• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.48 no.1
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• pp.218-227
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• 2016

Background: Steam explosions may occur in nuclear power plants by molten fuel-coolant interactions when the external reactor vessel cooling strategy fails. Since this phenomenon can threaten structural barriers as well as major components, extensive integrity assessment research is necessary to ensure their safety. Method: In this study, the influence of yield criteria was investigated to predict the failure of a reactor cavity under a typical postulated condition through detailed parametric finite element analyses. Further analyses using a geometrically simplified equivalent model with homogeneous concrete properties were also performed to examine its effectiveness as an alternative to the detailed reinforcement concrete model. Results: By comparing finite element analysis results such as cracking, crushing, stresses, and displacements, the Willam-Warnke model was derived for practical use, and failure criteria applicable to the reactor cavity under the severe accident condition were discussed. Conclusion: It was proved that the reactor cavity sustained its intended function as a barrier to avoid release of radioactive materials, irrespective of the different yield criteria that were adopted. In addition, from a conservative viewpoint, it seems possible to employ the simplified equivalent model to determine the damage extent and weakest points during the preliminary evaluation stage.

• Journal of Korean Academy of Fundamentals of Nursing
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• v.25 no.4
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• pp.269-281
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• 2018

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to build a model to predict the fall prevention behavior of nurses in small and medium sized hospitals. Methods: Participants were 382 nurses from 13 hospitals who responded to the structured self-reported questionnaire. The research model was based on previous study of fall prevention, theory of planned behavior, and the health belief model. Results: The modified model generally showed higher levels than recommended level of model fit indices and acceptable explanation. Of 17 hypothetical paths, 14 were supported. Predicting variables explained 51.6% of fall prevention behavior. The fall prevention behavior of nurses showed a direct influence of fall prevention expectations, fall prevent threats, perceived behavioral control for fall prevention, and intention to prevent falls and an indirect of influence of patient safety culture, attitude toward fall prevention, and the subjective norm. Conclusion: Findings show a need to identify a range of barrier factors to increase the benefits of fall prevention behavior and enhance the perceived control of fall prevention so that nurses will be able to promote fall prevention behavior in hospitals. Also, it is critical to increase awareness of patient safety culture among nurses.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.53 no.3
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• pp.741-751
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• 2021

There has been a deep interest in trying to find better-performing fuel clad motivated by the desire to decrease the likelihood of the reactor barrier failure like what happened in Fukushima in recent years. In this study, the effect of move towards accident tolerant fuel (ATF) cladding as the most attracting concept for improving reactor safety is investigated for SMART modular reactor. These reactors have less production cost, short construction time, better safety and higher power density. The SiC and FeCrAl materials are considered as the most potential candidate for ATF cladding, and the results are compared with Zircaloy cladding material from reactor physics point of view. In this paper, the calculations are performed by generating PMAX library by DRAGON lattice physics code to be used for further reactor core analysis by PARCS code. The differential and integral worth of control and safety rods, reactivity coefficient, power and temperature distributions, and boric acid concentration during the cycle are analyzed and compared from the conventional fuel cladding. The rod ejection accident (REA) is also performed to study how the power changed in response to presence of the ATF cladding in the reactor core. The key quantitative finding can be summarized as: 20 ℃ (3%) decrease in average fuel temperature, 33 pcm (3%) increase in integral rod worth and cycle length, 1.26 pcm/℃ (50%) and 1.05 pcm/℃ (16%) increase in reactivity coefficient of fuel and moderator, respectively.

• Journal of the Society of Naval Architects of Korea
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• v.59 no.3
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• pp.164-172
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• 2022

A HAZID is a brainstorming workshop to identify hazards in an early phase of a project. It should be flexible to capture all probable accidents allowing experienced participants to exploit their expertise and experiences. A bowtie analysis is a graphical representation of major accident hazards elaborating safety measures i.e. barriers. The result of these workshops should be documented in an organized manner to share as good as possible details of the discussion through the lifetime of the project. Currently results are documented using a three-step representation of an accident; causes, top event and consequences, which cannot capture correctly sequence of events leading to various accidents and roles of barrier between two events. Another problem is that barriers would be shown repeatedly leading to a misunderstanding that there are an enough number of safety measures. A new bowtie analysis method is proposed to describe an accident in multiple steps showing relations among causes or consequences. With causes and consequences shown in a format of a tree, the frequencies of having the top event (Fault tree analysis) and various consequences (Event tree analysis) are evaluated automatically based on the frequency of initiating causes and the probabilities of failure of barriers. It will provide a good description of the accident scenario and help the risk to be assessed transparently.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.55 no.2
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• pp.530-545
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• 2023

As an alternative to conventional management options for a lot of concrete waste from decommissioning of nuclear power plants, a set of scenarios for controlled recycling of decommissioning concrete waste as engineered barriers of a radioactive waste repository was proposed, and a comprehensive safety assessment model and framework covering both pre-and post-closure phases was newly developed. The new methodology was applied to a reference vault-type repository, and the ratios of derived concentration limits to unconditional clearance levels of eighteen radionuclides for controlled recycling were provided for three sets of dose criteria (0.01, 1, and 20 mSv/y for the pre-closure and 0.01 mSv/y for the post-closure phases). It turns out that decommissioning concrete waste whose concentration is much higher than the unconditional clearance level can be recycled even when the dose criterion 0.01 mSv/y is applied. Moreover, a case study on ABWR bio-shield shows that the fraction of recyclable concrete waste increases significantly by increasing the dose criterion for the radiation worker in the pre-closure phase or the duration of storage prior to recycling. The results of this study are expected to contribute to demonstrating the feasibility of controlled recycling of a lot of decommissioning concrete waste within nuclear sectors.

• Journal of Food Hygiene and Safety
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• v.32 no.3
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• pp.222-227
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• 2017

This study aimed to explore the potential for food-industry application of atmospheric pressure dielectric barrier discharge plasma (atmospheric pressure DBD plasma) as a non-thermal sterilization technology for microorganism. The effects of the key parameters such as power, oxygen ratio, exposure time and distance on Escherichia coli KCCM 21052 sterilization by the atmospheric pressure DBD plasma treatment were investigated. The experimental results revealed that increasing the power, exposure time or oxygen ratio and decreasing the exposure distance led to an improvement in the sterilization efficiency of E. coli. Furthermore, the atmospheric pressure DBD plasma (1.0 kW power, 1.0% (v/v) $O_2$, 5 min exposure time and 20 mm exposure distance) treatment was very effective for the sterilization of food-borne pathogenic bacteria. The sterilization rate of E. coli, Bacillus cereus KCCM 40935, Bacillus subtilis KCCM 12027, Bacillus thuringiensis KCCM 11429 and Bacillus atrophaeus KCCM 11314 were 72.3%, 74.6%, 88.5%, 84.7% and 91.3%, respectively.

• Tunnel and Underground Space
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• v.31 no.3
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• pp.167-183
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• 2021

It is essential to understand the complex thermo-hydro-mechanical-chemical (THMC) coupled behavior in the engineered barrier system and natural barrier system to secure the high-level radioactive waste repository's long-term safety. The heat from the high-level radioactive waste induces thermal pressurization and vaporization of groundwater in the repository system. Groundwater inflow affects the saturation variation in the engineered barrier system, and the saturation change influences the heat transfer and multi-phase flow characteristics in the buffer. Due to the complexity of the coupled behavior, a numerical simulation is a valuable tool to predict and evaluate the THMC interaction effect on the disposal system and safety assessment. To enhance the knowledge of THMC coupled interaction and validate modeling techniques in geological systems. DECOVALEX, an international cooperation project, was initiated in 1992, and KAERI has participated in the projects since 2008 in Korea. In this study, we introduced the main contents of all tasks in the DECOVALEX-2023, the current DECOVALEX phase, to the rock mechanics and geotechnical researchers in Korea.

• Composites Research
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• v.36 no.4
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• pp.246-252
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• 2023

A secondary barrier made of glass fiber reinforced composites has been installed infinitely using automatic bonding machine(ABM) in membrane type LNG cargo containment system (CCS). At the same time, significant thermal stress due to cryogenic heat shrinkage has occurred in the composite on the non-bonding area between the adhesive fixation at both ends. There have been studies from the perspective of structural safety evaluation taking this into account, but none that have analyzed mechanical property taking an prolonged length into account. In this study, 2-parameter Weibull distribution statistical analysis was used to standardize reliable mechanical property for actual length, taking into account the composite's brittle fracture of ceramic material with wide fracture strength dispersion. Related experimental data were obtained by performing uniaxial tensile tests at specific temperatures below cryogenic condition considering LNG environment. As a result, the mechanical strength increased about 1.5 times compared to -20℃ at -70℃ and initial non-linear behavior of fiber stretched was suppressed. As the temperature decreased until the cryogenic, the mechanical strength continued to increase due to cold brittleness. The suggested mechanical property in this study would be employed to secure reliable analysis support material property when assessing the safety of secondary barrier's structures.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Safety
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• v.35 no.4
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• pp.84-91
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• 2020

The Korean nuclear industry developed the SPACE (Safety and Performance Analysis Code for nuclear power plants) code and this code adpots two-phase flows, two-fluid, three-field models which are comprised of gas, continuous liquid and droplet fields and has a capability to simulate three-dimensional model. According to the revised law by the Nuclear Safety and Security Commission (NSSC) in Korea, the multiple failure accidents that must be considered for accident management plan of nuclear power plant was determined based on the lessons learned from the Fukushima accident. Generally, to improve the reliability of the calculation results of a safety analysis code, verification work for separate and integral effect experiments is required. In this reason, the goal of this work is to verify calculation capability of SPACE code for multiple failure accident. For this purpose, it was selected the experiment which was conducted to simulate a Multiple Steam Generator Tube Rupture(MSGTR) accident with Passive Auxiliary Feedwater System(PAFS) operation by Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute (KAERI) and focused that the comparison between the experiment results and code calculation results to verify the performance of the SPACE code. The MSGR accident has a unique feature of the penetration of the barrier between the Reactor Coolant System (RCS) and the secondary system resulting from multiple failure of steam generator U-tubes. The PAFS is one of the advanced safety features with passive cooling system to replace a conventional active auxiliary feedwater system. This system is passively capable of condensing steam generated in steam generator and feeding the condensed water to the steam generator by gravity. As the results of overall system transient response using SPACE code showed similar trends with the experimental results such as the system pressure, mass flow rate, and collapsed water level in component. In conclusion, it could be concluded that the SPACE code has sufficient capability to simulate a MSGTR accident.

• The Korean Journal of Emergency Medical Services
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• v.6 no.1
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• pp.87-102
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• 2002

Injury has now replaced disease as the biggest single cause of death in children after their first birthday. Each day child dies from preventable, unintentional injury and the medical cost of these injury is increasing remarkably. It is necessary to develope injury prevention models to explain, predict, manage, evaluate and analyze the information about accident. The purpose of this paper is, firstly, to investigate parent's actions regarding safety measures at home and secondly, to identify the influencing factors of parents' safety behaviors. The selection of such factors is guided by the theoretical framework of the Pender's Health Promotion Model. Method ; The questionnaire was developed on the basis of other investigations, through pilot testing, peer review, and review by field health workers. The questionnaire was completed by 231 mothers of young children. Data was collected between April and May 2002. Variable Use of three different domains of safety behavior, safety habits, supervision and perception of safety devices, were listed. Mothers were self reported on internal locus of control, mother & child relationships, and marital intimacy. Also the elements of the Health Promotion Model: perceived benefit, barrier, threat, and self-efficacy, were surveyed. Results & discussion The results indicate that most parents take considerable action to reduce household hazards. The constructs derived from the Model were statistically significant differences for a small part of the variables on parental behavior to reduce hazards in the home, such as age, education, economic status, self-efficacy, perceived benefit, internal locus of control. Future studies ought to include social influences, such as expectations, perceived norms, knowledge, and child-related variables, relevant to parental safety measures in their home.