• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.48 no.1
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• pp.87-97
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• 2016

The new generation of nuclear power plants (NPPs) will likely make use of state-of-the-art technologies in many areas of the plant. The analysis, design, and selection of advanced human-system interfaces (HSIs) constitute an important part of power plant engineering. Designers need to consider the new capabilities afforded by these technologies in the context of current regulations and new operational concepts, which is why they need a more rigorous method by which to plan the introduction of advanced HSIs in NPP work areas. Much of current human factors research stops at the user interface and fails to provide a definitive process for integration of end user devices with instrumentation and control and operational concepts. The current lack of a clear definition of HSI technology, including the process for integration, makes characterization and implementation of new and advanced HSIs difficult. This paper describes how new design concepts in the nuclear industry can be analyzed and how HSI technologies associated with new industrial processes might be considered. It also describes a basis for an understanding of human as well as technology characteristics that could be incorporated into a prioritization scheme for technology selection and deployment plans.

• Journal of Energy Engineering
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• v.26 no.2
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• pp.50-63
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• 2017

Safety culture degradation signs in nuclear power plants with complex and diverse systems can lead to their equipments performance deterioration. If these signs are neglected, they become potential causes of accidents. Therefore, it is necessary to monitor safety culture in the point of view of organization and management as well as to evaluate safety performance of nuclear power plants. Therefore, This paper suggested a methodology to evaluate safety culture weakness contributing the accidents' root causes in the case accidents occur at nuclear power plants. After reviewing methodologies using at domestic and international industry, the methodology suitable for domestic nuclear power plants was determined.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Pressure Vessels and Piping
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• v.5 no.2
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• pp.13-19
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• 2009

As the operating time in nuclear power plants (NPPs) increases, the integrity of nuclear components may be continually degraded due to aging effects of systems, structures and components. Recently, a number of NPPs are being operated beyond their design life to produce more electricity without shutting down. The critical issue in extending a lifetime is to maintain the level of safety during the extended operation period while satisfying the international regulatory standards. Therefore, it is beneficial to build a monitoring system to measure an aging status. In this paper, the Aging Monitor (AM) based on lots of aging database obtained from the operating plants and research results on the aging effects was developed to monitor, manage and evaluate the aging phenomena systematically and effectively in NPPs. The AM for the CANDU is divided into 6 modules: (1) Aging Alarm/Coloring Monitor, (2) Aging Database, (3) Aging Document, (4) Real-time Integrity Monitor, (5) Surveillance and Inspection Management System, and (6) Continued Operation and Periodic Safety Review (PSR) Safety Evaluation. The proposed system is expected to provide the integrity assessment for the major mechanical components of an NPP under concurrent working environments.

• Journal of Radiation Protection and Research
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• v.37 no.3
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• pp.138-145
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• 2012

As of the end of 2010, 21 nuclear power reactors were operating in Korea. Radioactive effluents from nuclear power plants (NPPs) had been increased continuously and the radioactivity of effluents released in 2010 was 547.12 TBq. From 2001 to 2010, the annual average radioactivity of gaseous and liquid effluents per reactor was 11.61 TBq for pressurized water reactor (PWR) plants and 118.12 TBq for PHWR (pressurized heavy water reactor) plants. Most of the radioactivity from gaseous and liquid effluents was came from $^3H$. Based on the results of release trends and analysis, effluents characteristics was suggested for the management of radioactive effluents from NPPs.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Safety
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• v.21 no.5 s.77
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• pp.77-83
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• 2006

The purpose of this study is to assess the organizational personality types, employee-organization fits and the job satisfaction/involvement in a Korea standard nuclear power plant(NPP), which is a representative safety work place. First we chose 427 procedures that are related to safety out of 777 officially managed procedures referenced by 13.5 of FSAR(final safety analysis report). Next, we finally chose 70 procedures of 8 divisions for 44 employees regarding the duties for NPPs' division, experiences of operations, an operational know-how, and the indication of operational weakness. This study used OPTI(organizational personality type indicators) and the combination of 4 preference types for determining the organizational personality to produce personality types of organizations for NPPs' division. To assess the job satisfaction and involvement, we used a questionnaire and an interview, for 300 employees(83.5%) of the Korea standard NPP.

• The KSFM Journal of Fluid Machinery
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• v.16 no.4
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• pp.35-43
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• 2013

Most of the nuclear power plants(NPPs) adopts pressure difference type flow meters such as venturi and orifice meters for the measurement of feedwater flow rates to calculate reactor thermal power. However, corrosion products in the feedwater deposits on the flow meter by fouling as operating time goes. These effects lead to severe errors in the flow indication and then determination of reactor thermal power. The averaging BDFT, which has developed by Yun et al., has a potentiality to minimize this problem thanks to its inherent measurement principle. Therefore, it is expected that the averaging BDFT can replace the venturi meter for the feedwater pipe of steam generator of NPPs. The present work compares the amplification factor, K, based on CFD calculation against the K obtained from experiments in order to confirm whether a commercial CFD code can be applicable to the evaluation of characteristic for the averaging BDFT. In addition to this, the simulations to take into account of fouling effect are also carried out by rough wall option. The results show that the averaging BDFT is a promising flow meter for the accurate measurement of flow rates in the fouling condition of the NPPs.

• Journal of the Ergonomics Society of Korea
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• v.30 no.1
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• pp.75-86
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• 2011

This paper describes several current research activities and the field techniques for the prevention of human errors during the operation of nuclear power plants(NPPs). The human aspects such as 'fitness for the duties', 'job competence and suitability', 'types of communication', 'behaviors of field workers', 'teamwork of main control room crews', 'task procedures', etc. have been investigated for improving the performance of operating personnel in NPPs. We decide to develop a set of the complementary techniques for the reduction of human errors. The set of techniques developed includes teamwork criteria, jobs fitness analysis, procedure enhancement guide, 3-way communication, campaign posters, a behavior based safety program, a procedure guideline, and a task hazard identification method for the field practitioners in NPPs. These can offer a set of significant human error countermeasures to be considered for analyzing and reducing human error in NPPs as well as other fields of industry.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.50 no.3
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• pp.319-326
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• 2018

Since the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster, concern and worry about multiunit accidents have been increasing. Korea has a higher urgency to evaluate its site risk because its number of nuclear power plants (NPPs) and population density are higher than those in other countries. Since the 1980s, technical documents have been published on multiunit probabilistic safety assessment (PSA), but the Fukushima accident accelerated research on multiunit PSA. It is therefore necessary to summarize the present situation and draw implications for further research. This article reviews journal and conference papers on multiunit or site risk evaluation published between 2011 and 2016. The contents of the reviewed literature are classified as research status, initiators, and methodologies representing dependencies, and the insights and conclusions are consolidated. As of 2017, the regulatory authority and nuclear power utility have launched a full-scale project to assess multiunit risk in Korea. This article provides comprehensive reference materials on the necessary enabling technology for subsequent studies of multiunit or site risk assessment.

• Journal of Radiation Protection and Research
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• v.39 no.1
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• pp.14-20
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• 2014

A lot of radiation exposure for radiation workers who are engaged in Nuclear Power Plants, especially PWRs, have been caused during the outage by CRUD, such as $^{58}Co$, $^{60}Co$, in Reactor Coolant System. And therefore we need to know source terms to achieve optimization of protection for the radiation workers from radiation exposure at Nuclear Power Plants efficiently. This study analyzed source terms at domestic NPPs (PWRs) nearby Steam Generator with CZT semiconductor detector using by IN-VIVO method during the outage for the first time in the country. We checked difference for the detected source terms between old and new NPP. It was performed especially to see a change of source terms by water chemistry process as well. There was not any difference by water chemistry process both NPPs. The main source terms are $^{58}Co$ and $^{60}Co$ at all NPPs. $^{59}Fe$ only appears in the new NPP. $^{137}Cs$ and $^{95}Zr$ are shown in the old NPP. The fraction of $^{58}Co/^{60}Co$ in the new NPP is higher than the old NPP for increasing the specific activity of $^{60}Co$.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Safety
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• v.31 no.1
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• pp.132-138
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• 2016

The purpose of this study was to develop safety competences, a set of behavioral indicators of each competence and measuring methods of behavioral indicators for preventing human error of nuclear power plants(NPPs). The safety competences and behavioral indicators were derived from the five steps consisted of derivation of preliminary competence items through literature review, content analysis, interview(FGI, BEI), examination of content validity and decision making of final indicators. The results showed that 13 core safety competences and 35 behavior indicators were derived finally. In addition, the methods of measuring safety competences or behavioral indicators such as Behaviorally Anchored Rating Scale (BARS), Behavior Observation Scale (BOS) were developed and suggested.