• Journal of the Society of Disaster Information
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• v.19 no.3
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• pp.582-596
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• 2023

Purpose: This study aims to explore the ways to improve the security of temporary shelters in case of nuclear power plant accidents. Method: In this study, we mainly rely on the case studies on previous nuclear power plant accidents-Chernobyl, Fukushima, and Three Mile Island (TMI) cases. Result: The current radiation emergency response plans for nuclear power plant accidents center around the evacuation procedure. As a result, the concept of "shelter in place" has been understood as a means of assisting resident evacuation. However, based on the case studies, we find that encouraging shelter in place, rather than simply emphasizing evacuation, would help minimize unnecessary casualties, especially in case of the accidents rated greater than or equal to INES 5. To facilitate better shelter in place, we recommend utilize apartments as temporary shelters and suggest some possible improvements to ensure those apartments could be equipped with technologies for high radiation protection. Conclusion: To ensure better shelter in place, we recommend using apartments as temporary shelters, and we seek to supplement the function of apartments by using shielding, positive pressure, and sealing technologies.

• Progress in Superconductivity and Cryogenics
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• v.25 no.3
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• pp.13-17
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• 2023

Magnetic separation technology for small paramagnetic particles has been desired for the volume reduction of contaminated soil from the Fukushima nuclear power plant accident and for the separation of scale and crud from nuclear power plants. However, the magnetic separation for paramagnetic particles requires a superconducting high gradient magnetic separation system applied, hence expanding the bore diameter of the magnets is necessary for mass processing and the initial and running costs would be enormous. The use of high magnetic fields makes safe onsite operation difficult, and there is an industrial need to increase the magnetic separation efficiency for paramagnetic particles in as low a magnetic field as possible. Therefore, we have been developing a magnetic separation system combined with a selection tube, which can separate small paramagnetic particles in a low magnetic field. In the previous technique we developed, a certain range of particle size was classified, and the classified particles were captured by magnetic separation. In this new approach, the fluid control method has been improved in order to the selectively classify particles of various diameters by using a multi-stage selection tube. The soil classification using a multi-stage selection tube was studied by calculation and experiment, and good results were obtained. In this paper, we report the effectiveness of the multi-stage selection tube was examined.

• Environmental and Resource Economics Review
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• v.22 no.2
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• pp.367-391
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• 2013

After the Fukushima nuclear accident, the external costs of generating electricity from nuclear power plants such as additional safety compliance costs and possible accident risk action costs have gained increasing attention from the public, policy-makers and politicians. Consequently, estimates of the external costs of nuclear power are very deliberate issue that is at the center of the controversy in Korea. In this paper, we try to calculate the external costs associated with the safety of the nuclear power plants, particularly focusing on additional safety compliance costs and possible accident risk action costs. To estimate the possible accident risk action costs, we adopt the damages expectation approach that is very similar way from the external cost calculation of Japanese government after the Fukushima accident. In addition, to estimate additional safety compliance costs, we apply the levelized cost of generation method. Furthermore, we perform the sensitivity analysis to examine how much these social costs increase the electricity price rate. Estimation results of the additional security measure cost is 0.53Won/kWh ~ 0.80Won/kWh depending on the capacity factor, giving little change on the nuclear power generation cost. The estimates of possible accident risk action costs could be in the wide range depending on the different damages of the nuclear power accident, probability of the severe nuclear power accident and the capacity factor. The preliminary results show that it is 0.0025Won/kWh ~ 26.4188Won/kWh. After including those two external costs on the generation cost of a nuclear power plant, increasing rate of electricity price is 0.001%~10.0563% under the capacity factor from 70% to 90%. This paper tries to examine the external costs of nuclear power plants, so as to include it into the generation cost and the electricity price. This paper suggests one of the methodologies that we might internalize the nuclear power generations' external cost, including it into the internal generation cost.

• Proceedings of the Korea Water Resources Association Conference
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• 2022.05a
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• pp.275-275
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• 2022

Tsunamis triggered by undersea earthquakes have the characteristic of longer wavelengths and can propagate a very long distance. Although the occurrence frequency of tsunami is low, it can cause casualties and properties. Historically, tsunamis that occurred on the western coast of Japan attacked the eastern coast of the Korean Peninsula and damaged the property and the loss of human life in 1983 and 1993. By tsunami in 1983 especially, 2 people were killed, and more than 200 casualties occurred. In addition, it caused 2 million dollars in property damage at Imwon Port. In 2011, The eastern cities of Japan: Iwate, Miyagi, Ibaraki, and Fukushima were damaged by a tsunami that occurred near onshore along the Pacific ocean and caused more than 300 billion dollars in property damage, and 20,000 casualties occurred. Moreover, those provoked nuclear power plant meltdown at Fukushima. In this study, it was carried out a relationship between maximum tsunami heights and fault parameters of earthquake: strike angle, dip angle, and slip angle at Imwon port. Those fault parameters are known that it does not relate to the magnitude of earthquake directly. Virtual tsunamis, which could be triggered by probable undersea earthquakes in the future, were investigated and mutual information based on probability and information theory was introduced to figure out the relationship between maximum tsunami height and fault parameters. Fault parameters were evaluated according to the strong relationship with maximum tsunami heights finally.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Information and Commucation Sciences Conference
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• 2012.10a
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• pp.923-924
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• 2012

Nuclear power is one of energy sources which has the safety and economic feasibility in supply. However, due to the recent disaster in Fukushima, Japan, the safety issue of nuclear power is now come to the fore again. For example, Germany and Italy they cancel some projects on nuclear power launching. In South Korea also, a lot of safety concerns are discussed and small and big accidents occur. Thus, this study suggests the supply chain management system based on RFID to improve safety and efficiency at the same time.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Safety
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• v.26 no.5
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• pp.105-109
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• 2011

Since a severe accident, which happens in low frequency, can cause serious damages, the interests in off-site consequence analysis for a nuclear power plant have been increased after Chernobyl, TMI and Fukushima accidents. Consequences, which are the effects on health and environment caused by released radioisotopes, are evaluated using MACCS II code based on the method of Level 3 PSA. To perform a consequence analysis for the reference plants, the input data of the code were generated such as meteorological data, population distribution, release fractions, and so on. Using these input data, acute and lifetime dose as an organ, CCDF for early fatalities and latent cancer fatalities, and average individual risk were analyzed by using MACCS II code in this study. These results might contribute to establishing accident management plan and quantitative health object.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.55 no.5
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• pp.1567-1576
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• 2023

The reactor containment building (RCB) in nuclear power plants (NPPs) plays an important role in protecting the reactor systems from external loads as well as preventing radioactive leaking. As we witnessed the nuclear disaster at Fukushima Daiichi (Japan) in 2011, the earthquake is one of the major threats to NPPs. The purpose of this study is to evaluate effects of concrete material models and presstressing forces on the seismic performance evaluation of RCB in NPPs. A typical RCB designed in Korea is employed for a case study. Detailed three-dimensional nonlinear finite element models of RCB are developed in ANSYS. A series of pushover analyses are then performed to obtain the pushover curves of RCB. Different capacity curves are compared to recognize the influence of different material models on the nonlinear behavior of RCB. Additionally, the effects of prestressing forces on the seismic performances of the structure are also investigated. Moreover, a set of damage states corresponding to damage evolutions of the structures is proposed in this study.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.56 no.8
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• pp.3097-3111
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• 2024

Since the level 2 PSA of OPR-1000 was the requirement for regulatory purposes, Cs-137 release estimation was contained as the Nuclear Safety Act of ROK in which the Cs-137 release frequency exceeding 100 TBq was determined to happen less than 1.0E-6 per year after the Fukushima Daiichi Accident. However, Cs-137 release estimation from the conventional level 2 PSA of OPR-1000 provided uncertainty due to dominant accident sequence consideration. Thus, this study aimed to develop systematic methods through the overall framework to quantify realistic uncertainty concerns of radioactive material release using sensitivity and uncertainty analysis methods and apply them to OPR-1000. This framework helped to quantify confidential value for the Cs-137 release under the BEPU approach using both parametric and non-parametric methods to cover both realistic and conservative points. Uncertainty propagation analysis showed the unexpected uncertainty increase of Cs-137 release exceeding 100 TBq. The non-parametric uncertainty analysis provided higher conservative concerns for safety than the realistic concerns in terms of economics when compared with the parametric uncertainty analysis. Wilks' uncertainty analysis showed the importance to consider conservative Cs-137 release in order to reach the higher safety need. Sensitivity analysis showed reasonable relationships between engineering safety parameters with the Cs-137 release.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.56 no.10
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• pp.4296-4306
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• 2024

The Fukushima accident showed that the safety of multiple nuclear power plants (NPPs) at the same site could be jeopardized simultaneously. Since then, many studies have focused on developing strategies to prevent the spread of multi-unit accidents, with numerous countries establishing strategies to use mobile equipment. However, mobile equipment strategies are inherently accompanied by a high degree of uncertainty regarding operation success and duration because multiple organizations and personnel interact in various ways during multi-unit accident situations. Furthermore, supplementing current fixed equipment with additional mobile equipment requires extra resources. Therefore, cross-tie strategies that use currently installed fixed equipment can provide additional means to manage site risk with relatively few additional costs. This study proposes a multi-unit probabilistic safety assessment-based risk evaluation framework for utilizing cross-tie systems in NPPs and a modeling methodology to quantify the effectiveness of the cross-tie strategies. A case study was conducted to evaluate the risk reduction from using cross-tie strategies for emergency diesel generators and alternate AC diesel generators, which are power systems utilized in multi-unit loss of offsite power initiating events. It is expected that the developed framework and methodology can be utilized for other types of cross-tie strategies as well.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Systems Engineering
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• v.8 no.2
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• pp.47-55
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• 2012

Tsunami disaster, which ruined Japan Fukushima nuclear power plant sites in 2011 March, has raised not only the perception of that Tsunami and/or large scale flooding possibly surpass the design baselines for industry facilities and plants, but also the necessity to establish recovery system against flooding. This study suggests the framework for flooding and drainage system in compliance with flooding and drainage concept to define and identify requirements, functions, and components of the system with traceable relations. The framework with combination to CMMI engineering process is the base of corresponding high level system design.