• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.36 no.5
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• pp.388-402
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• 2004

A phenomena identification and ranking table(PIRT) was developed for a main steam line break (MSLB) event for the Advanced Power Reactor-1400 (APR-1400). The selectee event was a double-ended steam line break at full power, with the reactor coolant pump running. The developmental panel selected the fuel performance as the primary safety criterion during the ranking process. The plant design data, the results of the APR-1400 safety analysis, and the results of an additional best-estimate analysis by the MARS computer code were used in the development of the PIRT. The period of the transient was composed of three phases: pre-trip, rapid cool-down, and safety injection. Based on the relative importance to the primary evaluation criterion, the ranking of each system, component, and phenomenon/process was performed for each time phase. Finally, the knowledge-level for each important process for certain components was ranked in terms of existing knowledge. The PIRT can be used as a guide for planning cost-effective experimental programs and for code development efforts, especially for the quantification of those processes and/or phenomena that are highly important, but not well understood.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.30 no.2
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• pp.112-127
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• 1998

The present study is to assess the applicability of the best-estimate thermal-hydraulic codes, RELAP5/MOD3.2 and CATHARE2V1.3U, to the analysis of thermal-hydraulic behavior in PWRs during midloop operation following the loss of RHRS. The codes simulate an integral test, BETHSY 6.94, which was conducted in the large scale test facility of BETHSY in France. The test represents the accident where the loss of RHRS occurs during midloop operation with the pressurizer and upper head vents open and the sight level indicator broken. Besides, the hot legs are half filled with water and the upper parts of the primary cooling system are filled with nitrogen, with a letdown line open and only one SG available. The purposes of this study are to understand the physical phenomena associated with reflux cooling in the 5G U-tubes when noncondensable gas is present under low pressure and to assess the applicability of the codes to simulate the loss of RHRS event by comparing the predictions with the test results. The results of the study may contribute to actual applications for plant safety evaluation and description of the emergency operating procedure.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.47 no.7
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• pp.827-837
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• 2015

Following a severe accident in a nuclear power plant, iodine is a major contributor to the potential health risks for the public. Because the amount of iodine released largely depends on its volatility, iodine's behavior in containment has been extensively studied in international programs such as International Source Term Programme-Experimental Program on Iodine Chemistry under Radiation (EPICUR), Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)-Behaviour of Iodine Project, and OECD-Source Term Evaluation and Mitigation. Korea Institute of Nuclear Safety (KINS) has joined these programs and is developing a simplified, stand-alone iodine chemistry model, RAIM (Radio-Active Iodine chemistry Model), based on the IMOD methodology and other previous studies. This model deals with chemical reactions associated with the formation and destruction of iodine species and surface reactions in the containment atmosphere and the sump in a simple manner. RAIM was applied to a simulation of four EPICUR tests and one Radioiodine Test Facility test, which were carried out in aqueous or gaseous phases. After analysis, the results show a trend of underestimation of organic and molecular iodine for the gas-phase experiments, the opposite of that for the aqueous-phase ones, whereas the total amount of volatile iodine species agrees well between the experiment and the analysis result.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.52 no.5
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• pp.995-1001
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• 2020

With the development of digital instrumentation and control (I&C) devices, cyber security at nuclear power plants (NPPs) has become a hot issue. The Stuxnet, which destroyed Iran's uranium enrichment facility in 2010, suggests that NPPs could even lead to an accident involving the release of radioactive materials cyber-attacks. However, cyber security research on industrial control systems (ICSs) and supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) systems is relatively inadequate compared to information technology (IT) and further it is difficult to study cyber-attack taxonomy for NPPs considering the characteristics of ICSs. The advanced research of cyber-attack taxonomy does not reflect the architectural and inherent characteristics of NPPs and lacks a systematic countermeasure strategy. Therefore, it is necessary to more systematically check the consistency of operators and regulators related to cyber security, as in regulatory guide 5.71 (RG.5.71) and regulatory standard 015 (RS.015). For this reason, this paper attempts to suggest a template for cyber-attack taxonomy based on the characteristics of NPPs and exemplifies a specific cyber-attack case in the template. In addition, this paper proposes a systematic countermeasure strategy by matching the countermeasure with critical digital assets (CDAs). The cyber-attack cases investigated using the proposed cyber-attack taxonomy can be used as data for evaluation and validation of cyber security conformance for digital devices to be applied, and as effective prevention and mitigation for cyber-attacks of NPPs.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.53 no.10
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• pp.3286-3297
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• 2021

The released hydrogen can be ignited even with weak ignition sources. This emphasizes the importance of the hydrogen flammability evaluation to prevent catastrophic failure in hydrogen related facilities including a nuclear power plant. Historically numerous attempts have been made to determine the flammability limit of hydrogen mixtures including several diluents. However, no analytical model has been developed to accurately predict the limit concentration for mixtures containing radiating gases. In this study, the effect of H₂O and CO₂ on flammability limit was investigated through a numerical simulation of lean limit hydrogen flames. The previous flammability limit model was improved based on the mechanistic investigation, with which the amount of indirect radiation heat loss could be estimated by the optically thin approximation. As a result, the sharp increase in limit concentration by H₂O could be explained by high thermal diffusivity and radiation rate. Despite the high radiation rate, however, CO₂ with the lower thermal diffusivity than the threshold cannot produce a noticeable increase in heat loss and ultimately limit concentration. We concluded that the proposed mechanistic analysis successfully explained the experimental results even including radiating gases. The accuracy of the improved model was verified through several flammability experiments for H₂-air-diluent.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.53 no.9
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• pp.3035-3043
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• 2021

Epidemiological research has revealed that radiation exposure can cause cataracts. The Korean nuclear regulatory body has proposed the reduction of the occupational dose limit for the lens of the eye from 150 mSv/y to 100 mSv/5y, with an additional limitation of not exceeding 50 mSv/y for a specific year, taking into account the recommendations of the International Commission on Radiological Protection, and the International Atomic Energy Agency. This means that radiation workers should receive the same level of radiation safety for the lens of the eye as for whole-body protection. Korean nuclear power plants (NPPs) are conducting research to establish the radiation protection program for the lens of the eye. In terms of the preliminary results of the implementation of the radiation protection program for the lens of the eye dedicated to Korean NPPs, this review article summarizes the current state of understanding of the regulations, technical guidance, eye lens dosimeters, and radiation field conditions resulting in lens dose.

• Journal of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea
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• v.25 no.3
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• pp.129-135
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• 2021

After the manual shutdown of the Wolseong nuclear power plant due to an earthquake in Gyeongju in 2016, anxiety about the earthquake safety of nuclear power plants has become a major social issue. The shear wall structure used as a major structural element in nuclear power plants is widely used as a major structural member because of its high resistance to horizontal loads such as earthquakes. However, due to the complexity of the structure, it is challenging to predict the dynamic characteristics of the structure. In this study, a three-story shear wall structure is fabricated, and the in-structure response characteristics of the shear wall structure are evaluated through shaking table tests. The test is performed using the Gyeongju earthquake that occurred in 2016, and the response characteristics due to the domestic earthquake are evaluated.

• Korean Journal of Breeding Science
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• v.42 no.6
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• pp.595-599
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• 2010

A new spray chrysanthemum cultivar 'Prima Donna' was released by National Institute of Horticultural and Herbal Science (NIHHS), Rural Development Administration (RDA), in 2008. The cross was made between 'Plano' and 'Yeonja' in 2005. Trials were conducted from 2006 to 2008 for the evaluation and selection of this cultivar, including shading cultures in summer and retarding cultures in spring. The natural flowering time of 'Prima Donna' is late October, but year-round flowering is possible by photo-periodic control. The cultivar has single type flowers with pink petals, green center and good inflorescence. The growth of plant is very vigorous. The diameter of flower is 7.0cm. The number of flowers per stem and petals per flower are 13 and 42, respectively. Days to flowering under the short day treatment is about 59 and its vase life is 26.1 days in autumn season.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.51 no.3
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• pp.738-745
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• 2019

Coprecipitation using hydrous ferric oxide (HFO) has been effectively used for the removal of radionuclides from radioactive wastewater. This work studied the dynamic behavior of HFO floc formation during the neutralization of acidic ferric iron in the presence of several radionuclides by using a photometric dispersion analyzer (PDA). Then the coagulation-flocculation system using HFO-anionic poly acrylamide (PAM) composite floc system was evaluated and compared in seawater and distilled water to find the effective condition to remove the target nuclides (Co-60, Mn-54, Sb-125, and Ru-106) present in wastewater generated in the severe accident of nuclear power plant like Fukushima Daiichi case. A ferric iron dosage of 10 ppm for the formation of HFO was suitable in terms of fast formation of HFO flocs without induction time, and maximum total removal yield of radioactivity from the wastewater. The settling time of HFO flocs was reduced by changing them to HFO-PAM composite floc. The optimal dosage of anionic PAM for HFO-anionic PAM floc system was approximately 1-10 ppm. The total removal yield of Mn-54, Co-60, Sb-125, Ru-106 radionuclides by the HFO-anionic PAM coagulation-flocculation system was higher in distilled water than in seawater and was more than 99%.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.51 no.5
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• pp.1297-1306
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• 2019

Probabilistic safety assessments (PSA) have been used for several decades to visualize the risk level of commercial nuclear power plants (NPPs). Since the role of a human reliability analysis (HRA) is to provide human error probabilities for safety critical tasks to support PSA, PSA quality is strongly affected by HRA quality. Therefore, it is important to understand the underlying limitations or problems of HRA techniques. For this reason, this study conducted a survey among 14 subject matter experts who represent the HRA community of domestic Korean NPPs. As a result, five significant HRA issues were identified: (1) providing a technical basis for the K-HRA (Korean HRA) method, and developing dedicated HRA methods applicable to (2) diverse external events to support Level 1 PSA, (3) digital environments, (4) mobile equipment, and (5) severe accident management guideline tasks to support Level 2 PSA. In addition, an HRA method to support multi-unit PSA was emphasized because it plays an important role in the evaluation of site risk, which is one of the hottest current issues. It is believed that creating such a catalog of prioritized issues will be a good indication of research direction to improve HRA and therefore PSA quality.