• Research in Community and Public Health Nursing
• /
• v.23 no.4
• /
• pp.347-357
• /
• 2012

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to explore the experiences of family caregivers who care for the elderly under Long-term Care Insurance. Methods: Data were collected using focus group interviews and analyzed using a phenomenological approach. The four focus groups consisted of eight caregivers, two social workers and three nurses in B city, Korea. Results: Five themes were identified: 'Obtaining a care-helper certification for employment', 'Taking care of the elderly in their homes', 'Difficulties due to life changes', 'Difficulties due to reduced wages' and 'Dissatisfaction with the Long-term Care Insurance operating system'. Conclusion: The results of this study demonstrate that the long-term care system for family caregivers faces many systematic challenges in providing care for the elderly harmoniously in their home. To help them succeed in their tasks, Long-term Care Insurance system must offer respite and support programs to family caregivers.

• International Journal of Railway
• /
• v.6 no.1
• /
• pp.26-31
• /
• 2013

Following the success of the KTX (Korea's first high-speed rail system) with a maximum operating speed of 300 km/h opened in 2004, experts in Korea started a research on the development of key technologies for high-speed rail (HSR) with a top speed of 500 km/h. This paper is a preliminary analysis of the research. It first reviews HSR experiences around the world, in terms of traffic and economic impacts of HSR, and presents a preliminary analysis of 500 km/h HSR in Korea. It is estimated that introduction of 500 km/h HSR with a 54% of travel time reduction will increase HSR passengers to about 9.8 million (about 78% of market share) between Seoul and Busan. It is a 23% of growth compared to the base scenario. Along with conventional rail passengers, air passengers are expected to be significantly impacted by the 500 km/h HSR. As a function of HSR travel time, the estimated market shares of both KTX and 500 km/h HSR compared to air are very comparable with previous international experiences. Based on the forecasted traffic, estimated total benefits are $758 million per year.

• Water for future
• /
• v.25 no.1
• /
• pp.83-92
• /
• 1992

Selection of the best operation rule among a set of alternatives for a multipurpose reservoir system operation requires to evaluate many minor criteria I n addition to the major objectives assessed to the system, These problems are sufficiently complex and difficult that they are beyond heuristic decision rules and experiences in case several noncommensurable multiple criteria are included in the evaluation. With the assistance of multicriterion decision analysis techniques, it is possible to select the best one among various alternatives by systematically comparing and ranking the alternatives with respect to the criteria of choice. Evaluation criteria for multipurpose reservoir system operating rules were identified and defined, and the multicriterion decision analysis techniques were applied to evaluate the fore developed operating rules of the existing Chungju multipurpose project according to the identified nine multiple criteria. The application result shows that the methodology is very efficient to select the best operation alternative among a finite number of operating rules with many evaluation criteria for a large scale reservoir system operation.

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

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
• /
• v.20 no.12
• /
• pp.166-179
• /
• 2020

The purpose of this study is to explore and analyze what has changed in Seoul National University (SNU) since its incorporation, focusing on the perceptions and experiences of its internal members. To this end, semi-structured interviews were conducted with members of SNU, professors, staff, and students. The interview results were presented by categorizing them into changes in the overall evaluation of the incorporation, positive and negative changes, education, research, social contribution, and operating system. Overall, with regard to the changes after incorporation, the members of SNU showed a common perception that it was difficult to feel the change or that there was little change. As for positive changes, they mentioned the expansion of university finances, increased autonomy in operation, and improved responsiveness to environmental changes. As for negative changes, they mentioned the ambiguity of SNU's legal status, and the excessive increase of direct and aggressive influence from outside. In the last part, the main findings were summarized and their meaning and implications were discussed.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
• /
• v.11 no.10
• /
• pp.3885-3892
• /
• 2010

Safety-Critical systems, such as Plant Protection Systems in nuclear power plant, plays a key role that the facilities can be operated without undue risk to the health and safety of public and environment, and those systems shall be designed, fabricated, installed, and tested to quality standards commensurate with the importance of the functions to be performed. Computer-based Instrumentation and Control Systems to perform the safety-critical function have Real Time Operating Systems to control and monitoring the sub-system and executing the application software. The safety-critical Real Time Operating Systems shall be designed, analyzed, tested and evaluated to have capability to maintain a high integrity and quality. However, local nuclear power plants have applied the real time operating systems on safety critical systems through Commercial Grade Item Dedication method, and this is the reason of lack of detailed methodology on assessing the safety of real time operating systems, expecially to the new developed one. This paper presents the methodology and experiences of safety evaluation on safety-critical Real Time Operating Systems based upon design requirements. This paper may useful to develop and evaluate the safety-critical Real Time Operating Systems in other industry to ensure the safety of public and environment.

• KSII Transactions on Internet and Information Systems (TIIS)
• /
• v.7 no.5
• /
• pp.998-1013
• /
• 2013

Wireless wearable sensor networks have emerged as a promising technique for human motion tracking due to the flexibility and scalability. In such system several wireless sensor nodes being attached to human limb construct a wearable sensor network, where each sensor node including MEMS sensors (such as 3-axis accelerometer, 3-axis magnetometer and 3-axis gyroscope) monitors the limb orientation and transmits these information to the base station for reconstruction via low-power wireless communication technique. Due to the energy constraint, the high fidelity requirement for real time rendering of human motion and tiny operating system embedded in each sensor node adds more challenges for the system implementation. In this paper, we discuss such challenges and experiences in detail during the implementation of such system with wireless wearable sensor network which includes COTS wireless sensor nodes (Imote 2) and uses TinyOS 1.x in each sensor node. Since our system uses the COTS sensor nodes and popular tiny operating system, it might be helpful for further exploration in such field.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Pressure Vessels and Piping
• /
• v.9 no.1
• /
• pp.20-24
• /
• 2013

Reactor Vessel Internals(RVIs), which are installed within the reactor pressure vessel and support the fuel assembly, take responsibility for safety of reactor core. In operating Nuclear Power Plants(NPPs), the RVIs have been exposed to severe conditions such as neutron irradiation, high temperature, high pressure, and high velocity of coolant flow and have degraded by materials aging with long-term operation. Therefore, the effective aging management plan and the appropriate regulatory requirements are necessary to maintain the integrity of RVIs. The purpose of this paper is to provide a review guide for Periodic Safety Review(PSR) of RVIs in presurized water reactor. The review guide is developed based on the revised review guides and reports established from IAEA and USNRC, and the analysis results of design characteristics, aging mechanisms, and operating experiences of RVIs in domestic and international NPPs. Consequently, the developed review guide for PSR of RVIs is expected to contribute an overall strategy and standard for the PSR of RVIs.

• The KSFM Journal of Fluid Machinery
• /
• v.13 no.5
• /
• pp.5-10
• /
• 2010

5MW, open pool type research reactor, is commonly used to education and experimental purpose. It is necessary to prepare a standardization of system designs for considering a demand. HANARO has prepared the standardization of 5MW research reactor system designs based on the design, installation, commissioning and operating experiences of HANARO. For maintaining an open pool type reactor safety, a primary cooling system (after below, PCS) should remove the heat generated by the reactor under a reactor normal operation condition and a reactor shutdown condition. For removing the heat generated by the reactor, the PCS should maintain a required coolant flow rate. For a verification of the required flow rate, a flow network analysis of the PCS was carried under a normal operating condition. Based on the flow network analysis result, this paper describes the PCS flow characteristics of a 5MW open pool type research reactor. Through the result, it was confirmed that the PCS met design requirements including design flow rate without cavitation.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
• /
• v.41 no.4
• /
• pp.545-548
• /
• 2009

Korean utility has utilized a Periodic Safety Review (PSR) that assesses the cumulative effects of plant aging, modifications, operating experience, technical developments, and site characteristics since 2000. In particular, the assessment and management of plant aging is one of the major areas in PSR. It includes identification of critical Systems, Structures, and Components (SSCs) for aging, assessment of aging effects, and implementation of aging management programs. Since the PSR system was introduced based on the atomic energy acts and related laws, PSRs of eight sets for 12 Nuclear Power Plants (NPPs) that have been operating more than 10 years have been completed. PSRs of two sets for 4 NPPs are currently being carried out. The utility has confirmed that domestic NPPs have been operated safely through these PSRs and have implemented the follow-up corrective activities to increase the nuclear safety. In this paper, the status of PSR implementation is discussed and improvement programs to conduct PSR follow-up corrective activities efficiently for NPPs are suggested based on experiences with aging assessments.