Systems Engineering
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• v.15 no.1
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• pp.1-8
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• 2019

Reverse engineering involves examining a system or component so as to comprehend its structure, functionality, and operation. Creation of a system model in reverse engineering can serve several purposes: test generation, change impact analysis, and the creation of a new or modified system. When attempting to reverse engineering a system, often the most readily accessible information is the system description, which does not readily lend itself to use in Model Based System Engineering (MBSE). Therefore, it is necessary to be able to transform this description into a diagram, which clearly depicts the behavior of the system as well as the interaction between components. This study demonstrates how sequence diagrams can be extracted from the systems description. Using MBSE software, the sequence diagrams for the Engineered Safety Features Component Control System (ESF-CCS) of the Nuclear Power Plant are created. Sequence diagrams are chosen because they are a means of representing the systems behavior and the interaction between components. In addition, from these diagrams, the system's functional requirements can be elicited. These diagrams then serve as the baseline of the reverse engineering process and multiple system views are subsequently be created from them, thus speeding up the development process. In addition, the use of MBSE ensures that any additional information obtained from auxiliary sources can then be input into the system model, ensuring data consistency.

• Advances in Energy Research
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• v.5 no.3
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• pp.239-254
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• 2017

The world began to search for new energy sources with increasing energy demand. Renewable energy sources are as hydropower important for alternative energy. Countries with high hydroelectric potentials continue to work to utilize hydroelectric power plants in the most efficient way. Pumped storage hydropower plants are an important investment to meet the growing energy needs at peak times and to store energy. Although it produces energy in many countries, pumped storage hydropower plants have not begun to be built in Turkey which has high hydroelectric potential. A new era will be opened for energy production in Turkey where a large number of pumped storage hydropower plants projects are in study phase with the construction of pumped storage hydropower plants and first nuclear power plant.

• Journal of Energy Engineering
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• v.15 no.1 s.45
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• pp.14-22
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• 2006

Various pros and cons are raised as to the nuclear and renewable power portions. In order to generate scientific, objective, and comparative data, this study reviewed energy policies of some countries and derived 34 possible energy mix scenarios depending on the nuclear portion, the renewable portion and the make-up power sources. For each scenario, the unit electricity cost was calculated using the BLMP (Base Load Marginal Price) and SMP (System Marginal Price) methodology, which is currently adopted in Korean electricity market. The unit electricity cost for the current energy mix was 22.18 Won/kWh and those fir other scenarios spreaded from 19.74 to 164.07 Won/kWh excluding the transmission costs and profits of the electric utility companies. Generally, the increased nuclear power portion leads reduction in the unit electricity cost while the trend is reversed in the renewable power portion. Notable observation is that when the renewable power portion exceeds 20%, as the scenario cannot enjoy the benefit of cheap base load, the unit electricity cost at low demand time zone is increased.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.54 no.3
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• pp.1115-1125
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• 2022

Nuclear power plant (NPP) is currently considered as one of the most reliable power sources. However, 182 of them are considered decommissioned and inactive including the one in Bataan, Philippines. The aim of this study was to investigate the acceptance of the reopening of Bataan Nuclear Power Plant (BNPP) by integrating the Theory of Planned Behavior and Protection Motivation Theory. A total of 815 Filipinos answered an online questionnaire which consisted of 37 questions. The Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) indicated that knowledge towards nuclear power plants was the key factor in determining people's acceptance towards NPP reopening. In addition, knowing the benefits would lead to positive perceived behavioral control (PBC) and attitude towards intention. Results showed that PBC and attitude are mediators towards the acceptance of people regarding the reopening of BNPP. If an individual's knowledge gravitates towards the perceived risk, then this can lead to the negative acceptance of the NPP reopening. On the other hand, if an individual's knowledge gravitates towards the perceived benefits, then this will lead to positive acceptance. This study is the first study that explored the acceptance of the reopening BNPP. Finally, the study's model construct would also be very beneficial for researchers, government, and even private sectors worldwide.

• Environmental and Resource Economics Review
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• v.31 no.4
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• pp.711-731
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• 2022

In Korea, nuclear power plants are major sources of electricity supply with relatively low costs. Despite the importance and scale of nuclear electricity generation, the Korean tax and levy system is less organized than those in other countries, such as France and Japan, where nuclear power plants also play significant roles for electricity supply. Countries impose tax on nuclear electricity generation roughly in three ways: tax on nuclear reactors; tax on uranium fuel; tax on electricity from nuclear power plants. The Korean government may consider taxing nuclear electricity generation based on uranium fuel or electricity generation. If taxing on uranium fuel at the rate of 90 KRW per milligram of uranium, the Korean government can collect additional tax revenue of 430 billion KRW. If taxing on electricity from nuclear power plants at the rate of 11 KRW per kilowatt-hour, the government can collect additional tax revenue of 1,600 billion KRW.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.44 no.3
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• pp.297-310
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• 2012

Aging-related degradation of nuclear power plant components is an important aspect to consider in securing the long term safety of the plant, especially the seismic safety, since the degradation of the components affects not only their seismic capacity but their response. This can cause a change in the seismic margin of a component and the overall seismic safety of a system. To better understand the status and characteristics of degradation of components in Nuclear Power Plants (NPPs), the degradation occurrences of components in the U.S. NPPs were identified by reviewing recent publicly available information sources and the characteristics of these occurrences were evaluated and compared to observations from the past. Ten categories of components that are of high risk significance in Korean NPPs were identified, comprising anchorage, concrete, containment, exchanger, filter, piping systems, reactor pressure vessels, structural steel, tanks, and vessels. Software tools were developed to expedite the review process. Results from this review effort were compared to previous data in the literature to characterize the overall degradation trends.