• Title/Summary/Keyword: Nuclear power plant disaster

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Social Journalism in the Inter-media Society: Results from the Social Survey on the Great East Japan Earthquake and the Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant Disaster

  • Endo, Kaoru
    • Journal of Contemporary Eastern Asia
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    • v.12 no.2
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    • pp.5-17
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    • 2013
  • This paper discusses the future of journalism, including social-media use. The findings within this paper are based on the results of the "Social Survey on Social Media Use in the Great East Japan Earthquake." The author conducted this Internet-based survey in June 2012, and the results discussed herein are based on a sample size of 1,000 persons. The main findings suggest that social-media use during and immediately following the March 11, 2011 earthquake in Japan has been developing in a mutually complementary manner with traditional media.

Looking Back over a Decade "Final Decision Call after the Accidents of the Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant"

  • Nakajima, Isao;Kurokawa, Kiyoshi
    • Journal of Multimedia Information System
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    • v.7 no.2
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    • pp.147-156
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    • 2020
  • The author Nakajima was involved in the field of disaster communications and emergency medical care as guest research scientist at the Fukushima Nuclear Accident Independent Investigation Commission established by the National Diet of Japan and reviewer of the Commission's report, and Kurokawa was the chairman of this Commission. Looking back over a decade, we are on the liability issue of bureaucrats and telecom operators, so it's becoming clear what was hidden at the time. The battery of NTT DoCoMo's mobile phone repeaters had a capacity of only about 24 hours, and communication failures increased after one day. The Government also failed to issue an announcement of "Vent from reactor" under the Telecommunications Act Article No. 129. This mistake lost the opportunity to use the third-party telecommunications (e.g. taxi radios). Furthermore, as a result of LASCOM (telecommunications satellite network for local governments via GEO) and a variety of unexpected communication failures, the evacuation order "Escape!" could not be notified to the general public well. As a result, the general public was exposed to unnecessary radiation exposure. Such bureaucratic slow action in emergencies is common in the response to the 2020 coronavirus.

Development and Evaluation of a Mobile Environmental Radiation Measurement System That Can Switch between Low and High Dose Measurement Sections (저선량과 고선량 측정구간 변환이 가능한 모바일 방사선 측정시스템 개발 및 평가)

  • Lee, Hong-Yeon;Han, Sang-Jun;Kim, Bo-Gil;Lee, Geon-Ju;Kim, Seok-Hyeon;Kim, Jeong-Hun
    • Journal of radiological science and technology
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    • v.45 no.1
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    • pp.49-55
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    • 2022
  • This study is to develop a mobile type environmental radiation measurement system for emergency response or environmental radiation monitoring of local governments near nuclear facilities. A mobile radiation measurement system can monitor radiation by field beyond the spatial constraints of a fixed environmental radiation monitor. If installed in local government infrastructure such as public transportation, environmental radiation can be monitored without additional manpower and measurement work. In addition, it is designed to enable monitoring and measurement of radiation from low to high doses as well as the environment in preparation for radioactive disasters such as nuclear power plant accidents. It is expected that this system will be utilized not only in normal times but also in the event of a radiation accident to improve the disaster prevention capabilities of local governments.

Performance Analysis of Emergency Communication System of Nuclear Power Plant using Markov Model (마코프 모델을 이용한 원전 비상 통신 시스템 성능 분석)

  • Son, Kwang Seop
    • Journal of the Institute of Electronics and Information Engineers
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    • v.51 no.3
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    • pp.10-21
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    • 2014
  • In Fukushima accident, when the severe accident such as a natural disaster happens, it is impossible to monitor the plant status due to a extreme environment and station blackout and most I&C systems break downs. Finally, these cause the loss of emergency cooling function and thus results in a hydrogen explosion and radiation leak. In this paper, the emergency response system is introduced that monitors and controls properly when the sever accidents like Fukushima accident happen, And the performance requirements of a wireless communication system used in the emergency respons system is described and the performance of emergency communication system is analyzed using the markov model.

The Role of Garden Plants in Modern Culture - Focusing Japanese Garden Plants -

  • Koshio, Kaihei;Kim, Tae-Soon;Shin, Jeong-Hwa;Song, Won-Seob;Boo, Hee-Ock
    • Korean Journal of Plant Resources
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    • v.24 no.3
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    • pp.330-336
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    • 2011
  • The recent disaster of earthquake and tsunami on March 11, 2011 severely attacked East Japanese cities and people, and in addition, the accident of nuclear power station will inevitably damage the agricultural activities there. The economical depression influences on the horticulture and floriculture industry as well, through the reluctant consumption all over the country. Such a situation reflects a conventional perception that the garden plants or ornamental plants have been regarded as a symbol of capitalism, representing the success, luxury, beauty or other metaphors indicating the winners of business war. But as the word "culture" means "cultivation" originally, horti "culture" or flori "culture" should have played some roles in cultivating lands as well as cultivation of human minds, leading to develop a modern "culture" which may lay emphases on personality, originality, partnership, cooperation, diversity and so forth. In this article, a brief history of garden plants in Japan, as well as some current movements in Japanese horticulture and floriculture, is reviewed with some commodities which possess messages on creating a new humane culture.

Analysis of Thermal Shock Behavior of Cladding with SiCf/SiC Composite Protective Films (SiCf/SiC 복합체 보호막 금속피복관의 열충격 거동 분석)

  • Lee, Dong-Hee;Kim, Weon-Ju;Park, Ji-Yeon;Kim, Dae-Jong;Lee, Hyeon-Geon;Park, Kwang-Heon
    • Composites Research
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    • v.29 no.1
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    • pp.40-44
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    • 2016
  • Nuclear fuel cladding used in a nuclear power plant must possess superior oxidation resistance in the coolant atmosphere of high temperature/high pressure. However, as was the case for the critical LOCA (loss-of-coolant accident) accident that took place in the Fukushima disaster, there is a risk of hydrogen explosion when the nuclear fuel cladding and steam reacts dramatically to cause a rapid high-temperature oxidation accompanied by generation of a huge amount of hydrogen. Hence, an active search is ongoing for an alternative material to be used for manufacturing of nuclear fuel cladding. Studies are currently aimed at improving the safety of this cladding. In particular, ceramic-based nuclear fuel cladding, such as SiC, is receiving much attention due to the excellent radiation resistance, high strength, chemical durability against oxidation and corrosion, and excellent thermal conduction of ceramics. In the present study, cladding with $SiC_f/SiC$ protective films was fabricated using a process that forms a matrix phase by polymer impregnation of polycarbosilane (PCS) after filament-winding the SiC fiber onto an existing Zry-4 cladding tube. It is analyzed the oxidation and microstructure of the metal cladding with $SiC_f/SiC$ composite protective films using a drop tube furnace for thermal shock test.

Evaluation of the relationship between maximum tsunami heights and fault parameters in Korea

  • Song, Min-Jong;Kim, Chang Hee;Cho, Yong-Sik
    • 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.

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Study on security framework for cyber-hacking control facilities (제어시설 사이버공격 대응을 위한 사이버보안 프레임워크 (Framework) 연구)

  • Lee, Sang-Do;Shin, Yongtae
    • Asia-pacific Journal of Multimedia Services Convergent with Art, Humanities, and Sociology
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    • v.8 no.4
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    • pp.285-296
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    • 2018
  • Among many hacking attempts carried out in the past few years, the cyber-attacks that could have caused a national-level disaster were the attacks against nuclear facilities including nuclear power plants. The most typical one was the Stuxnet attack against Iranian nuclear facility and the cyber threat targeting one of the facilities operated by Korea Hydro and Nuclear Power Co., Ltd (Republic of Korea; ROK). Although the latter was just a threat, it made many Korean people anxious while the former showed that the operation of nuclear plant can be actually stopped by direct cyber-attacks. After these incidents, the possibility of cyber-attacks against industrial control systems has become a reality and the security for these systems has been tightened based on the idea that the operations by network-isolated systems are no longer safe from the cyber terrorism. The ROK government has established a realistic control systems defense concept and in the US, the relevant authorities have set up several security frameworks to prepare for the threats. This paper presented various cyber security attack cases and their scenarios against control systems, along with the analysis of countermeasures for them. Though this task, we attempt to identify the items that need to be considered when designing a domestic security framework to improve security and secure stability.

Safety Culture, A New Challenge to Human Factors Engineering for 21st Century

  • Lee, Yong-Hee
    • Journal of the Ergonomics Society of Korea
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    • v.35 no.6
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    • pp.473-492
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    • 2016
  • Objective: This paper discusses the recent challenges to human factors engineering due to the safety culture. Background: As incidents occurring in specific fields such as logistics, plant, energy and medical sectors in Korea, as well as in the public sectors including railway, road, aviation and shipping, are recently raised as social issues from the disaster dimension, those incidents are dealt with as man-made disasters in many cases. The trend regarding all accidents as man-made disasters has been expanded in the active perspective that the controllability of all incidents should be ensured in technology development, due to change from a fatal point of view regarding disasters as random occurrence of uncertainties in the past. Method: Man-made disasters are concluded as human errors, and safety culture stands out as a cause of human errors or a new cause item recently. Because safety culture, however, is a very comprehensive term, of which true nature is obscure, although many definitions of safety culture have been presented, the safety culture may make avoid the true nature and responsibility of an incident, or make the main player and subject obscure. Raising safety culture as a cause without presenting a specific countermeasure will be just a wisdom of hindsight. Results and Conclusion: This study reviews the fundamental discussions on "Is safety culture a task of human factors engineering?" and the existing approach carried out from various perspectives in order to seek an effective approach on the new task of safety culture in the human factors engineering field. This study discusses an engineering approach to meet a precondition that safety culture is not just an added factor through a review of the approaches in the proactive fields such as nuclear power and aviation, and the traditional approaches of human factors engineering. Application: This study especially defines the perspective of socio-technological system that has expanded the existing man-machine system, and discusses a systemic approach embracing various interactions, and several overriding tasks.

The Production of Riskscapes in the Korean Developmental State: A Perspective from East Asia (동아시아 맥락에서 바라본 한국에서의 위험경관의 생산)

  • Hwang, Jin-Tae
    • Journal of the Korean Geographical Society
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    • v.51 no.2
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    • pp.283-303
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    • 2016
  • The concept of a risk society, which was originally suggested by German sociologist Ulrich Beck, is insufficient to reveal how a certain risk materially and discursively unfolds on the ground and how its various dynamics are recognised by diverse actors because of the concept's spatial insensitivity. As an alternative approach, this paper introduces the concept of the riskscape, which was suggested by German geographer Detlef $M{\ddot{u}}ller$-Mahn, and analyses this concept in the context of the East Asian developmental state. It is meaningful that the East Asian developmental state thesis has strongly promoted the role of the state in stimulating national economic development in underdeveloped countries. However, it should also be noted that an active state role in encouraging modernisation and economic growth within a very short time produces consequences of what Beck calls 'manufactured risks', such as nuclear power plants. Therefore, it is essential to analyse the state in comprehending modernisation and the risk society in East Asia. More specifically, using the case of the location policy for nuclear power facilities, this article reveals how dominant social forces acting in and through the state constructed a national riskscape that minimises the gravity of local risks while prioritising the economic value of the national economy over local risks to produce rapid modernisation. Additionally, it is argued that a dominant national riskscape may become weak from competing with different riskscapes that are constructed based on contingency factors (e.g., political democratisation or a natural disaster). Based on these analyses, the article emphasises that interdisciplinary research using the concept of the riskscape is required to better explain the risks in East Asia.

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