• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.51 no.6
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• pp.1540-1553
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• 2019

A nuclear power plant (NPP) is a highly complex system-of-systems as manifested through its internal systems interdependence. The negative impact of such interdependence was demonstrated through the 2011 Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster. As such, there is a critical need for new strategies to overcome the limitations of current risk assessment techniques (e.g. the use of static event and fault tree schemes), particularly through simulation of the nonlinear dynamic feedback mechanisms between the different NPP systems/components. As the first and key step towards developing an integrated NPP dynamic probabilistic risk assessment platform that can account for such feedback mechanisms, the current study adopts a system dynamics simulation approach to model the thermal dynamic processes in: the reactor core; the secondary coolant system; and the pressurized water reactor. The reactor core and secondary coolant system parameters used to develop system dynamics models are based on those of the Palo Verde Nuclear Generating Station. These three system dynamics models are subsequently validated, using results from published work, under different system perturbations including the change in reactivity, the steam valve coefficient, the primary coolant flow, and others. Moving forward, the developed system dynamics models can be integrated with other interacting processes within a NPP to form the basis of a dynamic system-level (systemic) risk assessment tool.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.49 no.5
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• pp.953-967
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• 2017

In this paper, a complete station blackout (SBO) or complete loss of electrical power supplies is simulated and analyzed in a downward cooling 5-MW pool-type Material Testing Reactor (MTR). The scenario is traced in the absence of active cooling systems and operators. The code nodalization is successfully benchmarked against experimental data of the reactor's operating parameters. The passive heat removal system includes downward water cooling after pump breakdown by the force of gravity (where the coolant streams down to the unfilled portion of the holdup tank), safety flapper opening, flow reversal from a downward to an upward cooling direction, and then the upward free convection heat removal throughout the flapper safety valve, lower plenum, and fuel assemblies. Both short-term and long-term natural core cooling conditions are simulated and investigated using the RELAP5 code. Short-term analyses focus on the safety flapper valve operation and flow reversal mode. Long-term analyses include simulation of both complete SBO and long-term operation of the free convection mode. Results are promising for pool-type MTRs because this allows operators to investigate RELAP code abilities for MTR thermal-hydraulic simulations without any oscillation; moreover, the Tehran Research Reactor is conservatively safe against the complete SBO and long-term free convection operation.

• The Transactions of The Korean Institute of Electrical Engineers
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• v.62 no.3
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• pp.300-305
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• 2013

LOOP(Loss of Offsite Power) and SBO(Station Blackout) events have been occurring in nuclear power plants should be reviewed and be controlled on important electrical equipments by professional engineer to prevent and to safety improvement from safety assessment and reliability analysis report. LOOP and SBO occasionally happened by internal or external causes. This paper contained that LOOP frequency in the United States NPPs and in the domestic NPPs have compared and analyzed data by the past lessons and probabilistic statistics. Additionally will be installed MG(Mobile Generator) according to the lessons of Fukushima nuclear accident in Japan, which CDF(Core Damage Frequency) and LOOP frequency have reconsidered. And this paper proposed to reduce reliability criteria using PSA(Probabilistic Safety Analysis).

• Ocean and Polar Research
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• v.35 no.4
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• pp.299-312
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• 2013

This study analyzed the species composition and density of a macrobenthic community according to variations in the thermal discharge volumes of a nuclear power plant before, during, and after the shutdown of the nuclear power plant during two periods. In this study, 369 macrobenthic fauna species were collected, and their mean density was 1,712 ind. $m^{-2}$. The number of species and diversity of macrobenthic fauna decreased with distance from the thermal discharge area, regardless of whether the nuclear plant shutdown or not. Many macrobenthic taxa appeared near the thermal discharge area, but polychaetes species were more prominent in outer areas than at the discharge area. The density of macrobenthic fauna decreased with distance from the thermal discharge area during a plant shutdown in the fall of 2011, but increased, except at two sites, near the discharge area in the winter of 2012. Cluster analysis indicated that the spatial distribution of the macrobenthic community changed in areas near the nuclear power plant after a shutdown period; that is, the station group I, in areas near the nuclear power plant, became narrower after the shutdown, but it recovered to previously occupied areas after the nuclear power plant began operating again. Opportunistic species, such as the polychaetes Lumbrineris longifolia (= Scoletoma longifolia) and Mediomastus californiensis, which were present in high densities near thermal discharge areas, decreased after the shutdown but recovered after the plant re-opened. The number of species and diversity of the macrofauna and the density of dominant species showed a significant correlation with temperature, except in winter periods. The results of this study revealed that changes in the amount of thermal discharge before and after the shutdown of a nuclear power plant could exert an influence on the structure of macrobenthic community within the thermal discharge areas depending on the season.

• Proceedings of the Korea Water Resources Association Conference
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• 2007.05a
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• pp.58-66
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• 2007

This paper introduces the new generic dynamic neuro-fuzzy local modeling system (DNFLMS) that is based on a dynamic Takagi-Sugeno (TS) type fuzzy inference system for complex dynamic hydrological modeling tasks. The proposed DNFLMS applies a local generalization principle and an one-pass training procedure by using the evolving clustering method to create and update fuzzy local models dynamically and the extended Kalman filtering learning algorithm to optimize the parameters of the consequence part of fuzzy local models. The proposed DNFLMS is applied to develop the inference model to forecast the flow of Waikoropupu Springs, located in the Takaka Valley, South Island, New Zealand, and the influence of the operation of the 32 Megawatts Cobb hydropower station on springs flow. It is demonstrated that the proposed DNFLMS is superior in terms of model accuracy, model complexity, and computational efficiency when compared with a multi-layer perceptron trained with the back propagation learning algorithm and well-known adaptive neural-fuzzy inference system, both of which adopt global generalization.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.10 no.4
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• pp.203-213
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• 1978

A combination of computer codes such as LATREP, HWR, AXAV and CITATION is utilized in an attempt to analyze the nuclear design characteristics of the CANDU-PHWR of the Wolsung Unit 1. The major nuclear properties to be computed are tile lattice properties of CANDU fuel channel and the core channel power distribution. The computed results are compared with the PSR documentation for the Wolsung reactor. The observed discrepancies between our computation and the PSB values are discussed in terms of incomplete information on the description of the core configuration in the PSR and the different calculation methods.

• Journal of Magnetics
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• v.18 no.3
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• pp.365-369
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• 2013

Coal ash is known to contain a noticeable amount of valuable elements, including transition metals and lanthanides. Therefore it is quite actual problem to extract them for metallurgy and other applications. This paper presents the results of high gradient magnetic and mechanical separation, microscopy, element analyses and optical spectroscopy of brown coal ash taken from the combustion camera and chimney-stalk of Angren thermal power station. The separated magnetic fraction was 3.4 wt.%, where the content of Fe in ferrospheres increased to 58 wt.%. The highest contents of Fe and rare earth elements were found in the fine fractions of $50-100{\mu}m$. Optical absorption spectroscopy of water solutions of the magnetic fractions revealed $Fe^{2+}$ and $Fe^{3+}$ ions in the ratio of ~1:1. The separated coal ash could be used for cleaning of technological liquid waste by means of the high gradient magnetic field.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Illuminating and Electrical Installation Engineers
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• v.12 no.4
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• pp.106-113
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• 1998

The steam generator waste level control system in a nuclear power station has difficulty in its mathematical modeling and theoretical application in both a transient and steady state operation. Therefore, the stability problem of the conventional control methods brings many researches interests to the various methods of a system design in recent years. In this study, an improved loop shaping approach is proposed by applying the genetic algorithm to QFT (Quantitative Feedback Theory) in designing a control system in order to the performance of the system. And the effects of the proposed methods are shown by the simulation results.

• Corrosion Science and Technology
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• v.15 no.4
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• pp.182-188
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• 2016

Significant piping wall thinning caused by Flow-Accelerated Corrosion (FAC) and Erosion-Corrosion (EC) continues to occur, even after the Mihama Power Station unit 3 secondary pipe rupture in 2004, in which workers were seriously injured or died. Nuclear power plants in many countries have experienced FAC and EC-related cases in steam cycle piping systems. Korea has also experienced piping wall thinning cases including thinning in the downstream straight pipe of a check valve in a feedwater pump line, the downstream elbow of a control valve in a feedwater flow control line, and failure of the straight pipe downstream of an orifice in an auxiliary steam return line. Cause analyses were performed by reviewing thickness data using Ultrasonic Techniques (UT) and, Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) images for the failed pipe, and numerical simulation results for FAC and EC cases in Korea Nuclear Power Plants. It was concluded that the main cause of wall thinning for the downstream pipe of a check valve is FAC caused by water vortex flow due to the internal flow shape of a check valve, the main cause of wall thinning for the downstream elbow of a control valve is FAC caused by a thickness difference with the upstream pipe, and the main cause of wall thinning for the downstream pipe of an orifice is FAC and EC caused by liquid droplets and vortex flow. In order to investigate more cases, additional analyses were performed with the review of a lot of thickness data for inspected pipes. The results showed that pipe wall thinning was also affected by the operating condition of upstream equipment. Management of FAC and EC based on these cases will focus on the downstream piping of abnormal or unusual operated equipment.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.54 no.1
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• pp.414-422
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• 2022

Presented in this paper is a methodology for combining a Bayesian statistical approach with Data Quality Objectives (a structured decision-making method) to provide increased levels of confidence in analytical data when approaching a waste boundary. Development of sampling and analysis plans for the characterisation of radioactive waste often use a simple, one pass statistical approach as underpinning for the sampling schedule. Using a Bayesian statistical approach introduces the concept of Prior information giving an adaptive sample strategy based on previous knowledge. This aligns more closely with the iterative approach demanded of the most commonly used structured decision-making tool in this area (Data Quality Objectives) and the potential to provide a more fully underpinned justification than the more traditional statistical approach. The approach described has been developed in a UK regulatory context but is translated to a waste stream from the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station to demonstrate how the methodology can be applied in this context to support decision making regarding the ultimate disposal option for radioactive waste in a more global context.