• 한국안전학회지
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• 제26권4호
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• pp.87-95
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• 2011

The urgent VAI(Vital Area Identification) method development is required since 'The Act of Physical Protection and Radiological Emergency' that is established in 2003 requires an evaluation of physical threats in nuclear facilities and an establishment of physical protection in Korea. The KAERI(Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute) has developed the VAI methodology and VAI software called as VIPEX(Vital area Identification Package EXpert) for identifying the vital areas. This study is to demonstrate the applicability of KAERI's VAI methodology to a hypothetical facility, and to identify the importance of information of cable and piping runs when identifying the vital areas. It is necessarily needed to consider cable and piping runs to determine the accurate and realistic TEPS(Top Event Prevention Set). If the information of cable and piping runs of a nuclear power plant is not considered when determining the TEPSs, it is absolutely impossible to acquire the complete TEPSs, and the results could be distorted by missing it. The VIPEX and FTREX(Fault Tree Reliability Evaluation eXpert) properly calculate MCSs and TEPSs using the fault tree model, and provide the most cost-effective method to save the VAI and physical protection costs.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• 제37권3호
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• pp.259-264
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• 2005

This paper presents a vital area identification (VAI) method based on the current fault tree analysis (FTA) and probabilistic safety assessment (PSA) techniques for the physical protection of nuclear power plants. A structured framework of a top event prevention set analysis (TEPA) application to the VAI of nuclear power plants is also delineated. One of the important processes for physical protection in a nuclear power plant is VAI that is a process for identifying areas containing nuclear materials, structures, systems or components (SSCs) to be protected from sabotage, which could directly or indirectly lead to core damage and unacceptable radiological consequences. A software VIP (Vital area Identification Package based on the PSA method) is being developed by KAERI for the VAI of nuclear power plants. Furthermore, the KAERI fault tree solver FTREX (Fault Tree Reliability Evaluation eXpert) is specialized for the VIP to generate the candidates of the vital areas. FTREX can generate numerous MCSs for a huge fault tree with the lowest truncation limit and all possible prevention sets.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• 제53권9호
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• pp.2888-2898
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• 2021

Vital area identification (VAI) is an essential procedure for the design of physical protection systems (PPSs) for nuclear power plants (NPPs). The purpose of PPS design is to protect vital areas. VAI has been improved continuously to overcome the shortcomings of previous VAI generations. In first-generation VAI, a sabotage fault tree was developed directly without reusing probabilistic safety assessment (PSA) results or information. In second-generation VAI, VAI model was constructed from all PSA event trees and fault trees. While in third-generation VAI, it was developed from the simplified PSA event trees and fault trees. While VAIs have been performed for NPPs in full-power operations, VAI for NPPs in low-power and shutdown (LPSD) operations has not been studied and performed, even though NPPs in LPSD operations are very vulnerable to sabotage due to the very crowded nature of NPP maintenance. This study is the first to research and apply VAI to LPSD operation of NPP. Here, the third-generation VAI method for full-power operation of NPP was adapted to the VAI of LPSD operation. In this study, LPSD VAI for a few plant operational states (POSs) was performed. Furthermore, the operation strategy of vital areas for both full-power and LPSD operations was discussed. The LPSD VAI method discussed in this paper can be easily applied to all POSs. The method and insights in this study can be important for future LPSD VAI that reflects various LPSD operational states. Regulatory bodies and electric utilities can take advantage of this LPSD VAI method.

• 한국안전학회지
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• 제24권5호
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• pp.63-68
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• 2009

The urgent VAI method development is required since "The Act of Physical Protection and Radiological Emergency that is established in 2003" requires an evaluation of physical threats in nuclear facilities and an establishment of physical protection in Korea. The VAI methodology is developed to (1) make a sabotage model by reusing existing fire/flooding/pipe break PSA models, (2) calculate MCSs and TEPSs, (3) select the most cost-effective TEPS among many TEPSs, (4) determine the compartments in a selected TEPS as vital areas, and (5) provide protection measures to the vital areas. The developed VAI methodology contains four steps, (1) collecting the internal level 1 PSA model and information, (2) developing the fire/flood/pipe rupture model based on level 1 PSA model, (3) integrating the fire/flood/pipe rupture model into the sabotage model by JSTAR, and (4) calculating MCSs and TEPS. The VAT process is performed through the VIPEX that was developed in KAERI. This methodology serves as a guide to develop a sabotage model by using existing internal and external PSA models. When this methodology is used to identify the vital areas, it provides the most cost-effective method to save the VAI and physical protection costs.

• 한국원자력학회:학술대회논문집
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• 한국원자력학회 2002년도 추계학술발표회요약집
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• pp.199-199
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• 2002

• 한국안전학회지
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• 제32권3호
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• pp.160-171
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• 2017

US national research laboratories developed the first Vital Area Identification (VAI) method for the physical protection of nuclear power plants that is based on Event Tree Analysis (ETA) and Fault Tree Analysis (FTA) techniques in 1970s. Then, Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute proposed advanced VAI method that takes advantage of fire and flooding Probabilistic Safety Assessment (PSA) results. In this study, in order to minimize the burden and difficulty of VAI, (1) a set of streamlined VAI rules were developed, and (2) this set of rules was applied to PSA fault tree and event tree at the initial stage of VAI process. This new rule-based VAI method is explained, and its efficiency and correctness are demonstrated throughout this paper. This new rule-based VAI method drastically reduces problem size by (1) performing PSA event tree simplification by applying VAI rules to the PSA event tree, (2) calculating preliminary prevention sets with event tree headings, (3) converting the shortest preliminary prevention set into a sabotage fault tree, and (4) performing usual VAI procedure. Since this new rule-based VAI method drastically reduces VAI problem size, it provides very quick and economical VAI procedure. In spite of an extremely reduced sabotage fault tree, this method generates identical vital areas to those by traditional VAI method. It is strongly recommended that this new rule-based VAI method be applied to the physical protection of nuclear power plants and other complex safety-critical systems such as chemical and military systems.

• 한국원자력학회:학술대회논문집
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• 한국원자력학회 2004년도 추계학술발표회 발표논문집
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• pp.409-410
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• 2004

• 한국안전학회지
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• 제35권1호
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• pp.107-115
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• 2020

This paper introduces the first vital area identification (VAI) process for the physical protection of nuclear power plants (NPPs) during low power and shutdown (LPSD) operation. This LPSD VAI is based on the 3rd generation VAI method which very efficiently utilizes probabilistic safety assessment (PSA) event trees (ETs). This LPSD VAI process was implemented to the virtual NPP during LPSD operation in this study. Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute (KAERI) had developed the 2nd generation full power VAI method that utilizes whole internal and external (fire and flooding) PSA results of NPPs during full power operation. In order to minimize the huge burden of the 2nd generation full power VAI method, the 3rd generation full power VAI method was developed, which utilizes ETs and minimal PSA fault trees instead of using the whole PSA fault tree. In the 3rd generation full power VAI method, (1) PSA ETs are analyzed, (2) minimal mitigation systems for avoiding core damage are selected from ETs by calculating system-level target sets and prevention sets, (3) relatively small sabotage fault tree that has the systems in the shortest system-level prevention set is composed, (4) room-level target sets and prevention sets are calculated from this small sabotage fault tree, and (5) the rooms in the shortest prevention set are defined as vital areas that should be protected. Currently, the 3rd generation full power VAI method is being employed for the VAI of Korean NPPs. This study is the first development and application of the 3rd generation VAI method to the LPSD VAI of NPP. For the LPSD VAI, (1) many LPSD ETs are classified into a few representative LPSD ETs based on the functional similarity of accident scenarios, (2) a few representative LPSD ETs are simplified with some VAI rules, and then (3) the 3rd generation VAI is performed as mentioned in the previous paragraph. It is well known that the shortest room-level prevention sets that are calculated by the 2nd and 3rd generation VAI methods are identical.

• 해양환경안전학회지
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• 제26권6호
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• pp.594-600
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• 2020

선박과 물체의 충돌위험을 파악하는 것은 항해안전에 중요하다. 본 연구의 목적은 선박이 방파제 사이를 통과할 때 선박 도메인이 방파제에 의해서 침범당하는 현상을 분석하는 것이다. 연구방법은 먼저, 방파제가 주어진 조건으로 설계된 선박 도메인을 침범하는 영역을 평가하기 위한 방법을 제안하였다. 그런 후, 부산항 방파제 부근을 항해하는 선박들의 AIS(Automatic Identification System)로부터 실험 데이터를 획득하고 처리하여 방파제 사이에서 형성될 수 있는 선박 도메인을 구축하였다. 이 때 선박 도메인은 Fujii의 Domain을 이용해 구축하였다. 마지막으로, 구축한 선박 도메인이 방파제에 의해서 침범당하는 현상을 분석하였다. 실험결과, 방파제에 의해서 침범당하는 선박 도메인이 확인되었다.

• 생물정신의학
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• 제18권4호
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• pp.217-224
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• 2011

Subsyndromal bipolar symptoms are common during maintenance treatment and appear to be associated with relapse into an episode of the same polarity. This implies subsyndromal symptoms are an important problem in recurrent bipolar disorder and require more additive and infallible therapeutic intervention. Undetected, untreated subsyndromal states lead patients to have poor prognosis and quality of life. The combination of a long undetected illness and significant psychosocial impairment renders early identification and intervention vital for the treatment of bipolar disorders. Methods for early identification includes finding prodromes, using screening tools such as the HCL-32 (Hypomania Checklist-32) and the BSDS (bipolar spectrum diagnostic scale). Various augmentation treatment methods would be needed to reduce subsyndromal symptoms, especially, psychosocial treatment has the potential to help patients address the multiple psychosocial problems associated with this chronic illness. To overcome difficulties of diagnosing subsyndromal disorder and to treat it appropriately, a staging system was suggested by some researchers. It assumes that earlier stages have better prognosis and require simpler therapeutic regimens. Staging may assist in treatment planning and prognosis of bipolar disorder, and emphasize the importance of early intervention. Further research is required in this exciting and novel area.