• Asian Journal for Public Opinion Research
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• 제2권3호
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• pp.172-195
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• 2015

Multiple nationwide opinion surveys, carried out by the government (cabinet office), major media (national newspapers and NHK), the National Institute for Environmental Studies, and the Atomic Energy Society of Japan, have revealed that the Fukushima nuclear accident has heightened people's perception of disaster risks, fear of nuclear accidents, and increased recognition of pollution issues, and has changed public opinion on nuclear energy policy. The opinion gap on nuclear energy policy between specialists and lay people has widened since the disaster. The results of the Japanese General Social Survey data show that objections to the promotion of nuclear energy are strong among females, and weaker among young males and the supporters of the LDP. These findings are similar to the data collected after the Chernobyl accident. People who live in a 70km radius of nuclear plants tend to evaluate nuclear disaster risks higher. Distance from nuclear plants and the perception of earthquake risk interactively correlate with opinions on nuclear issues. Among people whose evaluation of earthquake risk is low, those who live nearer to the plants are more likely to object to the abolishment of nuclear plants. It was also found that the nuclear disaster has changed people's behavior; they now try to save electricity. The level of commitment to energy saving is found to relate to opinions on nuclear issues.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• 제49권7호
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• pp.1414-1422
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• 2017

Remote response technology has advanced to the extent that a robot system, if properly designed and deployed, may greatly help respond to beyond-design-basis accidents at nuclear power plants. Particularly in the aftermath of the Fukushima accident, there is increasing interest in developing disaster robots that can be deployed in lieu of a human operator to the field to perform mitigating actions in the harsh environment caused by extreme natural hazards. The nuclear robotics team of the Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute (KAERI) is also endeavoring to construct disaster robots and, first of all, is interested in finding out to what extent safety benefits can be achieved by such a disaster robotic system. This paper discusses a new approach based on the probabilistic risk assessment (PRA) technique, which can be used to quantify safety benefits associated with disaster robots, along with a case study for seismic-induced station blackout condition. The results indicate that to avoid core damage in this special case a robot system with reliability > 0.65 is needed because otherwise core damage is inevitable. Therefore, considerable efforts are needed to improve the reliability of disaster robots, because without assurance of high reliability, remote response techniques will not be practically used.

• Journal of the Society of Disaster Information
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• 제17권3호
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• pp.500-511
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• 2021

Purpose: This study seeks to draw out implications that must be considered in the process of establishing measures to evacuate residents in preparation for domestic nuclear disasters by conducting an investigation about the disaster situation at the time of the Fukushima nuclear power plant explosion, emergency warning situation for residents protection, evacuation situation and In addition to investigating problems and measures raised in the resident protection system at that time. Method: A literature survey was conducted focusing on reports published by Japan's national, parliament, local governments and related agencies from right after the Great East Japan Earthquake to the present. Result: Found out what needs to be considered in the process of establishing domestic radiation disaster measures through the results of the survey on the problems and countermeasures derived from the process of evacuation of residents at the time of the Fukushima nuclear power plant explosion. Conclusion: The reviews were classified into four categories and detailed reviews were presented.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Safety
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• 제31권1호
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• pp.139-147
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• 2016

Nuclear energy is considerably cheap and clean compared to other fossil fuels. Yet, there are rising safety concerns of nuclear power plants including the possibility of radiation releasing nuclear accidents. In light of the Fukushima nuclear crisis in 2011, Japan has been re-evaluating their existing energy policies and increasing the share of alternative energy. This paper first tracks the major historical changes of energy policy in Japan by time period. Next, energy security, reignited concerns and alternative energy are covered to examine Japan's energy security situation and its transition after the Fukushima disaster. Lastly, a short survey based on thematic analysis was conducted in South Korea and Japan to understand the public awareness of nuclear. This paper postulates that the case of Fukushima will contribute to establish and operate a safe-future nuclear program in South Korea, given that the country is not only geographically neighbouring Japan but also the world's fourth largest producer of nuclear energy.

• Journal of the Society of Disaster Information
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• 제10권1호
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• pp.98-104
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• 2014

A new prototype software package has been developed by integrating two existing programs designed to predict and maneuver chemical and nuclear disasters in order to set up a response system for dealing with the combined two disasters. The protype is designed to be mainly used by civil defence officers, together with an identification of 625 scenarios of chemical and nuclear disasters. The package is expected to contribute to upgrade a more systematic regional public protection plan for chemical and nuclear disasters. In addition, it enables all relevant local divisions to share disaster information in real time, resulting in a minimization of possible fatal damages.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• 제45권1호
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• pp.13-20
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• 2013

This paper looks at the Fukushima disaster from the perspective of resilience engineering, which replaces a search for causes with an understanding of how the system failed in its performance. Referring to the four resilience abilities of responding, monitoring, learning, and anticipating, the paper focuses on how inadequate engineering anticipation or risk assessment during the design, in combination with inadequate response capabilities, precipitated the disaster. One lesson is that systems such as nuclear power plants are complicated, not only in how they function during everyday or exceptional conditions, but also during their whole life cycle. System functions are intrinsically coupled synchronically and diachronically in ways that may affect the ability to respond to extreme conditions.

• Journal of Environmental Health Sciences
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• 제37권3호
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• pp.226-233
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• 2011

Exactly 25 years after the Chernobyl nuclear disaster, 11th of March 2011 the Fukushima nuclear accident occurred in Japan and was ranked at level 7 same to the Chernobyl. A Korean and Japanese joint civil survey was conducted around Fukushima on April 13-17. The radiation survey data clearly shows a large hotspot area between 20 km and 50 km radius north and west direction from the accident reactors, with the highest radiation recorded being 55.64 ${\mu}Sv/hr$ in the air, 99.89 ${\mu}Sv/hr$ in the surface air, and 36.16 ${\mu}Sv/hr$ in a car, respectively. 3.65 ${\mu}Sv/hr$ in the air and 6.89 ${\mu}Sv/hr$ in the surface air were detected at the playground of an elementary school in Fukushima City. Spring came with full cherry blossoms in Fukushima, but it was silent spring of radiation contamination. Interviews with Fukushima nuclear refugees reveal serious problems about Japanese nuclear safety systems, such as there was no practical evacuation drill within 1-10 km and no plan at all for 10-30 km areas. Several reforms items for Korean nuclear safety system can be suggested: minimization of accident damage, clear separation of regulatory and safety bureaus with a new and independent administrating agency, community participation and agreement regarding the safety system and levels, which is the major concern of 80% Korean. To tackle threats of nuclear disaster in neighboring nations like China, a new position entitled 'Ambassador for nuclear safety diplomacy' is highly necessary. The nuclear safety of Korea should no longer be the monopoly of those nuclear engineers and limited technocrats criticized as a 'nuclear mafia'.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• 제24권4호
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• pp.259-274
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• 2023

In this paper, mechanical properties of periodic foundation made of concrete and rubber are investigated by a parametric study using the finite element method (FEM). Periodic foundation is a special type of seismic isolation foundation used in civil engineering, which is inspired by the meso-scale structure of phononic crystals in solid-state physics. This type of foundation is capable of reducing the seismic wave propagating though the foundation, therefore providing additional protection for the structures. In the FEM analysis, layered periodic foundation is frequently modelled due to its simplicity in numerical modeling. However, the isolation effect of periodic foundation on nuclear power plant has not been fully discussed to the best knowledge of authors. In this work, we construct four numerical models of nuclear power plant with different foundations to investigate the seismic isolation effects of periodic foundations. The results show that the layered periodic foundation can increase the natural period of the nuclear power plant like traditional base isolation systems, which is beneficial to the structures. In addition, the seismic response of the nuclear power plant can also be effectively reduced in both vertical and horizontal directions when the frequencies of the incident waves fall into some specific frequency bandgaps of the periodic foundation. Furthermore, it is demonstrated that the layered periodic foundation can reduce the amplitude of the floor response spectrum, which plays an important role in the protection of the equipment.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• 제53권6호
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• pp.1858-1868
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• 2021

Resisting an accidental impact of large commercial aircrafts is an important aspect of advanced nuclear power plant (NPP) design. Especially after the 9·11 event, some regulations were enacted, which required the design of NPPs should consider the accidental impact of large commercial aircrafts. Normal working of equipment is important for stopping reactor under an impact when an NPP is in operation. However, there is a lack of reliable analysis and research on the impact test of nuclear prototype equipment. Therefore, in order to study the response of the equipment under high acceleration impact, a centrifugal pump is selected as the research object to perform the impact test. A horizontal half-sinusoidal pulse wave was applied to the working pump. The test results show that the horizontal response of the motor and flange is greater compared to other parts, as well as the vertical response of the coupling. The stress response of the pump body support and motor support is high, hence these parts should be considered in the design of the pump. Finally, combined with the damage and stress evaluation results of the pump under different amplitudes, the ultimate impact acceleration that the pump can withstand is given.

• Proceedings of the Korean Nuclear Society Conference
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• 한국원자력학회 2001년도 춘계학술발표회요약집
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• pp.398.1-398
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• 2001