• Title/Summary/Keyword: fukushima nuclear energy disaster

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Analysis of Power Supply Cost According to Nuclear and Renewable Energy Policies (원전 및 신재생에너지 정책에 따른 전력공급비용 분석)

  • Woo, Pil Sung;Kim, Kang-won;Hwang, Soon-hyun;Kim, Balho H.
    • The Transactions of The Korean Institute of Electrical Engineers
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    • v.67 no.1
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    • pp.16-21
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    • 2018
  • As a result of the Fukushima disaster and climate change due to excessive greenhouse gases, international energy affairs are currently focused on establishing safe and environment-friendly policies. To achieve this, Republic of Korea has established a plan for environment-friendly energy supplies. It is expected that policy enforcement will be accompanied by an increase in energy supply costs. An analysis of energy supply costs is necessary before the establishment of any national energy policy. This paper analyzes and compares the energy supply costs accompanying environmental and nuclear energy policies, based on the Korean National Energy Master Plan and the Basic Plan for Long-Term Electricity Supply and Demand, in order to understand the implications of these national energy policies.

System dynamics simulation of the thermal dynamic processes in nuclear power plants

  • El-Sefy, Mohamed;Ezzeldin, Mohamed;El-Dakhakhni, Wael;Wiebe, Lydell;Nagasaki, Shinya
    • Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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    • v.51 no.6
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    • pp.1540-1553
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    • 2019
  • A nuclear power plant (NPP) is a highly complex system-of-systems as manifested through its internal systems interdependence. The negative impact of such interdependence was demonstrated through the 2011 Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster. As such, there is a critical need for new strategies to overcome the limitations of current risk assessment techniques (e.g. the use of static event and fault tree schemes), particularly through simulation of the nonlinear dynamic feedback mechanisms between the different NPP systems/components. As the first and key step towards developing an integrated NPP dynamic probabilistic risk assessment platform that can account for such feedback mechanisms, the current study adopts a system dynamics simulation approach to model the thermal dynamic processes in: the reactor core; the secondary coolant system; and the pressurized water reactor. The reactor core and secondary coolant system parameters used to develop system dynamics models are based on those of the Palo Verde Nuclear Generating Station. These three system dynamics models are subsequently validated, using results from published work, under different system perturbations including the change in reactivity, the steam valve coefficient, the primary coolant flow, and others. Moving forward, the developed system dynamics models can be integrated with other interacting processes within a NPP to form the basis of a dynamic system-level (systemic) risk assessment tool.

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.

Implementation of Nuclear Power Plant components Supply Chain Management System based on RFID (RFID를 활용한 원전부품 공급사슬관리시스템 구축 방안)

  • Park, Doo-jin;Ha, Chang-seung;Jung, Lee-sang
    • Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Information and Commucation Sciences Conference
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    • 2012.10a
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    • pp.923-924
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    • 2012
  • Nuclear power is one of energy sources which has the safety and economic feasibility in supply. However, due to the recent disaster in Fukushima, Japan, the safety issue of nuclear power is now come to the fore again. For example, Germany and Italy they cancel some projects on nuclear power launching. In South Korea also, a lot of safety concerns are discussed and small and big accidents occur. Thus, this study suggests the supply chain management system based on RFID to improve safety and efficiency at the same time.

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A Study on the Ways to Joint Marine Development and Joint Marine Environmental Protection in Northeast Asia (동북아 해역 권원중첩수역 공동개발합의와 공동환경보호합의 도출 방안)

  • Kim, Ki-Sun
    • Strategy21
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    • s.37
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    • pp.193-241
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    • 2015
  • China, Japan and Korea are the world's top 10 energy consumers, and so very interested in the development of seabed hydrocarbon resources in order to meet their energy demands. The East China Sea is the tri-junction area where three countries' entitlements on the maritime boundaries are overlapped. There are abundant oil reserves in the East China Sea, and therefore competitions among countries are growing to get control of them. Although these countries have concluded the bilateral agreements to jointly develop resources in the East China Sea, they do not function as well. Because joint development and management of seabed petroleum resources can lead to stable development system, and to lower possibility of legal and political disputes, the needs for joint development agreement among three countries are urgent. Meanwhile, Northeast Asian seas are semi-closed seas, which are geographically closed and vulnerable to marine pollution. Moreover there are a lot of nuclear power plants in coastal area, and seabed petroleum resources are being developed. So it is likely to occur nuclear and oil spill accidents. Fukushima nuclear disaster and Bohai Bay oil spill accident in 2011 are the cases to exhibit the potential of major marine pollution accidents in this area. It is anticipated that the risks become higher because power plants and offshore oil platforms are extending gradually. Therefore, the ways to seek the joint marine environmental protection agreement focused on regulation of nuclear power plant and offshore oil platform have to be considered. In this paper, we try to find the way to make joint development and joint environmental protection agreement in Northeast Asian seas. We concentrate on the measure to drive joint development of seabed petroleum deposits in East China Sea's overlap area, despite of maritime delimitation and territorial disputes, and we try to drive joint marine environmental protection system to respond to marine pollution and accidents due to offshore oil platform and nuclear power plants. Through these consideration, we seek solutions to deal with lack of energy, disputes of maritime territorial and boundary delimitation, and marine pollution in Northeast Asia.

Flooding and recovery system framework for Tsunami (대규모 지진해일로 인한 침수 및 배수 시스템 프레임워크에 대한 연구)

  • Lee, Sun Kee
    • Journal of the Korean Society of Systems Engineering
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    • v.8 no.2
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    • pp.47-55
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    • 2012
  • Tsunami disaster, which ruined Japan Fukushima nuclear power plant sites in 2011 March, has raised not only the perception of that Tsunami and/or large scale flooding possibly surpass the design baselines for industry facilities and plants, but also the necessity to establish recovery system against flooding. This study suggests the framework for flooding and drainage system in compliance with flooding and drainage concept to define and identify requirements, functions, and components of the system with traceable relations. The framework with combination to CMMI engineering process is the base of corresponding high level system design.

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.

Study on the Code System for the Off-Site Consequences Assessment of Severe Nuclear Accident (원전 중대사고 연계 소외결말해석 전산체계에 대한 고찰)

  • Kim, Sora;Min, Byung-Il;Park, Kihyun;Yang, Byung-Mo;Suh, Kyung-Suk
    • Journal of Nuclear Fuel Cycle and Waste Technology(JNFCWT)
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    • v.14 no.4
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    • pp.423-434
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    • 2016
  • The importance of severe nuclear accidents and probabilistic safety assessment (PSA) were brought to international attention with the occurrence of severe nuclear accidents caused by the extreme natural disaster at Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant in Japan. In Korea, studies on level 3 PSA had made little progress until recently. The code systems of level 3 PSA, MACCS2 (MELCORE Accident Consequence Code System 2, US), COSYMA (COde SYstem from MAria, EU) and OSCAAR (Off-Site Consequence Analysis code for Atmospheric Releases in reactor accidents, JAPAN), were reviewed in this study, and the disadvantages and limitations of MACCS2 were also analyzed. Experts from Korea and abroad pointed out that the limitations of MACCS2 include the following: MACCS2 cannot simulate multi-unit accidents/release from spent fuel pools, and its atmospheric dispersion is based on a simple Gaussian plume model. Some of these limitations have been improved in the updated versions of MACCS2. The absence of a marine and aquatic dispersion model and the limited simulating range of food-chain and economic models are also important aspects that need to be improved. This paper is expected to be utilized as basic research material for developing a Korean code system for assessing off-site consequences of severe nuclear accidents.

An essay on the relationship between the risk communication and scientific citizenship of nuclear power in Korea (원자력을 둘러싼 과학기술 시티즌십과 위험커뮤니케이션의 관계에 대한 일고찰)

  • Kang, Yun Jae
    • Journal of Science and Technology Studies
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    • v.15 no.1
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    • pp.45-67
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    • 2015
  • This essay aims to search for the reason of why, even after Fukushima nuclear disaster, Korean citizens did not try to seek out the possibility of another energy option. Firstly, we single two counter-concepts, the configuration of risk communication and scientific citizenship, out from the measure of frequency of co-occurrence key-terms and the analysis of survey on the citizens' scientific perception each. Secondly, we try to interpret the meaning of qualitative data, and finally, we draw out the result as follow. Korean government have driven out the pro-nuclear policy, and in this course have made full use of the discourse of there-is-no-alternative-option. We need to take an attention to the reason of why the discourse can circulate freely in society. From one data, we find out that the configuration of risk communication guarantee government's success. But we also should look at the another side, the scientific citizenship. From another data, we find out that the upstream scientific citizenship, the momentum of preparing alternative, has not been mature, and it is reason of why the discourse have an strong influence.

Comparison of Perception Differences About Nuclear Energy in 4 East Asian Country Students: Aiming at $10^{th}$ Grade Students who Participated in Scientific Camps, from Four East Asian Countries: Korea, Japan, Taiwan, and Singapore (동아시아 4개국 학생들의 핵에너지에 대한 인식 비교: 과학캠프에 참가한 한국, 일본, 대만, 싱가포르 10학년 학생들을 대상으로)

  • Lee, Hyeong-Jae;Park, Sang-Tae
    • Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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    • v.32 no.4
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    • pp.775-788
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    • 2012
  • This study was done at a scientific camp sponsored by Nara Women's University Secondary School, Japan. In this school, $10^{th}$ grade students from 4 East Asian countries: Korea, Japan, Taiwan, and Singapore, participated. We made a research on students' perceptions about nuclear energy. Sample populations include 77 students in total, with 12 Korean, 46 Japanese, 9 Taiwanese and 10 Singaporean students. Overall perceptions comparison about nuclear energy shows average values from the order of highest Korea, Taiwan, Singapore, and to lowest, Japan. We implemented a T-test to identify perception differences about nuclear energy, with one group that include 3 countries (Korea, Taiwan and Singapore) and another group that includes all the Japanese students. T-test results of perceptions about nuclear energy shows students from the 3 countries of Korea, Taiwan and Singapore having higher average than Japanese students. (p<.05). Korean average scores regarding overall perceptions about nuclear energy show as the highest in all 4 East Asian countries and also highest in all subcategories. On the contrary in Japan, they have lower and negative perceptions of nuclear energy. In spite of these facts, perceptions of Japanese students about nuclear energy seem lowest and negative mainly because of the recent Fukushima nuclear power plant disaster, caused by the tsunami and its subsequent damages and fears of radiation leaks, etc. This shows that negative information about future disasters and its resulting damages like the Chernobyl nuclear accident could influence more on people's risk perception than general information like nuclear energy-related technologies or the news that the plant is operating normally, etc. Even if the possibility of this kind of accident is very low, just one accident could bring abnormal risks to technology itself. This strong signal makes negative image and strengthens its perceptions to the people. This could bring a stigma about nuclear energy. This study shows that Government's policy about the highest priority for nuclear energy safety is most important. As long as such perception and decision are fixed, we found that it might not be easy to get changed again because they were already fortified and maintained.