• Korea Trade Review
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• v.45 no.5
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• pp.55-74
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• 2020

This study examines the policy direction and specific countermeasures for addressing possible port labour issues from the perspective of Just Transition which may be raised by closing coal fired power plants in Korea. Current energy transition policy and port labour policy in Korea are reviewed and case studies in the countries which has experienced closure of coal fired power plants are undertaken. Although it varies from country to country, a similar approach was found that the employment problem of coal fired power plant closures and measures based on Just Transition regime to mitigate the negative impacts that occur in the region are the key to successful transition. It is suggested that countermeasures for port labour should be institutionalized for providing stakeholders with legal stability covering labours not only directly employed by the plants but also employed in entities in the whole supply chains.

• Journal of Korean Society for Atmospheric Environment
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• v.28 no.2
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• pp.172-181
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• 2012

Mercury is one of the most hazardous air pollutants. Recently, mercury has been a concern in domestic and overseas because it has lethal toxicity, long distance transport, persistence and bioaccumulation in the environment. Stationary combustion sources such as coal-fired power plants, waste incinerators, and cement kilns are the major sources of mercury emissions. The objectives of this study were to measure the concentration for mercury from coal-fired power plants and to calculate emission factor to estimate its emission. The results showed that the mercury concentrations in the flue gas were 1.63-3.03 mg/$Sm^3$ in anthracite-fired power plants (average 2.32 mg/$Sm^3$) and 1.95-3.33 mg/$Sm^3$ in bituminous-fired power plants (average 2.6 mg/$Sm^3$). Mercury emission factor was estimated as 25.74 mg/ton for anthracite-fired power plants and 12.48 mg/ton for bituminous-fired power plants. Because actual measurements are limited in quantity, it is desirable to refine our estimates by extending the actual measurements.

• Journal of Energy Engineering
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• v.26 no.4
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• pp.45-56
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• 2017

Coal power plants produce electricity for the nation's power grid, but they also produce more hazardous air emissions than any other industrial pollution sources. The quantity is staggering, over 386,000 tons of 84 separate hazardous air pollutants spew from over 400 plants in 46 states. In South Korea also, annual coal ash generation from coal-fired power plants were about 6 million tons in 2015. Pollutants containing particulate matter 10, 2.5 (PM10, PM2.5), heavy metals and dioxins from coal-fired power plant. The emissions threaten the health of people who live near these power plants, as well as those who live hundreds of miles away. These pollutants that have long-term impacts on the environment because they accumulate in soil, water and animals. The present study is to investigate the physical and chemical characteristics of coal-fired power plant fly ash and bottom ash contains particulate matter, whose particulate sizes are lower than $PM_{10}$ and $PM_{2.5}$ and heavy metals. There are wide commercial technologies were available for monitoring the PM 2.5 and ultra-fine particles, among those carbonation technology is a good tool for stabilizing the alkaline waste materials. We collected the coal ash samples from different coal power plants and the chemical composition of coal fly ash was characterized by XRF. In the present laboratory research approach reveals that potential application of carbonation technology for particulate matter $PM_{10}$, $PM_{2.5}$ and stabilization of heavy metals. The significance of this emerging carbonation technology was improving the chemical and physical properties of fly ash and bottom ash samples can facilitate wide re use in construction applications.

• Corrosion Science and Technology
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• v.9 no.5
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• pp.187-195
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• 2010

Hyper duplex stainless steels have been developed in Korea for the purpose of application to the seawater system of Korean nuclear power plants. This system supplies seawater to cooling water heat exchanger tubes, related pipes and chlorine injection system. In normal operation, seawater is supplied to heat exchanger through the exit of circulating water pump headers, and the heat exchanged sea water is extracted to the discharge pipes in circulating water system connected to the circulating water discharge lines. The high flow velocity of some part of seawater system in nuclear power plants accelerates damages of components. Therefore, high strength and high corrosion resistant steels need to be applied for this environment. Hyper duplex stainless steel (27Cr-7.0Ni-2.5Mo-3.2W-0.35N) has been newly developed in Korea and is being improved for applying to nuclear power plants. In this study, the physical & mechanical properties and corrosion resistance of newly developed materials are quantitatively evaluated in comparative to commercial stainless steels in other countries. The properties of weld & HAZ (heat affected zone) are analyzed and the best compositions are suggested. The optimum conditions in welding process are derived for ensuring the volume fraction of ferrite(${\alpha}$) and austenite(${\gamma}$) in HAZ and controlling weld cracks. For applying these materials to the seawater heat exchanger, CCT and CPT in weldments are measured. As a result of all experiments, it was found that the newly developed hyper duplex stainless steel WREMBA has higher corrosion resistance and mechanical properties than those of super austenitic stainless steels including welded area. It is expected to be a promising material for seawater systems of Korean nuclear power plants.

• Fire Science and Engineering
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• v.33 no.5
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• pp.94-102
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• 2019

As the importance of first responses for fire accidents has grown in the safety management of nuclear power plants, a systematic approach to measure firefighters' psychological states and competence is needed. The current study investigated the construct of the risk perception of the firefighters working near nuclear power plant sites, and then developed and validated a new scale to measure firefighters' risk perception regarding nuclear power plant accidents. The scale items were developed on the basis of literature review and interviews with the firefighters working near nuclear power plant sites. In order to validate the new scale, we recruited 180 firefighters from five fire stations in the vicinity of the nuclear power plants in Jeonnam Province, Gyeongbuk Province, and Busan. The results of exploratory factor analyses revealed that the scale consisted of five factors: "manual" reflecting a lack of response guidelines and manuals for fire incidents and radioactive material release; "fear" reflecting a fear of fire incidents in the nuclear power plants and their catastrophic consequences; "resource" reflecting a lack of protective equipment and manpower for responding to fire incidents in the nuclear power plants; "trust" reflecting trust and cooperation with the counterpart institutions for firefighting in the nuclear power plants; and "knowledge" reflecting the knowledge of radioactivity and firefighting in the nuclear power plants. Further analyses provided statistical evidence supporting for the 15-item scale's internal consistency and construct validity. Finally, We discussed the implication and limitations of the current research.

• Journal of the Institute of Convergence Signal Processing
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• v.9 no.4
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• pp.329-336
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• 2008

The facilities with new technologies in the recent power plants become larger and need a lot of high cost for maintenance due to stop operations and accidents from the operating machines. Therefore, it claims new systems to monitor the operating status and predict the faults of the machines. This research classifies the normal/abnormal status of the machines into 5 levels which are normal-level/abnormal-level/care-level/dangerous-level/fault and develops the new system that predicts faults without stop operation in power plants. We propose the regional segmentation technique in the frequency domain from the data of the operating machines and generate the Peak-codes similar to the Bar-codes, The high efficient and economic operations of the power plants will be achieved by carrying out the pre-maintenance at the care level of 5 levels in the plants. In order to be utilized easily at power plants, we developed the algorithm appling to a notebook computer from signal acquisition to the discrimination.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Nondestructive Testing
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• v.18 no.4
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• pp.321-329
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• 1998

Structural integrity of nuclear components is important for a safe operation of nuclear power plants. Therefore, nuclear power plants require to perform reliable, periodic inservice inspections. Korea Electric Power Company(KEPCO) operates the entire Korean nuclear power plants. Since nuclear power plant safety and the associated inservice inspection(ISI) are under the plant owner's responsibility, Korea Electric Power Research Institute(KEPRI), the R&D division of KEPCO, has established the ISI NDE Total Support system(TSS) for an efficient performance of ISI tasks, and initiated both key ISI NDE technology development program and traing & qualification system development program for an independent ISI operation. This paper describes details of these programs.

• Journal of Radiation Protection and Research
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• v.42 no.4
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• pp.222-228
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• 2017

Background: On June 18, 2017, Korea's first commercial nuclear reactor, the Kori Nuclear Power Plant No. 1, was permanently suspended, and the capacity of nuclear power generation facilities will be adjusted according to the governments denuclearization policy. In these circumstances, it is necessary to assess the quality of radiation safety management in nuclear power plants in Korea by evaluating the radiation dose associated with them. Materials and Methods: The average annual radiation dose per unit, the annual radiation dose per person, and the annual dose distribution were analyzed using the radiation dose database of nuclear reactors for the last 5 years. The results of our analysis were compared to the specifications of the Nuclear Safety Act and Medical Law in Korea. Results and Discussion: The annual average per unit radiation dose of global major nuclear power generation was 720 man-mSv, while that of Korea's nuclear power plants was 374 manmSv. No workers exceeded 50 mSv per year or 100 mSv in 5 years. The individual radiation dose according to occupational exposure was 0.59 mSv for nuclear workers, 1.77 mSv for non-destructive workers, and 0.8 mSv for diagnostic radiologists. Conclusion: The radiation safety management of nuclear power plants in Korea has achieved the best outcomes worldwide, which is considered to be the result of the as-low-as-reasonably-achievable (ALARA) approach and strict radiation safety management. Moreover, the occupational exposures were also very low.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.40 no.4
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• pp.255-268
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• 2008

The greater demand for electricity and the available capacity within safety margins in some operating NPPs are prompting nuclear utilities to request license modification to enable operation at a higher power level, beyond their original license provisions. Such plant modifications require an in-depth safety analysis to evaluate the possible safety impact. The analysis must consider the thermo hydraulic, radiological and structural aspects, and the plant behavior, while taking into account the capability of the structures, systems and components, and the reactor protection and safeguard systems set points. The purpose of this paper is to introduce international experiences and approaches for implementation of power uprates related to the reactor thermal power of nuclear power plants. The paper is intended to give the reader a general overview of the major processes, work products, issues, challenges, events, and experiences in the power uprates program. The process of increasing the licensed power level of a nuclear power plants is called a power uprate. One way of increasing the thermal output from a reactor is to increase the amount of fissile material in use. It is also possible to increase the core power by increasing the performance of the high power bundles. Safety margins can be maintained by either using fuels with a higher performance, or through the use of improved methods of analysis to demonstrate that the required margins are retained even at the higher power levels. The paper will review all types of power uprates, from small to large, and across various reactor types, including light and heavy water, pressurized, and boiling water reactors. Generally, however, the content of the report focuses on power uprates of the stretch and extended type. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) is developing a technical guideline on power uprates and side effects of power uprates in nuclear power plants.

• Korean Institute of Interior Design Journal
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• v.16 no.5
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• pp.81-88
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• 2007

Energy consumption has been increased world widely, and the energy retain is one of the most important economic alternatives. These tendencies expand the nuclear power plants not only quantitatively but also qualitatively. Despite of the increasing construction of nuclear power plants and related facilities, every system in main control room(MCR) has been designed and administered solely based on the safety-first principles because of the specificity of nuclear industry. However, recent main control rooms started with the concept that the operators' performance could be optimized though the organic interrelation between human, machine, and environments. Now, it has been recognised in the scope of Ergonomics and Space Design which acknowledge our living spaces as Man-Environment Interface and this change connotes the MCR spaces should be special spaces rather than ordinary spaces. This research investigated domestic and foreign nuclear power plants' MCRs to suggest basic alternatives which can be applied to future MCR. With the review of characteristics of MCR, an integration of interior design, lighting and Ergonomics was explored and classified as types. Futhermore, the classification of environmental characteristics within the relationships between human, machine, and environments was developed through the case analysis of nuclear power plants. The results of this study will provide a basis of space design for system environments that the high level of safety and function are extremely important.