• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.48 no.5
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• pp.1206-1218
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• 2016

This article proposes a highly reliable power and communication system that guarantees the protection of essential instruments in a nuclear power plant under a severe accident. Both power and communication lines are established with not only conventional wired channels, but also the proposed wireless channels for emergency reserve. An inductive power transfer system is selected due to its robust power transfer characteristics under high temperature, high pressure, and highly humid environments with a large amount of scattered debris after a severe accident. A thermal insulation box and a glass-fiber reinforced plastic box are proposed to protect the essential instruments, including vulnerable electronic circuits, from extremely high temperatures of up to $627^{\circ}C$ and pressure of up to 5 bar. The proposed wireless power and communication system is experimentally verified by an inductive power transfer system prototype having a dipole coil structure and prototype Zigbee modules over a 7-m distance, where both the thermal insulation box and the glass-fiber reinforced plastic box are fabricated and tested using a high-temperature chamber. Moreover, an experiment on the effects of a high radiation environment on various electronic devices is conducted based on the radiation test having a maximum accumulated dose of 27 Mrad.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.33 no.1
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• pp.1-11
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• 2001

In contrast with conventional fieldbus researches which are focused merely on real-time performance, this study aims to evaluate the real-time performance of the communication system including fault-tolerant mechanisms Maintaining performance in presence of recoverable faults is very important in case that the communication network is applied to a highly reliable system such as next generation Nuclear. Power. Plant (NPP). If the tie characteristics meet the requirements of the system, the faults will be recovered by fieldbus recovery mechanisms and the system will be safe. If the time characteristics can not meet the requirements, the faults in the fieldbus can propagate to the system failure. In this study, for the purpose of investigating the time characteristics of fieldbus, the recoverable faults are classified and then the formulas that represent delays including recovery mechanisms are developed. In order to validate the proposed approach, we have developed a simulation model that represents the Korea Next Generation Reactor (KNGR) NSSS Process Control System (NPCS). The results of the simulation show us the reasonable delay characteristics of the fault cases with recovery mechanisms. Using the simulation results and the system requirements, we also can calculate the failure propagation probability from fieldbus to outer system.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.53 no.1
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• pp.121-130
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• 2021

Cascading failure is the main cause of large blackouts in electrical power systems; this paper analyzes a cascading failure in Hanbit nuclear power plant unit two (2) caused by a circuit breaker (CB) operation failure. This malfunction has been expanded to the loss of offsite power (LOOP). In this study, current practices are reviewed and then the methodologies of how to prevent cascading failures in protection power systems are introduced. An overview on the implementation of IEC61850 GOOSE messaging-based zone selective interlocking (ZSI) scheme as key solution is proposed. In consideration of ZSI blocking time, all influencing factors such as circuit breaker opening time, relay I/O response time and messages travelling time in the communication network should be taken into account. The purpose of this paper is to elaborate on the effect of cascading failure in NPP electrical power protection system and propose preventive actions for this failures. Finally, the expected advantages and challenges are elaborated.

• Journal of the Korea Institute of Information and Communication Engineering
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• v.19 no.6
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• pp.1405-1410
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• 2015

In this study we designed the radiation-hardened sensor signal processing modules that can be commonly used for a variety of sensors during normal operation and even in high-radiation environments caused by an accident. First development module was designed to receive the change of the R and C value from the sensors and to process the signal as a PWM modulation scheme. This module was assessed to have ± 10% error to the Full-Scale in the radiation test in the range of 12 kGy TID. The main cause of the error was analyzed as the annealing of the common circuit in the switching element and the consequent increase in the duty ratio of the pulse width modulation circuit according to the radiation dose increasement. The redesigned module for higher radiation resistivity with Stub transistor circuit was found to have less than 5% error to the Full-scale from the radiation test results for 20.7 kGy TID range.

• International Journal of Safety
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• v.11 no.1
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• pp.33-36
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• 2012

Examples and experiences of risk management on radiation under prolonged exposure situation are shown. The accident of the Fukushima dai-ichi nuclear power plant after the great east Japan earthquake (11 March, 2011) elevates background level of environmental radiation around the east Japan. For example, ambient dose equivalent rate around Tohkatsu area next to Tokyo located about 200 km-south from the plant, is about 0.1-0.6 micro-Sv $h^{-1}$ mainly due to $^{134}Cs$ and $^{137}Cs$ falling on the ground soil. This level is about double or up to ten times higher than the genuine natural level around the area. International Commission on Radiological Protection (ICRP) recommends how to face the existing exposure situation; that is the prolonged exposure situation. Referring to ICRP's reports and/or related international/domestic documents, we have been discussing and acting to gain public's safety and relief, who have a possibility to be exposed to prolonged lower-dose radiation. Here, we introduce our several experiences on risk management, especially focusing on risk communication, radiation education to public, and stakeholder involvements into making decision in local governments on radiation protection, relating to the accident.

• International Journal of Safety
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• v.10 no.2
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• pp.6-9
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• 2011

Examples and experiences of risk management on radiation under prolonged exposure situation are shown. The accident of the Fukushima dai-ichi nuclear power plant after the great east Japan earthquake (11 March, 2011) elevates background level of environmental radiation around the east Japan. For example, ambient dose equivalent rate around Tohkatsu area next to Tokyo located about 200 km-south from the plant, is about 0.1-0.6 micro-Sv $h^{-1}$ mainly due to $^{134}Cs$ and $^{137}Cs$ falling on the ground soil. This level is about double or up to ten times higher than the genuine natural level around the area. International Commission on Radiological Protection (ICRP) recommends how to face the existing exposure situation; that is the prolonged exposure situation. Referring to ICRP's reports and/or related international/domestic documents, we have been discussing how to manage this situation and acting to gain safety and relief of public, who have a possibility to be exposed to prolonged lower-dose radiation. Here, we introduce our several experiences on risk management, especially focusing on risk communication, radiation education to public, and stakeholder involvements into decision making in local governments on radiation protection, relating to the accident.

• Journal of the Ergonomics Society of Korea
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• v.28 no.1
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• pp.37-51
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• 2009

The nuclear power industry in the world has recognized the importance of integrating non-technical and team skills training with the technical training given to its control room operators to reduce human errors since the Three Mile Island and Chernobyl accidents. The Nuclear power plant (NPP) industry in Korea has been also making efforts to reduce the human errors which largely have contributed to 120 nuclear reactor trips from the year 2001 to 2006. The Crew Resource Management (CRM) training was one of the efforts to reduce the human errors in the nuclear power industry. The CRM was developed as a response to new insights into the causes of aircraft accidents which followed from the introduction of flight recorders and cockpit voice recorders into modern jet aircraft. The CRM first became widely used in the commercial airline industry, but military aviation, shipboard crews, medical and surgical teams, offshore oil crews, and other high-consequence, high-risk, time-critical industry teams soon followed. This study aims to develop a CRM training program that helps to improve plant performance by reducing the number of reactor trips caused by the operators' errors in Korean NPP. The program is; firstly, based on the work we conducted to develop a human factors training from the applications to the Nuclear Power Plant; secondly, based on a number of guidelines from the current practicable literature; thirdly, focused on team skills, such as leadership, situational awareness, teamwork, and communication, which have been widely known to be critical for improving the operational performance and reducing human errors in Korean NPPs; lastly, similar to the event-based training approach that many researchers have applied in other domains: aircraft, medical operations, railroads, and offshore oilrigs. We conducted an experiment to test effectiveness of the CRM training program in a condition of simulated control room also. We found that the program made the operators' attitudes and behaviors be improved positively from the experimental results. The more implications of the finding were discussed further in detail.

• Journal of the Ergonomics Society of Korea
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• v.34 no.1
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• pp.45-62
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• 2015

Objective: The purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of personality type on human performance tool compliance in nuclear power plants (NPPs) and to propose general recommendations for an enhancement of its practical utilization. Background: Various guidelines, regulating criteria, and recommendations have been developed to prevent human errors in NPPs. Despite these efforts, the accidents sometimes caused by human errors have steadily occurred, and therefore, various human performance tools have been adopted as countermeasures against human errors. The major and inevitable contributing factors among the many hazards to human errors might be the trait and personality, which are considered to be the inner world of humans. Thus, we try to investigate the utilization of human performance tools by considering the different types of operating crew personalities, and we suggested more practical recommendations to prevent human errors according to the personality. Method: We developed the Questionnaire using the Big 6 (HEXACO) models, which are human performance tools for workers in NPPs, and individual (condition) variables to investigate the effect of personality types on human performance tools. We slightly modified them to help the survey respondents understand them better. A survey was conducted for ordinary people over the age of 20. SPSS 22.0 was used to perform a correlation analysis and a hierarchical regression analysis to find the relationship between personality types and human performance tools. Results: The utilization of human performance tools shows significant differences statistically by personality. The correlation result reveals that the types of Honesty (H), Extraversion (X), Conscientiousness (C), and Openness to experience (O) show a higher utilization of human performance tools. In hierarchical regression results, human performance tools of task preview, questioning attitude, stopping when unsure, self-checking, effective communication, and place-keeping show a higher utilization with personality types. However, the Agreeableness (A) type did not show significant differences statistically with human performance tools. Conclusion: We tried to investigate the utilization of human performance tools by considering the different types of human personality and provide more practical recommendations to prevent human errors according to the personality. These results will be able to prevent human errors owing to the characteristics (advantages and disadvantages) of personality types. Application: This information can be utilized as guidelines for proactive recommendations according to the workers' personalities for more practical human performance tools to prevent human errors in an NPP.