Determination of Safety Performance Grade of NPP Using Integrated Safety Performance Assessment (ISPA) Program

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Chung, Dae Wook

2011-01-01

Since the beginning of 2000, the safety regulation of nuclear power plant (NPP) has been challenged to be conducted more reasonable, effective and efficient way using risk and performance information. In the United States, USNRC established Reactor Oversight Process (ROP) in 2000 for improving the effectiveness of safety regulation of operating NPPs. The main idea of ROP is to classify the NPPs into 5 categories based on the results of safety performance assessment and to conduct graded regulatory programs according to categorization, which might be interpreted as 'Graded Regulation'. However, the classification of safety performance categories is highly comprehensive and sensitive process so that safety performance assessment program should be prepared in integrated, objective and quantitative manner. Furthermore, the results of assessment should characterize and categorize the actual level of safety performance of specific NPP, integrating all the substantial elements for assessing the safety performance. In consideration of particular regulatory environment in Korea, the integrated safety performance assessment (ISPA) program is being under development for the use in the determination of safety performance grade (SPG) of a NPP. The ISPA program consists of 6 individual assessment programs (4 quantitative and 2 qualitative) which cover the overall safety performance of NPP. Some of the assessment programs which are already implemented are used directly or modified for incorporating risk aspects. The others which are not existing regulatory programs are newly developed. Eventually, all the assessment results from individual assessment programs are produced and integrated to determine the safety performance grade of a specific NPP

Problems in the assessment of inherent safety characteristics of nuclear reactors

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Garribba, S.F.; Vivante, C.

1988-01-01

A number of proposals are being made for an increased RD and D effort on advanced nuclear power reactors that would display outstanding safety performance. A common characteristic of the different reactor concepts would be their limited reliance upon active engineered systems under major accident conditions. However, when submitted to a more close scrutiny reactor concept options may reveal diverging safety behaviors and also development opportunities. In this respect, three issues are explored in this paper. A first question is the meaning of non-active, i.e. inherent and passive safety features. Next, is the ranking of advanced and new reactor concepts from the viewpoint of inherent and passive safety. Multiple correspondence analysis may provide a simple tool, whose use is shown for the case of HTR-500, AP600 and PRISM. Conversely, probabilistic risk assessment would allow quantitative comparisons, although lack of information and data is an obstacle. Finally, is demonstration of safety performances as a step toward market deployment of the new reactor systems

Research about reactor operator's personability characteristics and performance

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Wei Li; He Xuhong; Zhao Bingquan [Tsinghua Univ., Institute of Nuclear Energy Technology, Beijing (China)

2003-03-01

To predict and evaluate the reactor operator's performance by personality characteristics is an important part of reactor operator safety assessment. Using related psychological theory combined with the Chinese operator's fact and considering the effect of environmental factors to personality analysis, paper does the research about the about the relationships between reactor operator's performance and personality characteristics, and offers the reference for operator's selection, using and performance in the future. (author)

Safety KPIs - Monitoring of safety performance

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Andrej Lališ

2014-09-01

Full Text Available This paper aims to provide brief overview of aviation safety development focusing on modern trends represented by implementation of Safety Key Performance Indicators. Even though aviation is perceived as safe means of transport, it is still struggling with its complexity given by long-term growth and robustness which it has reached today. Thus nowadays safety issues are much more complex and harder to handle than ever before. We are more and more concerned about organizational factors and control mechanisms which have potential to further increase level of aviation safety. Within this paper we will not only introduce the concept of Key Performance Indicators in area of aviation safety as an efficient control mechanism, but also analyse available legislation and documentation. Finally we will propose complex set of indicators which could be applied to Czech Air Navigation Service Provider.

Development of the evaluation methods in reactor safety analyses and core characteristics

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

NONE

2013-08-15

In order to support the safety reviews by NRA on reactor safety design including the phenomena with multiple failures, the computer codes are developed and the safety evaluations with analyses are performed in the areas of thermal hydraulics and core characteristics evaluation. In the code preparation of safety analyses, the TRACE and RELAP5 code were prepared to conduct the safety analyses of LOCA and beyond design basis accidents with multiple failures. In the core physics code preparation, the functions of sensitivity and uncertainty analysis were incorporated in the lattice physics code CASMO-4. The verification of improved CASMO-4 /SIMULATE-3 was continued by using core physics data. (author)

Safety performance indicators program

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Vidal, Patricia G.

2004-01-01

In 1997 the Nuclear Regulatory Authority (ARN) initiated a program to define and implement a Safety Performance Indicators System for the two operating nuclear power plants, Atucha I and Embalse. The objective of the program was to incorporate a set of safety performance indicators to be used as a new regulatory tool providing an additional view of the operational performance of the nuclear power plants, improving the ability to detect degradation on safety related areas. A set of twenty-four safety performance indicators was developed and improved throughout pilot implementation initiated in July 1998. This paper summarises the program development, the main criteria applied in each stage and the results obtained. (author)

Safety assessment, safety performance indicators at the Paks Nuclear Power Plant

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Baji, C.; Vamos, G.; Toth, J.

2001-01-01

The Paks Nuclear Power Plant has been using different methods of safety assessment (event analysis, self-assessment, probabilistic safety analysis), including performance indicators characterizing both operational and safety performance since the early years of operation of the plant. Regarding the safety performance, the indicators include safety system performance, number of scrams, release of radioactive materials, number of safety significant events, industrial safety indicator, etc. The Paks NPP also reports a set of ten indicators to WANO Performance Indicator Programme which, among others, include safety related indicators as well. However, a more systematic approach to structuring and trending safety indicators is needed so that they can contribute to the enhancement of the operational safety. A more comprehensive set of indicators and a systematic evaluation process was introduced in 1996. The performance indicators framework proposed by the IAEA was adapted to Paks in this year to further improve the process. Safety culture assessment and characterizing safety culture is part of the assessment process. (author)

Transformational leadership and employee safety performance: a within-person, between-jobs design.

Science.gov (United States)

Inness, Michelle; Turner, Nick; Barling, Julian; Stride, Chris B

2010-07-01

We investigated the extent to which the safety performance (i.e., self-reported safety compliance and safety participation) of employees with 2 jobs was predicted by their respective supervisors' transformational leadership behaviors. We compared 2 within-person models: a context-specific model (i.e., transformational leadership experienced by employees in 1 context related to those same employees' safety performance only in that context) and a context-spillover model (i.e., transformational leadership experienced by employees in 1 context related to those same employees' safety performance in the same and other contexts). Our sample comprised 159 "moonlighters" (73 men, 86 women): employees who simultaneously hold 2 different jobs, each with a different supervisor, providing within-person data on the influence of different supervisors on employee safety performance across 2 job contexts. Having controlled for individual differences (negative affectivity and conscientiousness) and work characteristics (e.g., hours worked and length of relationship with supervisor), the context-specific model provided the best fit to the data among alternative nested models. Implications for the role of transformational leadership in promoting workplace safety are discussed.

Validation of risk-based performance indicators: Safety system function trends

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Boccio, J.L.; Vesely, W.E.; Azarm, M.A.; Carbonaro, J.F.; Usher, J.L.; Oden, N.

1989-10-01

This report describes and applies a process for validating a model for a risk-based performance indicator. The purpose of the risk-based indicator evaluated, Safety System Function Trend (SSFT), is to monitor the unavailability of selected safety systems. Interim validation of this indicator is based on three aspects: a theoretical basis, an empirical basis relying on statistical correlations, and case studies employing 25 plant years of historical data collected from five plants for a number of safety systems. Results using the SSFT model are encouraging. Application of the model through case studies dealing with the performance of important safety systems shows that statistically significant trends in, and levels of, system performance can be discerned which thereby can provide leading indications of degrading and/or improving performances. Methods for developing system performance tolerance bounds are discussed and applied to aid in the interpretation of the trends in this risk-based indicator. Some additional characteristics of the SSFT indicator, learned through the data-collection efforts and subsequent data analyses performed, are also discussed. The usefulness and practicality of other data sources for validation purposes are explored. Further validation of this indicator is noted. Also, additional research is underway in developing a more detailed estimator of system unavailability. 9 refs., 18 figs., 5 tabs

Food safety performance indicators to benchmark food safety output of food safety management systems.

Science.gov (United States)

Jacxsens, L; Uyttendaele, M; Devlieghere, F; Rovira, J; Gomez, S Oses; Luning, P A

2010-07-31

There is a need to measure the food safety performance in the agri-food chain without performing actual microbiological analysis. A food safety performance diagnosis, based on seven indicators and corresponding assessment grids have been developed and validated in nine European food businesses. Validation was conducted on the basis of an extensive microbiological assessment scheme (MAS). The assumption behind the food safety performance diagnosis is that food businesses which evaluate the performance of their food safety management system in a more structured way and according to very strict and specific criteria will have a better insight in their actual microbiological food safety performance, because food safety problems will be more systematically detected. The diagnosis can be a useful tool to have a first indication about the microbiological performance of a food safety management system present in a food business. Moreover, the diagnosis can be used in quantitative studies to get insight in the effect of interventions on sector or governmental level. Copyright 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Overall System Description and Safety Characteristics of Prototype Gen IV Sodium Cooled Fast Reactor in Korea

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jaewoon Yoo

2016-10-01

Full Text Available The Prototype Gen IV sodium cooled fast reactor (PGSFR has been developed for the last 4 years, fulfilling the technology demonstration of the burning capability of transuranic elements included in light water reactor spent nuclear fuel. The PGSFR design has been focused on the robustness of safety systems by enhancing inherent safety characteristics of metal fuel and strengthening passive safety features using natural circulation and thermal expansion. The preliminary safety information document as a major outcome of the first design phase of PGSFR development was issued at the end of 2015. The project entered the second design phase at the beginning of 2016. This paper summarizes the overall structures, systems, and components of nuclear steam supply system and safety characteristics of the PGSFR. The research and development activities to demonstrate the safety performance are also briefly introduced in the paper.

Overall system description and safety characteristics of Prototype Gen IV Sodium Cooled Fast Reactor in Korea

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Yoo, Jae Woon; Chang, Jin Wook; Lim, Jae Yong; Cheon, Jin Sik; Lee, Tae Ho; Kim, Sung Kyun; Lee, Kwi Lim; Joo, Hyung Kook

2016-01-01

The Prototype Gen IV sodium cooled fast reactor (PGSFR) has been developed for the last 4 years, fulfilling the technology demonstration of the burning capability of transuranic elements included in light water reactor spent nuclear fuel. The PGSFR design has been focused on the robustness of safety systems by enhancing inherent safety characteristics of metal fuel and strengthening passive safety features using natural circulation and thermal expansion. The preliminary safety information document as a major outcome of the first design phase of PGSFR development was issued at the end of 2015. The project entered the second design phase at the beginning of 2016. This paper summarizes the overall structures, systems, and components of nuclear steam supply system and safety characteristics of the PGSFR. The research and development activities to demonstrate the safety performance are also briefly introduced in the paper

Safety characteristics of small heat producing reactors

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Seifritz, W.

1987-10-01

The primary objectives of protection in nuclear power plants are the possibility to shut the reactor down in case of emergency and keep it subcritical in the long run, the existence of a heat sink for post-decay heat removal in order to avoid overheating, let alone core meltdown, and the containment of radioactivity within the barriers designed for this purpose, thus preventing significant activity release. In principle, these objectives can be met in various ways, namely by active, passive or inherent technical safeguards systems. In practice, a mixture of these approaches is employed in almost all cases. What matters in the end is the assessment of the overall concept, not of some outstanding feature. Inherent characteristics are easier to achieve in small reactors. However, also in this case, inherent safety does not mean absolute safety. If inherent safety characteristics were all encompassing, they would have to include self-healing effects. However, inanimate matter is incapable of such self-organization. Consequently, inherent characteristics in nuclear technology by definition should include the increased use of dissipative processes in the thermal part of the plant. (author)

Performance of safety management systems in Spanish food service establishments in view of their context characteristics

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Luning, P.A.; Chinchilla, A.C.; Jacxsens, L.; Kirezieva, K.K.; Rovira, J.

2013-01-01

Food service establishments (FSE) operate under restricted technological and organisational circumstances, making them susceptible to food safety problems as reported frequently. Aim of this study was to get insight in Food Safety Management System (FSMS) performance in different types of FSE in

Job hindrances, job resources, and safety performance: The mediating role of job engagement.

Science.gov (United States)

Yuan, Zhenyu; Li, Yongjuan; Tetrick, Lois E

2015-11-01

Job engagement has received widespread attention in organizational research but has rarely been empirically investigated in the context of safety. In the present study, we examined the mediating role of job engagement in the relationships between job characteristics and safety performance using self-reported data collected at a coal mining company in China. Most of our study hypotheses were supported. Job engagement partially mediated the relationships between job resources and safety performance dimensions. Theoretical and practical implications and directions for future research are also discussed. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd and The Ergonomics Society. All rights reserved.

How the choice of safety performance function affects the identification of important crash prediction variables.

Science.gov (United States)

Wang, Ketong; Simandl, Jenna K; Porter, Michael D; Graettinger, Andrew J; Smith, Randy K

2016-03-01

Across the nation, researchers and transportation engineers are developing safety performance functions (SPFs) to predict crash rates and develop crash modification factors to improve traffic safety at roadway segments and intersections. Generalized linear models (GLMs), such as Poisson or negative binomial regression, are most commonly used to develop SPFs with annual average daily traffic as the primary roadway characteristic to predict crashes. However, while more complex to interpret, data mining models such as boosted regression trees have improved upon GLMs crash prediction performance due to their ability to handle more data characteristics, accommodate non-linearities, and include interaction effects between the characteristics. An intersection data inventory of 36 safety relevant parameters for three- and four-legged non-signalized intersections along state routes in Alabama was used to study the importance of intersection characteristics on crash rate and the interaction effects between key characteristics. Four different SPFs were investigated and compared: Poisson regression, negative binomial regression, regularized generalized linear model, and boosted regression trees. The models did not agree on which intersection characteristics were most related to the crash rate. The boosted regression tree model significantly outperformed the other models and identified several intersection characteristics as having strong interaction effects. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Evaluation of neutronic characteristics of in-pile test reactor for fast reactor safety research

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Uto, N.; Ohno, S.; Kawata, N. [Power Reactor and Nuclear Fuel Development Corp., Oarai, Ibaraki (Japan). Oarai Engineering Center

1996-09-01

An extensive research program has been carried out at the Power Reactor and Nuclear Fuel Development Corporation for the safety of future liquid-metal fast breeder reactors to be commercialized. A major part of this program is investigation and planning of advanced safety experiments conducted with a new in-pile safety test facility, which is larger and more advanced than any of the currently existing test reactors. Such a transient safety test reactor generally has unique neutronic characteristics that require various studies from the reactor physics point of view. In this paper, the outcome of the neutronics study is highlighted with presenting a reference core design concept and its performance in regard to the safety test objectives. (author)

Continuous improvement of the MHTGR safety and competitive performance

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Eichenberg, T.W.; Etzel, K.T.; Mascaro, L.L.; Rucker, R.A.

1992-05-01

An increase in reactor module power from 350 to 450 MW(t) would markedly improve the economics of the Modular High Temperature Gas-Cooled Reactor (MHTGR). The higher power level was recommended as the result of an in-depth cost reduction study undertaken to compete with the declining price of fossil fuel. The safety assessment confirms that the high level of safety, which relies on inherent characteristics and passive features, is maintained at the elevated power level. Preliminary systems, nuclear, and safety performance results are discussed for the recommended 450 MW(t) design. Optimization of plant parameters and design modifications accommodated the operation of the steam generator and circulator at the higher power level. Events in which forced cooling is lost, designated as conduction cooldowns are described in detail. For the depressurized conduction cooldown, without full helium inventory, peak fuel temperatures are significantly lowered. A more negative temperature coefficient of reactivity was achieved while maintaining an adequate fuel cycle and reactivity control. Continual improvement of the MHTGR delivers competitive performance without relinquishing the high safety margins demanded of the next generation of power plants

Indicators of safety culture - selection and utilization of leading safety performance indicators

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Reiman, Teemu; Pietikaeinen, Elina (VTT, Technical Research Centre of Finland (Finland))

2010-03-15

Safety indicators play a role in providing information on organizational performance, motivating people to work on safety and increasing organizational potential for safety. The aim of this report is to provide an overview on leading safety indicators in the domain of nuclear safety. The report explains the distinction between lead and lag indicators and proposes a framework of three types of safety performance indicators - feedback, monitor and drive indicators. Finally the report provides guidance for nuclear energy organizations for selecting and interpreting safety indicators. It proposes the use of safety culture as a leading safety performance indicator and offers an example list of potential indicators in all three categories. The report concludes that monitor and drive indicators are so called lead indicators. Drive indicators are chosen priority areas of organizational safety activity. They are based on the underlying safety model and potential safety activities and safety policy derived from it. Drive indicators influence control measures that manage the socio technical system; change, maintain, reinforce, or reduce something. Monitor indicators provide a view on the dynamics of the system in question; the activities taking place, abilities, skills and motivation of the personnel, routines and practices - the organizational potential for safety. They also monitor the efficacy of the control measures that are used to manage the socio technical system. Typically the safety performance indicators that are used are lagging (feedback) indicators that measure the outcomes of the socio technical system. Besides feedback indicators, organizations should also acknowledge the important role of monitor and drive indicators in managing safety. The selection and use of safety performance indicators is always based on an understanding (a model) of the socio technical system and safety. The safety model defines what risks are perceived. It is important that the safety

Indicators of safety culture - selection and utilization of leading safety performance indicators

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Reiman, Teemu; Pietikaeinen, Elina

2010-03-01

Safety indicators play a role in providing information on organizational performance, motivating people to work on safety and increasing organizational potential for safety. The aim of this report is to provide an overview on leading safety indicators in the domain of nuclear safety. The report explains the distinction between lead and lag indicators and proposes a framework of three types of safety performance indicators - feedback, monitor and drive indicators. Finally the report provides guidance for nuclear energy organizations for selecting and interpreting safety indicators. It proposes the use of safety culture as a leading safety performance indicator and offers an example list of potential indicators in all three categories. The report concludes that monitor and drive indicators are so called lead indicators. Drive indicators are chosen priority areas of organizational safety activity. They are based on the underlying safety model and potential safety activities and safety policy derived from it. Drive indicators influence control measures that manage the socio technical system; change, maintain, reinforce, or reduce something. Monitor indicators provide a view on the dynamics of the system in question; the activities taking place, abilities, skills and motivation of the personnel, routines and practices - the organizational potential for safety. They also monitor the efficacy of the control measures that are used to manage the socio technical system. Typically the safety performance indicators that are used are lagging (feedback) indicators that measure the outcomes of the socio technical system. Besides feedback indicators, organizations should also acknowledge the important role of monitor and drive indicators in managing safety. The selection and use of safety performance indicators is always based on an understanding (a model) of the socio technical system and safety. The safety model defines what risks are perceived. It is important that the safety

Applying importance-performance analysis to patient safety culture.

Science.gov (United States)

Lee, Yii-Ching; Wu, Hsin-Hung; Hsieh, Wan-Lin; Weng, Shao-Jen; Hsieh, Liang-Po; Huang, Chih-Hsuan

2015-01-01

The Sexton et al.'s (2006) safety attitudes questionnaire (SAQ) has been widely used to assess staff's attitudes towards patient safety in healthcare organizations. However, to date there have been few studies that discuss the perceptions of patient safety both from hospital staff and upper management. The purpose of this paper is to improve and to develop better strategies regarding patient safety in healthcare organizations. The Chinese version of SAQ based on the Taiwan Joint Commission on Hospital Accreditation is used to evaluate the perceptions of hospital staff. The current study then lies in applying importance-performance analysis technique to identify the major strengths and weaknesses of the safety culture. The results show that teamwork climate, safety climate, job satisfaction, stress recognition and working conditions are major strengths and should be maintained in order to provide a better patient safety culture. On the contrary, perceptions of management and hospital handoffs and transitions are important weaknesses and should be improved immediately. Research limitations/implications - The research is restricted in generalizability. The assessment of hospital staff in patient safety culture is physicians and registered nurses. It would be interesting to further evaluate other staff's (e.g. technicians, pharmacists and others) opinions regarding patient safety culture in the hospital. Few studies have clearly evaluated the perceptions of healthcare organization management regarding patient safety culture. Healthcare managers enable to take more effective actions to improve the level of patient safety by investigating key characteristics (either strengths or weaknesses) that healthcare organizations should focus on.

Development of safety performance indicators for HANARO

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Wu, Jong-Sup; Jung, Hoan-Sung; Ahn, Guk-Hoon; Lee, Kye-Hong; Lim, In-Cheol

2007-01-01

The nuclear facilities need an extensive basis for ensuring their safety. An operating organization should conduct its operation and utilization important to the safety in accordance with approved procedures and regulations. The general aims of a management system for nuclear facilities are to improve the safety performance through a planning, control and supervision of safety related activities and to foster a strong safety culture. The effectiveness of a management system can be monitored and measured to confirm the ability of its processes to achieve the intended safety performance by an assessment of the operational performance. The Operational Safety Performance Indicators, also known as SPI, help an organization define and measure a progress with regard to safety activity goals. The elements of a SPI are quantifiable measurements that reflect the critical success factors of an organizational safety. Since 1995, efforts have been directed towards the elaboration of a framework for the establishment of an operational safety performance indicator program in nuclear power plants (NPP). IAEA-TECDOC-1141, 'Operational safety performance indicators for NPP' attempted to provide a frame work for an identification of performance indicators which have a relationship to the desired safety attributes, and therefore, to a safe plant operation. Three key attributes of a smooth operation, an operation with a low risk, and an operation with a positive safety attitude, were recommended, which are associated with a safe operation. Because these attributes cannot be directly measured, an indicator structure is expanded further until a level of easily quantifiable or directly measurable indicators is identified. The intention of this approach is to use quantitative information provided by the specific indicators and to analyze performance trends relative to established goals. The safety activities in HANARO have been continuously conducted to enhance its safe operation. HANARO

Critical review of safety performance metrics

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Karanikas, Nektarios

2016-01-01

Various tools for safety performance measurement have been introduced in order to fulfil the need for safety monitoring in organisations, which is tightly related to their overall performance and achievement of their business goals. Such tools include accident rates, benchmarking, safety culture and

Food safety performance indicators to benchmark food safety output of food safety management systems

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Jacxsens, L.; Uyttendaele, M.; Devlieghere, F.; Rovira, J.; Oses Gomez, S.; Luning, P.A.

2010-01-01

There is a need to measure the food safety performance in the agri-food chain without performing actual microbiological analysis. A food safety performance diagnosis, based on seven indicators and corresponding assessment grids have been developed and validated in nine European food businesses.

Safety Characteristics in System Application Software for Human Rated Exploration

Science.gov (United States)

Mango, E. J.

2016-01-01

NASA and its industry and international partners are embarking on a bold and inspiring development effort to design and build an exploration class space system. The space system is made up of the Orion system, the Space Launch System (SLS) and the Ground Systems Development and Operations (GSDO) system. All are highly coupled together and dependent on each other for the combined safety of the space system. A key area of system safety focus needs to be in the ground and flight application software system (GFAS). In the development, certification and operations of GFAS, there are a series of safety characteristics that define the approach to ensure mission success. This paper will explore and examine the safety characteristics of the GFAS development.

Acute and chronic safety and efficacy of dose dependent creatine nitrate supplementation and exercise performance

OpenAIRE

Galvan, Elfego; Walker, Dillon K.; Simbo, Sunday Y.; Dalton, Ryan; Levers, Kyle; O?Connor, Abigail; Goodenough, Chelsea; Barringer, Nicholas D.; Greenwood, Mike; Rasmussen, Christopher; Smith, Stephen B.; Riechman, Steven E.; Fluckey, James D.; Murano, Peter S.; Earnest, Conrad P.

2016-01-01

Background Creatine monohydrate (CrM) and nitrate are popular supplements for improving exercise performance; yet have not been investigated in combination. We performed two studies to determine the safety and exercise performance-characteristics of creatine nitrate (CrN) supplementation. Methods Study 1 participants (N?=?13) ingested 1.5?g CrN (CrN-Low), 3?g CrN (CrN-High), 5?g CrM or a placebo in a randomized, crossover study (7d washout) to determine supplement safety (hepatorenal and musc...

Safety performance indicators for the road network.

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Weijermars, W. Gitelman, V. Papadimitriou, E. Lima De & Azevedo, C.

2010-01-01

Within the 6th FP European project SafetyNet, a team has worked on the development of Safety Performance Indicators (SPIs) on seven road safety related areas. These SPIs reflect the operational conditions of the road traffic system that influence the system's safety performance. SPIs were developed

Nursing home safety: does financial performance matter?

Science.gov (United States)

Oetjen, Reid M; Zhao, Mei; Liu, Darren; Carretta, Henry J

2011-01-01

This study examines the relationship between financial performance and selected safety measures of nursing homes in the State of Florida. We used descriptive analysis on a total sample of 1,197. Safety information was from the Online Survey, Certification and Reporting (OSCAR) data of 2003 to 2005, while the financial performance measures were from the Medicare cost reports of 2002 to 2004. Finally, we examined the most frequently cited deficiencies as well as the relationship between financial performance and quality indicators. Nursing homes in the bottom quartile of financial performance perform poorly on most resident-safety measures of care; however, nursing homes in the top two financial categories also experienced a higher number of deficiencies. Nursing homes in the next to lowest quartile of financial performance category best perform on most of these safety measures. The results reinforce the need to monitor nursing home quality and resident safety in US nursing homes, especially among facilities with poor overall financial performance.

Prospective safety performance evaluation on construction sites.

Science.gov (United States)

Wu, Xianguo; Liu, Qian; Zhang, Limao; Skibniewski, Miroslaw J; Wang, Yanhong

2015-05-01

This paper presents a systematic Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) based approach for Prospective Safety Performance Evaluation (PSPE) on construction sites, with causal relationships and interactions between enablers and the goals of PSPE taken into account. According to a sample of 450 valid questionnaire surveys from 30 Chinese construction enterprises, a SEM model with 26 items included for PSPE in the context of Chinese construction industry is established and then verified through the goodness-of-fit test. Three typical types of construction enterprises, namely the state-owned enterprise, private enterprise and Sino-foreign joint venture, are selected as samples to measure the level of safety performance given the enterprise scale, ownership and business strategy are different. Results provide a full understanding of safety performance practice in the construction industry, and indicate that the level of overall safety performance situation on working sites is rated at least a level of III (Fair) or above. This phenomenon can be explained that the construction industry has gradually matured with the norms, and construction enterprises should improve the level of safety performance as not to be eliminated from the government-led construction industry. The differences existing in the safety performance practice regarding different construction enterprise categories are compared and analyzed according to evaluation results. This research provides insights into cause-effect relationships among safety performance factors and goals, which, in turn, can facilitate the improvement of high safety performance in the construction industry. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

A review of hospital characteristics associated with improved performance.

Science.gov (United States)

Brand, Caroline A; Barker, Anna L; Morello, Renata T; Vitale, Michael R; Evans, Sue M; Scott, Ian A; Stoelwinder, Johannes U; Cameron, Peter A

2012-10-01

The objective of this review was to critically appraise the literature relating to associations between high-level structural and operational hospital characteristics and improved performance. The Cochrane Library, MEDLINE (Ovid), CINAHL, proQuest and PsychINFO were searched for articles published between January 1996 and May 2010. Reference lists of included articles were reviewed and key journals were hand searched for relevant articles. and data extraction Studies were included if they were systematic reviews or meta-analyses, randomized controlled trials, controlled before and after studies or observational studies (cohort and cross-sectional) that were multicentre, comparative performance studies. Two reviewers independently extracted data, assigned grades of evidence according to the Australian National Health and Medical Research Council guidelines and critically appraised the included articles. Data synthesis Fifty-seven studies were reported within 12 systematic reviews and 47 observational articles. There was heterogeneity in use and definition of performance outcomes. Hospital characteristics investigated were environment (incentives, market characteristics), structure (network membership, ownership, teaching status, geographical setting, service size) and operational design (innovativeness, leadership, organizational culture, public reporting and patient safety practices, information technology systems and decision support, service activity and planning, workforce design, staff training and education). The strongest evidence for an association with overall performance was identified for computerized physician order entry systems. Some evidence supported the associations with workforce design, use of financial incentives, nursing leadership and hospital volume. There is limited, mainly low-quality evidence, supporting the associations between hospital characteristics and healthcare performance. Further characteristic-specific systematic reviews are

Inherent safety characteristics of innovative reactors

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Heil, J.A.

1995-11-01

The added safety value of innovative or third generation reactor designs has been evaluated in order to determine the most suitable candidate for Dutch government funded research and development support. To this end, four innovative reactor concepts, viz. PIUS (Process Inherent Ultimate Safety), PRISM (Power Reactor Innovative Small), HTR-M (High Temperature Reactor Module) and MHTGR (Modular High Temperature Gas-cooled Reactor), have been studied and their passive and inherent safety characteristics have been outlined. Also the outlook for further technological and industrial development has been considered. The results of the study confirm the perspective of the innovative reactors for reduced dependence on active safety provisions and for a further reduced vulnerability to technical failures and human errors. The accident responses to generic accident initiators, viz. reactivity and cooling accidents, and also to reactor specific accidents show that neither active safety systems nor short term operator actions are required for maintaining the reactor core in a controlled and coolable condition. Whether this gives rise to a higher total safety of the innovative reactor designs, compared to evolutionary or advanced reactors, cannot be concluded. Supplementary experimental and analytical analyses of reactor specific accidents are required to be able to assess the safety of these innovative designs in a more quantitative manner. It is believed that the safety case of innovative reactors, which are less dependent on active safety systems, can be communicated with the general public in a more transparent way. Considering the perspective for further technological and industrial development it is not expected that any of the considered innovative reactor concepts will become commercially available within the next one to two decades. However, they could be made available earlier if they would receive sufficient financial backing. Considering the added safety perspectives

Passive safety design characteristics of the KALIMER-600 burner reactor

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kwon, Young-Min; Jeong, Hae-Yong; Cho, Chung-Ho; Ha, Ki-Seok; Kim, Sang-Ji

2009-01-01

The Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute (KAERI) has recently studied several burner core designs for a transuranics (TRU) transmutation based on the breakeven core geometry of KALIMER-600. The KALIMER-600 is a net electrical rating of 600MWe, sodium-cooled, metallic-fueled, pool-type reactor. For the burner core concept selected for the present analysis, the smearing fractions of the fuel rods in three fuel zones are changed while maintaining the cladding outer diameter and cladding thickness. The resulting fuel slug smearing fractions of the inner, middle, and outer core zones are 36%, 40%, and 48%, respectively. The TRU conversion ratio is 0.57 and the TRU enrichment of the driver fuel is set to 30.0 w/o because of the current practical limitation of the U-TRU-10%Zr metal fuel database. The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the safety performance characteristics provided by the passive safety design features in the KALIMER-600 burner reactor by using a system-wide safety analysis code. The present scoping analysis focuses on an assessment of the enhanced safety design features that provide passive and self-regulating responses to transient conditions and an evaluation of the safety margin during unprotected overpower, unprotected loss of flow, and unprotected loss of heat sink events. The analysis results show that the KALIMER-600 burner reactor provides larger safety margins with respect to the sodium boiling, fuel rod integrity, and structural integrity. The overall inherent safety can be enhanced by accounting for the reactivity feedback mechanisms in the design process. (author)

Street Intersection Characteristics and Their Impacts on Perceived Bicycling Safety

Science.gov (United States)

2018-01-01

Safety concern is one of the core issues that deter people from bicycling in the US. Earlier studies have explored the associations between intersection design characteristics and bicyclist safety perceptions. Research shows that there are significan...

Micro-Encapsulated Phase Change Materials: A Review of Encapsulation, Safety and Thermal Characteristics

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ahmed Hassan

2016-10-01

Full Text Available Phase change materials (PCMs have been identified as potential candidates for building energy optimization by increasing the thermal mass of buildings. The increased thermal mass results in a drop in the cooling/heating loads, thus decreasing the energy demand in buildings. However, direct incorporation of PCMs into building elements undermines their structural performance, thereby posing a challenge for building integrity. In order to retain/improve building structural performance, as well as improving energy performance, micro-encapsulated PCMs are integrated into building materials. The integration of microencapsulation PCMs into building materials solves the PCM leakage problem and assures a good bond with building materials to achieve better structural performance. The aim of this article is to identify the optimum micro-encapsulation methods and materials for improving the energy, structural and safety performance of buildings. The article reviews the characteristics of micro-encapsulated PCMs relevant to building integration, focusing on safety rating, structural implications, and energy performance. The article uncovers the optimum combinations of the shell (encapsulant and core (PCM materials along with encapsulation methods by evaluating their merits and demerits.

Study on the operational safety performance indicator of nuclear power plants in China

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Zhou Shirong

2005-01-01

The operational Safety Performance Indicator system (SPI) has been more and more regarded recently for their clear and effective characteristic in safety assessment for Nuclear Power Plants (NPPs). A large developing plan for NPPs construction is being discussed and considered in P.R. China. As one of important nuclear country, China expects to ensure the normal operation of NPPs and improve the safety level. National Nuclear Safety Administration (NNSA), National Nuclear Regulatory Agency of China, has put high attention on safety and SPI area, and many endeavours and attempts have been done or being carried out for an establishment of SPI system in China. NNSA intends to build an integrated SPI system to monitor all of the NPPs operation in China, based on the SPI system currently used in the world. NNSA believes that the SPI system will help to more effectively enforce the function of surveillance and management. The paper will introduces the status of study on the operational safety performance indicator of Nuclear Power Plants in China. (author)

Is embedding entailed in consumer valuation of food safety characteristics?

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Mørkbak, Morten Raun; Christensen, Tove; Gyrd-Hansen, Dorte

2011-01-01

Consumers' preferences for food safety characteristics are investigated with a particular focus on the existence of an embedding effect. Embedding exists if consumer valuation of food safety is insensitive to scope. We conduct between-attribute external tests for embedding in two choice experiments...

Frequency and Variance of Communication Characteristics in Aviation Safety Events

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Karanikas, Nektarios; Kaspers, Steffen

2017-01-01

In the aviation sector, communication problems have contributed into 70% to 80% of safety occurrences. However, to date we haven’t depicted which communication aspects have affected aviation safety most frequently. Based on literature, we developed a tool which includes communication characteristics

Development of safety performance indicators in Japan

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ohashi, H.; Tamao, S.; Tanaka, J.; Sawayama, T.

2001-01-01

For the purpose of safety regulations of operating nuclear power stations in Japan, the regulatory authorities utilize two types of regulations. One is the direct regulation, such as periodical inspection to inspect the function and performance of equipment important to safety, and the other is the audit type regulation such as preservation inspection to audit the compliance with the safety preservation rules. As performance indicators are expected to be an effective tool to evaluate the activities by audit type regulations, NUPEC is studying a comprehensive set of operational performance indicators to meet the effective evaluation method for the safety preservation activities in the audit type regulations under the frame of current safety regulation system. The study includes the establishment of comprehensive operational performance indicators applicable in Japan, the effective application of performance indicators to the current Japanese regulation, the clarification of the applicable scope of utilization, the possibility of applying the performance indicators. This report describes the present status of our performance indicator studies. After the completion of these studies the regulatory authorities will evaluate if and how the new set of comprehensive performance indicators could be introduced to Japanese regulatory scheme. (author)

Safety performance indicators. Topical issues paper no. 5

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Dahlgren, K.; Lederman, L.; Szikszai, T.; Palomo, J.

2001-01-01

Since its creation the nuclear industry has been struggling with the question of how safe is safe enough. Safety is a common goal to all involved in the design, operation and regulation of a nuclear installation. As a concept safety is not easy to define. However, there is a general understanding of what attributes a nuclear power plant should have in order to operate safely. The challenge lies in measuring the attributes. The new competitive open electricity market, in many countries throughout the world, is increasing the economic pressure on operators to lower operating costs without jeopardizing safety. Challenges are occurring at a rate that is unprecedented in the nuclear industry: competitiveness; downsizing; ageing; policy changes; reorganization; restructuring; mergers; globalization; and takeovers demand increasing attention to the management of safety. There are various means to measure safety performance, some of which are more qualitative in nature and others which through quantitative measures provide the means by which to evaluate performance trends with clear ties to safety. According to their use, indicators are generally considered in two groups: leading or proactive and lagging or reactive indicators. Leading indicators are most useful as a precursor to safety degradation for early management reaction. Lagging indicators are most commonly used to drive plant performance, to monitor and for benchmarking against similar plants. The actual values of the indicators are not intended to be direct measures of safety, although safety performance can be inferred from the results achieved. Each plant needs to determine which indicators best serve its needs. Selected indicators should not be static, but should be adapted to the conditions and performance of the plant, considering the cost-benefit of maintaining each individual indicator. It should be recognized that while indicators provide valuable information in the effective management of plant safety

Experience of Tecnatom in Developing a Strong Leadership for Safety and Performance

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

González, F.; Villadóniga, J. I.

2016-01-01

This paper presents experience and insights of Tecnatom in the support of internal and external clients to develop a strong Leadership for Safety. Several cases are presented briefly: (a) The leadership and culture change activities for a utility, a radwaste company, and for Tecnatom itself. One important characteristic of the work performed is the detailed consideration of the underlying organizational culture that underpins the safety culture. Measurable improvements have been achieved and some of the key insights are shared in this paper. (b) The development and implementation of a leadership model with 17 competencies, including safety explicitly. One benefit of this model is that allows to perform a quantitative assessment of leadership effectiveness, something vital to be able to ensure that leadership development actions are truly supporting safety. The model uses an approach to development oriented to strengths and the use of companion competencies to further develop leadership. Moreover it aims to produce significant improvements on safety but also on performance, since both are not competing goals when the proper leadership model is selected. The training material prepared was shortlisted in the 2014 Nuclear Training Awards. (c) The design and implementation of a training development program on Safety Culture, and required competencies of Leadership, for Top Managers of the nuclear industry, as part of the project NUSHARE of the European Commission’s 7th research framework program. The program is sensible to the reduced time availability of Top Managers and uses a combination of learning approaches (webinars, micro-elearnings, web meetings) that provide higher flexibility for the learner, but complemented with other proven methods (group dialog, journaling, mentoring, etc.) to ensure that the program is effective. All these experiences reveal that to improve the organizational Safety Culture we need to enhance Leadership for Safety and Performance

Uncertainty characteristics of EPA's ground-water transport model for low-level waste performance assessment

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Yim, Man-Sung

1995-01-01

Performance assessment is an essential step either in design or in licensing processes to ensure the safety of any proposed radioactive waste disposal facilities. Since performance assessment requires the use of computer codes, understanding the characteristics of computer models used and the uncertainties of the estimated results is important. The PRESTO-EPA code, which was the basis of the Environmental Protection Agency's analysis for low-level-waste rulemaking, is widely used for various performance assessment activities in the country with no adequate information available for the uncertainty characteristics of the results. In this study, the groundwater transport model PRESTO-EPA was examined based on the analysis of 14 C transport along with the investigation of uncertainty characteristics

Nuclear power performance and safety. V.3. Safety and international co-operation

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

1988-01-01

The International Conference on Nuclear Power Performance and Safety, organized by the International Atomic Energy Agency, was held at the Austria Centre Vienna (ACV) in Vienna, Austria, from 28 September to 2 October 1987. The objective of the Conference was to promote an exchange of worldwide information on the current trends in the performance and safety of nuclear power and its fuel cycle, and to take a forward look at the expectations and objectives for the 1990s. This objective was accomplished through presentation and discussion of about 200 papers at the Conference. Almost 500 participants and observers from 40 countries and 12 organizations discussed three major questions which were posed as the focus of this Conference: (1) What are the current trends and major issues with regard to performance and safety of nuclear power, the nuclear fuel cycle and radioactive waste management? (2) What steps are being taken or need to be taken to resolve outstanding issues in order to improve the performance of nuclear power with assured safety? (3) What performance objectives and achievements can be anticipated for the 1990s? All presentations of this Conference were divided into six volumes. This is Volume 3 which is devoted to the problems of safety and international cooperation. All presentations of Volume 3 were divided into four sessions as follows: the need for safety in nuclear power programmes (4 papers); international cooperation in nuclear safety (6 papers); technical aspects in plant safety (7 papers); approaches to safety (3 papers). A separate abstract was prepared for each of these 20 papers. Refs, figs and tabs

Applicaiton and characteristics of food irradiation on food safety

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ha Yiming

2010-01-01

Irradiation is one of non-thermal processing technology. Physical, chemical and biology effects were induced by the interaction of ionization irradiation and materials and acting on materials or food, then, food molecular was modified by rays and the harmful substances in it degraded. Irradiation is an effective method to improve food safety and extend the shelf life of food. In the article, the status of food safety at home and abroad in recently years was summarized, and the characteristic and application areas of irradiation technology in food safety were synthetically analyzed. (author)

quality and safety characteristics of cassava crisps sold in urban

African Journals Online (AJOL)

ACSS

QUALITY AND SAFETY CHARACTERISTICS OF CASSAVA CRISPS SOLD IN. URBAN KENYA. G.O. ABONG', S.I. SHIBAIRO, ... This study sought to characterise the quality and safety in terms of cyanide levels of cassava crisps ... Crantz) to food security and incomes for rural communities in sub-Saharan Africa, cannot be.

Comparative analysis of safety related site characteristics

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Andersson, Johan

2010-12-01

This document presents a comparative analysis of site characteristics related to long-term safety for the two candidate sites for a final repository for spent nuclear fuel in Forsmark (municipality of Oesthammar) and in Laxemar (municipality of Oskarshamn) from the point of view of site selection. The analyses are based on the updated site descriptions of Forsmark /SKB 2008a/ and Laxemar /SKB 2009a/, together with associated updated repository layouts and designs /SKB 2008b and SKB 2009b/. The basis for the comparison is thus two equally and thoroughly assessed sites. However, the analyses presented here are focussed on differences between the sites rather than evaluating them in absolute terms. The document serves as a basis for the site selection, from the perspective of long-term safety, in SKB's application for a final repository. A full evaluation of safety is made for a repository at the selected site in the safety assessment SR-Site /SKB 2011/, referred to as SR-Site main report in the following

Comparative analysis of safety related site characteristics

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Andersson, Johan (ed.)

2010-12-15

This document presents a comparative analysis of site characteristics related to long-term safety for the two candidate sites for a final repository for spent nuclear fuel in Forsmark (municipality of Oesthammar) and in Laxemar (municipality of Oskarshamn) from the point of view of site selection. The analyses are based on the updated site descriptions of Forsmark /SKB 2008a/ and Laxemar /SKB 2009a/, together with associated updated repository layouts and designs /SKB 2008b and SKB 2009b/. The basis for the comparison is thus two equally and thoroughly assessed sites. However, the analyses presented here are focussed on differences between the sites rather than evaluating them in absolute terms. The document serves as a basis for the site selection, from the perspective of long-term safety, in SKB's application for a final repository. A full evaluation of safety is made for a repository at the selected site in the safety assessment SR-Site /SKB 2011/, referred to as SR-Site main report in the following

The safety characteristics of the HTR 500 reactor plant

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Wachholz, W.

1987-01-01

The HTR is a reactor having a passive safety. It is equipped with the usual active engineered safety systems in simplified form. Due to its inherent safety characteristics and the burst-safe prestressed concrete reactor vessel activity containment is ensured even without the effect of active safety systems. Even in the event of extremely hypothetical accidents the effect on the environment is low enough so that evacuation or relocation of the population is not required. Therefore large-scale damage of agricultural land and industrially used areas is safely ruled out. Thus the site selection for this type of reactor is not restricted i.e. an HTR can be constructed near industrial and urban center. (author)

GT-MHR design, performance, and safety

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Neylan, A.J.; Shenoy, A.; Silady, F.A.; Dunn, T.D.

1994-11-01

The Gas Turbine-Modular Helium Reactor (GT-MHR) is the result of coupling the evolution of a low power density passively safe modular reactor with key technology developments in the U.S. during the last decade: large industrial gas turbines; large active magnetic bearings; and compact, highly effective plate-fin heat exchangers. This is accomplished through the unique use of the Brayton cycle to produce electricity with the helium as primary coolant from the reactor directly driving the gas turbine electrical generator. This cycle can achieve a high net efficiency in the range of 45% to 48%. In the design of the GT-MHR the desirable inherent characteristics of the inert helium coolant, graphite core, and the coated fuel particles are supplemented with specific design features such as passive heat removal to achieve the safety objective of not disturbing the normal day-to-day activities of the public even for beyond design basis rare accidents. Each GT-MHR plant consists of four modules. The GT-MHR module components are contained within steel pressure vessels: a reactor vessel, a power conversion vessel, and a connecting cross vessel. All vessels are sited underground in a concrete silo, which serves as an independent vented low pressure containment structure. By capitalizing on industrial and aerospace gas turbine development, highly effective heat exchanger designs, and inherent gas cooled reactor temperature characteristics, the passively safe GT-MHR provides a sound technical, monetary, and environmental basis for new nuclear power generating capacity. This paper provides an update on the status of the design, which has been under development on the US-DOE program since February 1993. An assessment of plant performance and safety is also included

Lithium-Ion Electrolytes Containing Flame Retardant Additives for Increased Safety Characteristics

Science.gov (United States)

Smart, Marshall C. (Inventor); Smith, Kiah A. (Inventor); Bugga, Ratnakumar V. (Inventor); Prakash, Surya G. (Inventor); Krause, Frederick Charles (Inventor)

2014-01-01

The invention discloses various embodiments of Li-ion electrolytes containing flame retardant additives that have delivered good performance over a wide temperature range, good cycle life characteristics, and improved safety characteristics, namely, reduced flammability. In one embodiment of the invention there is provided an electrolyte for use in a lithium-ion electrochemical cell, the electrolyte comprising a mixture of an ethylene carbonate (EC), an ethyl methyl carbonate (EMC), a fluorinated co-solvent, a flame retardant additive, and a lithium salt. In another embodiment of the invention there is provided an electrolyte for use in a lithium-ion electrochemical cell, the electrolyte comprising a mixture of an ethylene carbonate (EC), an ethyl methyl carbonate (EMC), a flame retardant additive, a solid electrolyte interface (SEI) film forming agent, and a lithium salt.

Payload Safety: Risk and Characteristic-Based Control of Engineered Nanomaterials

Science.gov (United States)

Abou, Seraphin Chally; Saad, Maarouf

2013-09-01

In the last decade progress has been made to assist organizations that are developing payloads intended for flight on the International Space Station (ISS) and/or Space Shuttle. Collaboration programs for comprehensive risk assessment have been initiated between the U.S. and the European Union to generate requirements and data needed to comply with payloads safety and to perform risk assessment and controls guidance. Yet, substantial research gaps remain, as do challenges in the translation of these research findings to control for exposure to nanoscale material payloads, and the health effects. Since nanomaterial structures are different from traditional molecules, some standard material properties can change at size of 50nm or less. Changes in material properties at this scale challenge our understanding of hazards posed by nanomaterial payloads in the ISS realistic exposure conditions, and our ability to anticipate, evaluate, and control potential health issues, and safety. The research question addressed in this framework is: what kind of descriptors can be developed for nanomaterial payloads risks assessment? Methods proposed incorporate elements of characteristic- based risk an alysis: (1) to enable characterization of anthropogenic nanomaterials which can result in incidental from natural nanoparticles; and (2) to better understand safety attributes in terms of human health impacts from exposure to varying types of engineered nanomaterials.

TWRS safety SSCs: Requirements and characteristics

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Smith-Fewell, M.A.

1997-01-01

Safety Systems, Structures, and Components (SSCs) have been identified from hazard and accident analyses. These analyses were performed to support the Tank Waste Remediation System (TWRS) Final Safety Analysis Report (FSAR) and Basis for Interim Operation (BID). The text identifies and evaluates the SSCs and their supporting SSCs to show that they either prevent the occurrence of the accident or mitigate the consequences of the accident to below the acceptance guidelines. The requirements for the SSCs to fulfill these tasks are described

Impact of organisational characteristics on health and safety ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

The construction industry makes a contribution to occupational accidents and ill health records in Nigeria. This study was designed to evaluate the impact of organisational characteristics on health and safety (H&S) management practices of Nigerian small and medium-sized construction enterprises (SMEs). The study ...

Communication's Role in Safety Management and Performance for the Road Safety Practices

OpenAIRE

Salim Keffane (s)

2014-01-01

Communication among organizations could play an important role in increasing road safety. To get in-depth knowledge of its role, this study measured managers' and employees' perceptions of the communication's role on six safety management and performance criteria for road safety practices by conducting a survey using a questionnaire among 165 employees and 135 managers. Path analysis using AMOS-19 software shows that some of the safety management road safety practices have high correlation wi...

Performance of dynamic safety barriers-Structuring, modelling and visualization

OpenAIRE

Wikdahl, Olga

2014-01-01

The main objective of this master thesis is to discuss performance of dynamic safety barriers. A comprehensive literature review is performed in order to get understanding what dynamic safety barrier is. Three different concepts of dynamic safety barriers based on various meanings of dynamic were derived from the literature review: - dynamic safety barriers related to motion or physical force - dynamic safety barriers as updated barriers from dynamic risk analysis - dynamic safety ...

A Regulatory Perspective on the Performance and Reliability of Nuclear Passive Safety Systems

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Quan, Pham Trung; Lee, Sukho

2016-01-01

Passive safety systems have been proven to enhance the safety of NPPs. When an accident such as station blackout occurs, these systems can perform the following functions: the decay heat removal, passive safety injection, containment cooling, and the retention of radioactive materials. Following the IAEA definitions, using passive safety systems reduces reliance on active components to achieve proper actuation and not requiring operator intervention in accident conditions. That leads to the deviations in boundary conditions of the critical process or geometric parameters, which activate and operate the system to perform accident prevention and mitigation functions. The main difficulties in evaluation of functional failure of passive systems arise because of (a) lack of plant operational experience; (b) scarcity of adequate experimental data from integral test facilities or from separate effect tests in order to understand the performance characteristics of these passive systems, not only at normal operation but also during accidents and transients; (c) lack of accepted definitions of failure modes for these systems; and (d) difficulty in modeling certain physical behavior of these systems. Reliability assessment of the PSS is still one of the important issues. Several reliability methodologies such as REPAS, RMPS and ASPRA have been applied to the reliability assessments. However, some issues are remained unresolved due to lack of understanding of the treatment of dynamic failure characteristics of components of the PSS, the treatment of dynamic variation of independence process parameters such as ambient temperature and the functional failure criteria of the PSS. Dynamic reliability methodologies should be integrated in the PSS reliability analysis to have a true estimate of system failure probability. The methodology should estimate the physical variation of the parameters and the frequency of the accident sequences when the dynamic effects are considered

Incorporating Traffic Control and Safety Hardware Performance Functions into Risk-based Highway Safety Analysis

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Zongzhi Li

2017-04-01

Full Text Available Traffic control and safety hardware such as traffic signs, lighting, signals, pavement markings, guardrails, barriers, and crash cushions form an important and inseparable part of highway infrastructure affecting safety performance. Significant progress has been made in recent decades to develop safety performance functions and crash modification factors for site-specific crash predictions. However, the existing models and methods lack rigorous treatments of safety impacts of time-deteriorating conditions of traffic control and safety hardware. This study introduces a refined method for computing the Safety Index (SI as a means of crash predictions for a highway segment that incorporates traffic control and safety hardware performance functions into the analysis. The proposed method is applied in a computation experiment using five-year data on nearly two hundred rural and urban highway segments. The root-mean square error (RMSE, Chi-square, Spearman’s rank correlation, and Mann-Whitney U tests are employed for validation.

Occupational safety of different industrial sectors in Khartoum State, Sudan. Part 1: Safety performance evaluation.

Science.gov (United States)

Zaki, Gehan R; El-Marakby, Fadia A; H Deign El-Nor, Yasser; Nofal, Faten H; Zakaria, Adel M

2012-12-01

Safety performance evaluation enables decision makers improve safety acts. In Sudan, accident records, statistics, and safety performance were not evaluated before maintenance of accident records became mandatory in 2005. This study aimed at evaluating and comparing safety performance by accident records among different cities and industrial sectors in Khartoum state, Sudan, during the period from 2005 to 2007. This was a retrospective study, the sample in which represented all industrial enterprises in Khartoum state employing 50 workers or more. All industrial accident records of the Ministry of Manpower and Health and those of different enterprises during the period from 2005 to 2007 were reviewed. The safety performance indicators used within this study were the frequency-severity index (FSI) and fatal and disabling accident frequency rates (DAFR). In Khartoum city, the FSI [0.10 (0.17)] was lower than that in Bahari [0.11 (0.21)] and Omdurman [0.84 (0.34)]. It was the maximum in the chemical sector [0.33 (0.64)] and minimum in the metallurgic sector [0.09 (0.19)]. The highest DAFR was observed in Omdurman [5.6 (3.5)] and in the chemical sector [2.5 (4.0)]. The fatal accident frequency rate in the mechanical and electrical engineering industry was the highest [0.0 (0.69)]. Male workers who were older, divorced, and had lower levels of education had the lowest safety performance indicators. The safety performance of the industrial enterprises in Khartoum city was the best. The safety performance in the chemical sector was the worst with regard to FSI and DAFR. The age, sex, and educational level of injured workers greatly affect safety performance.

Study on real working performance and overload safety factor of high arch dam

Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

2008-01-01

Considering the fact that high arch dams have problems such as complicated stress,high cost,and hazards after being damaged,this paper intends to study the effects of load,material strength,and safety analysis method on dam safety and working performance of arch dams.In this article,the effects of temperature,self weight exaction way and water loading on structure response are first discussed,and a more reasonable way of considering is then put forward.By taking into consideration the mechanical property of materials and comparing the effects of different yield criteria on overloading safety of high arch dams,this paper concludes that brittle characteristics of concrete should be fully considered when conducting safety assessment for high arch dams to avoid overestimating the bearing capacity of the dams.By comparing several typical projects,this paper works out a safety assessment system of multiple safety and relevant engineering analogical analysis methods,which is closer to the actual situation,and thus is able to assess the response of high arch dam structure in a more comprehensive way,elicit the safety coefficients in different situations,and provide a new way of considering the safety assessment of high arch dams.

The roles of emotional intelligence, interpersonal skill, and transformational leadership on improving construction safety performance

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Riza Yosia Sunindijo

2013-09-01

Full Text Available Due to the characteristics of the constructionindustry, human skills are essential for working with and through others inmanaging safety. Research has shown that emotional intelligence, interpersonalskill, and transformational leadership are human skill components that generatesuperior performance in today’s workplace. The aim of this research is toinvestigate the influence of project management personnel’s human skills on theimplementation of safety management tasks and development of safety climate inconstruction projects. The structural equation modelling (SEM method wasapplied to analyse the quantitative data collected and establishinterrelationship among the research variables. The results indicate thatemotional intelligence is a key factor for developing interpersonal skill andtransformational leadership, and for implementing safety management tasks whichleads to the development of safety climate. This research also found thatinterpersonal skill is needed for becoming transformational leaders whocontribute to the development of safety climate.

Design characteristics of metallic fuel rod on its in-LMR performance

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hwang, Woan; Kang Hee Young; Nam, Cheol; Kim, Jong Oh

1997-01-01

Fuel design is a key feature to assure LMR safety goals. To date, a large effort had been devoted to develop metallic fuels at ANL's experimental breeder reactor (EBR-II). The major design and performance parameters investigated include; thermal conductivity and temperature profile; smear density; axial plenum; FCMI and cladding deformation including creep, and fission gas release. In order to evaluate the sensitivity of each parameter, in-LMR performances of metallic fuels are not only reviewed by the experiment results in literatures, but also key design characteristics according to the variation of metallic fuel rod design parameters are analyzed by using the MACSIS code which simulates in-reactor behaviors of metal fuel rod. In this study, key design characteristics and the criteria which must be considered to design fuel rod in LMR, are proposed and discussed. (author). 14 refs., 4 figs

Human characteristics affecting nuclear safety

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Skof, M.

1990-01-01

It is important to collect data about human behavior in work situation and data about work performance. On the basis of these data we can analyse human errors. Human reliability analysis gives us the input data to improve human behavior at a work place. We have tried to define those human characteristics that have impact on safe work and operation. Estimation of a work place was used for determination of important human characteristics. Performance estimations were used to define the availability of workers at a work place. To our experience it is very important to pay attention to R.A. and R.C. also in the area of human factor. Data for quality assurance in the area of human factor should be collected from selection procedure (the level of cognitive and conative abilities, the level of physical characteristics, the level of education and other personal data). Data for quality control should be collected from the periodical examinations of annual checking and evaluation of human working capacity as well as from training. For quality control of every day human performance data of staff estimation of their daily working performance and well-being should also be collected. With all these data more effective analyses of all events in nuclear power plants could be provided. Quality assurance and quality control in the area of human factor could help us to keep the optimum performance level of the plant staff and to avoid human errors. (author). 3 refs, 3 figs

Job characteristics and safety climate: the role of effort-reward and demand-control-support models.

Science.gov (United States)

Phipps, Denham L; Malley, Christine; Ashcroft, Darren M

2012-07-01

While safety climate is widely recognized as a key influence on organizational safety, there remain questions about the nature of its antecedents. One potential influence on safety climate is job characteristics (that is, psychosocial features of the work environment). This study investigated the relationship between two job characteristics models--demand-control-support (Karasek & Theorell, 1990) and effort-reward imbalance (Siegrist, 1996)--and safety climate. A survey was conducted with a random sample of 860 British retail pharmacists, using the job contents questionnaire (JCQ), effort-reward imbalance indicator (ERI) and a measure of safety climate in pharmacies. Multivariate data analyses found that: (a) both models contributed to the prediction of safety climate ratings, with the demand-control-support model making the largest contribution; (b) there were some interactions between demand, control and support from the JCQ in the prediction of safety climate scores. The latter finding suggests the presence of "active learning" with respect to safety improvement in high demand, high control settings. The findings provide further insight into the ways in which job characteristics relate to safety, both individually and at an aggregated level.

Engaging Employees: The Importance of High-Performance Work Systems for Patient Safety.

Science.gov (United States)

Etchegaray, Jason M; Thomas, Eric J

2015-12-01

To develop and test survey items that measure high-performance work systems (HPWSs), report psychometric characteristics of the survey, and examine associations between HPWSs and teamwork culture, safety culture, and overall patient safety grade. We reviewed literature to determine dimensions of HPWSs and then asked executives to tell us which dimensions they viewed as most important for safety and quality. We then created a HPWSs survey to measure the most important HPWSs dimensions. We administered an anonymous, electronic survey to employees with direct patient care working at a large hospital system in the Southern United States and looked for linkages between HPWSs, culture, and outcomes. Similarities existed for the HPWS practices viewed as most important by previous researchers and health-care executives. The HPWSs survey was found to be reliable, distinct from safety culture and teamwork culture based on a confirmatory factor analysis, and was the strongest predictor of the extent to which employees felt comfortable speaking up about patient safety problems as well as patient safety grade. We used information from a literature review and executive input to create a reliable and valid HPWSs survey. Future research needs to examine whether HPWSs is associated with additional safety and quality outcomes.

Safety characteristics of the US advanced liquid metal reactor core

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Magee, P.M.; Dubberley, A.E.; Gyorey, G.L.; Lipps, A.J.; Wu, T.

1991-01-01

The U.S. Advanced Liquid Metal Reactor (ALMR) design employs innovative, passive features to provide an unprecedented level of public safety and the ability to demonstrate this safety to the public. The key features employed in the core design to produce the desired passive safety characteristics are: a small core with a tight restraint system, the use of metallic U-Pu-Zr fuel, control rod withdrawal limiters, and gas expansion modules. In addition, the reactor vessel and closure are designed to have the capability to withstand, with large margins, the maximum possible core disruptive accident without breach and radiological release. (author)

Determinants of safety outcomes and performance: A systematic literature review of research in four high-risk industries.

Science.gov (United States)

Cornelissen, Pieter A; Van Hoof, Joris J; De Jong, Menno D T

2017-09-01

In spite of increasing governmental and organizational efforts, organizations still struggle to improve the safety of their employees as evidenced by the yearly 2.3 million work-related deaths worldwide. Occupational safety research is scattered and inaccessible, especially for practitioners. Through systematically reviewing the safety literature, this study aims to provide a comprehensive overview of behavioral and circumstantial factors that endanger or support employee safety. A broad search on occupational safety literature using four online bibliographical databases yielded 27.527 articles. Through a systematic reviewing process 176 online articles were identified that met the inclusion criteria (e.g., original peer-reviewed research; conducted in selected high-risk industries; published between 1980-2016). Variables and the nature of their interrelationships (i.e., positive, negative, or nonsignificant) were extracted, and then grouped and classified through a process of bottom-up coding. The results indicate that safety outcomes and performance prevail as dependent research areas, dependent on variables related to management & colleagues, work(place) characteristics & circumstances, employee demographics, climate & culture, and external factors. Consensus was found for five variables related to safety outcomes and seven variables related to performance, while there is debate about 31 other relationships. Last, 21 variables related to safety outcomes and performance appear understudied. The majority of safety research has focused on addressing negative safety outcomes and performance through variables related to others within the organization, the work(place) itself, employee demographics, and-to a lesser extent-climate & culture and external factors. This systematic literature review provides both scientists and safety practitioners an overview of the (under)studied behavioral and circumstantial factors related to occupational safety behavior. Scientists

Plant safety and performance indicators for regulatory use

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ferjancic, M.; Nemec, T.; Cimesa, S.

2004-01-01

Slovenian Nuclear Safety Administration (SNSA) supervises nuclear and radiological safety of Krsko NPP. This SNSA supervision is performed through inspections, safety evaluations of plant modifications and event analyses as well as with the safety and performance indicators (SPI) which are a valuable data source for plant safety monitoring. In the past SNSA relied on the SPI provided by Krsko NPP and did not have a set of SPI which would be more appropriate for regulatory use. In 2003 SNSA started with preparation of a new set of SPI which would be more suitable for performing the regulatory oversight of the plant. New internal SNSA procedure which is under preparation will define use and evaluation of SPI and will include definitions for the proposed set of SPI. According to the evaluation of SPI values in comparison with the limiting values and/or trending, the procedure will define SNSA response and actions. (author)

Performance Evaluation and Analysis of Rural Drinking Water Safety Project——A Case Study in Jiangsu, China

Science.gov (United States)

Du, Xiaorong

2017-04-01

Water is the basic condition for human survival and development. As China is the most populous country, rural drinking water safety problems are most conspicuous. Therefore, the Chinese government keeps increasing investment and has built a large number of rural drinking water safety projects. Scientific evaluation of project performance is of great significance to promote the sustainable operation of the project and the sustainable development of rural economy. Previous studies mainly focus on the economic benefits of the project, while ignoring the fact that the rural drinking water safety project is quasi-public goods, which has economic, social and ecological benefits. This paper establishes a comprehensive evaluation model for rural drinking water safety performance, which adapts the rules of "5E" (economy, efficiency, effectiveness, equity and environment) as the value orientation, and selects a rural drinking water safety project as object in case study at K District, which is in the north of Jiangsu Province, China. The results shows: 1) the comprehensive performance of K project is in good condition; 2) The performance of every part shows that the scores of criteria "efficiency", "environment" and "effect" are higher than the mean performance, while the "economy" is slightly lower than the mean and the "equity" is the lowest. 3) The performance of indicator layer shows that: the planned completion rate of project, the reduction rate of project cost and the penetration rate of water-use population are significantly lower than other indicators. Based on the achievements of previous studies and the characteristics of rural drinking water safety project, this study integrates the evaluation dimensions of equity and environment, which can contribute to a more comprehensive and systematic assessment of project performance and provide empirical data for performance evaluation and management of rural drinking water safety project. Key Words: Rural drinking water

Operational safety performance of Slovak NPPs in 2005

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Tomek, J.

2006-01-01

In this presentation author presents operational safety performance of Slovak NPPs in 2005. Operation of Slovak NPPs in 2005 was safe and reliable, with: - high level of performance low risk; - minimal impact on the personnel, environment and public; - positive attitude to safety.

An Empirical Analysis of Human Performance and Nuclear Safety Culture

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Jeffrey Joe; Larry G. Blackwood

2006-01-01

The purpose of this analysis, which was conducted for the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), was to test whether an empirical connection exists between human performance and nuclear power plant safety culture. This was accomplished through analyzing the relationship between a measure of human performance and a plant's Safety Conscious Work Environment (SCWE). SCWE is an important component of safety culture the NRC has developed, but it is not synonymous with it. SCWE is an environment in which employees are encouraged to raise safety concerns both to their own management and to the NRC without fear of harassment, intimidation, retaliation, or discrimination. Because the relationship between human performance and allegations is intuitively reciprocal and both relationship directions need exploration, two series of analyses were performed. First, human performance data could be indicative of safety culture, so regression analyses were performed using human performance data to predict SCWE. It also is likely that safety culture contributes to human performance issues at a plant, so a second set of regressions were performed using allegations to predict HFIS results

Safety performance of preliminary KALIMER conceptual design

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Hahn Dohee; Kim Kyoungdoo; Kwon Youngmin; Chang Wonpyo; Suk Soodong [Korea atomic Energy Resarch Inst., Taejon (Korea)

1999-07-01

The Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute (KAERI) is developing KALIMER (Korea Advanced Liquid Metal Reactor), which is a sodium cooled, 150 MWe pool-type reactor. The safety design of KALIMER emphasizes accident prevention by using passive processes, which can be accomplished by the safety design objectives including the utilization of inherent safety features. In order to assess the effectiveness of the inherent safety features in achieving the safety design objectives, a preliminary evaluation of ATWS performance for the KALIMER design has been performed with SSC-K code, which is a modified version of SSC-L code. KAERI's modification of the code includes development of reactivity feedback models for the core and a pool model for KALIMER reactor vessel. This paper describes the models for control rod driveline expansion, gas expansion module and the thermal hydraulic model for reactor pool and the results of preliminary analyses for unprotected loss of flow and loss o heat sink. (author)

Safety performance of preliminary KALIMER conceptual design

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hahn Dohee; Kim Kyoungdoo; Kwon Youngmin; Chang Wonpyo; Suk Soodong

1999-01-01

The Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute (KAERI) is developing KALIMER (Korea Advanced Liquid Metal Reactor), which is a sodium cooled, 150 MWe pool-type reactor. The safety design of KALIMER emphasizes accident prevention by using passive processes, which can be accomplished by the safety design objectives including the utilization of inherent safety features. In order to assess the effectiveness of the inherent safety features in achieving the safety design objectives, a preliminary evaluation of ATWS performance for the KALIMER design has been performed with SSC-K code, which is a modified version of SSC-L code. KAERI's modification of the code includes development of reactivity feedback models for the core and a pool model for KALIMER reactor vessel. This paper describes the models for control rod driveline expansion, gas expansion module and the thermal hydraulic model for reactor pool and the results of preliminary analyses for unprotected loss of flow and loss o heat sink. (author)

Benchmarking Global Food Safety Performances: The Era of Risk Intelligence.

Science.gov (United States)

Valleé, Jean-Charles Le; Charlebois, Sylvain

2015-10-01

Food safety data segmentation and limitations hamper the world's ability to select, build up, monitor, and evaluate food safety performance. Currently, there is no metric that captures the entire food safety system, and performance data are not collected strategically on a global scale. Therefore, food safety benchmarking is essential not only to help monitor ongoing performance but also to inform continued food safety system design, adoption, and implementation toward more efficient and effective food safety preparedness, responsiveness, and accountability. This comparative study identifies and evaluates common elements among global food safety systems. It provides an overall world ranking of food safety performance for 17 Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development (OECD) countries, illustrated by 10 indicators organized across three food safety risk governance domains: risk assessment (chemical risks, microbial risks, and national reporting on food consumption), risk management (national food safety capacities, food recalls, food traceability, and radionuclides standards), and risk communication (allergenic risks, labeling, and public trust). Results show all countries have very high food safety standards, but Canada and Ireland, followed by France, earned excellent grades relative to their peers. However, any subsequent global ranking study should consider the development of survey instruments to gather adequate and comparable national evidence on food safety.

Parametric study of geohydrologic performance characteristics for geologic waste repositories

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Bailey, C.E.; Marine, I.W.

1980-11-01

One of the major objectives of the National Waste Terminal Storage Program is to identify potential geologic sites for storage and isolation of radioactive waste (and possibly irradiated fuel). Potential sites for the storage and isolation of radioactive waste or spent fuel in a geologic rock unit are being carefully evaluated to ensure that radionuclides from the stored waste or fuel will never appear in the biosphere in amounts that would constitute a hazard to the health and safety of the public. The objective of this report is to quantify and present in graphical form the effects of significant geohydrologic and other performance characteristics that would influence the movement of radionuclides from a storage site in a rock unit to the biosphere. The effort in this study was focused on transport by groundwater because that is the most likely method of radionuclide escape. Graphs of the major performance characteristics that influence the transport of radionuclides from a repository to the biosphere by groundwater are presented. The major characteristics addressed are radioactive decay, leach rate, hydraulic conductivity, porosity, groundwater gradient, hydrodynamic dispersion, ion exchange, and distance to the biosphere. These major performance characteristics are combind with each other and with the results of certain other combinations and presented in graphical form to provide the interrelationships of values measured during field studies. The graphical form of presentation should be useful in the screening process of site selection. An appendix illustrates the use of these graphs to assess the suitability of a site

Multilevel Safety Climate and Safety Performance in the Construction Industry: Development and Validation of a Top-Down Mechanism

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ran Gao

2016-11-01

Full Text Available The character of construction projects exposes front-line workers to dangers and accidents. Safety climate has been confirmed to be a predictor of safety performance in the construction industry. This study aims to explore the underlying mechanisms of the relationship between multilevel safety climate and safety performance. An integrated model was developed to study how particular safety climate factors of one level affect those of other levels, and then affect safety performance from the top down. A questionnaire survey was administered on six construction sites in Vietnam. A total of 1030 valid questionnaires were collected from this survey. Approximately half of the data were used to conduct exploratory factor analysis (EFA and the remaining data were submitted to structural equation modeling (SEM. Top management commitment (TMC and supervisors’ expectation (SE were identified as factors to represent organizational safety climate (OSC and supervisor safety climate (SSC, respectively, and coworkers’ caring and communication (CCC and coworkers’ role models (CRM were identified as factors to denote coworker safety climate (CSC. SEM results show that OSC factor is positively related to SSC factor and CSC factors significantly. SSC factor could partially mediate the relationship between OSC factor and CSC factors, as well as the relationship between OSC factor and safety performance. CSC factors partially mediate the relationship between OSC factor and safety performance, and the relationship between SSC factor and safety performance. The findings imply that a positive safety culture should be established both at the organizational level and the group level. Efforts from all top management, supervisors, and coworkers should be provided to improve safety performance in the construction industry.

Multilevel Safety Climate and Safety Performance in the Construction Industry: Development and Validation of a Top-Down Mechanism.

Science.gov (United States)

Gao, Ran; Chan, Albert P C; Utama, Wahyudi P; Zahoor, Hafiz

2016-11-08

The character of construction projects exposes front-line workers to dangers and accidents. Safety climate has been confirmed to be a predictor of safety performance in the construction industry. This study aims to explore the underlying mechanisms of the relationship between multilevel safety climate and safety performance. An integrated model was developed to study how particular safety climate factors of one level affect those of other levels, and then affect safety performance from the top down. A questionnaire survey was administered on six construction sites in Vietnam. A total of 1030 valid questionnaires were collected from this survey. Approximately half of the data were used to conduct exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and the remaining data were submitted to structural equation modeling (SEM). Top management commitment (TMC) and supervisors' expectation (SE) were identified as factors to represent organizational safety climate (OSC) and supervisor safety climate (SSC), respectively, and coworkers' caring and communication (CCC) and coworkers' role models (CRM) were identified as factors to denote coworker safety climate (CSC). SEM results show that OSC factor is positively related to SSC factor and CSC factors significantly. SSC factor could partially mediate the relationship between OSC factor and CSC factors, as well as the relationship between OSC factor and safety performance. CSC factors partially mediate the relationship between OSC factor and safety performance, and the relationship between SSC factor and safety performance. The findings imply that a positive safety culture should be established both at the organizational level and the group level. Efforts from all top management, supervisors, and coworkers should be provided to improve safety performance in the construction industry.

Performance scorecard for occupational safety and health management systems

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Hernâni Veloso Neto

2012-06-01

Full Text Available The pro-active and systematic search for best performances should be the two assumptions of any management system, so safety and health management in organizations must also be guided by these same precepts. However, the scientific production evidences that the performance evaluation processes in safety and health continue to be guided, in their essence, by intermittency, reactivity and negativity, which are not consistent with the assumptions referenced above. Therefore, it is essential that health and safety at work management systems (HSW MS are structured from an active and positive viewpoint, focusing on continuous improvement. This implies considering performance evaluation processes that incorporate, on the one hand, monitoring, measuring and verification procedures, and on the other hand, structured matrixes of results that capture the key factors of success, by mobilizing both reactive and proactive indicators. One of the instruments that can fulfill these precepts of health and safety performance evaluation is the SafetyCard, a performance scorecard for HSW MS that we developed and will seek to outline and demonstrate over this paper.

Improvement programme of safety performance indicators (SPIs) in Korea

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lee, S.Y.

2001-01-01

KINS has developed and used Safety Performance Indicators (SPIs), which are count based and composed of 10 indicators in 8 areas, to monitor the trend of performance of NPPs in Korea since 1997. However, the limited usage of SPIs and the increasing worldwide interest on SPIs became the motivation of the SPI improvement programme in Korea. Korea is planning to establish plant performance evaluation programme through analysis of SPI and result of inspection. The SPI improvement programme is a part of the plant performance evaluation programme and includes study on performance evaluation areas, indicator categories, selection and development of indicators, redefinition of indicators and introduction of graphical display system. The selected performance evaluation areas are general performance, reactor safety and radiation safety. Each area will have categories as sub-areas and a total of six categories are selected. One or two indicators for each category are determined or will be developed to make a set of Safety Performance Indicators. Also, a graphic display system will be introduced to extend the usage of SPIs. (author)

An innovative fuel design concept for improved Light Water Reactor performance and safety

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Tulenko, J.S.; Connell, R.G.

1993-01-01

The primary goal of this research is to develop a new fuel design which will have improved thermal/mechanical performance characteristics greatly superior to current thermal and mechanical design performance. The mechanical/thermal constraints define the lifetime of the fuel, the maximum power at which the fuel can be operated, the probability of fuel failure over core lifetime, and the integrity of a core during a transient excursion. The thermal/mechanical limits act to degrade fuel integrity when they are violated. The purpose of this project is to investigate a novel design for light water reactor fuel which will extend fuel performance limits and improve reactor safety even further than is currently achieved. This project is investigating liquid metal bonding of LWR fuel in order to radically decrease fuel centerline temperatures which has major performance and safety benefits. The project will verify the compatibility of the liquid metal bond with both the fuel pellets and cladding material, verify the performance enhancement features of the new design over the fuel lifetime, and verify the economic fabricability of the concept and will show how this concept will benefit the LWR nuclear industry

Development of safety analysis technology for integral reactor

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Sim, Suk K.; Song, J. H.; Chung, Y. J. and others

1999-03-01

Inherent safety features and safety system characteristics of the SMART integral reactor are investigated in this study. Performance and safety of the SMART conceptual design have been evaluated and confirmed through the performance and safety analyses using safety analysis system codes as well as a preliminary performance and safety analysis methodology. SMART design base events and their acceptance criteria are identified to develop a preliminary PIRT for the SMART integral reactor. Using the preliminary PIRT, a set of experimental program for the thermal hydraulic separate effect tests and the integral effect tests was developed for the thermal hydraulic model development and the system code validation. Safety characteristics as well as the safety issues of the integral reactor has been identified during the study, which will be used to resolve the safety issues and guide the regulatory criteria for the integral reactor. The results of the performance and safety analyses performed during the study were used to feedback for the SMART conceptual design. The performance and safety analysis code systems as well as the preliminary safety analysis methodology developed in this study will be validated as the SMART design evolves. The performance and safety analysis technology developed during the study will be utilized for the SMART basic design development. (author)

Lean Six-Sigma in Aviation Safety: An implementation guide for measuring aviation system’s safety performance

OpenAIRE

Panagopoulos, I.; Atkin, C.J.; Sikora, I.

2016-01-01

The paper introduces a conceptual framework that could improve the safety performance measurement process and ultimately the aviation system safety performance. The framework provides an implementation guide on how organisations could design and develop a proactive, measurement tool for assessing and measuring the Acceptable Level of Safety Performance (ALoSP) at sigma (σ) level, a statistical measurement unit. In fact, the methodology adapts and combines quality management tools, a leading i...

INFLUENCE OF PLANNING, ORGANIZATIONAL CHARACTERISTICS AND REGULATION ON ROAD TRAFFIC SAFETY OF PEDESTRIANS

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

G. M. Kuharenok

2011-01-01

Full Text Available The paper presents results of research on planning, organizational characteristics and regulation modes at  the regulated pedestrian crossings, located out of crossroads in the street and road network of Minsk. Some regularities pertaining to the influence of the investigated characteristics on road traffic safety of pedestrians are revealed in the paper. Practical offers on increase of road traffic safety of pedestrians in the Republic of Belarus have been developed on the basis of the executed investigations and cited in the paper. 

Characteristics of shift work and their impact on employee performance and wellbeing: a literature review

OpenAIRE

Dall'ora, Chiara; Griffiths, P.; Ball, J.; Recio Saucedo, A.

2016-01-01

BACKGROUND: Shift work is recognised as a component of work organisation that may affect the balance between employee’s efficiency, effectiveness and wellbeing. Shift work is frequent in healthcare and for nurses in particular, as they typically comprise a large proportion of the workforce in healthcare AIM: To identify the characteristics of shift work that have an effect on employee’s performance (including job performance, productivity, safety, quality of care delivered, errors, adverse ev...

Numerical and experimental investigation on the performance of safety valves operating with different gases

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Dossena, V.; Marinoni, F.; Bassi, F.; Franchina, N.; Savini, M.

2013-01-01

A detailed analysis of the effect related to the expansion of different gases throughout safety relief valves is carried out both numerically and experimentally. The considered gases are air, argon and ethylene, representative of a wide range of specific heat ratios. A first experimental campaign performed in air and argon on a safety relief valve characterized by connection 1/2″ × 1″ and orifice designation D (diameter 10 mm) according to API 526 showed significant reduction both in disc lift and in exhausted mass flow rate, at the nominal overpressure, when operating with argon. In order to gain a deeper insight into the physics involved and to evaluate the valve behavior with other gases, an extensive numerical testing has been performed by means of an accurate CFD code based on discontinuous Galerkin formulation. Numerical results are at first validated against measurements obtained in air on a 2″ J 3″ safety relief valve proving a remarkable accuracy of the computational method. Then the validated solver is applied on the same computational grid using argon and ethylene as working fluids. The three gases are considered as thermally perfect gases. A critical discussion based on the numerical results allows to clarify the fluid dynamic and physical reasons causing the observed trends both in the opening force and in the discharge coefficient. The main conclusion is that particular care must be taken when a safety valve operates with a fluid characterized by a specific heat ratio greater than the one of the gas used during type testing. -- Highlights: ► Effects of different gases on the discharge capacity and operational characteristics on safety relief valves. ► Influence of different specific heat ratio on safety relief valves discharge coefficient. ► Skilful application of Discontinuous Galerkin CFD solver to safety valves performances prediction

Performance Testing Methodology for Safety-Critical Programmable Logic Controller

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kim, Chang Ho; Oh, Do Young; Kim, Ji Hyeon; Kim, Sung Ho; Sohn, Se Do

2009-01-01

The Programmable Logic Controller (PLC) for use in Nuclear Power Plant safety-related applications is being developed and tested first time in Korea. This safety-related PLC is being developed with requirements of regulatory guideline and industry standards for safety system. To test that the quality of the developed PLC is sufficient to be used in safety critical system, document review and various product testings were performed over the development documents for S/W, H/W, and V/V. This paper provides the performance testing methodology and its effectiveness for PLC platform conducted by KOPEC

Focus on safety : a comparative analysis of pipeline safety performance 2000-2002

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

2004-01-01

Canada's National Energy Board (NEB) is responsible for the promotion of safety, environmental protection and economic efficiency in the Canadian public interest in regulating the design, construction, operation and abandonment of interprovincial and international pipelines within Canada. This second annual report provides a review of the safety performance of oil and gas pipeline companies that are regulated by the NEB. The data used to prepare this report originates from two sources: incident reports submitted under the Onshore Pipeline Regulations, 1999, and from information voluntarily provided by pipeline companies under the Safety Performance Indicators (SPI) initiative. Data comparisons with external reference organizations were included. Six key indicators have been identified to provide comprehensive measures of safety performance for pipeline companies: fatalities, ruptures, injury frequencies, liquid releases, gas releases, and unauthorized activities on the right of way. The safety performance of the federally regulated pipeline industry within Canada was satisfactory during this reporting period (2000-2002). The contractor injury frequency rates reported in 2002 were lower than those reported in 2001, and exhibited more consistency with the levels reported in 2000. The NEB is of the opinion that the elevated number of liquid hydrocarbon spills reported in 2000 were a result of elevated construction levels. No fatalities were reported. There was an increase to three from two in the number of ruptures, due in large part to metal loss (corrosion) and cracking, and external interference (third party damage). The number of spills increased to 76 in 2002 from 55 in 2001, which appears to be more in line with industry averages. The volume of hydrocarbon liquid released in 2002 represented one third the volume released in 2001. refs., 5 tabs., 14 figs

A review on the benchmarking concept in Malaysian construction safety performance

Science.gov (United States)

Ishak, Nurfadzillah; Azizan, Muhammad Azizi

2018-02-01

Construction industry is one of the major industries that propels Malaysia's economy in highly contributes to our nation's GDP growth, yet the high fatality rates on construction sites have caused concern among safety practitioners and the stakeholders. Hence, there is a need of benchmarking in performance of Malaysia's construction industry especially in terms of safety. This concept can create a fertile ground for ideas, but only in a receptive environment, organization that share good practices and compare their safety performance against other benefit most to establish improvement in safety culture. This research was conducted to study the awareness important, evaluate current practice and improvement, and also identify the constraint in implement of benchmarking on safety performance in our industry. Additionally, interviews with construction professionals were come out with different views on this concept. Comparison has been done to show the different understanding of benchmarking approach and how safety performance can be benchmarked. But, it's viewed as one mission, which to evaluate objectives identified through benchmarking that will improve the organization's safety performance. Finally, the expected result from this research is to help Malaysia's construction industry implement best practice in safety performance management through the concept of benchmarking.

Use of safety management practices for improving project performance.

Science.gov (United States)

Cheng, Eddie W L; Kelly, Stephen; Ryan, Neal

2015-01-01

Although site safety has long been a key research topic in the construction field, there is a lack of literature studying safety management practices (SMPs). The current research, therefore, aims to test the effect of SMPs on project performance. An empirical study was conducted in Hong Kong and the data collected were analysed with multiple regression analysis. Results suggest that 3 of the 15 SMPs, which were 'safety committee at project/site level', 'written safety policy', and 'safety training scheme' explained the variance in project performance significantly. Discussion about the impact of these three SMPs on construction was provided. Assuring safe construction should be an integral part of a construction project plan.

Fall Protection Characteristics of Safety Belts and Human Impact Tolerance.

Science.gov (United States)

Hino, Yasumichi; Ohdo, Katsutoshi; Takahashi, Hiroki

2014-08-23

Many fatal accidents due to falls from heights have occurred at construction sites not only in Japan but also in other countries. This study aims to determine the fall prevention performance of two types of safety belts: a body belt 1) , which has been used for more than 40 yr in the Japanese construction industry as a general type of safety equipment for fall accident prevention, and a full harness 2, 3) , which has been used in many other countries. To determine human tolerance for impact trauma, this study discusses features of safety belts with reference 4-9) to relevant studies in the medical science, automobile crash safety, and aircrew safety. For this purpose, simple drop tests were carried out in a virtual workplace to measure impact load, head acceleration, and posture in the experiments, the Hybrid-III pedestrian model 10) was used as a human dummy. Hybrid-III is typically employed in official automobile crash tests (New Car Assessment Program: NCAP) and is currently recognized as a model that faithfully reproduces dynamic responses. Experimental results shows that safety performance strongly depends on both the variety of safety belts used and the shock absorbers attached onto lanyards. These findings indicate that fall prevention equipment, such as safety belts, lanyards, and shock absorbers, must be improved to reduce impact injuries to the human head and body during falls.

Development of safety performance indicators of regulatory interest (SAFPER) in Pakistan

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Khatoon, Abida

2002-01-01

Safety performance indicators provide a very useful tool for monitoring operational safety of a nuclear power plant. Utilities in many countries have developed plant specific indicators for the assessment of their performance and safety. Regulators can make use of some of these indicators for their regulatory assessment. In addition to these regulatory bodies in some countries have also developed programs for the formulation of safety performance indicators which are used in monitoring operational safety and regulatory decision making. Realizing its usefulness Directorate of Nuclear Safety and Radiation Protection (DNSRP-the regulatory body in Pakistan) has also initiated a country specific program for the development of Safety Performance Indicators (SAFPER) based on data provided by the utility and that collected during the course of regulatory inspections. Selected areas of NPP operation to be monitored are: - Significant events; - Safety systems performance; - Barriers integrity; - Environment protection; - Workers radiation safety; and - Emergency Preparedness. One of the objectives of this program is also to monitor the effectiveness of DNSRP regulatory activities. IAEA framework is taken as one of the bases for our program. Safety performance will be assessed on the basis of Performance Indicators and inspection findings. DNSRP program as shown in Appendix includes the indicators in use and under development. It is felt that the term Safety Performance Indicators may be termed as 'SAFPER Indicators' to be used by the Regulators, as it is clear from this presentation that utility safety performance indicators together with the regulatory effectiveness indicators constitute the measure for the adequate safety to the public and the environment. Additional research is still necessary for: - indicator definition for the proposed and under developed indicators; - data collection systems; - thresholds; - trend analysis; - goal setting (benefit from the trend can be

Coupled neutronics/thermal-hydraulics and safety characteristics of liquid-fueled molten salt reactors

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Qiu, Suizheng; Zhang, Dalin; Liu, Minghao; Liu, Limin; Xu, Rongshuan; Gong, Cheng; Su, Guanghui

2016-01-01

Molten salt reactor (MSR) as one candidate of the Generation IV advanced nuclear power systems is attracted more attention in China due to its top ranked fuel cycle and thorium utilization. The MSRs are characterized by using liquid-fuel, which offers complicated coupling problem of neutronics and thermal hydraulics. In this paper, the fundamental model and numerical method are established to calculate and analyze the safety characteristics for liquid-fuel MSRs. The theories and methodologies are applied to the MOSART concept. The liquid-fuel flow effects on neutronics, reactivity coefficients and three operation parameters' influences at steady state are obtained, which provide the basic information for safety analysis. The unprotected loss of flow transient is calculated, the results of which shows the inherent safety characteristics of MOSART due to its strong negative reactivity feedbacks.

Coupled neutronics/thermal-hydraulics and safety characteristics of liquid-fueled molten salt reactors

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Qiu, Suizheng; Zhang, Dalin; Liu, Minghao; Liu, Limin; Xu, Rongshuan; Gong, Cheng; Su, Guanghui [Xi' an Jiaotong Univ. (China). State Key Laboratory of Multiphase Flow in Power Engineering

2016-05-15

Molten salt reactor (MSR) as one candidate of the Generation IV advanced nuclear power systems is attracted more attention in China due to its top ranked fuel cycle and thorium utilization. The MSRs are characterized by using liquid-fuel, which offers complicated coupling problem of neutronics and thermal hydraulics. In this paper, the fundamental model and numerical method are established to calculate and analyze the safety characteristics for liquid-fuel MSRs. The theories and methodologies are applied to the MOSART concept. The liquid-fuel flow effects on neutronics, reactivity coefficients and three operation parameters' influences at steady state are obtained, which provide the basic information for safety analysis. The unprotected loss of flow transient is calculated, the results of which shows the inherent safety characteristics of MOSART due to its strong negative reactivity feedbacks.

Safety performance monitoring of autonomous marine systems

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Thieme, Christoph A.; Utne, Ingrid B.

2017-01-01

The marine environment is vast, harsh, and challenging. Unanticipated faults and events might lead to loss of vessels, transported goods, collected scientific data, and business reputation. Hence, systems have to be in place that monitor the safety performance of operation and indicate if it drifts into an intolerable safety level. This article proposes a process for developing safety indicators for the operation of autonomous marine systems (AMS). The condition of safety barriers and resilience engineering form the basis for the development of safety indicators, synthesizing and further adjusting the dual assurance and the resilience based early warning indicator (REWI) approaches. The article locates the process for developing safety indicators in the system life cycle emphasizing a timely implementation of the safety indicators. The resulting safety indicators reflect safety in AMS operation and can assist in planning of operations, in daily operational decision-making, and identification of improvements. Operation of an autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) exemplifies the process for developing safety indicators and their implementation. The case study shows that the proposed process leads to a comprehensive set of safety indicators. It is expected that application of the resulting safety indicators consequently will contribute to safer operation of current and future AMS. - Highlights: • Process for developing safety indicators for autonomous marine systems. • Safety indicators based on safety barriers and resilience thinking. • Location of the development process in the system lifecycle. • Case study on AUV demonstrating applicability of the process.

Mining Behavior Based Safety Data to Predict Safety Performance

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Jeffrey C. Joe

2010-06-01

The Idaho National Laboratory (INL) operates a behavior based safety program called Safety Observations Achieve Results (SOAR). This peer-to-peer observation program encourages employees to perform in-field observations of each other's work practices and habits (i.e., behaviors). The underlying premise of conducting these observations is that more serious accidents are prevented from occurring because lower level “at risk” behaviors are identified and corrected before they can propagate into culturally accepted “unsafe” behaviors that result in injuries or fatalities. Although the approach increases employee involvement in safety, the premise of the program has not been subject to sufficient empirical evaluation. The INL now has a significant amount of SOAR data on these lower level “at risk” behaviors. This paper describes the use of data mining techniques to analyze these data to determine whether they can predict if and when a more serious accident will occur.

Evaluating Performance of Safety Management and Occupational Health Using Total Quality Safety Management Model (TQSM

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

E Mohammadfam

2015-11-01

Full Text Available Introduction: All organizations, whether public or private, necessitate performance evaluation systems in regard with growth, stability, and development in the competitive fields. One of the existing models for performance evaluation of occupational health and safety management is Total Quality Safety Management model (TQSM. Therefore, the present study aimed to evaluate performance of safety management and occupational health utilizing TQSM model. Methods: In this descriptive-analytic study, the population consisted of 16 individuals, including managers, supervisors, and members of technical protection and work health committee. Then the participants were asked to respond to TQSM questionnaire before and after the implementation of Occupational Health & Safety Advisory Services 18001 (OHSAS18001. Ultimately, the level of each program as well as the TQSM status were determined before and after the implementation of OHSAS18001. Results: The study results showed that the scores obtained by the company before OHSAS 18001’s implementation, was 43.7 out of 312. After implementing OHSAS 18001 in the company and receiving the related certificate, the total score of safety program that company could obtain was 127.12 out of 312 demonstrating a rise of 83.42 scores (26.8%. The paired t-test revealed that mean difference of TQSM scores before and after OHSAS 18001 implementation was proved to be significant (p> 0.05. Conclusion: The study findings demonstrated that TQSM can be regarded as an appropriate model in order to monitor the performance of safety management system and occupational health, since it possesses the ability to quantitatively evaluate the system performance.

Safety characteristics of potential waste transmutation systems

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Van Tuyle, G.J.

1993-01-01

For nuclear waste transmutation to alter significantly the need for geologic disposal of spent fuel from US Light-water reactors (LWRs), about 1.4% of the spent fuel (by mass) must be separated and transmuted. This includes the plutonium, the minor actinides, and four fission products: iodine. technetium, cesium and strontium. Regarding the actinides, fissioning of the plutonium, neptunium, americium, and curium generates a great deal of heat, so much so that most of the plutonium should be used to produce power. However, these actinides have some undesirable neutronic characteristics, and their utilization in reactors or subcritical (proton-accelerator) targets requires either a fast neutronic spectrum or a very high thermal-neutron flux. Transmutation of the fission products is generally by neutron capture, although this is difficult in the case of cesium and strontium. In this paper, various proposed means of transmuting the actinides and fission products are discussed, with the main focus being on the safety characteristics of each approach

The effect of facility characteristics on patient safety, patient experience, and service availability for procedures in non-hospital-affiliated outpatient settings: A systematic review.

Science.gov (United States)

Berglas, Nancy F; Battistelli, Molly F; Nicholson, Wanda K; Sobota, Mindy; Urman, Richard D; Roberts, Sarah C M

2018-01-01

Over recent decades, numerous medical procedures have migrated out of hospitals and into freestanding ambulatory surgery centers (ASCs) and physician offices, with possible implications for patient outcomes. In response, states have passed regulations for office-based surgeries, private organizations have established standards for facility accreditation, and professional associations have developed clinical guidelines. While abortions have been performed in office setting for decades, states have also enacted laws requiring that facilities that perform abortions meet specific requirements. The extent to which facility requirements have an impact on patient outcomes-for any procedure-is unclear. We conducted a systematic review to examine the effect of outpatient facility type (ASC vs. office) and specific facility characteristics (e.g., facility accreditation, emergency response protocols, clinician qualifications, physical plant characteristics, other policies) on patient safety, patient experience and service availability in non-hospital-affiliated outpatient settings. To identify relevant research, we searched databases of the published academic literature (PubMed, EMBASE, Web of Science) and websites of governmental and non-governmental organizations. Two investigators reviewed 3049 abstracts and full-text articles against inclusion/exclusion criteria and assessed the quality of 22 identified articles. Most studies were hampered by methodological challenges, with 12 of 22 not meeting minimum quality criteria. Of 10 studies included in the review, most (6) examined the effect of facility type on patient safety. Existing research appears to indicate no difference in patient safety for outpatient procedures performed in ASCs vs. physician offices. Research about specific facility characteristics is insufficient to draw conclusions. More and higher quality research is needed to determine if there is a public health problem to be addressed through facility

Operational Safety Performance Indicators and Balanced Scorecard in HANARO

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Wu, Jong-Sup; Jung, Hoan-Sung; Ahn, Guk-Hoon; Lee, Kye-Hong; Lim, In-Cheol; Kim, Hark-Rho

2007-01-01

Research reactors need an extensive basis for ensuring their safety. The importance of a safety management in nuclear facilities and activities has been emphasized. The safety activities in HANARO have been continuously conducted to enhance its safe operation. Last year, HANARO prepared two indicator sets to measure and assess the safety status of the reactor's operation and utilization. One is Safety Performance Indicators (SPI) and the other is Balanced Scorecard (BSC). Through reviewing these indicators, we can obtain the following information; - Plant safety status - Safety parameter trends - Safety information, for example, reactor operation status and radiation safety HANARO will continuously pursue the trends of SPI and BSC

Safety characteristics of the integral fast reactor concept

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Marchaterre, J.F.; Cahalan, J.E.; Sevy, R.H.; Wright, A.E.

1985-01-01

The Integral Fast Reactor (IFR) concept is an innovative approach to liquid metal reactor design which is being studied by Argonne National Laboratory. Two of the key features of the IFR design are a metal fuel core design, based on the fuel technology developed at EBR-II, and an integral fuel cycle with a colocated fuel cycle facility based on the compact and simplified process steps made possible by the use of metal fuel. The paper presents the safety characteristics of the IFR concept which derive from the use of metal fuel. Liquid metal reactors, because of the low pressure coolant operating far below its boiling point, the natural circulation capability, and high system heat capacities, possess a high degree of inherent safety. The use of metallic fuel allows the reactor designer to further enhance the system capability for passive accommodation of postulated accidents

SGHWR fuel performance, safety and reliability

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Pickman, D.O.; Inglis, G.H.

1977-01-01

The design principles involved in fuel pins and elements need to take account of the sometimes conflicting requirements of performance, safety and reliability. The principal factors involved in this optimisation are discussed and it is shown from fuel irradiation experience in the Winfrith S.G.H.W.R. that the necessary bias toward safety has not resulted in a reliability level lower than that shown by other successful water reactor designs. Reliability has important economic implications and has to be paid for. By a detailed evaluation of S.G.H.W.R. fuel defects it is shown that very few defects can be shown to be related to design, rating or burn-up. This demonstrates that economic aspects have not over-ridden necessary criteria that must be met to achieve the desirable reliability level. It is possible that large-scale experience with S.G.H.W.R. fuel may eventually demonstrate that the balance is too much in favour of reliability and consideration may be given to whether design changes favouring economy could be achieved without compromising safety. The safety criteria applied to S.G.H.W.R. fuel are designed to avoid any possibility of a temperature runaway in any credible accident situation. The philosophy and supporting experimental work programme are outlined and the fuel design features which particularly contribute to maximising safety margins are outlined. Reference is made to new 60 pin fuel element to be used in the commercial S.G.H.W.R.'s and how it compares in design and performance aspects with the 36 pin element that has been used to date in the Winfrith S.G.H.W.R

Safety characteristics analysis of nuclear power plants with PHWR PT; Analiza sigurnosnh karakteristika nuklearnih elektrana sa reaktorima PHWR-PT tipa

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Stosic, Z [Institute of nuclear sciences Boris Kidric, Vinca, Beograd (Yugoslavia)

1983-07-01

The paper deals with analysis of basic safety characteristics of heavy water Candu reactor. Inherent safety characteristics, r/a material inventory, systematization of normal abnormal and transient conditions, safety systems and availability analysis are considered. (author)

Performance indicators at Embalse NPP: PSA and safety system indicators based on PSA models

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Fornero, D.A.

2001-01-01

Several indicators have been implemented at Embalse NPP. The objective was selecting some representative parameters to evaluate the performance of both the plant and the personnel activities, important for safety. A first set of indicators was defined in accordance with plant technical staff criteria. A complementary set of them was addressed later based on WANO guidance. This report presents the set of indicators used at Embalse NPP, centering the description to related to safety systems performance indicators (SSPI). Some considerations are done about the calculation methods, the need for aligning and updating their values following Embalse Probabilistic Safety Assessment (PSA) development, and some pros and cons of using the PSA model for getting systems indicators. Owing to the fact that PSA ownership by utilities is also a subject of the meeting, some characteristics of the organization of the PSA Project are described at the beginning of the report. At Embalse NPP a Level 1 PSA has been developed under the responsibility of its own plant and with an important contribution from the IAEA. PSA was developed at the site, conducting this to a study strongly interactive with the station staff. (author)

Road safety performance indicators for the interurban road network.

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Yannis, G. Weijermars, W.A.M. Gitelman, V. Vis, M. Chazirisa, A. Papadimitriou, E. & Lima Azevedo, C.

2013-01-01

Various road safety performance indicators (SPIs) have been proposed for different road safety research areas, mainly as regards driver behaviour (e.g. seat belt use, alcohol, drugs, etc.) and vehicles (e.g. passive safety); however, no SPIs for the road network and design have been developed. The

Safety Analysis for Medium/Small Size Integral Reactor: Evaluation of Safety Characteristics for Small and Medium Integral Reactor

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Kim, Hho jung; Seul, K W; Ahn, S K; Bang, Y S; Park, D G; Kim, B K; Kim, W S; Lee, J H; Kim, W K; Shim, T M; Choi, H S; Ahn, H J; Jung, D W; Kim, G I; Park, Y M; Lee, Y J [Korea Inst. of Nuclear Safety, Taejon (Korea, Republic of)

1997-07-01

The Small and medium integral reactor is developed to be utilized for non-electric areas such as district heating and steam production for desalination and other industrial purposes, and then these applications may typically imply a closeness between the reactor and the user. It requires the reactor to be designed with the adoption of special functional and inherent safety features to ensure and promote a high level of safety and reliability, in comparison with the existing nuclear power plants. The objective of the present study is to establish the bases for the development of regulatory requirements and technical guides to address the special safety characteristics of the small and medium integral reactor. In addition, the study aims to identify and to propose resolutions to the possible safety concerns in the design of the small and medium integral reactor. 34 refs., 20 tabs. (author)

Managing patient safety through NPSGs and employee performance.

Science.gov (United States)

Adair, Liberty

2010-01-01

Patient safety can only exist in a culture of patient safety, which implies it is a value perceived by all. Culture predicts safety outcomes and leadership predicts the culture. Leaders are obligated to continually mitigate hazard and take action consciously. Healthcare workers should focus on preventing and reporting mistakes with the National Patient Safety Goals (NPSGs) in mind. These include: accuracy of patient identification, effectiveness of communication among caregivers, improving safety of medications, reducing infections, reducing risk of falls, and encouraging patients to be involved in care. Poor performers and reckless behavior need to be mitigated. If employees recognize their roles in the process, feel empowered,and have appropriate tools, resources,and data to implement solutions, errors can be avoided and patient safety becomes paramount.

A road safety performance indicator for vehicle fleet compatibility.

Science.gov (United States)

Christoph, Michiel; Vis, Martijn Alexander; Rackliff, Lucy; Stipdonk, Henk

2013-11-01

This paper discusses the development and the application of a safety performance indicator which measures the intrinsic safety of a country's vehicle fleet related to fleet composition. The indicator takes into account both the 'relative severity' of individual collisions between different vehicle types, and the share of those vehicle types within a country's fleet. The relative severity is a measure for the personal damage that can be expected from a collision between two vehicles of any type, relative to that of a collision between passenger cars. It is shown how this number can be calculated using vehicle mass only. A sensitivity analysis is performed to study the dependence of the indicator on parameter values and basic assumptions made. The indicator is easy to apply and satisfies the requirements for appropriate safety performance indicators. It was developed in such a way that it specifically scores the intrinsic safety of a fleet due to its composition, without being influenced by other factors, like helmet wearing. For the sake of simplicity, and since the required data is available throughout Europe, the indicator was applied to the relative share of three of the main vehicle types: passenger cars, heavy goods vehicles and motorcycles. Using the vehicle fleet data from 13EU Member States and Norway, the indicator was used to rank the countries' safety performance. The UK was found to perform best in terms of its fleet composition (value is 1.07), while Greece has the worst performance with the highest indicator value (1.41). Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

A consideration of lithium cell safety

Science.gov (United States)

Tobishima, Shin-ichi; Yamaki, Jun-ichi

The safety characteristics of commercial lithium ion cells are examined in relation to their use as batteries for cellular phones. This report describes a theoretical approach to an understanding of cell safety, example results of safety tests that we performed on lithium ion cells, and also presents our views regarding cell safety.

Operational safety performance indicators for nuclear power plants

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

2000-05-01

Since the late 1980s, the IAEA has been actively sponsoring work in the area of indicators to monitor nuclear power plant (NPP) operational safety performance. The early activities were mainly focused on exchanging ideas and good practices in the development and use of these indicators at nuclear power plants. Since 1995 efforts have been directed towards the elaboration of a framework for the establishment of an operational safety performance indicator programme. The result of this work, compiled in this publication, is intended to assist NPPs in developing and implementing a monitoring programme, without overlooking the critical aspects related to operational safety performance. The framework proposed in this report was presented at two IAEA workshops on operational safety performance indicators held in Ljubljana, Slovenia, in September 1998 and at the Daya Bay NPP, Szenzhen, China, in December 1998. During these two workshops, the participants discussed and brainstormed on the indicator framework presented. These working sessions provided very useful insights and ideas which where used for the enhancement of the framework proposed. The IAEA is acknowledging the support and contribution of all the participants in these two activities. The programme development was enhanced by pilot plant studies. Four plants from different countries with different designs participated in this study with the objective of testing the applicability, usefulness and viability of this approach

A concurrent diagnosis of microbiological food safety output and food safety management system performance: Cases from meat processing industries

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Luning, P.A.; Jacxsens, L.; Rovira, J.; Oses Gomez, S.; Uyttendaele, M.; Marcelis, W.J.

2011-01-01

Stakeholder requirements force companies to analyse their food safety management system (FSMS) performance to improve food safety. Performance is commonly analysed by checking compliance against preset requirements via audits/inspections, or actual food safety (FS) output is analysed by

Developing countries SMEs innovation characteristics and performance

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Vang, Jan; Rezaei, Shahamak; Baklanov, Nikita

An econometric study analysing developing countries’ SMEs innovation characteristics and their correlation with performance.......An econometric study analysing developing countries’ SMEs innovation characteristics and their correlation with performance....

SAFETY PERFORMANCE OF SUBCONTRACTORS IN THE PALESTINIAN CONSTRUCTION INDUSTRY

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Adnan Enshassi

2008-06-01

Full Text Available Subcontractors perform most of the construction works and their effect on industry are apparent in different activities of construction. Therefore, subcontractors need more attention from government and contractors union. The aim of this paper is to identify, evaluate, and rank factors that influence safety performance of subcontractors in the Gaza Strip (Palestine according to their relative importance. The study concluded that reported accident rates will decrease among subcontractors and their workers if new workers are trained well in the work site and they are informed about dangerous places, and if a workable safety plan is well preplanned. The results also showed that reported accident rates increased among subcontractors when using old, unsafe equipment and due to the complexity or difficulty in the construction sites features. Owners and general contractors need to stipulate strict clauses for safety in the contract for improving safety record of subcontractors. Construction workers must receive proper job related safety and health training with a safety logbook. It is recommended that the subcontractors and workers should attend continuing safety programs on regular basis as part of their perquisite to work in construction sites.

Safety performance evaluation using proactive indicators in a selected industry

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Abolfazl Barkhordari

2015-03-01

Full Text Available Background & Objectives: Quality and effectiveness of safety systems are critical factors in achieving their goals. This study was aimed to represent a method for performance evaluation of safety systems by proactive indicators using different updated models in the field of safety which will be tested in a selected industry. Methods: This study is a cross-sectional study. Proactive indicators used in this study were: Unsafe acts rate, Safety Climate, Accident Proneness, and Near-miss incident rate. The number of in 1473 safety climate questionnaires and 543 Accident Proneness questionnaires was completed. Results: The minimum and maximum safety climate score were 56.88 and 58.2, respectively, and the minimum and maximum scores of Accident Proneness were 98.2 and 140.7, respectively. The maximum number of Near-miss incident rate were 408 and the minimum of that was 196. The maximum number of unsafe acts rate was 43.8 percent and the minimum of that was 27.2 percent. In nine dimensions of Safety climate the eighth dimension (personal perception of risk with the score of 4.07 has the lowest score and the fourth (laws and safety regulations dimension with 8.05 has the highest score. According to expert opinions, the most important indicator in the assessment of safety performance was unsafe acts rate, while near-miss incident rate was the least important one. Conclusion: The results of this survey reveal that using proactive (Prospective indicators could be an appropriate method in organizations safety performance evaluation.

Principal characteristics of good safety culture

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Zhong, W [International Atomic Energy Agency, Vienna (Austria)

1997-09-01

The presentation briefly discusses the following aspects of safety culture: what is safety culture; universal features of safety culture; the main elements of safety culture; requirements at policy level; safety culture at government level, regulatory body, operators; requirements on managers.

Principal characteristics of good safety culture

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Zhong, W.

1997-01-01

The presentation briefly discusses the following aspects of safety culture: what is safety culture; universal features of safety culture; the main elements of safety culture; requirements at policy level; safety culture at government level, regulatory body, operators; requirements on managers

Indicators to monitor NPP safety performance. Working material

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

1997-01-01

Numerical indicators to monitor safety status and overall safety performance of nuclear power plants (NPPs) are used by operators and some regulators worldwide. During the last few years, the IAEA, through Technical Committee Meetings and Consultants' Meetings has worked on this area. This report presents a framework for nuclear power plant safety performance indicators that was developed during two consultant meetings held at the IAEA headquarters in Vienna in December 1995 and November 1996. Annex 2 on risk based indicators was prepared during a consultants' meeting held in Vienna in July 1996. An additional outcome from these activities, was the recommendation that the IAEA conduce pilot exercises at several nuclear power plants that might be interested to participate, in order to test the validity of the concept and its usefulness. 6 figs

Core size effects on safety performances of LMRs

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Na, Byung Chan; Hahn, Do Hee [Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute, Taejon (Korea, Republic of)

1998-12-31

An oxide fuel small size core (1200 MWt) was analyzed in comparison with a large size core (3600 MWt) in order to evaluate the size effects on transient safety performances of liquid-metal reactors (LMRs). In the first part of the study, main static safety parameters (i.e., Doppler coefficient, sodium void effect, etc.) of the two cores were characterized, and the second part of the study was focused on the dynamic behavior of the cores in two representative transient events: the unprotected loss-of-flow (ULOF) and the unprotected transient overpower (UTOP). Margins to fuel melting and sodium boiling have been evaluated for these representative transients. Results show that the small core has a generally better or equivalent level of safety performances during these events. 6 refs., 4 figs., 2 tabs. (Author)

Core size effects on safety performances of LMRs

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Na, Byung Chan; Hahn, Do Hee [Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute, Taejon (Korea, Republic of)

1997-12-31

An oxide fuel small size core (1200 MWt) was analyzed in comparison with a large size core (3600 MWt) in order to evaluate the size effects on transient safety performances of liquid-metal reactors (LMRs). In the first part of the study, main static safety parameters (i.e., Doppler coefficient, sodium void effect, etc.) of the two cores were characterized, and the second part of the study was focused on the dynamic behavior of the cores in two representative transient events: the unprotected loss-of-flow (ULOF) and the unprotected transient overpower (UTOP). Margins to fuel melting and sodium boiling have been evaluated for these representative transients. Results show that the small core has a generally better or equivalent level of safety performances during these events. 6 refs., 4 figs., 2 tabs. (Author)

Safety culture: the concept and its practical application

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Edmondson, B.

1994-01-01

This paper draws together a number of topics concerned with safety culture: the first part of the paper describe the characteristics of an organisation giving rise to a good safety culture as suggested in INSAG-4. The second part of the paper examines sources of information on the characteristics of organisations giving rise to good and poor safety performance including a study into the causes of a number of recent severe accidents such as Clapham Junction and Piper Alpha. The final part of the paper describes the means by which safety culture within an organisation may be measured and therefore controlled. This enables an organisation to provide for a good safety culture and improve commercial performance by a process of continuous safety improvement eliminating the losses arising from poor safety standards. (author) 6 tabs., 5 refs

MODEL OF EMERGENCY DEPARTMENT NURSE PERFORMANCE IMPROVEMENT BASED ON ASSOCIATION OF INDIVIDUAL CHARACTERISTIC, ORGANIZATION CHARACTERISTIC AND JOB CHARACTERISTIC

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Maria Margaretha Bogar

2017-04-01

Full Text Available Introduction: Nursing care is integral part of health care and having important role in management of patient with emergency condition. The purpose of this research was to develop nurse performance improvement model based on individual, organization and job characteristics association in Emergency Department of RSUD dr TC Hillers Maumere. Method: This was an explanative survey by cross sectional approach held on July -August 2012. Respondents in this study were 22 nurses and 44 patients were obtained by purposive sampling technique. Data were analyzed by partial least square test and signi fi cant t value > 1.64 (alpha 10%. Result: Results showed that individual characteristic had effect on nurse performance (t = 7.59, organization characteristic had effect on nurse performance (t = 2.03 and job characteristic didn’t have effect on nurse performance (t = 0.88. Nurse performance had effect on patient satisfaction (t = 6.54 but nurse satisfaction didn’t have effect on nurse performance (t = 1.31, and nurse satisfaction didn’t have effect either on patient satisfaction (t = 0.94. Discussion: This research concluded that individual characteristics which in fl uence nurse performance in nursing care were ability and skill, experience, age, sex, attitude and motivation. Organization characteristic that influence nurse performance was reward while job characteristic that include job design and feedback didn’t influence nurse performance in nursing care. Nurse performance influenced patient satisfaction but nurse satisfaction didn’t influence patient satisfaction and nurse performance.

The spin project: safety and performance indicators in different time frames

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Storck, R.; Becker, D.A.

2002-01-01

Safety and performance indicators have been under discussion for many years in several countries and international organisations. If those indicators refer to the long term safety of the total disposal system, they are often called safety indicators. If they refer to the performance of subsystems or the total system from a more technical point of view, they are sometimes called performance indicators. The need for indicators other than dose rates derives e.g. from the long time frames involved in safety assessments of waste disposal systems and the increasing uncertainty in dose rate calculations over time due to uncertainty in evolution of the surface environment and of behaviour of man. Before introducing additional indicators into a safety case of a potential repository site, the applicability and usefulness of different indicators have to be investigated and evaluated. The systematic analysis and testing of safety and performance indicators for use in different time horizons after closure of the disposal facility is the task of the SPIN project. This is done by re-calculating four recent studies concerning repository projects in granite formations. (authors)

Construction safety monitoring based on the project's characteristic with fuzzy logic approach

Science.gov (United States)

Winanda, Lila Ayu Ratna; Adi, Trijoko Wahyu; Anwar, Nadjadji; Wahyuni, Febriana Santi

2017-11-01

Construction workers accident is the highest number compared with other industries and falls are the main cause of fatal and serious injuries in high rise projects. Generally, construction workers accidents are caused by unsafe act and unsafe condition that can occur separately or together, thus a safety monitoring system based on influencing factors is needed to achieve zero accident in construction industry. The dynamic characteristic in construction causes high mobility for workers while doing the task, so it requires a continuously monitoring system to detect unsafe condition and to protect workers from potential hazards. In accordance with the unique nature of project, fuzzy logic approach is one of the appropriate methods for workers safety monitoring on site. In this study, the focus of discussion is based on the characteristic of construction projects in analyzing "potential hazard" and the "protection planning" to be used in accident prevention. The data have been collected from literature review, expert opinion and institution of safety and health. This data used to determine hazard identification. Then, an application model is created using Delphi programming. The process in fuzzy is divided into fuzzification, inference and defuzzification, according to the data collection. Then, the input and final output data are given back to the expert for assessment as a validation of application model. The result of the study showed that the potential hazard of construction workers accident could be analysed based on characteristic of project and protection system on site and fuzzy logic approach can be used for construction workers accident analysis. Based on case study and the feedback assessment from expert, it showed that the application model can be used as one of the safety monitoring tools.

Board characteristics, governance objectives, and hospital performance

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Thiel, Andrea; Winter, Vera; Büchner, Vera Antonia

2018-01-01

membership relates to board characteristics and financial performance. METHODOLOGY: Using factor analysis, we identify latent classes of governance objectives and use hierarchical cluster analysis to detect distinct clusters with varying emphasis on the classes. We then use multinomial regression to explore...... the associations between cluster membership and board characteristics (size, gender diversity, and occupational diversity) and examine the associations between clusters and financial performance using OLS regression. RESULTS: Classes of objectives reflecting three governance theories-agency theory, stewardship...... and hospital financial performance, with two of three groups performing significantly better than the reference group. CONCLUSION: High performance in hospitals can be the result of governance logics, which, compared to simple board characteristics, are associated with better financial outcomes. PRACTICE...

Benchmarking road safety performance: Identifying a meaningful reference (best-in-class).

Science.gov (United States)

Chen, Faan; Wu, Jiaorong; Chen, Xiaohong; Wang, Jianjun; Wang, Di

2016-01-01

For road safety improvement, comparing and benchmarking performance are widely advocated as the emerging and preferred approaches. However, there is currently no universally agreed upon approach for the process of road safety benchmarking, and performing the practice successfully is by no means easy. This is especially true for the two core activities of which: (1) developing a set of road safety performance indicators (SPIs) and combining them into a composite index; and (2) identifying a meaningful reference (best-in-class), one which has already obtained outstanding road safety practices. To this end, a scientific technique that can combine the multi-dimensional safety performance indicators (SPIs) into an overall index, and subsequently can identify the 'best-in-class' is urgently required. In this paper, the Entropy-embedded RSR (Rank-sum ratio), an innovative, scientific and systematic methodology is investigated with the aim of conducting the above two core tasks in an integrative and concise procedure, more specifically in a 'one-stop' way. Using a combination of results from other methods (e.g. the SUNflower approach) and other measures (e.g. Human Development Index) as a relevant reference, a given set of European countries are robustly ranked and grouped into several classes based on the composite Road Safety Index. Within each class the 'best-in-class' is then identified. By benchmarking road safety performance, the results serve to promote best practice, encourage the adoption of successful road safety strategies and measures and, more importantly, inspire the kind of political leadership needed to create a road transport system that maximizes safety. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

2011 Annual Criticality Safety Program Performance Summary

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Andrea Hoffman

2011-12-01

The 2011 review of the INL Criticality Safety Program has determined that the program is robust and effective. The review was prepared for, and fulfills Contract Data Requirements List (CDRL) item H.20, 'Annual Criticality Safety Program performance summary that includes the status of assessments, issues, corrective actions, infractions, requirements management, training, and programmatic support.' This performance summary addresses the status of these important elements of the INL Criticality Safety Program. Assessments - Assessments in 2011 were planned and scheduled. The scheduled assessments included a Criticality Safety Program Effectiveness Review, Criticality Control Area Inspections, a Protection of Controlled Unclassified Information Inspection, an Assessment of Criticality Safety SQA, and this management assessment of the Criticality Safety Program. All of the assessments were completed with the exception of the 'Effectiveness Review' for SSPSF, which was delayed due to emerging work. Although minor issues were identified in the assessments, no issues or combination of issues indicated that the INL Criticality Safety Program was ineffective. The identification of issues demonstrates the importance of an assessment program to the overall health and effectiveness of the INL Criticality Safety Program. Issues and Corrective Actions - There are relatively few criticality safety related issues in the Laboratory ICAMS system. Most were identified by Criticality Safety Program assessments. No issues indicate ineffectiveness in the INL Criticality Safety Program. All of the issues are being worked and there are no imminent criticality concerns. Infractions - There was one criticality safety related violation in 2011. On January 18, 2011, it was discovered that a fuel plate bundle in the Nuclear Materials Inspection and Storage (NMIS) facility exceeded the fissionable mass limit, resulting in a technical safety requirement (TSR) violation. The

The safety performance management system: A tool for diagnosis, intervention and measurement

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Haber, S.B.; Shurberg, D.A.

2002-01-01

Many organizations depend on human performance to avoid incidents involving significant adverse consequences. Such organizations are typically termed high reliability organizations (HROs). While heavy emphasis has been placed on designing system hardware and software to intercept and mitigate events that could cause adverse consequences, dealing with the design of the human component has proven to be more complicated. Examination of various safety-related incidents makes it clear that human performance, and in particular organizational processes, plays a dominant role. The human errors are of various origins and are typically part of larger organizational processes that encourage unsafe acts that ultimately produce system failures. It is generally postulated that without an effective organizational safety culture, a safe working environment is impossible. While many different perspectives exist from which safety issues might be addressed, a method that allows the quantitative measurement of organizational processes deemed to impact overall safety performance is considered useful to understand the potential for future inadequate safety performance. This paper describes the Safety Performance Management System, a method useful for diagnosis, subsequent intervention and follow-on measurement. Implications for use of this method are presented and the concluding discussion includes insights regarding the general application of the method to improved facility safety performance. (author)

Can Leader–Member Exchange Contribute to Safety Performance in An Italian Warehouse?

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Marco G. Mariani

2017-05-01

Full Text Available Introduction: The research considers safety climate in a warehouse and wants to analyze the Leader–Member Exchange (LMX role in respect to safety performance. Griffin and Neal’s safety model was adopted and Leader-Member Exchange was inserted as moderator in the relationships between safety climate and proximal antecedents (motivation and knowledge of safety performance constructs (compliance and participation.Materials and Methods: Survey data were collected from a sample of 133 full-time employees in an Italian warehouse. The statistical framework of Hayes (2013 was adopted for moderated mediation analysis.Results: Proximal antecedents partially mediated the relationship between Safety climate and safety participation, but not safety compliance. Moreover, the results from the moderation analysis showed that the Leader–Member Exchange moderated the influence of safety climate on proximal antecedents and the mediation exist only at the higher level of LMX.Conclusion: The study shows that the different aspects of leadership processes interact in explaining individual proficiency in safety practices.Practical Implications: Organizations as warehouses should improve the quality of the relationship between a leader and a subordinate based upon the dimensions of respect, trust, and obligation for high level of safety performance.

A road safety performance indicator for vehicle fleet compatibility.

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Christoph, M. Vis, M.A. Rackliff, L. & Stipdonk, H.

2013-01-01

This paper discusses the development and the application of a safety performance indicator which measures the intrinsic safety of a country's vehicle fleet related to fleet composition. The indicator takes into account both the ‘relative severity’ of individual collisions between different vehicle

Strengthening the culture of safety and performance in nuclear installations

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Briant, V.S.; Germann, R.P.

1997-01-01

In mid-1995, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in Vienna brought together a group of safety culture experts from around the world to explore and summarize those practices they viewed as important in establishing sound safety cultures in nuclear installations. This paper will summarize key findings of the Vienna team and also expand those ideas based on related work in which the authors are engaged. The paper includes a definition of safety culture, a description of three stages of safety culture, and five key practices essential to establishing and maintaining a sound safety culture. Additionally, the authors contradicts the conventional view of safety and production as trade-offs, supporting the Vienna team's conclusion that the principles, attitudes, and practices which bring about sustained levels of high performance are the same as those which enhance safety. Based on input from colleagues in several countries, this appears to hold true across geographical and ethnic boundaries. The authors also discuss how this information can be put to practical use to obtain an objective, measurable, and repeated assessment of the current state of the safety culture within a company, plant or work unit. With that information, leaders are then in the position to act on any of the several parameters which affect both safety and performance effectiveness. (author)

Performance Monitoring for Nuclear Safety Related Instrumentation at PUSPATI TRIGA Reactor (RTP)

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Zareen Khan Abdul Jalil Khan; Ridzuan Abdul Mutalib; Mohd Sabri Minhat

2015-01-01

The Reactor TRIGA PUSPATI (RTP) at Malaysia Nuclear Agency is a TRIGA Mark II type reactor and pool type cooled by natural circulation of light water. This paper describe on performance monitoring for nuclear safety related instrumentation in TRIGA PUSPATI Reactor (RTP) of based on various parameter of reactor safety instrument channel such as log power, linear power, Fuel temperature, coolant temperature will take into consideration. Methodology of performance on estimation and monitoring is to evaluate and analysis of reactor parameters which is important of reactor safety and control. And also to estimate power measurement, differential of log and linear power and fuel temperature during reactor start-up, operation and shutdown .This study also focus on neutron power fluctuation from fission chamber during reactor start-up and operation. This work will present result of performance monitoring from RTP which indicated the safety parameter identification and initiate safety action on crossing the threshold set point trip. Conclude that performance of nuclear safety related instrumentation will improved the reactor control and safety parameter during reactor start-up, operation and shutdown. (author)

Fracture mechanics characteristics and associated safety margins for integrity assessment; Bruchmechanische Kennwerte und zugeordnete Sicherheitsfaktoren bei Integritaetsanalysen

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Roos, E.; Schuler, X.; Stumpfrock, L.; Silcher, H. [Stuttgart Univ. (DE). Materialpruefungsanstalt (MPA)

2008-07-01

Within the integrity assessment of components and structural members of plants safety margins have to be applied, whose magnitude depend on several factors. Important factors influencing the magnitude of the safety margins are as for instance: Material behaviour (ductile / brittle behaviour), the event to be considered (local deformation / fracture), possible consequences of failure (human health, environmental damage, economic consequences) and many others. One important factor also is the fact, how precisely and reliably the appropriate material characteristics can be determined and how precisely and reliably the components behaviour can be predicted and assessed by means of this material characteristic. In contemporary safety assessment procedures by means of fracture mechanics evaluation tools (e.g. [1]) a concept of partial safety margins is proposed for application. The basic idea with this procedure is that only those sources of uncertainty have to be considered, which are relevant or may be relevant for the structure to be considered. For this purpose each source of possible uncertainty has to be quantified individually, finally only those singular safety margins are superimposed to a total safety margin which are relevant. The more the uncertainties have to be taken into account, the total safety margin to be applied, consequently will be larger. If some sources of uncertainty can be eliminated totally or can be minimized (for instance by a more reliable calculational procedure of the component loading or by more precise material characteristics), the total safety margin can be reduced. In this contribution the different procedures for the definition of safety margins within the integrity assessment by means of fracture mechanics procedures will be discussed. (orig.)

Engineering Solutions to Enhance Traffic Safety Performance on Two-Lane Highways

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Lina Wu

2015-01-01

Full Text Available Improving two-lane highway traffic safety conditions is of practical importance to the traffic system, which has attracted significant research attention within the last decade. Many cost-effective and proactive solutions such as low-cost treatments and roadway safety monitoring programs have been developed to enhance traffic safety performance under prevailing conditions. This study presents research perspectives achieved from the Highway Safety Enhancement Project (HSEP that assessed safety performance on two-lane highways in Beijing, China. Potential causal factors are identified based on proposed evaluation criteria, and primary countermeasures are developed against inferior driving conditions such as sharp curves, heavy gradients, continuous downgrades, poor sight distance, and poor clear zones. Six cost-effective engineering solutions were specifically implemented to improve two-lane highway safety conditions, including (1 traffic sign replacement, (2 repainting pavement markings, (3 roadside barrier installation, (4 intersection channelization, (5 drainage optimization, and (6 sight distance improvement. The effectiveness of these solutions was examined and evaluated based on Empirical Bayes (EB models. The results indicate that the proposed engineering solutions effectively improved traffic safety performance by significantly reducing crash occurrence risks and crash severities.

Impact of individual resilience and safety climate on safety performance and psychological stress of construction workers: A case study of the Ontario construction industry.

Science.gov (United States)

Chen, Yuting; McCabe, Brenda; Hyatt, Douglas

2017-06-01

The construction industry has hit a plateau in terms of safety performance. Safety climate is regarded as a leading indicator of safety performance; however, relatively little safety climate research has been done in the Canadian construction industry. Safety climate may be geographically sensitive, thus it is necessary to examine how the construct of safety climate is defined and used to improve safety performance in different regions. On the other hand, more and more attention has been paid to job related stress in the construction industry. Previous research proposed that individual resilience may be associated with a better safety performance and may help employees manage stress. Unfortunately, few empirical research studies have examined this hypothesis. This paper aims to examine the role of safety climate and individual resilience in safety performance and job stress in the Canadian construction industry. The research was based on 837 surveys collected in Ontario between June 2015 and June 2016. Structural equation modeling (SEM) techniques were used to explore the impact of individual resilience and safety climate on physical safety outcomes and on psychological stress among construction workers. The results show that safety climate not only affected construction workers' safety performance but also indirectly affected their psychological stress. In addition, it was found that individual resilience had a direct negative impact on psychological stress but had no impact on physical safety outcomes. These findings highlight the roles of both organizational and individual factors in individual safety performance and in psychological well-being. Construction organizations need to not only monitor employees' safety performance, but also to assess their employees' psychological well-being. Promoting a positive safety climate together with developing training programs focusing on improving employees' psychological health - especially post-trauma psychological

Transient performance analysis of pressurized safety injection tank with a partition

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Bae, Youngmin; Kim, Young In; Kim, Keung Koo

2015-01-01

Highlights: • Functional performance of safety injection tanks with a partition is evaluated. • Effects of key design parameters are scrutinized. • Distinctive features of the flow in multi-unit safety injection tanks are explored. - Abstract: A parametric study has been performed to evaluate the functional performance of a pressurized multi-unit safety injection tank, which would be considered as one of the candidates for a passive safety injection system in a nuclear power plant. The influences of key design parameters including the orifice size, initial gas fraction, and resistance coefficients and operating condition on the injection flow rate are scrutinized with a discussion of the relevant flow features such as the choked flow of gas through an orifice and two interconnected regions of differing gaseous pressure. The obtained results indicate that a multi-unit safety injection tank can passively control the injection flow rate and provide a stable safety injection over a relatively long period even in the case of drastic depressurization of a reactor coolant system

SGHWR fuel performance, safety and reliability

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Pickman, D.O.; Inglis, G.H.

1977-05-01

The design principles involved in fuel pins and elements need to take account of the sometimes conflicting requirements of safety and reliability. The principal factors involved in this optimisation are discussed and it is shown from fuel irradiation experience in the Winfrith SGHWR that the necessary bias towards safety has not resulted in a reliability level lower than that shown by other successful water reactor designs. Reliability has important economic implications. By a detailed evaluation of SGHWR fuel defects it is shown that very few defects can be shown to be related to design, rating, or burn-up. This demonstrates that economic aspects have not over-ridden necessary criteria that most be met to achieve the desirable reliability level. It is possible that large scale experience on SGHWR fuel may eventually demonstrate that the balance is too much in favour of reliability and consideration may be given to whether design changes favouring economy could be achieved without compromising safety. The safety criteria applied to SGHWR fuel are designed to avoid any possibility of a temperature runaway in any credible accident situation. the philosophy and supporting experimental work programme are outlines and the fuel design features which particularly contribute to maximising safety margins are outlined. Reference is made to the new 60-pin fuel element to be used in the commercial SGHWRs and to its comparison in design and performance aspects with the 36-pin element that has been used to date in the Winfrith SGHWR. (author)

Experience with performance based training of nuclear criticality safety engineers

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Taylor, R.G.

1993-01-01

For non-reactor nuclear facilities, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) does not require that nuclear criticality safety engineers demonstrate qualification for their job. It is likely, however, that more formalism will be required in the future. Current DOE requirements for those positions which do have to demonstrate qualification indicate that qualification should be achieved by using a systematic approach such as performance based training (PBT). Assuming that PBT would be an acceptable mechanism for nuclear criticality safety engineer training in a more formal environment, a site-specific analysis of the nuclear criticality safety engineer job was performed. Based on this analysis, classes are being developed and delivered to a target audience of newer nuclear criticality safety engineers. Because current interest is in developing training for selected aspects of the nuclear criticality safety engineer job, the analysis is incompletely developed in some areas

Investigating the effect of communication characteristics on crew performance under the simulated emergency condition of nuclear power plants

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Park, Jinkyun; Jung, Wondea; Yang, Joon-Eon

2012-01-01

It is well known that the safety of large process control systems could be significantly affected by the communication characteristics of crews that have a responsibility for their operations. Accordingly, many researchers have spent huge amount of effort to grasp the relationship between the characteristics of crew communications and the associated crew performance. Unfortunately, in the case of nuclear power plants (NPPs), it seems that most of existing studies have tried to identify the relationship between the characteristics of crew communications and the associated crew performance using empirical observations without a firm technical underpinning. For these reasons, Park suggested a novel framework that is able to represent the characteristics of crew communications based on social network analysis (SNA) metrics. In order to confirm the appropriateness of the suggested framework, in this study, the characteristics of crew communications that are gathered from the simulated emergency condition of NPPs are additionally compared with the associated crew performance data. As a consequence, it is observed that there are significant relationships between communication characteristics and the associated crew performance. Therefore, it is reasonable to expect that the characteristics of crew communications can be properly grasped using the suggested framework. - Highlights: ► Communication data of MCR operating crews are collected from a simulated emergency condition. ► Communication characteristics are represented by the associated SNA metrics. ► Identified communication characteristics are compared with the results of existing studies. ► SNA metrics are meaningful for explaining the characteristics of crew communications.

Technical features of ABWR safety systems

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Sugisaki, Toshihiko; Tominaga, Kenji; Horiuchi, Tetsuo

1986-01-01

The engineering safety facilities of ABWRs have been disigned so as to have many excellent characteristics such as safety, reliability and economy, reflecting the merit of adopting new technology such as internal pumps and new control rod driving mechanism, and coupled with the safety peculiar to BWRs. In this paper, about ECCS, containment vessels and others which compose the engineering safety facilities of ABWRs, the characteristics related to the safety owing to the adoption of internal pumps and others, and the evaluation of the performance at the time of various accidents are discussed. As the results of safety evaluation, it was clarified that due to the safety peculiar to ABWRs and the characteristics of the safety facilities, the large increases of safety, reliability and economy have been planned in the ABWRs, and for example, core flooding can be maintained even at the time of a hypothetical loss of coolant accident. BWRs have the simple system constitution, good self controllability, large natural circulation ability, simple operation control method and excellent ability of confining heat and radioactivity. BWRs have three safety functions to stop reactors, to remove heat from reactors, and to confine radioactive substances. These functions of ABWRs were evaluated, and very high safety was confirmed. (Kako, I.)

Building quality into performance and safety assessment software

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Wojciechowski, L.C.

2011-01-01

Quality assurance is integrated throughout the development lifecycle for performance and safety assessment software. The software used in the performance and safety assessment of a Canadian deep geological repository (DGR) follows the CSA quality assurance standard CSA-N286.7 [1], Quality Assurance of Analytical, Scientific and Design Computer Programs for Nuclear Power Plants. Quality assurance activities in this standard include tasks such as verification and inspection; however, much more is involved in producing a quality software computer program. The types of errors found with different verification methods are described. The integrated quality process ensures that defects are found and corrected as early as possible. (author)

Strengthening the culture of safety and performance in nuclear installations

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Briant, V S [GPU Nuclear, Parsippany (United States); Germann, R P [Aberdeen Center for Team Learning, Matawan (United States)

1997-07-01

In mid-1995, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in Vienna brought together a group of safety culture experts from around the world to explore and summarize those practices they viewed as important in establishing sound safety cultures in nuclear installations. This paper will summarize key findings of the Vienna team and also expand those ideas based on related work in which the authors are engaged. The paper includes a definition of safety culture, a description of three stages of safety culture, and five key practices essential to establishing and maintaining a sound safety culture. Additionally, the authors contradicts the conventional view of safety and production as trade-offs, supporting the Vienna team`s conclusion that the principles, attitudes, and practices which bring about sustained levels of high performance are the same as those which enhance safety. Based on input from colleagues in several countries, this appears to hold true across geographical and ethnic boundaries. The authors also discuss how this information can be put to practical use to obtain an objective, measurable, and repeated assessment of the current state of the safety culture within a company, plant or work unit. With that information, leaders are then in the position to act on any of the several parameters which affect both safety and performance effectiveness. (author) 9 refs., 5 tabs.

Incorporating Workplace Injury to Measure the Safety Performance of Industrial Sectors in Taiwan

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Li-Ting Yeh

2017-12-01

Full Text Available The severity of workplace injuries varies by industry. Information on workplace injuries can enable firms and governments to effectively improve their safety performance based on the specific contexts of each industry. Incorporating the three workplace injury rates (being wounded or ill, disability, and death, a data envelopment analysis (DEA model is developed to evaluate the safety performance of 17 industrial sectors in Taiwan. The results suggest that the Taiwanese government should pay particular attention to the mining and quarrying industry, which has the lowest safety performance. Additionally, the results provide abundant information for the Taiwanese government to design industry safety regulations in a way that may prompt firms to develop a sustainable economy by improving their health and safety practices and enhancing their overall safety performance.

Comparison of quality assurance for performance and safety characteristics of the facility for Boron Neutron Capture therapy in Petten/NL with medical electron accelerators

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Rassow, Juergen; Stecher-Rasmussen, Finn; Voorbraak, Wim; Moss, Ray; Vroegindeweij, Corine; Hideghety, Katalin; Sauerwein, Wolfgang

2001-01-01

Background and purpose: The European Council Directive on health protection 97/43/EURATOM requires radiotherapy quality assurance programmes for performance and safety characteristics including acceptance and repeated tests. For Boron Neutron Capture therapy (BNCT) at the High Flux Reactor (HFR) in Petten/NL such a programme has been developed on the basis of IEC publications for medical electron accelerators. Results: The fundamental differences of clinical dosimetry for medical electron accelerators and BNCT are presented and the order of magnitude of dose components and their stability and that of the main other influencing parameter 10 B concentration for BNCT patient treatments. A comparison is given for requirements for accelerators and BNCT units indicating items which are not transferable, equal or additional. Preliminary results of in vivo measurements done with a set of 55 Mn, 63 Cu and 197 Au activation foils for all single fields for the four fractions at all 15 treated patients show with <±4% up to now a worse reproducibility than the used dose monitoring systems (±1.5%) caused by influence of hair position on the foil-skull distance. Conclusions: Despite the more complex clinical dosimetry (because of four relevant dose components, partly of different linear energy transfer (LET)) BNCT can be regulated following the principles of quality assurance procedures for therapy with medical electron accelerators. The reproducibility of applied neutron fluence (proportional to absorbed doses) and the main safety aspects are equal for all teletherapy methods including BNCT

The safety culture change process performed in Polish research reactor MARIA

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Golab, Andrzej

2002-01-01

The Safety Culture Change Process Performed in research reactor MARIA is described in this paper. The essential issues fulfilled in realization of the Safety Culture Enhancement Programme are related to the attitude and behaviour of top management, co-operating groups, operational personnel, relations between the operating organization and the supervising and advising organizations. Realization of this programme is based on changing the employees understanding of safety, changing their attitudes and behaviours by means of adequate training, requalification process and performing the broad self-assessment programme. Also a high level Quality Assurance Programme helps in development of the Safety Culture. (author)

Development of Safety Grade PLC (POSAFE-Q) and Performance Test Results

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kim, Chang Hwoi; Park, Won Man; Choi, Jong Gyun; Lee, Dong Young; No, Young Hun; Song, Seung Hwan

2006-01-01

The safety grade PLC (POSAFE-Q) is being developed in the Korea Nuclear Instrumentation and Control System (KNICS) R and D project. The PLC satisfies Safety Class 1E, Quality Class 1, and Seismic Category I. The software such as the RTOS and firmware are being developed according to the safety critical software life cycle. Especially, the formal method is applied to design the SRS (Software Requirement Spec.) and the SDS (Software Design Specification.) to be error-free. The POSAFE-Q has several modules such as processor module, input and output modules, communication modules, redundant processor module, redundant power modules, etc,. To verify the function and performance, several tests such as CT, IT and ST were performed. And also, the equipment qualification test for environment, EMI and EMC, and seismic ware performed. All tests are satisfied with the requirements and specification for safety grade PLC, and the criteria for safety system in nuclear power plants

Development of Safety Grade PLC (POSAFE-Q) and Performance Test Results

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Kim, Chang Hwoi; Park, Won Man; Choi, Jong Gyun; Lee, Dong Young [Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute, Taejon (Korea, Republic of); No, Young Hun; Song, Seung Hwan [POSCON, Seoul (Korea, Republic of)

2006-07-01

The safety grade PLC (POSAFE-Q) is being developed in the Korea Nuclear Instrumentation and Control System (KNICS) R and D project. The PLC satisfies Safety Class 1E, Quality Class 1, and Seismic Category I. The software such as the RTOS and firmware are being developed according to the safety critical software life cycle. Especially, the formal method is applied to design the SRS (Software Requirement Spec.) and the SDS (Software Design Specification.) to be error-free. The POSAFE-Q has several modules such as processor module, input and output modules, communication modules, redundant processor module, redundant power modules, etc,. To verify the function and performance, several tests such as CT, IT and ST were performed. And also, the equipment qualification test for environment, EMI and EMC, and seismic ware performed. All tests are satisfied with the requirements and specification for safety grade PLC, and the criteria for safety system in nuclear power plants.

Performance and safety of hydraulic turbines

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Brekke, H

2010-01-01

The first part of the paper contains the choice of small turbines for run of the river power plants. Then a discussion is given on the optimization of the performance of different types of large turbines. Finally a discussion on the safety and necessary maintenance of turbines is given with special attention to bolt connections.

Risk-based safety performance indicators for nuclear power plants

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Chakraborty, S.; Prohaska, G.; Flodin, Y.; Grint, G.; Habermacher, H.; Hallman, A.; Isasia, R.; Melendez, E.; Verduras, E.; Karsa, Z.; Khatib-Rahbar, M.; Koeberlein, K.; Schwaeger, C.; Matahri, N.; Moravcik, I.; Tkac, M.; Preston, J.

2003-01-01

In a Concerted Action (CA), sponsored by the European Commission within its 5th Framework Program, a consortium of eleven partners from eight countries has reviewed and evaluated the application of Safety Performance Indicators (SPIs), which - in combination with other tools - can be used to monitor and improve the safety of nuclear power plants. The project was aimed at identification of methods that can be used in a risk-informed regulatory system and environment, and to exploit PSA techniques for the development and use of meaningful additional/alternative SPIs. The CA included the review of existing indicator systems, and the collection of information on the experience from indicator systems by means of a specific questionnaire. One of the most important and challenging issues for nuclear plant owners and/or regulators is to recognize early signs of deterioration in safety performance, caused by influences from management, organization and safety culture (MOSC), before actual events and/or mishaps take place. Most of the existing SPIs as proposed by various organizations are considered as 'lagging' indicators, that is, they are expected to show an impact only when a downward trend has already started. Furthermore, most of the available indicators are at a relatively high level, such that they will not provide useful information on fundamental weaknesses causing the problem in the first place. Regulators' and utilities' views on the use of a Safety Performance Indicator System have also been a part of the development of the CA. (author)

Exposure data and risk indicators for safety performance assessment in Europe.

Science.gov (United States)

Papadimitriou, Eleonora; Yannis, George; Bijleveld, Frits; Cardoso, João L

2013-11-01

The objective of this paper is the analysis of the state-of-the-art in risk indicators and exposure data for safety performance assessment in Europe, in terms of data availability, collection methodologies and use. More specifically, the concepts of exposure and risk are explored, as well as the theoretical properties of various exposure measures used in road safety research (e.g. vehicle- and person-kilometres of travel, vehicle fleet, road length, driver population, time spent in traffic, etc.). Moreover, the existing methods for collecting disaggregate exposure data for risk estimates at national level are presented and assessed, including survey methods (e.g. travel surveys, traffic counts) and databases (e.g. national registers). A detailed analysis of the availability and quality of existing risk exposure data is also carried out. More specifically, the results of a questionnaire survey in the European countries are presented, with detailed information on exposure measures available, their possible disaggregations (i.e. variables and values), their conformity to standard definitions and the characteristics of their national collection methods. Finally, the potential of international risk comparisons is investigated, mainly through the International Data Files with exposure data (e.g. Eurostat, IRTAD, ECMT, UNECE, IRF, etc.). The results of this review confirm that comparing risk rates at international level may be a complex task, as the availability and quality of exposure estimates in European countries varies significantly. The lack of a common framework for the collection and exploitation of exposure data limits significantly the comparability of the national data. On the other hand, the International Data Files containing exposure data provide useful statistics and estimates in a systematic way and are currently the only sources allowing international comparisons of road safety performance under certain conditions. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All

Safety performance evaluation of converging chevron pavement markings : final report.

Science.gov (United States)

2014-12-01

The objectives of this study were (1) to perform a detailed safety analysis of converging chevron : pavement markings, quantifying the potential safety benefits and developing an understanding of the : incident types addressed by the treatment, and (...

Management of safety and safety culture at the NPPs of Ukraine

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Koltakov, Vladimir

2002-01-01

The report contains general aspects of safety and safety culture. The brief description of operational characteristics and basic indexes of atomic power plants at the Ukraine are represented. The information referring to structure of NPPs of Operation organization license-holder, safety responsibility of both Regulatory and Utility Bodies also is given. The main part of the report include seven sections: 1. Practical application of safety management models; 2. erspective on the relationship between safety management and safety culture; 3. The role of leadership in achieving high standards of safety; 4. Current and future challengers that impact on safety culture and safety management (e.g. the impact of competition, changing, economic and political circumstances, workforce demographics, etc.); 5. Key lessons learned from major events; 6. Practical applications of safety culture concepts (e.g. learning organizations, training staff communications, etc.); 7. dvance in human performance. Some of the main pending safety and safety culture problems that are necessary to achieve in the near future are mentioned

Safety Performance Index Industri Batik Tulis Berdasarkan Kriteria Majemuk

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Nachnul Ansori

2015-12-01

Full Text Available Accident generally occurs due to the activities which is done in unsafe conditions or even unsafe behavior. These conditions can influence workers productivity. In batik industries, those workers use toxic material and work in non ergonomic atmosphere. Moreover, they also do not take care of the environment and do not use personal protective equipments (PPE. Workers at Madura batik SMEs have not fully realized the significance of occupational health and safety (OHS in their working areas. The aims of this research is to evaluate OHS performance based on the indicators of safety performance index (SPI, which is multicriteria, in that industri. The safety performance attributes were obtained from factor analysis from the previous study. The index is calculated based on the weighted evaluation results of critical behavior checklist (CBC, integrated with analytical hierarchy process (AHP. As the results, we should give priority to improve the knowledge and experience toward OHS of the workers and also improve the working environment of the Madura’s batik industries. Additionally, the performance of OHS in coloring process is also on the threshold of unsafe condition, further development on the coloring process is needed.

Performance assessment of food safety management systems in animal-based food companies in view of their context characteristics: A European study

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Luning, P.A.; Kirezieva, K.; Hagelaar, G.; Rovira, J.; Uyttendaele, M.; Jacxsens, L.

2015-01-01

Recurrently the question arises if efforts in food safety management system (FSMS) have resulted in effective systems in animal-based food production systems. The aim of this study was to gain an insight in the performance of FSMS in European animal-based food production companies in view of their

Experience of safety and performance improvement for fuel handling equipment

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Gyoon Chang, Sang; Hee Lee, Dae

2014-01-01

The purpose of this study is to provide experience of safety and performance improvement of fuel handling equipment for nuclear power plants in Korea. The fuel handling equipment, which is used as an important part of critical processes during the refueling outage, has been improved to enhance safety and to optimize fuel handling procedures. Results of data measured during the fuel reloading are incorporated into design changes. The safety and performance improvement for fuel handling equipment could be achieved by simply modifying the components and improving the interlock system. The experience provided in this study can be useful lessons for further improvement of the fuel handling equipment. (authors)

Analysis on Occupants’ Satisfaction for Safety Performance Assessment in Low Cost Housing

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Husin Husrul Nizam

2014-01-01

Full Text Available The delivery performance of the low cost housing is questioned since the occupants are prone towards safety hazards in the housing complex, such as structural instability and falling building fragments. Without defining the occupants’ requirements for the development of low cost housing, the prevailing safety factors are hard to be determined. This paper explores the rationale of safety performance assessment in the low cost housing by considering the occupants’ participation to achieve a better safety provision during occupancy period. Questionnaire survey was distributed to 380 occupants of the low cost housing in Kuala Lumpur and Selangor, Malaysia. The result shows that 80.8% of the respondents had expressed their dissatisfaction with the safety performance of the lift. By referring to the mode of ranking level, the most significant aspect rated by the respondents is Building Safety Features, with 51.6% respondents. The attained aspects can be fundamental parameters which can be considered in the future development of low cost housing.

Evaluation of Electrical Characteristics of Protective Equipment - a Prerequisite for Ensuring Safety and Health of Workers at Work

Science.gov (United States)

Buică, G.; Beiu, C.; Antonov, A.; Dobra, R.; Păsculescu, D.

2017-06-01

The protecting electrical equipment in use are subject to various factors generated by the use, maintenance, storage and working environment, which may change the characteristics of protection against electric shock. The study presents the results of research on the behaviour over time of protective characteristics of insulating covers of material of work equipment in use, in order to determine the type and periodicity of safety tests. There were tested and evaluated safety equipment with plastic and insulating rubber covers used in operations of verifying functionality, safety and maintenance of machinery used in manufacturing industries and specific services from electric, energy and food sector.

On the Safety and Performance Demonstration Tests of Prototype Gen-IV Sodium-Cooled Fast Reactor and Validation and Verification of Computational Codes

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jong-Bum Kim

2016-10-01

Full Text Available The design of Prototype Gen-IV Sodium-Cooled Fast Reactor (PGSFR has been developed and the validation and verification (V&V activities to demonstrate the system performance and safety are in progress. In this paper, the current status of test activities is described briefly and significant results are discussed. The large-scale sodium thermal-hydraulic test program, Sodium Test Loop for Safety Simulation and Assessment-1 (STELLA-1, produced satisfactory results, which were used for the computer codes V&V, and the performance test results of the model pump in sodium showed good agreement with those in water. The second phase of the STELLA program with the integral effect tests facility, STELLA-2, is in the detailed design stage of the design process. The sodium thermal-hydraulic experiment loop for finned-tube sodium-to-air heat exchanger performance test, the intermediate heat exchanger test facility, and the test facility for the reactor flow distribution are underway. Flow characteristics test in subchannels of a wire-wrapped rod bundle has been carried out for safety analysis in the core and the dynamic characteristic test of upper internal structure has been performed for the seismic analysis model for the PGSFR. The performance tests for control rod assemblies (CRAs have been conducted for control rod drive mechanism driving parts and drop tests of the CRA under scram condition were performed. Finally, three types of inspection sensors under development for the safe operation of the PGSFR were explained with significant results.

On the safety and performance demonstration tests of Prototype Gen-IV Sodium-Cooled Fast Reactor and validation and verification of computational codes

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Kim, Jong Bum; Jeong, Ji Young; Lee, Tae Ho; Kim, Sung Kyun; Euh, Dong Jin; Joo, Hyung Kook [Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute, Daejeon (Korea, Republic of)

2016-10-15

The design of Prototype Gen-IV Sodium-Cooled Fast Reactor (PGSFR) has been developed and the validation and verification (V and V) activities to demonstrate the system performance and safety are in progress. In this paper, the current status of test activities is described briefly and significant results are discussed. The large-scale sodium thermal-hydraulic test program, Sodium Test Loop for Safety Simulation and Assessment-1 (STELLA-1), produced satisfactory results, which were used for the computer codes V and V, and the performance test results of the model pump in sodium showed good agreement with those in water. The second phase of the STELLA program with the integral effect tests facility, STELLA-2, is in the detailed design stage of the design process. The sodium thermal-hydraulic experiment loop for finned-tube sodium-to-air heat exchanger performance test, the intermediate heat exchanger test facility, and the test facility for the reactor flow distribution are underway. Flow characteristics test in subchannels of a wire-wrapped rod bundle has been carried out for safety analysis in the core and the dynamic characteristic test of upper internal structure has been performed for the seismic analysis model for the PGSFR. The performance tests for control rod assemblies (CRAs) have been conducted for control rod drive mechanism driving parts and drop tests of the CRA under scram condition were performed. Finally, three types of inspection sensors under development for the safe operation of the PGSFR were explained with significant results.

On the safety and performance demonstration tests of Prototype Gen-IV Sodium-Cooled Fast Reactor and validation and verification of computational codes

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kim, Jong Bum; Jeong, Ji Young; Lee, Tae Ho; Kim, Sung Kyun; Euh, Dong Jin; Joo, Hyung Kook

2016-01-01

The design of Prototype Gen-IV Sodium-Cooled Fast Reactor (PGSFR) has been developed and the validation and verification (V and V) activities to demonstrate the system performance and safety are in progress. In this paper, the current status of test activities is described briefly and significant results are discussed. The large-scale sodium thermal-hydraulic test program, Sodium Test Loop for Safety Simulation and Assessment-1 (STELLA-1), produced satisfactory results, which were used for the computer codes V and V, and the performance test results of the model pump in sodium showed good agreement with those in water. The second phase of the STELLA program with the integral effect tests facility, STELLA-2, is in the detailed design stage of the design process. The sodium thermal-hydraulic experiment loop for finned-tube sodium-to-air heat exchanger performance test, the intermediate heat exchanger test facility, and the test facility for the reactor flow distribution are underway. Flow characteristics test in subchannels of a wire-wrapped rod bundle has been carried out for safety analysis in the core and the dynamic characteristic test of upper internal structure has been performed for the seismic analysis model for the PGSFR. The performance tests for control rod assemblies (CRAs) have been conducted for control rod drive mechanism driving parts and drop tests of the CRA under scram condition were performed. Finally, three types of inspection sensors under development for the safe operation of the PGSFR were explained with significant results

Nuclear safety culture and nuclear safety supervision

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Chai Jianshe

2013-01-01

In this paper, the author reviews systematically and summarizes up the development process and stage characteristics of nuclear safety culture, analysis the connotation and characteristics of nuclear safety culture, sums up the achievements of our country's nuclear safety supervision, dissects the challenges and problems of nuclear safety supervision. This thesis focused on the relationship between nuclear safety culture and nuclear safety supervision, they are essential differences, but there is a close relationship. Nuclear safety supervision needs to introduce some concepts of nuclear safety culture, lays emphasis on humanistic care and improves its level and efficiency. Nuclear safety supervision authorities must strengthen nuclear safety culture training, conduct the development of nuclear safety culture, make sure that nuclear safety culture can play significant roles. (author)

Experience with performance based training of nuclear criticality safety engineers

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Taylor, R.G.

1993-01-01

Historically, new entrants to the practice of nuclear criticality safety have learned their job primarily by on-the-job training (OJT) often by association with an experienced nuclear criticality safety engineer who probably also learned their job by OJT. Typically, the new entrant learned what he/she needed to know to solve a particular problem and accumulated experience as more problems were solved. It is likely that more formalism will be required in the future. Current US Department of Energy requirements for those positions which have to demonstrate qualification indicate that it should be achieved by using a systematic approach such as performance based training (PBT). Assuming that PBT would be an acceptable mechanism for nuclear criticality safety engineer training in a more formal environment, a site-specific analysis of the nuclear criticality safety engineer job was performed. Based on this analysis, classes are being developed and delivered to a target audience of newer nuclear criticality safety engineers. Because current interest is in developing training for selected aspects of the nuclear criticality safety engineer job, the analysis i's incompletely developed in some areas. Details of this analysis are provided in this report

School Safety, Severe Disciplinary Actions, and School Characteristics: A Secondary Analysis of the School Survey on Crime and Safety

Science.gov (United States)

Han, Seunghee; Akiba, Motoko

2011-01-01

On the basis of a secondary analysis of survey data collected from 1,872 secondary school principals in the 2005-2006 School Survey on Crime and Safety, we examined the frequency of and reasons for severe disciplinary actions and the relationship between school characteristics and severe disciplinary actions. We found that severe disciplinary…

Integrated Safety and Security Risk Assessment Methods: A Survey of Key Characteristics and Applications

OpenAIRE

Chockalingam, Sabarathinam; Hadziosmanovic, Dina; Pieters, Wolter; Teixeira, Andre; van Gelder, Pieter

2017-01-01

Over the last years, we have seen several security incidents that compromised system safety, of which some caused physical harm to people. Meanwhile, various risk assessment methods have been developed that integrate safety and security, and these could help to address the corresponding threats by implementing suitable risk treatment plans. However, an overarching overview of these methods, systematizing the characteristics of such methods, is missing. In this paper, we conduct a systematic l...

29 CFR 1960.11 - Evaluation of occupational safety and health performance.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-07-01

... 29 Labor 9 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 false Evaluation of occupational safety and health performance. 1960.11 Section 1960.11 Labor Regulations Relating to Labor (Continued) OCCUPATIONAL SAFETY AND HEALTH... AND HEALTH PROGRAMS AND RELATED MATTERS Administration § 1960.11 Evaluation of occupational safety and...

Comparing performance level estimation of safety functions in three distributed structures

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hietikko, Marita; Malm, Timo; Saha, Heikki

2015-01-01

The capability of a machine control system to perform a safety function is expressed using performance levels (PL). This paper presents the results of a study where PL estimation was carried out for a safety function implemented using three different distributed control system structures. Challenges relating to the process of estimating PLs for safety related distributed machine control functions are highlighted. One of these examines the use of different cabling schemes in the implementation of a safety function and its effect on the PL evaluation. The safety function used as a generic example in PL calculations relates to a mobile work machine. It is a safety stop function where different technologies (electrical, hydraulic and pneumatic) can be utilized. It was detected that by replacing analogue cables with digital communication the system structure becomes simpler with less number of failing components, which can better the PL of the safety function. - Highlights: • Integration in distributed systems enables systems with less components. • It offers high reliability and diagnostic properties. • Analogue signals create uncertainty in signal reliability and difficult diagnostics

Performance indicators and combining assessments to evaluate the safety performance of licensees

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Aubrey, Richard; Van Binnebeek, J.J.; Warren, T.F.H.

1998-01-01

The CNRA believes that safety inspections are a major element in the regulatory authority's efforts to ensure the safe operation of nuclear facilities. Considering the importance of these issues, the Committee has established a special Working Group on Inspection Practices (WGIP). The purpose of WGIP, is to facilitate the exchange of information and experience related to regulatory safety inspections between CNRA Member countries. As a follow-up to the 1995 document on Compilation of Responses to a Questionnaire on the Evaluation of the Safety Performance of Licensees, WGIP members identified several issues where additional information would be useful in future meetings and discussions. The consensus of the Group was that performance indicators (PIs) and how assessments are combined were the two issues that should be addressed first. It was noted also that in addition to information in obtained through the questionnaire, results from the workshop in May 1996 may provide valuable input to the endeavour. This report summarises a review conducted of the PI-related information provided by the questionnaire, the workshop, and responses from WGIP members to a request for specific information not addressed previously

Evaluation of operating experience for early recognition of deteriorating safety performance

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Beckmerhagen, I.A.; Berg, H.P.

2004-01-01

One of the most difficult challenges facing nuclear power plants is to recognize the early signs of degrading safety performance before regulatory requirements are imposed or serious incidents or accidents occur. Today, the nuclear industry is striving for collecting more information on occurrences that could improve the operational safety performance. To achieve this, the reporting threshold has been lowered from incidents to anomalies with minor or no impact to safety. Industry experience (also outside nuclear industry) has shown that these are typical issues which should be considered when looking for such early warning signs. Therefore, it is important that nuclear power plant operators have the capability to trend, analyse and recognize early warning signs of deteriorating performance. It is necessary that plant operators are sensitive to these warning signs which may not be immediately evident. Reviewing operating experience is one of the main tasks for plant operators in their daily activities. Therefore, self assessment should be at the centre of any operational safety performance programme. One way of applying a self assessment program is through the following four basic elements: operational data, events, safety basis, and related experience. This approach will be described in the paper in more details. (authors)

INPO Perspectives and Activities to Enhance Supplier Human Performance and Safety Culture

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Duncan, R. J.

2016-01-01

Within their own organizations, utilities have made significant improvements in human performance and safety culture, supported by a strong community of practice through INPO and WANO. In recent years, utilities have been making increasing use of suppliers for design, construction, inspection and maintenance services in support of their NPPs. Many of these suppliers do not have the benefit of being members of a community of practice when it comes to human performance and safety culture. To help the supplier community make improvements similar to what the utilities have achieved, INPO has recently expanded its Supplier Participant program to address the issue of human performance and safety culture in the supplier community. The intent of this paper will be to share the INPO’s perspectives and activities in helping suppliers of services and products to NPPs enhance their human performance and safety culture. (author)

Containment-emergency-sump performance. Technical findings related to Unresolved Safety Issue A-43

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

1983-04-01

This report summarizes key technical findings related to the Unresolved Safety Issue A-43, Containment Emergency Sump Performance, and provides recommendations for resolution of attendant safety issues. The key safety questions relate to: (a) effects of insulation debris on sump performance; (b) sump hydraulic performance as determined by design features, submergence, and plant induced effects, and (c) recirculation pump performance wherein air and/or particulate ingestion can occur. The technical findings presented in this report provide information relevant to the design and performance evaluation of the containment emergency sump

Potential safety features and safety analysis aspects for high performance light water reactor (HPLWR)

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Aksan, N.; Schulenberg, T.; Squarer, D.

2003-01-01

Research Activities are ongoing worldwide to develop advanced nuclear power plants with high thermal efficiency for the purpose to improve their economical competitiveness. Within the 5th Framework Programme of the European Commission, a project has been launched with the main objective to assess the technical and economical feasibility of a high efficiency LWR operating at super critical pressure conditions. Several European research institutions, industrial partners and the University of Tokyo participated and worked in this common research project. Within the aims of the development of the HPLWR is to use both passive and active safety systems for performing safety related functions in the event of transients or accidents. Consequently substantial effort has been invested in order to define the safety features of the plant in a European environment, as well as to incorporate passive safety features into the design. Throughout this process, the European Utility Requirements (EUR) and requirements known from Generation IV initiative were considered as a guideline in general terms in order to include further advanced ideas. The HPLWR general features were compared to both requirements, indicating a potential to meet these. Since, the supercritical HPLWR represents a challenge for best-estimate safety codes like RELAP5, CATHARE and TRAB due to the fact that these codes were developed for two-phase or single-phase coolant at pressures far below critical point, work on the preliminary assessment of the appropriateness of these codes have been performed for selected relevant phenomena, and application of the codes to the selected transients on the basis of defined 'reference design'. An overview on their successful upgrade to supercritical pressures and application to some plant safety analysis are provided in the paper. Further elaborations in relation to future needs are also discussed. (author)

Work support, psychological well-being and safety performance among nurses in Hong Kong.

Science.gov (United States)

Wong, Kenchi C K

2018-02-06

This study investigated the mediating role of psychological well-being between work support and safety performance of 314 Hong Kong nurses, using self-reported questionnaires. Results showed that psychological well-being mediated the effects of work support on safety performance. The findings illustrate that work support was an important element to improve psychological well-being. This could generate better safety performance of the nurses. Implications and limitations are discussed.

Rad waste disposal safety analysis / Integrated safety assessment of a waste repository

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Jeong, Jongtae; Choi, Jongwon; Kang, Chulhyung

2012-04-01

We developed CYPRUS+and adopted PID and RES method for the development of scenario. Safety performance assessment program was developed using GoldSim for the safety assessment of disposal system for the disposal of spnet fuels and wastes resulting from the pyrpoprocessing. Biosphere model was developed and verified in cooperation with JAEA. The capability to evaluate post-closure performance and safety was added to the previously developed program. And, nuclide migration and release to the biosphere considering site characteristics was evaluated by using deterministic and probabilistic approach. Operational safety assessment for drop, fire, and earthquake was also statistically evaluated considering well-established input parameter distribution. Conservative assessment showed that dose rate is below the limit value of low- and intermediate-level repository. Gas generation mechanism within engineered barrier was defined and its influence on safety was evaluated. We made probabilistic safety assessment by obtaining the probability distribution functions of important input variables and also made a sensitivity analysis. The maximum annual dose rate was shown to be below the safety limit value of 10 mSv/yr. The structure and element of safety case was developed to increase reliability of safety assessment methodology for a deep geological repository. Finally, milestone for safety case development and implementation strategy for each safety case element was also proposed

New safety performance indicators for safety assessment of radioactive waste disposal facilities. Cuban experience

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Peralta Vital, J.L.; Castillo, R.G.; Olivera, J.

2002-01-01

The paper shows the Cuban experience on implementing geological disposal of radioactive waste and the necessity for identifying new safety performance indicators for the safety assessment (SA) of radioactive waste disposal facilities. The selected indicator was the concentration of natural radioactive elements (U, Ra, Th, K) in the Cuban geologic environment. We have carried out a group of investigations, which have allowed characterising the concentration for the whole Country, creating a wide database where this indicator is associated with the lithology. The main lithologies in Cuba are: the sedimentary rocks (70 percent of national occurrence), which are present in the three regions (limestone and lutite), and finally the igneous and metamorphic rocks. The results show the concentrations ranges of the natural radionuclides associated fundamentally to the variation in the lithology and geographical area of the Country. In Cuba, the higher concentration (ppm) of Uranium and Radium are referenced to the Central region associated to Skarn, while for Thorium (ppm) and Potassium (%), in the East region the concentration peaks in Tuffs have been found. The concentrations ranges obtained are preliminary, they characterise the behaviour of this parameter for the Cuban geology, but they do not represent limits for safety assessment purposes yet. Also other factors should be taken into account as the assessment context, time scales and others assumptions before establishing the final concentration limits for the natural radionuclides as a radiological and nuclear safety performance indicator complementary to dose and risk for safety assessment for radiological and nuclear facilities. (author)

Optimization method development of the core characteristics of a fast reactor in order to explore possible high performance solutions (a solution being a consistent set of fuel, core, system and safety)

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ingremeau, J.-J.X.

2011-01-01

In the study of any new nuclear reactor, the design of the core is an important step. However designing and optimising a reactor core is quite complex as it involves neutronics, thermal-hydraulics and fuel thermomechanics and usually design of such a system is achieved through an iterative process, involving several different disciplines. In order to solve quickly such a multi-disciplinary system, while observing the appropriate constraints, a new approach has been developed to optimise both the core performance (in-cycle Pu inventory, fuel burn-up, etc...) and the core safety characteristics (safety estimators) of a Fast Neutron Reactor. This new approach, called FARM (Fast Reactor Methodology) uses analytical models and interpolations (Meta-models) from CEA reference codes for neutronics, thermal-hydraulics and fuel behaviour, which are coupled to automatically design a core based on several optimization variables. This global core model is then linked to a genetic algorithm and used to explore and optimise new core designs with improved performance. Consideration has also been given to which parameters can be best used to define the core performance and how safety can be taken into account.This new approach has been used to optimize the design of three concepts of Gas cooled Fast Reactor (GFR). For the first one, using a SiC/SiCf-cladded carbide-fuelled helium-bonded pin, the results demonstrate that the CEA reference core obtained with the traditional iterative method was an optimal core, but among many other possibilities (that is to say on the Pareto front). The optimization also found several other cores which exhibit some improved features at the expense of other safety or performance estimators. An evolution of this concept using a 'buffer', a new technology being developed at CEA, has hence been introduced in FARM. The FARM optimisation produced several core designs using this technology, and estimated their performance. The results obtained show that

The Dread Factor: How Hazards and Safety Training Influence Learning and Performance

Science.gov (United States)

Burke, Michael J.; Salvador, Rommel O.; Smith-Crowe, Kristin; Chan-Serafin, Suzanne; Smith, Alexis; Sonesh, Shirley

2011-01-01

On the basis of hypotheses derived from social and experiential learning theories, we meta-analytically investigated how safety training and workplace hazards impact the development of safety knowledge and safety performance. The results were consistent with an expected interaction between the level of engagement of safety training and hazardous…

Performance of maleated castor oil based plasticizer on rubber: rheology and curing characteristic studies

Science.gov (United States)

Indrajati, I. N.; Dewi, I. R.

2017-07-01

The objective of this study was to evaluate the performance of maleated castor oil (MACO) as plasticizer on natural rubber (NR), ethylene propylene diene monomer (EPDM), and nitrile butadiene rubber (NBR). The parameter studied were involving rheological, curing and swelling properties. The MACOs were prepared by an esterification reaction between castor oil (CO) and maleic anhydride (MAH) with the help of xylene as water entrainer to improve water removal. Resulting oils then applied as a plasticizer in each of those rubbers within a fixed loading of 5 phr. Comparison has been made to evaluate the performance of MACO and conventional plasticizer (paraffinic oil for NR and EPDM, DOP for NBR) on each rubber. Rheology, curing characteristic and swelling of each rubber were studied. The results showed that rubber (NR/EPDM/NBR) plasticized with MACO had given similar flow characteristic to conventional plasticizers. MACO exhibited slow curing, confirmed by higher t90, but the scorch safety was of the same magnitude. MAH loading tended to decrease the flow properties and curing rate, while scorch time (ts2) was independent.

Building patient safety in intensive care nursing : Patient safety culture, team performance and simulation-based training

OpenAIRE

Ballangrud, Randi

2013-01-01

Aim: The overall aim of the thesis was to investigate patient safety culture, team performance and the use of simulation-based team training for building patient safety in intensive care nursing. Methods: Quantitative and qualitative methods were used. In Study I, 220 RNs from ten ICUs responded to a patient safety culture questionnaire analysed with statistics. Studies II-IV were based on an evaluation of a simulation-based team training programme. Studies II-III included 53 RNs from seven I...

The impact of road improvements on road safety and related characteristics

OpenAIRE

Francis John Gichaga

2017-01-01

This paper presents the historical and cultural background relating to road improvement and road safety characteristics in Kenya, a developing country in East Africa. Some who come from low-developed areas of developing countries often take time to comprehend the modern transportation infrastructure, especially roads, and have difficulty assimilating and customizing the same to their culturally tailored modes. This paper discusses two case studies: one on the socio-economic impact followin...

Determining the causal relationships among balanced scorecard perspectives on school safety performance: case of Saudi Arabia.

Science.gov (United States)

Alolah, Turki; Stewart, Rodney A; Panuwatwanich, Kriengsak; Mohamed, Sherif

2014-07-01

In the public schools of many developing countries, numerous accidents and incidents occur because of poor safety regulations and management systems. To improve the educational environment in Saudi Arabia, the Ministry of Education seeks novel approaches to measure school safety performance in order to decrease incidents and accidents. The main objective of this research was to develop a systematic approach for measuring Saudi school safety performance using the balanced scorecard framework philosophy. The evolved third generation balanced scorecard framework is considered to be a suitable and robust framework that captures the system-wide leading and lagging indicators of business performance. The balanced scorecard architecture is ideal for adaptation to complex areas such as safety management where a holistic system evaluation is more effective than traditional compartmentalised approaches. In developing the safety performance balanced scorecard for Saudi schools, the conceptual framework was first developed and peer-reviewed by eighteen Saudi education experts. Next, 200 participants, including teachers, school executives, and Ministry of Education officers, were recruited to rate both the importance and the performance of 79 measurement items used in the framework. Exploratory factor analysis, followed by the confirmatory partial least squares method, was then conducted in order to operationalise the safety performance balanced scorecard, which encapsulates the following five salient perspectives: safety management and leadership; safety learning and training; safety policy, procedures and processes; workforce safety culture; and safety performance. Partial least squares based structural equation modelling was then conducted to reveal five significant relationships between perspectives, namely, safety management and leadership had a significant effect on safety learning and training and safety policy, procedures and processes, both safety learning and training

Regulatory supervision of safety indicators; experience with radiation safety indicators in Dukovany nuclear power plant performance

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Urbancik, L.; Kulich, V.

2004-01-01

The State Office for Nuclear Safety uses three sets of indicators describing the following aspects of a favourable nuclear power plant operation: smooth operation in normal circumstances, low risk to the population, and operation with a positive safety attitude. These are three safety-related areas for assessment. Each area has its own set of indicators. Overall operational safety performance indicators were identified for each attribute. From this point, a level of strategic indicators was developed, and finally, a set of specific indicators was set up. While neither the overall indicators nor the strategic indicators are directly measurable, the specific indicators are directly measurable and are targeted during inspection. (author)

Work stress and patient safety: observer-rated work stressors as predictors of characteristics of safety-related events reported by young nurses.

Science.gov (United States)

Elfering, A; Semmer, N K; Grebner, S

This study investigates the link between workplace stress and the 'non-singularity' of patient safety-related incidents in the hospital setting. Over a period of 2 working weeks 23 young nurses from 19 hospitals in Switzerland documented 314 daily stressful events using a self-observation method (pocket diaries); 62 events were related to patient safety. Familiarity of safety-related events and probability of recurrence, as indicators of non-singularity, were the dependent variables in multilevel regression analyses. Predictor variables were both situational (self-reported situational control, safety compliance) and chronic variables (job stressors such as time pressure, or concentration demands and job control). Chronic work characteristics were rated by trained observers. The most frequent safety-related stressful events included incomplete or incorrect documentation (40.3%), medication errors (near misses 21%), delays in delivery of patient care (9.7%), and violent patients (9.7%). Familiarity of events and probability of recurrence were significantly predicted by chronic job stressors and low job control in multilevel regression analyses. Job stressors and low job control were shown to be risk factors for patient safety. The results suggest that job redesign to enhance job control and decrease job stressors may be an important intervention to increase patient safety.

A Study on the Optimization Method of the Main Steam Safety Valve Characteristics for Overpressure Protection

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Kim, Kyoung Ryun; Kim, Ung Soo; Pakr, Min Soo; Lee, Gyu Cheon; Kim, Shin Whan [KEPCO EnC Company Inc., Daejeon (Korea, Republic of)

2015-05-15

The safety analysis on Loss of Condenser Vacuum (LOCV) event should be performed in accordance with Standard Review Plan (SRP) for pressurized water reactor. SRP is prepared for the guidance of staff reviewers in the office of nuclear reactor regulation in performing safety reviews of applications to operate nuclear power plants. The recent SRP requires that peak pressure in the primary and secondary system be evaluated separately since initial conditions are different for the primary and secondary systems. This paper presents an evaluation of the effect of the MSSVs characteristics with the analysis of LOCV event in order to have the sufficient safety margin of RCS and secondary system. This study has been conducted with the sensitivity analysis on the design parameters of MSSV which are the opening logic, set-point pressure and discharging capacity to the atmosphere. In this work, the effect of optimization method for the MSSV is evaluated from the viewpoints of opening logic change, discharge capacity increase and opening set-point decrease to mitigate the RCS and secondary system peak pressure resulting in additional safety margin. From the results, the optimization method is identified to be effective in reducing system peak pressure, especially for the secondary system. The opening logic which has increased number of MSSVs in the 1''st MSSV bank remarkably decreases the pressure of the secondary system. In the cases of 1/1/3, 2/1/2, the peak pressure of the main steam system is limited to the set-point of the 3''rd bank of MSSVs, and in the case of 3/1/1 it is limited to the set- point of the 2''nd bank of MSSVs. Consequently, the opening logic of the MSSVs is very important parameter to have the safety margin of the secondary system. The capacity and set-point of MSSVs do not involve increasing the peak pressure of RCS. It is recommended that the new design method of MSSVs as shown in this study be adopted to have the sufficient

Pump performance and reliability follow-up by the French Safety Authorities

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Clausner, J.P.; De La Ronciere, X.; Scott de Martinville, E.; Courbiere, P.

1990-12-01

This paper will present, through actual examples, the methodology of the performance and reliability safety-related pumps evaluation applied by the French Safety Authorities and the lessons drawn from this evaluation

Assessment of Human Performance and Safety Culture at the Paks Nuclear Power Plant

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Toth, Janos; Hadnagy, Lajos

2002-01-01

Evaluation of human performance and safety culture of the personnel at a Nuclear Power Plant is a very important element of the self assessment process. At the Paks NPP a systematic approach to this problem started in the early 90's. The first comprehensive analysis of the human performance of the personnel was performed by the Hungarian Research Institute for Electric Power (VEIKI). The analysis of human failures is also a part of the investigation and analysis of safety related reported events. This human performance analysis of events is carried out by the Laboratory of Psychology of the plant and a supporting organisation namely the Department of Ergonomics and Psychology of the Budapest University of Technical and Economical Sciences. The analysis of safety culture at the Paks NPP has been in the focus of attention since the implementation of the INSAG-4 document started world-wide. In 1993 an IAEA model project namely 'Strengthening Training for Operational Safety' was initiated with a sub-project called 'Enhancement of Safety Culture'. Within this project the first step was the initial assessment of the safety culture level at the Paks NPP. It was followed by some corrective actions and safety culture improvement programme. In 1999 the second assessment was performed in order to evaluate the progress as a result of the improvement programme. A few indicators reflecting the elements of safety culture were defined and compared. The assessment of the safety culture with a survey among the managers was performed in September 2000 and the results are being evaluated at the moment. The intention of the plant management is to repeat the assessment every 2-3 years and evaluate the trend of the indicator. (authors)

On the safety performance of the advanced nuclear energy systems

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Li Shounan

1999-01-01

Some features on the safety performances of the Advanced Nuclear Energy Systems are discussed. The advantages and some peculiar problems on the safety of Advanced Nuclear Energy Systems with subcritical nuclear reactor driven by external neutron sources are also pointed out in comparison with conventional nuclear reactors

The relationships between OHS prevention costs, safety performance, employee satisfaction and accident costs.

Science.gov (United States)

Bayram, Metin; Ünğan, Mustafa C; Ardıç, Kadir

2017-06-01

Little is known about the costs of safety. A literature review conducted for this study indicates there is a lack of survey-based research dealing with the effects of occupational health and safety (OHS) prevention costs. To close this gap in the literature, this study investigates the interwoven relationships between OHS prevention costs, employee satisfaction, OHS performance and accident costs. Data were collected from 159 OHS management system 18001-certified firms operating in Turkey and analyzed through structural equation modeling. The findings indicate that OHS prevention costs have a significant positive effect on safety performance, employee satisfaction and accident costs savings; employee satisfaction has a significant positive effect on accident costs savings; and occupational safety performance has a significant positive effect on employee satisfaction and accident costs savings. Also, the results indicate that safety performance and employee satisfaction leverage the relationship between prevention costs and accident costs.

Analysis of international approaches which are used at development of theoperational safety performance indicators

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lyigots'kij, O.Yi.; Nosovs'kij, A.V.; Chemeris, Yi.O.

2009-01-01

Description of international approaches and experience of the use of theoperational safety performance indicators system is provided for estimationof current status and making a decision on corrections in the operationpractice. The state of development of the operational safety performanceindicators system by the operating organization is overviewed. Thepossibility of application of international approaches during development ofthe integral safety performance indicators system is analyzed. Aims and tasksof future researches are formulated in relation to development of theintegral safety performance indicators system.

Assessment of softball bat safety performance using mid-compression polyurethane softballs.

Science.gov (United States)

McDowell, Mark

2004-07-01

There is currently much debate about the safety of the sport of softball. Batted-ball speed and average pitcher reaction time are factors often used to determine safe performance. Batted-ball speed is shown to be the most important factor to consider when determining safe play. Average pitcher reaction time is explained and directly correlated to batted-ball speed. Eleven aluminum multi-wall, three aluminum single-wall and two composite softball bats were tested with mid-compression polyurethane softballs averaging 1721+/-62 N/6.4 mm to represent the relative bat-ball performance for the sport of slowpitch softball. Nine men and six women were chosen for this study out of a test group of over three hundred slowpitch softball players. On average, aluminum bat performance results were within the recommended safety limits established by the national softball associations. However, when composite bats were used, their performance results exceeded the recommended safety limits which can pose a significant safety risk. Using aluminum softball bats, batted-ball speeds ranged from 80 to 145km x h(-1) Using composite softball bats, batted-ball speeds ranged from 146 to 161 km x h(-1). The scientific relevance of this study is to provide performance information that can lead to injury prevention in the sport of softball.

Scientific Approach for Optimising Performance, Health and Safety in High-Altitude Observatories

Science.gov (United States)

Böcker, Michael; Vogy, Joachim; Nolle-Gösser, Tanja

2008-09-01

The ESO coordinated study “Optimising Performance, Health and Safety in High-Altitude Observatories” is based on a psychological approach using a questionnaire for data collection and assessment of high-altitude effects. During 2007 and 2008, data from 28 staff and visitors involved in APEX and ALMA were collected and analysed and the first results of the study are summarised. While there is a lot of information about biomedical changes at high altitude, relatively few studies have focussed on psychological changes, for example with respect to performance of mental tasks, safety consciousness and emotions. Both, biomedical and psychological changes are relevant factors in occupational safety and health. The results of the questionnaire on safety, health and performance issues demonstrate that the working conditions at high altitude are less detrimental than expected.

High Burnup Fuel Performance and Safety Research

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Bang, Je Keun; Lee, Chan Bok; Kim, Dae Ho (and others)

2007-03-15

The worldwide trend of nuclear fuel development is to develop a high burnup and high performance nuclear fuel with high economies and safety. Because the fuel performance evaluation code, INFRA, has a patent, and the superiority for prediction of fuel performance was proven through the IAEA CRP FUMEX-II program, the INFRA code can be utilized with commercial purpose in the industry. The INFRA code was provided and utilized usefully in the universities and relevant institutes domesticallly and it has been used as a reference code in the industry for the development of the intrinsic fuel rod design code.

An experimental study of the flow characteristics of fluidic device in a passive safety injection tank

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Cho, Seok; Song, Chul Hwa; Won, Suon Yeon; Min, Kyong Ho; Chung, Moon Ki

1998-01-01

It is considered to adopt passive safety injection tank (SIT) as a enhanced safety feature in KNGR. Passive SIT employs a vortex chamber as a fluidic device, which control injection flow rate passively by the variation of flow resistance produced by vortex intensity within the vortex chamber. To investigate the flow characteristics of the vortex chamber many tests have been carried out by using small-scale test facility. In this report the effects of geometric parameters of vortex chamber on discharge flow characteristics and the velocity measurement result of flow field, measured by PIV, are presented and discussed. (author). 25 refs., 11 tabs., 31 figs

Research on Integration of NPP Operational Safety Management Performance Systems

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Chi, Miao; Shi, Liping

2014-01-01

The operational safety management of Nuclear Power Plants demands systematic planning and integrated control. NPPs are following the well-developed safety indicator systems proposed by IAEA Operational Safety Performance Indicator Programme, NRC Reactor Oversight Process or the other institutions. Integration of the systems is proposed to benefiting from the advantages of both systems and avoiding improper application into the real world. The authors analyzed the possibility and necessity for system integration, and propose an indicator system integrating method

Safety characteristics of options for plasma-facing components for ITER and beyond

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Piet, S.J.; McCarthy, K.A.; Holland, D.F.; Longhurst, G.R.; Merrill, B.J.

1991-01-01

Plasma-facing components (PFC) likely dominate the safety hazards of the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) and post-ITER machines. To gain regulatory approval and for fusion energy to fulfill its ultimate attractive safety and environmental potential, safety must be considered when selecting among PFC options. This paper summarizes current PFC safety information. PFC safety issues fall into seven areas: disruption tolerance, disruption severity, tritium inventory and permeation, accidental energy release, activation/toxin hazards, cooling disturbances, and system issues. RFC options include current ITER mainline options (Be or W coating, C tiles), variants on current ITER options, and liquid metal (LM) divertors. No PFC option that we have examined is free of critical safety concerns. There are also innovative ideas that may improve any PFC's performance -- super-permeable vacuum ducts, helium self-pumping, and gaseous divertors. We conclude with recommendations and a future strategy. 17 refs., 1 fig., 3 tabs

Evaluation of safety practices and performance in a brewery industry ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Evaluation of safety practices and performance in a brewery industry in Nigeria between 2000 – 2007. ... Journal of Applied Sciences and Environmental Management ... The study revealed that a total of 156 accidents were prevented in the period of the safety programme which translates to an average of 19.45 per year.

Thermo-hydraulic characteristics of ship propulsion reactor in the conditions of ship motions and safety assessment

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kobayashi, Michiyuki; Murata, Hiroyuki; Sawada, Kenichi; Inasaka, Fujio; Aya, Izuo; Shiozaki, Koki

1999-01-01

By inputting the experimental data, information and others on thermo-hydraulic characteristics of integrated ship propulsion reactor accumulated hitherto by the Ship Research Institute and some recent cooperation results into the nuclear ship engineering simulation system, it was conducted not only to contribute an improvement study on next ship reactor by executing general analysis and evaluation on motion characteristics under ship body motion conditions, safety at accidents, and others of the integrated ship reactor but also to investigate and prepare some measures to apply fundamental experiment results based on obtained here information to safety countermeasure of the nuclear ships. In 1997 fiscal year, on safety of the integrated ship propulsion reactor loading nuclear ship, by adding experimental data on unstable flow analysis and information on all around of the analysis to general data base fundamental program, development to intellectual data base program was intended; on effect of pulsation flow on thermo-hydraulic characteristics of ship propulsion reactor; after pulsation flow visualization experiment, experimental equipment was reconstructed into heat transfer type to conduct numerical analysis of pulsation flow by confirming validity of numerical analysis code under comparison with the visualization experiment results; and on thermo-hydraulic behavior in storage container at accident of active safety type ship propulsion reactor; a flashing vibration test using new apparatus finished on its higher pressurization at last fiscal year to examine effects of each parameter such as radius and length of exhausting nozzle and pool water temperature. (G.K.)

Reviewing real-time performance of nuclear reactor safety systems

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Preckshot, G.G.

1993-08-01

The purpose of this paper is to recommend regulatory guidance for reviewers examining real-time performance of computer-based safety systems used in nuclear power plants. Three areas of guidance are covered in this report. The first area covers how to determine if, when, and what prototypes should be required of developers to make a convincing demonstration that specific problems have been solved or that performance goals have been met. The second area has recommendations for timing analyses that will prove that the real-time system will meet its safety-imposed deadlines. The third area has description of means for assessing expected or actual real-time performance before, during, and after development is completed. To ensure that the delivered real-time software product meets performance goals, the paper recommends certain types of code-execution and communications scheduling. Technical background is provided in the appendix on methods of timing analysis, scheduling real-time computations, prototyping, real-time software development approaches, modeling and measurement, and real-time operating systems

Reviewing real-time performance of nuclear reactor safety systems

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Preckshot, G.G. [Lawrence Livermore National Lab., CA (United States)

1993-08-01

The purpose of this paper is to recommend regulatory guidance for reviewers examining real-time performance of computer-based safety systems used in nuclear power plants. Three areas of guidance are covered in this report. The first area covers how to determine if, when, and what prototypes should be required of developers to make a convincing demonstration that specific problems have been solved or that performance goals have been met. The second area has recommendations for timing analyses that will prove that the real-time system will meet its safety-imposed deadlines. The third area has description of means for assessing expected or actual real-time performance before, during, and after development is completed. To ensure that the delivered real-time software product meets performance goals, the paper recommends certain types of code-execution and communications scheduling. Technical background is provided in the appendix on methods of timing analysis, scheduling real-time computations, prototyping, real-time software development approaches, modeling and measurement, and real-time operating systems.

Improvements in operational safety performance of the Magnox power stations

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Marchese, C.J. [BNFL Magnox Generation, Berkeley (United Kingdom)

2000-10-01

In the 43 years since commencement of operation of Calder Hall, the first Magnox power station, there remain eight Magnox stations and 20 reactors still in operation, owned by BNFL Magnox Generation. This paper describes how the operational safety performance of these stations has significantly improved over the last ten years. This has been achieved against a background of commercial competition introduced by privatization and despite the fact that the Magnox base design belongs to the past. Finally, the company's future plans for continued improvements in operational safety performance are discussed. (author)

Operational safety system performance alternative to the WANO's indicator

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lyra, Moacir

2002-01-01

One of the operational safety performance indicators recommended by the World Association of Nuclear Operators (WANO) and adopted by Electronuclear is the reliability of the safety systems. The parameter selected to represent this indicator is the average unavailability of the trains of the concerned system. This parameter would be universally representative of the reliability for comparison purpose only if all nuclear power plants were designed within the same redundancy criteria. Considering the diversity of design criteria of the power plants in operation and based on a probabilistic approach, this paper proposes new performance indicators which are comparable regardless the redundancy criteria of the system. A case example applied to a system of the Angra 2 nuclear power plant shows that, even though with the plant in the infancy phase, the performance of the system in the period is very good. (author)

Safety culture in transport

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Decobert, V.

1998-01-01

'Safety culture' is a wording that appeared first in 1986, during the evaluation of what happened during the Tchernobyl accident. Safety culture is defined in the IAEA 75-INSAG-4 document as the characteristics and attitude which, in organizations and in men behaviours, make that questions related to safety of nuclear power plants benefits, in priority, of the attention that they need in function of their importance. The INSAG-4 document identifies three different elements necessary to the development of the safety culture: commitment of the policy makers, commitment of the managers of the industry, and commitment of individuals. This paper gives examples to show how safety culture is existing in the way Transnucleaire performs the activities in the field of transport of nuclear materials. (author)

Does Employee Safety Matter for Patients Too? Employee Safety Climate and Patient Safety Culture in Health Care.

Science.gov (United States)

Mohr, David C; Eaton, Jennifer Lipkowitz; McPhaul, Kathleen M; Hodgson, Michael J

2015-04-22

We examined relationships between employee safety climate and patient safety culture. Because employee safety may be a precondition for the development of patient safety, we hypothesized that employee safety culture would be strongly and positively related to patient safety culture. An employee safety climate survey was administered in 2010 and assessed employees' views and experiences of safety for employees. The patient safety survey administered in 2011 assessed the safety culture for patients. We performed Pearson correlations and multiple regression analysis to examine the relationships between a composite measure of employee safety with subdimensions of patient safety culture. The regression models controlled for size, geographic characteristics, and teaching affiliation. Analyses were conducted at the group level using data from 132 medical centers. Higher employee safety climate composite scores were positively associated with all 9 patient safety culture measures examined. Standardized multivariate regression coefficients ranged from 0.44 to 0.64. Medical facilities where staff have more positive perceptions of health care workplace safety climate tended to have more positive assessments of patient safety culture. This suggests that patient safety culture and employee safety climate could be mutually reinforcing, such that investments and improvements in one domain positively impacts the other. Further research is needed to better understand the nexus between health care employee and patient safety to generalize and act upon findings.

Preliminary study on functional performance of compound type multistage safety injection tank

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Bae, Youngmin; Kim, Young In; Kim, Keung Koo

2015-01-01

Highlights: • Functional performance of compound type multistage safety injection tanks is studied. • Effects of key design parameters are scrutinized. • Distinctive flow features in compound type safety injection tanks are explored. - Abstract: A parametric study is carried out to evaluate the functional performance of a compound type multistage safety injection tank that would be considered one of the components for the passive safety injection systems in nuclear power plants. The effects of key design parameters such as the initial volume fraction and charging pressure of gas, tank elevation, vertical location of a sparger, resistance coefficient, and operating condition on the injection flow rate are scrutinized along with a discussion of the relevant flow features. The obtained results indicate that the compound type multistage safety injection tank can effectively control the injection flow rate in a passive manner, by switching the driving force for the safety injection from gas pressure to gravity during the refill and reflood phases, respectively

Thermo-hydraulic characteristics of ship propulsion reactor in the conditions of ship motions and safety assessment

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kobayashi, Michiyuki; Aya, Izuo; Inasaka, Fujio; Murata, Hiroyuki; Odano, Naoteru; Shiozaki, Koki

1998-01-01

A research project from 1995-1999 had a plan to make experimental studies on (1) safety of nuclear ship loaded with an integral ship propulsion reactor (2) effects of pulsating flow on the thermo-hydraulic characteristics of ship propulsion reactor and (3) thermo-hydraulic behaviors of the reactor container at the time of accident in a passively safe ship propulsion reactor. Development of a data base for ship propulsion reactor was attempted using previous experimental data on the thermo-hydraulic characteristics of the reactor in the institute in addition to the present results aiming to make general analytical evaluation for the safety of the engineering-simulation system for nuclear ship. A general data base was obtained by integrating the data list and the analytical program for static characteristics. A test equipment which allows to visualize the pulsating flow was produced and visualization experiments have started. (M.N.)

A cross-cultural study of organizational factors on safety: Japanese vs. Taiwanese oil refinery plants.

Science.gov (United States)

Hsu, Shang Hwa; Lee, Chun-Chia; Wu, Muh-Cherng; Takano, Kenichi

2008-01-01

This study attempts to identify idiosyncrasies of organizational factors on safety and their influence mechanisms in Taiwan and Japan. Data were collected from employees of Taiwanese and Japanese oil refinery plants. Results show that organizational factors on safety differ in the two countries. Organizational characteristics in Taiwanese plants are highlighted as: higher level of management commitment to safety, harmonious interpersonal relationship, more emphasis on safety activities, higher devotion to supervision, and higher safety self-efficacy, as well as high quality of safety performance. Organizational characteristics in Japanese plants are highlighted as: higher level of employee empowerment and attitude towards continuous improvement, more emphasis on systematic safety management approach, efficient reporting system and teamwork, and high quality of safety performance. The casual relationships between organizational factors and workers' safety performance were investigated using structural equation modeling (SEM). Results indicate that the influence mechanisms of organizational factors in Taiwan and Japan are different. These findings provide insights into areas of safety improvement in emerging countries and developed countries respectively.

Utility Expectations for Human Performance and Safety Culture in the Supplier Community

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Clewett, L. K.

2016-01-01

Canadian NPPs, like many others around the world, make use of suppliers for the design and execution of major projects, and to support on-going inspection and maintenance activities. The work performed by suppliers today represents a significant portion of the work performed at utility NPPs, and, at times, can even exceed the work performed by utility staff. It is imperative for both the utility and the supplier work forces to work in collaboration to ensure that the probability of consequential errors impacting plant safety or contributing to broader enterprise risk is kept very low. An important element for keeping the risk low is for utilities to work with their suppliers to develop a high degree of confidence that the supplier workforce is performing to the same standards of human performance and safety culture as its own staff. This paper will provide a senior utility executive’s expectations and perspective on achieving excellence in supplier human performance and safety culture. (author)

Barrier performance researches for the safety evaluation

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Niibori, Yuichi

2004-01-01

So far, many researches were conducted to propose a scientific evidence (a safety case) for the realization of geological disposal in Japan. In order to regulate the geological disposal system of radioactive wastes, on the other hand, we need also a holistic approach to integrate various data related for the performance evaluations of the engineered barrier system and the natural barrier system. However, the scientific bases are not sufficient to establish the safety regulation for such a natural system. For example, we often apply the specific probability density function (PDF) to the uncertainty of barrier system due to the essential heterogeneity. However, the applicability is not clear in the regulation point of view. A viewpoint to understand such an applicability of PDFs has been presented. (author)

Safety Characteristics in System Application of Software for Human Rated Exploration Missions for the 8th IAASS Conference

Science.gov (United States)

Mango, Edward J.

2016-01-01

NASA and its industry and international partners are embarking on a bold and inspiring development effort to design and build an exploration class space system. The space system is made up of the Orion system, the Space Launch System (SLS) and the Ground Systems Development and Operations (GSDO) system. All are highly coupled together and dependent on each other for the combined safety of the space system. A key area of system safety focus needs to be in the ground and flight application software system (GFAS). In the development, certification and operations of GFAS, there are a series of safety characteristics that define the approach to ensure mission success. This paper will explore and examine the safety characteristics of the GFAS development. The GFAS system integrates the flight software packages of the Orion and SLS with the ground systems and launch countdown sequencers through the 'agile' software development process. A unique approach is needed to develop the GFAS project capabilities within this agile process. NASA has defined the software development process through a set of standards. The standards were written during the infancy of the so-called industry 'agile development' movement and must be tailored to adapt to the highly integrated environment of human exploration systems. Safety of the space systems and the eventual crew on board is paramount during the preparation of the exploration flight systems. A series of software safety characteristics have been incorporated into the development and certification efforts to ensure readiness for use and compatibility with the space systems. Three underlining factors in the exploration architecture require the GFAS system to be unique in its approach to ensure safety for the space systems, both the flight as well as the ground systems. The first are the missions themselves, which are exploration in nature, and go far beyond the comfort of low Earth orbit operations. The second is the current exploration

Opportunities for Using Building Information Modeling to Improve Worker Safety Performance

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Kasim Alomari

2017-02-01

Full Text Available Building information modelling (BIM enables the creation of a digital representation of a designed facility combined with additional information about the project attributes, performance criteria, and construction process. Users of BIM tools point to the ability to visualize the final design along with the construction process as a beneficial feature of using BIM. Knowing the construction process in relationship to a facility’s design benefits both safety professionals when planning worker safety measures for a project and designers when creating a project’s design. Success in using BIM to enhance safety partly depends on the familiarity of project personnel with BIM tools and the extent to which the tools can be used to identify and eliminate safety hazards. In a separate, ongoing study, the authors investigated the connection between BIM and safety to document the opportunities, barriers, and impacts. Utilizing an on-line survey of project engineers who work for construction firms together with a comprehensive literature review, the study found those who use BIM feel that it aids in communication of project information and project delivery, both of which have been found to have positive impacts on construction site safety. Further, utilizing the survey results, the authors apply the binary logistic regression econometric framework to better understand the factors that lead to safety professionals believing that BIM increases safety in the work place. In addition, according to the survey results, a large percentage of the engineers who use BIM feel that ultimately it helps to eliminate safety hazards and improve worker safety. The study findings suggest that improvements in safety performance across the construction industry may be due in part to increased use of BIM in the construction industry.

Annual health, safety and environmental performance report for 1992

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Orman, R.F.; Richards, S.

1993-12-01

This report summarizes the safety and environmental record of the operations of Atomic Energy of Canada Limited (AECL) during 1992. An introduction highlights the results and describes the facilities and organizational systems. Subsequent sections indicate the performance of the company with respect to personnel radiation exposures, occupational injuries, the handling of wastes and the release of materials into the environment. Programs in health, safety and environmental protection are presented, along with site remediation and emergency preparedness practices

Annual health, safety and environmental performance report for 1992

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Orman, R.F.; Richards, S.

1993-12-01

This report summarizes the safety and environmental record of the operations of Atomic Energy of Canada Limited (AECL) during 1992. an introduction highlights the results and describes the facilities and organizational systems. Subsequent sections indicate the performance of the company with respect to personnel radiation exposures, occupational injuries, the handling of wastes and the release of materials into the environment. Programs in health, safety and environmental protection are presented, along with site remediation and emergency preparedness practices

Regulatory activities in the area of fuel safety and performance

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Viktorov, A.; Couture, M.

2005-01-01

Generic Action Item 94G02 'Impact of Fuel Bundle Condition on Reactor Safety' in many ways determined the present priorities in regulatory activities related to fuel performance. As one of the closure criteria it required that all licensees establish 'an effective formal and systematic process for integrating fuel design, fuel and channel inspection, laboratory examination, research, operating limits and safety analysis'. To date, such a process has been, to a large extent, put in place by all licensees. To assure that such processes remain operational and effective after the GAI closure, CNSC required, through S-99, to report annually on fuel performance and major activities in the fuel safety area. The scope of reported information has been defined to allow CNSC staff evaluation of key events and trends in fuel performance. To compliment reporting by the industry, CNSC staff has conducted targeted inspections of fuel compliance programs at all sites. Combined together, these activities provide the regulator with the confidence that CANDU fuel is robust and operates with safety margins. The scrutiny, to which fuel performance has been subjected lately, has allowed identification of certain programmatic weaknesses and gaps in the knowledge concerning the fuel behaviour under various conditions. It has become apparent that top-level strategies for assessment of fuel performance may have been inadequate and far from systematic; fuel inspection practices and capabilities have varied significantly from site to site; certain issues were identified but remained unaddressed for significant time; priorities in experimental or design support activities were not assigned consistently. The presentation gives examples of areas where, in the opinion of the CNSC staff, further work is required to support fuel design and safety envelopes. The implementation of new CANFLEX fuel designs is currently being considered by the industry and CNSC staff has been engaged in the review

Life time estimation of SSCs for decommissioning safety of nuclear facilities

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Jeong, Kwan-Seong; Lee, Kune-Woo; Moon, Jei-Kwon; Jeong, Seong-Young; Lee, Jung-Jun; Kim, Geun-Ho; Choi, Byung-Seon

2012-01-01

Highlights: ► This paper suggests the expectation algorithm of SSCs life time for decommissioning safety of nuclear facilities. ► The life time of SSCs can be estimated by using fuzzy theory. ► The estimated results depend on the membership functions and performance characteristic functions. - Abstract: This paper suggests the estimation algorithm for life time of structure, system and components (SSCs) for decommissioning safety of nuclear facilities using the performance data of linguistic languages and fuzzy theory. The fuzzy estimation algorithm of life time can be easily applicable but the estimated results depend on the relevant membership functions and performance characteristic functions. This method will be expected to be very useful for maintenance and decommissioning of nuclear facilities’ SSCs as a safety assessment tool.

Quantitative assessment of safety barrier performance in the prevention of domino scenarios triggered by fire

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Landucci, Gabriele; Argenti, Francesca; Tugnoli, Alessandro; Cozzani, Valerio

2015-01-01

The evolution of domino scenarios triggered by fire critically depends on the presence and the performance of safety barriers that may have the potential to prevent escalation, delaying or avoiding the heat-up of secondary targets. The aim of the present study is the quantitative assessment of safety barrier performance in preventing the escalation of fired domino scenarios. A LOPA (layer of protection analysis) based methodology, aimed at the definition and quantification of safety barrier performance in the prevention of escalation was developed. Data on the more common types of safety barriers were obtained in order to characterize the effectiveness and probability of failure on demand of relevant safety barriers. The methodology was exemplified with a case study. The results obtained define a procedure for the estimation of safety barrier performance in the prevention of fire escalation in domino scenarios. - Highlights: • We developed a methodology for the quantitative assessment of safety barriers. • We focused on safety barriers aimed at preventing domino effect triggered by fire. • We obtained data on effectiveness and availability of the safety barriers. • The methodology was exemplified with a case study of industrial interest. • The results showed the role of safety barriers in preventing fired domino escalation

Characteristics of shift work and their impact on employee performance and wellbeing: A literature review.

Science.gov (United States)

Dall'Ora, Chiara; Ball, Jane; Recio-Saucedo, Alejandra; Griffiths, Peter

2016-05-01

To identify the characteristics of shift work that have an effect on employee's performance (including job performance, productivity, safety, quality of care delivered, errors, adverse events and client satisfaction) and wellbeing (including burnout, job satisfaction, absenteeism, intention to leave the job) in all sectors including healthcare. A scoping review of the literature was undertaken. We searched electronic databases (CINAHL, MEDLINE, PsychINFO, SCOPUS) to identify primary quantitative studies. The search was conducted between January and March 2015. Studies were drawn from all occupational sectors (i.e. health and non health), meeting the inclusion criteria: involved participants aged ≥18 who have been working shifts or serve as control group for others working shifts, exploring the association of characteristics of shift work with at least one of the selected outcomes. Reference lists from retrieved studies were checked to identify any further studies. 35 studies were included in the review; 25 studies were performed in the health sector. A variety of shift work characteristics are associated with compromised employee's performance and wellbeing. Findings from large multicentre studies highlight that shifts of 12h or longer are associated with jeopardised outcomes. Working more than 40h per week is associated with adverse events, while no conclusive evidence was found regarding working a 'Compressed Working Week'; working overtime was associated with decreased job performance. Working rotating shifts was associated with worse job performance outcomes, whilst fixed night shifts appeared to enable resynchronisation. However, job satisfaction of employees working fixed nights was reduced. Timely breaks had a positive impact on employee fatigue and alertness, whilst quick returns between shifts appeared to increase pathologic fatigue. The effect of shift work characteristics on outcomes in the studies reviewed is consistent across occupational sectors

Key Factors Affecting Construction Safety Performance in Developing Countries: Evidence from Cambodia

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Serdar Durdyev

2017-12-01

Full Text Available Although proper safety management in construction is of utmost importance; anecdotal evidence suggests that safety is not adequately considered in many developing countries. This paper considers the key variables affecting construction safety performance in Cambodia. Using an empirical questionnaire survey targeting local construction professionals, respondents were invited to rate the level of importance of 30 variables identified from the seminal literature. The data set was subjected to factor analysis. Correlations between the variables show that five key factors underlie the challenges facing the local industry; management and organisation, resources, site management, cosmetic and workforce. It is found that the forefront construction professionals (top management and government authorities should take more responsibilities for further improvements in safety performance on project sites. Findings and recommendations of this study may be useful to construction professional who are seeking ways to improve safety records in developing countries.

Safety climate in the federal fire management community: Influences of organizational, environmental, group, and individual characteristics (Abstract)

Science.gov (United States)

Brooke Baldauf McBride; Anne E. Black

2012-01-01

This study examined the effects of organizational, environmental, group and individual characteristics on five components of safety climate in the US federal fire management community (HRO Practices, Leadership, Group Culture, Learning Orientation and Mission Clarity). Multiple analyses of variance revealed that all types of characteristics had a significant effect on...

FMEA Performed on the SPINLINE3 Operational System Software as part of the TIHANGE 1 NIS Refurbishment Safety Case

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ristord, L.; Esmenjaud, C.

2002-01-01

This paper introduces the SPINLINE3 technology and TIHANGE 1 the NIS project. It then focuses on the specificity of FMEA performed on software. It points out the benefits of this analysis and also some of the limitations and possible developments. It also gives characteristics that, if present in the software, help the analysis and the defenses. It takes as an example the analysis performed on the Operational System Software of the Schneider Electric safety digital generic platform SPINLINE3. The New TIHANGE 1 Nuclear Instrumentation System successfully started operation on the beginning of Marsh 2001 after the plant outage, as planned at the beginning of the project. The choice of a software-based technology has raised the issue of the risk of CCF due to the same software being used in redundant independent units. Implementing functional diversity or equipment diversity has been considered but found either not practicable or of little value within this context. The safety characteristics of the SPINLINE3 solution and the stringent and proven safety software development process applied by the Nuclear department of the Schneider Electric company have made acceptable the principle of a design based on redundant identical processing units for this project. In addition, because of the possible consequences in case of the NIS not performing its protection function on demand, the licensing authority has required an FMEA oriented toward the SCCF risk as part of the safety case. This FMEA has been performed on : - the NIS architecture, - the SPINLINE3 Operational System Software, - the three Tihange 1 application software (i.e. source, intermediate and power range). The process used and the results have been elaborated by Schneider Electric and reviewed by the customer and the licensing authority all along the project development until final acceptance. Issues have been raised and answers and/or complementary analyses provided, some of them making direct references to the

TAPS safety evaluation criteria for reload fueling

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Mahendra Nath; Veeraraghavan, N.

1976-01-01

To improve operating performance of Tarapur reactors, several proposals are under consideration such as core expansion, change-over to an improved fuel design with lower heat rating, extension of fuel cycle lengths etc., which have a bearing on overall plant operating characteristics and reactor safety. For evaluating safety implications of the various proposals, it is necessary to formulate safety evaluation criteria for reload fuelling. Salient features of these criteria are discussed. (author)

A structural equation modelling approach examining the pathways between safety climate, behaviour performance and workplace slipping

Science.gov (United States)

Swedler, David I; Verma, Santosh K; Huang, Yueng-Hsiang; Lombardi, David A; Chang, Wen-Ruey; Brennan, Melayne; Courtney, Theodore K

2015-01-01

Objective Safety climate has previously been associated with increasing safe workplace behaviours and decreasing occupational injuries. This study seeks to understand the structural relationship between employees’ perceptions of safety climate, performing a safety behaviour (ie, wearing slip-resistant shoes) and risk of slipping in the setting of limited-service restaurants. Methods At baseline, we surveyed 349 employees at 30 restaurants for their perceptions of their safety training and management commitment to safety as well as demographic data. Safety performance was identified as wearing slip-resistant shoes, as measured by direct observation by the study team. We then prospectively collected participants’ hours worked and number of slips weekly for the next 12 weeks. Using a confirmatory factor analysis, we modelled safety climate as a higher order factor composed of previously identified training and management commitment factors. Results The 349 study participants experienced 1075 slips during the 12-week follow-up. Confirmatory factor analysis supported modelling safety climate as a higher order factor composed of safety training and management commitment. In a structural equation model, safety climate indirectly affected prospective risk of slipping through safety performance, but no direct relationship between safety climate and slips was evident. Conclusions Results suggest that safety climate can reduce workplace slips through performance of a safety behaviour as well as suggesting a potential causal mechanism through which safety climate can reduce workplace injuries. Safety climate can be modelled as a higher order factor composed of safety training and management commitment. PMID:25710968

Nonlinear Performance Characteristics of Flux-Switching PM Motors

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

E. Ilhan

2013-01-01

Full Text Available Nonlinear performance characteristics of 3-phase flux-switching permanent magnet motors (FSPM are overviewed. These machines show advantages of a robust rotor structure and a high energy density. Research on the FSPM is predominated by topics such as modeling and machine comparison, with little emphasis given on its performance and limits. Performance characteristics include phase flux linkage, phase torque, and phase inductance. In the paper, this analysis is done by a cross-correlation of rotor position and armature current. Due to the high amount of processed data, which cannot be handled analytically within an acceptable time period, a multistatic 2D finite element model (FEM is used. For generalization, the most commonly discussed FSPM topology, 12/10 FSPM, is chosen. Limitations on the motor performance due to the saturation are discussed on each characteristic. Additionally, a focused overview is given on energy conversion loops and dq-axes identification for the FSPM.

Performance Evaluation of SMART Passive Safety System for Small Break LOCA Using MARS Code

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Chun, Ji Han; Lee, Guy Hyung; Bae, Kyoo Hwan; Chung, Young Jong; Kim, Keung Koo

2013-01-01

SMART has significantly enhanced safety by reducing its core damage frequency to 1/10 that of a conventional nuclear power plant. KAERI is developing a passive safety injection system to replace the active safety injection pump in SMART. It consists of four trains, each of which includes gravity-driven core makeup tank (CMT) and safety injection tank (SIT). This system is required to meet the passive safety performance requirements, i.e., the capability to maintain a safe shutdown condition for a minimum of 72 hours without an AC power supply or operator action in the case of design basis accidents (DBAs). The CMT isolation valve is opened by the low pressurizer pressure signal, and the SIT isolation valve is opened at 2 MPa. Additionally, two stages of automatic depressurization systems are used for rapid depressurization. Preliminary safety analysis of SMART passive safety system in the event of a small-break loss-of-coolant accident (SBLOCA) was performed using MARS code. In this study, the safety analysis results of a guillotine break of safety injection line which was identified as the limiting SBLOCA in SMART are given. The preliminary safety analysis of a SBLOCA for the SMART passive safety system was performed using the MARS code. The analysis results of the most limiting SI line guillotine break showed that the collapsed liquid level inside the core support barrel was maintained sufficiently high above the top of core throughout the transient. This means that the passive safety injection flow from the CMT and SIT causes no core uncovery during the 72 hours following the break with no AC power supply or operator action, which in turn results in a consistent decrease in the fuel cladding temperature. Therefore, the SMART passive safety system can meet the passive safety performance requirement of maintaining the plant at a safe shutdown condition for a minimum of 72 hours without AC power or operator action for a representing accident of SBLOCA

Performance and safety analysis of WP-cave concept

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Skagius, K.; Svemar, C.

1989-08-01

The report presents a performance safety, and cost analysis of the WP-cave, WPC, concept. In the performance analysis, questions specific to the WPC have been addressed which have been identified to require more detailed studies. Based on the outcome of this analysis, a safety analysis has been made which comprises of the modeling and calculation of radionuclide transport from the repository to the biosphere and the resulting dose exposure to man. The result of the safety analysis indicates that the present design of a WPC repository may give unacceptably high doses. By improving the properties of the bentonite/sand barrier such that the hydraulic conductivity is reduced, or by changing the short-lived steel canisters to more long-lived canisters, e.g. copper canisters, it is judged possible to achieve a sufficiently low level of dose exposure rates to man. The cost for a WPC repository of the studied design is significantly higher than for a KBS-3 repository considering the Swedish conditions and the Swedish amount of spent fuel. The major costs are connected to the excavation and backfilling of the bentonite/sand barrier. The potential for cost savings is high but it is not judged possible to account for savings in such a way that the WPC concept shows lower cost than the KBS-3 concept. (34 figs., 33 tabs., 29 refs.)

Annual health, safety and environmental performance report for 1993

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Gallapher, J D; Wright, M G

1994-05-01

This report summarizes the occupational health and safety and the environmental protection record of the operations of Atomic Energy of Canada Limited (AECL) during 1993. An introduction highlights the results and describes the facilities and organizational systems. Subsequent sections indicate the performance of the company with respect to personnel radiation exposures, occupational injuries, the handling of wastes, and the release of materials into the environment. Programs in health, safety and environmental protection are presented, along with site remediation and emergency preparedness practices. (author). 14 figs.

Annual health, safety and environmental performance report for 1993

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Gallapher, J.D.; Wright, M.G.

1994-05-01

This report summarizes the occupational health and safety and the environmental protection record of the operations of Atomic Energy of Canada Limited (AECL) during 1993. An introduction highlights the results and describes the facilities and organizational systems. Subsequent sections indicate the performance of the company with respect to personnel radiation exposures, occupational injuries, the handling of wastes, and the release of materials into the environment. Programs in health, safety and environmental protection are presented, along with site remediation and emergency preparedness practices. (author). 14 figs

CONSUMER PREFERENCES FOR FOOD SAFETY ATTRIBUTES IN FRESH APPLES: MARKET SEGMENTS, CONSUMER CHARACTERISTICS, AND MARKETING OPPORTUNITIES

OpenAIRE

Baker, Gregory A.

1999-01-01

Past research has yielded conflicting results on consumer valuation of food safety characteristics. In this study, conjoint analysis is used to evaluate consumer responses to hypothetical apple products in a nationwide survey. Product characteristics include price, quality, pesticide use levels and the corresponding cancer risk, and type of government inspection. Consumers expressed a broad preference for reduced pesticide usage. Four market segments were identified corresponding to consumers...

A performance improvement plan to increase nurse adherence to use of medication safety software.

Science.gov (United States)

Gavriloff, Carrie

2012-08-01

Nurses can protect patients receiving intravenous (IV) medication by using medication safety software to program "smart" pumps to administer IV medications. After a patient safety event identified inconsistent use of medication safety software by nurses, a performance improvement team implemented the Deming Cycle performance improvement methodology. The combined use of improved direct care nurse communication, programming strategies, staff education, medication safety champions, adherence monitoring, and technology acquisition resulted in a statistically significant (p < .001) increase in nurse adherence to using medication safety software from 28% to above 85%, exceeding national benchmark adherence rates (Cohen, Cooke, Husch & Woodley, 2007; Carefusion, 2011). Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Special characteristics of the safety analysis of BWRs

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Mattern, J.

1980-01-01

The boiling water reactor uses the direct cycle. The live steam with 70 bar saturated pressure is given directly to the turbine. The reactor coolant recirculation is performed by means of internal pumps which are directly attached to the vessel bottom. This general arrangement offers some advantages concerning safety analysis. For example, in the case of a loss of coolant accident, the reactor pressure vessel itself forms a refloodable tank, which results, by proper design of the emergency cooling systems, in only a small increase of fuel temperature. (orig./RW)

Growth performance, carcass and hematological characteristics of ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Growth performance, carcass and hematological characteristics of rabbits fed graded levels of tiger nuts ( Cyperus esculentus ) ... (p>0.05) difference between treatments. Results demonstrated that (Cyperus esculentus) could be used up to 5% in rabbit's diets without adverse effect on the animals' performance and health.

Fire-safety engineering and performance-based codes

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Sørensen, Lars Schiøtt

project administrators, etc. The book deals with the following topics: • Historical presentation on the subject of fire • Legislation and building project administration • European fire standardization • Passive and active fire protection • Performance-based Codes • Fire-safety Engineering • Fundamental......Fire-safety Engineering is written as a textbook for Engineering students at universities and other institutions of higher education that teach in the area of fire. The book can also be used as a work of reference for consulting engineers, Building product manufacturers, contractors, building...... thermodynamics • Heat exchange during the fire process • Skin burns • Burning rate, energy release rate and design fires • Proposal to Risk-based design fires • Proposal to a Fire scale • Material ignition and flame spread • Fire dynamics in buildings • Combustion products and toxic gases • Smoke inhalation...

Performance characteristics of the Mayo/IBM PACS

Science.gov (United States)

Persons, Kenneth R.; Gehring, Dale G.; Pavicic, Mark J.; Ding, Yingjai

1991-07-01

The Mayo Clinic and IBM (at Rochester, Minnesota) have jointly developed a picture archiving system for use with Mayo's MRI and Neuro CT imaging modalities. The communications backbone of the PACS is a portion of the Mayo institutional network: a series of 4-Mbps token rings interconnected by bridges and fiber optic extensions. The performance characteristics of this system are important to understand because they affect the response time a PACS user can expect, and the response time for non-PACS users competing for resources on the institutional network. The performance characteristics of each component and the average load levels of the network were measured for various load distributions. These data were used to quantify the response characteristics of the existing system and to tune a model developed by North Dakota State University Department of Computer Science for predicting response times of more complex topologies.

Characteristic test of initial HTTR core

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Nojiri, Naoki; Shimakawa, Satoshi; Fujimoto, Nozomu; Goto, Minoru

2004-01-01

This paper describes the results of core physics test in start-up and power-up of the HTTR. The tests were conducted in order to ensure performance and safety of the high temperature gas cooled reactor, and was carried out to measure the critical approach, the excess reactivity, the shutdown margin, the control rod worth, the reactivity coefficient, the neutron flux distribution and the power distribution. The expected core performance and the required reactor safety characteristics were verified from the results of measurements and calculations

Toward an understanding of the impact of production pressure on safety performance in construction operations.

Science.gov (United States)

Han, Sanguk; Saba, Farzaneh; Lee, Sanghyun; Mohamed, Yasser; Peña-Mora, Feniosky

2014-07-01

It is not unusual to observe that actual schedule and quality performances are different from planned performances (e.g., schedule delay and rework) during a construction project. Such differences often result in production pressure (e.g., being pressed to work faster). Previous studies demonstrated that such production pressure negatively affects safety performance. However, the process by which production pressure influences safety performance, and to what extent, has not been fully investigated. As a result, the impact of production pressure has not been incorporated much into safety management in practice. In an effort to address this issue, this paper examines how production pressure relates to safety performance over time by identifying their feedback processes. A conceptual causal loop diagram is created to identify the relationship between schedule and quality performances (e.g., schedule delays and rework) and the components related to a safety program (e.g., workers' perceptions of safety, safety training, safety supervision, and crew size). A case study is then experimentally undertaken to investigate this relationship with accident occurrence with the use of data collected from a construction site; the case study is used to build a System Dynamics (SD) model. The SD model, then, is validated through inequality statistics analysis. Sensitivity analysis and statistical screening techniques further permit an evaluation of the impact of the managerial components on accident occurrence. The results of the case study indicate that schedule delays and rework are the critical factors affecting accident occurrence for the monitored project. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Thermal-hydraulic transient characteristics of ship-propulsion reactor investigated through safety analysis

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Fujiki, Kazuo; Asaka, Hideaki; Ishida, Toshihisa

1986-01-01

Thermal-hydraulic behaviors in the reactor of Nuclear Ship ''Mutsu'' were investigated through safety evaluation of operational transients by using RETRAN and COBRA-IV codes. The results were compared to the transient behaviors of typical commercial PWR and the characteristics of transient thermal-hydraulic behaviors in ship-loaded reactor were figured out. ''Mutsu'' reactor has larger thermal margin than commercial PWR because it is designed to be used as ship-propulsion power source in the load-following operation mode. This margin makes transient behavior in general milder than in commercial PWR but high opening pressure set point of main-steam safety valves leads poor heat-sink condition after reactor trip. The effects of other small-sized components are also investigated. The findings in the paper will be helpful in the design of future advanced reactor for nuclear ship. (author)

Modern diaper performance: construction, materials, and safety review.

Science.gov (United States)

Dey, Swatee; Kenneally, Dianna; Odio, Mauricio; Hatzopoulos, Ioannis

2016-07-01

A review of the literature on diapers and diaper rash reveals that many clinicians are unfamiliar with modern diaper construction and materials as well as diaper safety testing methods. Typical modern diapers do not contain ingredients of concern such as latex and disperse dyes, but use ingredients such as spandex and pigments with a favorable safety profile. Today's disposable diaper is a high performance product whose carefully designed layers and liners provide optimal urine and feces absorption and an ever more clothing-like and comfortable fit. This is possible due to a variety of specialized polymer materials that provide optimal absorption of urine and feces, thereby minimizing skin exposure. © 2016 The International Society of Dermatology.

A structural equation modelling approach examining the pathways between safety climate, behaviour performance and workplace slipping.

Science.gov (United States)

Swedler, David I; Verma, Santosh K; Huang, Yueng-Hsiang; Lombardi, David A; Chang, Wen-Ruey; Brennan, Melayne; Courtney, Theodore K

2015-07-01

Safety climate has previously been associated with increasing safe workplace behaviours and decreasing occupational injuries. This study seeks to understand the structural relationship between employees' perceptions of safety climate, performing a safety behaviour (ie, wearing slip-resistant shoes) and risk of slipping in the setting of limited-service restaurants. At baseline, we surveyed 349 employees at 30 restaurants for their perceptions of their safety training and management commitment to safety as well as demographic data. Safety performance was identified as wearing slip-resistant shoes, as measured by direct observation by the study team. We then prospectively collected participants' hours worked and number of slips weekly for the next 12 weeks. Using a confirmatory factor analysis, we modelled safety climate as a higher order factor composed of previously identified training and management commitment factors. The 349 study participants experienced 1075 slips during the 12-week follow-up. Confirmatory factor analysis supported modelling safety climate as a higher order factor composed of safety training and management commitment. In a structural equation model, safety climate indirectly affected prospective risk of slipping through safety performance, but no direct relationship between safety climate and slips was evident. Results suggest that safety climate can reduce workplace slips through performance of a safety behaviour as well as suggesting a potential causal mechanism through which safety climate can reduce workplace injuries. Safety climate can be modelled as a higher order factor composed of safety training and management commitment. Published by the BMJ Publishing Group Limited. For permission to use (where not already granted under a licence) please go to http://group.bmj.com/group/rights-licensing/permissions.

The characteristics of patient safety culture in Japan, Taiwan and the United States.

Science.gov (United States)

Fujita, Shigeru; Seto, Kanako; Ito, Shinya; Wu, Yinghui; Huang, Chiu-Chin; Hasegawa, Tomonori

2013-01-14

Quality and safety issues are receiving growing attention. Patient safety culture (PSC) plays an important role in patient safety. The characteristics of PSC in various countries, each with a different set of values, have not been determined sufficiently. The aim of this study is to investigate the characteristics of PSC in Japan, Taiwan and the U.S. A cross-sectional survey was conducted in Japan and Taiwan using the Hospital Survey on PSC (HSOPS) questionnaire developed by the U.S. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ). Data from Japan and Taiwan were also compared with the U.S. "2010 HSOPS Comparative Database" provided by AHRQ. Valid response rates in Japan, Taiwan and the U.S. were 66.5% (6,963/10,466), 85.7% (10,019/11,692) and 35.2% (291,341/827,424), respectively. The proportion of respondents with some experience of event reporting during the past 12 months was highest in Japan. In general, U.S. healthcare workers were likely to evaluate their PSC higher than that in Japan or Taiwan. The attitude of continuous improvement in Japan and event reporting of near misses in Taiwan were rated as low. In the U.S., staffing was rated as high. The results suggest that PSC varies among different countries, and the cultural setting of each country should be given special consideration in the development of effective intervention plans to improve PSC. Additional investigations with improved methodology and a common protocol are required to accurately compare PSCs among countries.

Safety climate and self-reported injury: assessing the mediating role of employee safety control.

Science.gov (United States)

Huang, Yueng-Hsiang; Ho, Michael; Smith, Gordon S; Chen, Peter Y

2006-05-01

To further reduce injuries in the workplace, companies have begun focusing on organizational factors which may contribute to workplace safety. Safety climate is an organizational factor commonly cited as a predictor of injury occurrence. Characterized by the shared perceptions of employees, safety climate can be viewed as a snapshot of the prevailing state of safety in the organization at a discrete point in time. However, few studies have elaborated plausible mechanisms through which safety climate likely influences injury occurrence. A mediating model is proposed to link safety climate (i.e., management commitment to safety, return-to-work policies, post-injury administration, and safety training) with self-reported injury through employees' perceived control on safety. Factorial evidence substantiated that management commitment to safety, return-to-work policies, post-injury administration, and safety training are important dimensions of safety climate. In addition, the data support that safety climate is a critical factor predicting the history of a self-reported occupational injury, and that employee safety control mediates the relationship between safety climate and occupational injury. These findings highlight the importance of incorporating organizational factors and workers' characteristics in efforts to improve organizational safety performance.

Shutdown Safety in NEK

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Gluhak, Mario; Senegovic, Marko

2014-01-01

Industry performance analysis since 2004 has revealed that 23% of the events reported to WANO occurred during outage periods. Given the fact that a plant is in the outage only 5 percent of the time, this emphasizes the importance of shutdown safety and measures station staffs undertake to maintain effective barriers to safety margins during the outage. Back in 1990s, the industry adopted guidance to meet safety requirements by focusing on safety functions. Both WANO and INPO released various documents, reports and guidelines to help accomplish those requirements. However, in the last decade inadequate 'defence in depth' has led to several events affecting shutdown safety and challenging one of the most important nuclear safety principles: 'The special characteristics of nuclear technology are taken into account in all decisions and actions. Reactivity control, continuity of core cooling, and integrity of fission product barriers are valued as essential, distinguishing attributes of nuclear station work environment'. NEK has recognized the importance of 'defence in depth'Industry performance analysis since 2004 has revealed that 23% of the events reported to WANO occurred during outage periods. Given the fact that a plant is in the outage only 5 percent of the time, this emphasizes the importance of shutdown safety and measures station staffs undertake to maintain effective barriers to safety margins during the outage. Back in 1990s, the industry adopted guidance to meet safety requirements by focusing on safety functions. Both WANO and INPO released various documents, reports and guidelines to help accomplish those requirements. However, in the last decade inadequate 'defence in depth' has led to several events affecting shutdown safety and challenging one of the most important nuclear safety principles: 'The special characteristics of nuclear technology are taken into account in all decisions and actions. Reactivity

Characteristics of the safety climate in teams with world-class safety ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

interact to deliver a project successfully in terms of cost .... small-scale accidents occurring at high frequency and from diverse ... the team dynamics of role players in a construction project and .... modified safety pyramid to measure the impact of the safety climate ...... Methodological Centre for Vocational Education and.

Health and safety plan for operations performed for the Environmental Restoration Program

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Trippet, W.A. II (IT Corp., (United States)); Reneau, M.; Morton, S.L. (EG and G Idaho, Inc., Idaho Falls, ID (United States))

1992-04-01

This document constitutes the generic health and safety plan for the Environmental Restoration Program (ERP). It addresses the health and safety requirements of the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA); Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) 29 CFR 1910.120 standard; and EG G Idaho, Inc. This plan is a guide to individuals who must complete a health and safety plan for a task performed for the EPR. It contains a task specific addendum that, when completed, specifically addresses task specific health and safety issues. This health and safety plan reduces the time it takes to write a task specific health and safety plan by providing discussions of requirements, guidance on where specific information is located, and specific topics in the Addendum that must be discussed at a task level. This format encourages a complete task specific health and safety plan and a standard for all health and safety plans written for ERP.

Health and safety plan for operations performed for the Environmental Restoration Program

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Trippet, W.A. II; Reneau, M.; Morton, S.L.

1992-04-01

This document constitutes the generic health and safety plan for the Environmental Restoration Program (ERP). It addresses the health and safety requirements of the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA); Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) 29 CFR 1910.120 standard; and EG ampersand G Idaho, Inc. This plan is a guide to individuals who must complete a health and safety plan for a task performed for the EPR. It contains a task specific addendum that, when completed, specifically addresses task specific health and safety issues. This health and safety plan reduces the time it takes to write a task specific health and safety plan by providing discussions of requirements, guidance on where specific information is located, and specific topics in the Addendum that must be discussed at a task level. This format encourages a complete task specific health and safety plan and a standard for all health and safety plans written for ERP

Key Factors Affecting Construction Safety Performance in Developing Countries: Evidence from Cambodia

OpenAIRE

Durdyev, Serdar; Mohamed, Sherif; Lay, Meng Leang; Ismail, Syuhaida

2017-01-01

Although proper safety management in construction is of utmost importance; anecdotal evidence suggests that safety is not adequately considered in many developing countries. This paper considers the key variables affecting construction safety performance in Cambodia. Using an empirical questionnaire survey targeting local construction professionals, respondents were invited to rate the level of importance of 30 variables identified from the seminal literature. The data set was subjected to f...

International conference on the operational safety performance in nuclear installations. Contributed papers

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

2005-01-01

In 2001, the IAEA organized an 'International Conference on Topical Issues in Nuclear Safety'. The issues discussed during the conference were: (1) risk- informed decision-making; (2) influence of external factors on safety; (3) safety of fuel cycle facilities; (4) safety of research reactors; and (5) safety performance indicators. Senior nuclear safety decision makers reviewed the issues and formulated recommendations for future actions by national and international organizations. In 2004, the IAEA organized an 'International Conference on Topical Issues in Nuclear Safety' in Beijing China. The issues discussed during the conference were: (1) changing environment - coping with diversity and globalization; (2) operating experience - managing changes effectively; (3) regulatory management systems - adapting to changes in the environment; and (4) long term operations - maintaining safety margins while extending plant lifetimes. The results of this conference confirmed the importance of operators and regulators of nuclear facilities meeting periodically to share experience and opinion on emerging issues and future challenges of the nuclear industry. Substantial progress has been made, and continues to be made by Member States in enhancing the safety of nuclear installations worldwide. At the same time, more attention is being given to other areas of nuclear safety. The safety standards for research reactors are being updated and new standards are planned on the safety of other facilities in the nuclear fuel cycle. The Agency has taken a lead role in this effort and is receiving much support from its Member States to gain international consensus in these areas. The objective of the conference is to foster the exchange of information on operational safety performance and operating experience in nuclear installations, with the aim of consolidating an international consensus on: - the present status of these issues; - emerging issues with international implications

The Role of Leadership in Safety Performance and Results

Science.gov (United States)

Caravello, Halina E.

Employee injury rates in U.S. land-based operations in the energy industry are 2 to 3 times higher relative to other regions in the world. Although a rich literature exists on drivers of safety performance, no previous studies investigated factors influencing this elevated rate. Leadership has been identified as a key contributor to safety outcomes and this grounded theory study drew upon the full range leadership model, situational leadership, and leader-member exchange theories for the conceptual framework. Leadership aspects influencing safety performance were investigated through guided interviews of 27 study participants; data analyses included open and axial coding, and constant comparisons identified higher-level categories. Selective coding integrated categories into the theoretical framework that developed the idealized, transformational leader traits motivating safe behaviors of leading by example, expressing care and concern for employees' well-being, celebrating successes, and communicating the importance of safety (other elements included visibility and commitment). Employee and supervisor participants reported similar views on the idealized leader traits, but low levels of these qualities may be driving elevated injury rates. Identifying these key elements provides the foundation to creating strategies and action plans enabling energy sector companies to prevent employee injuries and fatalities in an industry where tens of thousands of employees are subjected to significant hazards and elevated risks. Creating safer workplaces for U.S. employees by enhancing leaders' skills, building knowledge, and improving behaviors will improve the employees' and their families' lives by reducing the pain and suffering resulting from injuries and fatalities.

Organizational Culture and Safety Performance in the Manufacturing Companies in Malaysia: A Conceptual Analysis

OpenAIRE

Ong Choon Hee; Lim Lee Ping

2014-01-01

The purpose of this paper is to provide a conceptual analysis of organizational culture and safety performance in the manufacturing companies in Malaysia. Our conceptual analysis suggests that manufacturing companies that adopt group culture or hierarchical culture are more likely to demonstrate safety compliance and safety participation. Manufacturing companies that adopt rational culture or developmental culture are less likely to demonstrate safety compliance and safety participation. Give...

Special characteristics of the safety analysis of HWRs

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kugler, G.

1980-01-01

Two lectures are presented in this report. The CANDU-PHW reactor is used as a model for discussion. The first lecture describes the distinctive features of the CANDU reactor, and how they impact on reactor safety. In the second lecture the Canadian safety philosophy, the safety design objective, and other selected topics on reactor safety analysis are discussed. The material in this report was selected with a view to assisting those not familiar with the CANDU heavy water reactor design in evaluating the distinctive safety aspects of these reactors. (orig./RW)

Poor physician performance in the Netherlands: characteristics, causes, and prevalence.

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Goor, M.M.P.G. van den; Wagner, C.; Lombarts, K.M.J.M.H.

2015-01-01

Introduction: Poor physician performance has a profound impact on patient safety and society's trust in the health care system. The attention that this topic has received in the media suggests that it is a large-scale issue. However, research about physician performance is still scant; there is

Artificial neural network model for prediction of safety performance indicators goals in nuclear plants

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Souto, Kelling C.; Nunes, Wallace W. [Instituto Federal de Educacao, Ciencia e Tecnologia do Rio de Janeiro, Nilopolis, RJ (Brazil). Lab. de Aplicacoes Computacionais; Machado, Marcelo D., E-mail: dornemd@eletronuclear.gov.b [ELETROBRAS Termonuclear S.A. (ELETRONUCLEAR), Rio de Janeiro, RJ (Brazil). Gerencia de Combustivel Nuclear - GCN.T

2011-07-01

Safety performance indicators have been developed to provide a quantitative indication of the performance and safety in various industry sectors. These indexes can provide assess to aspects ranging from production, design, and human performance up to management issues in accordance with policy, objectives and goals of the company. The use of safety performance indicators in nuclear power plants around the world is a reality. However, it is necessary to periodically set goal values. Such goals are targets relating to each of the indicators to be achieved by the plant over a predetermined period of operation. The current process of defining these goals is carried out by experts in a subjective way, based on actual data from the plant, and comparison with global indices. Artificial neural networks are computational techniques that present a mathematical model inspired by the neural structure of intelligent organisms that acquire knowledge through experience. This paper proposes an artificial neural network model aimed at predicting values of goals to be used in the evaluation of safety performance indicators for nuclear power plants. (author)

Artificial neural network model for prediction of safety performance indicators goals in nuclear plants

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Souto, Kelling C.; Nunes, Wallace W.; Machado, Marcelo D.

2011-01-01

Safety performance indicators have been developed to provide a quantitative indication of the performance and safety in various industry sectors. These indexes can provide assess to aspects ranging from production, design, and human performance up to management issues in accordance with policy, objectives and goals of the company. The use of safety performance indicators in nuclear power plants around the world is a reality. However, it is necessary to periodically set goal values. Such goals are targets relating to each of the indicators to be achieved by the plant over a predetermined period of operation. The current process of defining these goals is carried out by experts in a subjective way, based on actual data from the plant, and comparison with global indices. Artificial neural networks are computational techniques that present a mathematical model inspired by the neural structure of intelligent organisms that acquire knowledge through experience. This paper proposes an artificial neural network model aimed at predicting values of goals to be used in the evaluation of safety performance indicators for nuclear power plants. (author)

Human factors in safety assessment. Safety culture assessment

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Zhang Li; Deng Zhiliang; Wang Yiqun; Huang Weigang

1996-01-01

This paper analyses the present conditions and problems in enterprises safety assessment, and introduces the characteristics and effects of safety culture. The authors think that safety culture must be used as a 'soul' to form the pattern of modern safety management. Furthermore, they propose that the human safety and synthetic safety management assessment in a system should be changed into safety culture assessment. Finally, the assessment indicators are discussed

Considerations on nuclear reactor passive safety systems

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

2016-01-01

After having indicated some passive safety systems present in electronuclear reactors (control bars, safety injection system accumulators, reactor cooling after stoppage, hydrogen recombination systems), this report recalls the main characteristics of passive safety systems, and discusses the main issues associated with the assessment of new passive systems (notably to face a sustained loss of electric supply systems or of cold water source) and research axis to be developed in this respect. More precisely, the report comments the classification of safety passive systems as it is proposed by the IAEA, outlines and comments specific aspects of these systems regarding their operation and performance. The next part discusses the safety approach, the control of performance of safety passive systems, issues related to their reliability, and the expected contribution of R and D (for example: understanding of physical phenomena which have an influence of these systems, capacities of simulation of these phenomena, needs of experimentations to validate simulation codes)

Electrochemical performance and safety features of high-safety lithium ion battery using novel branched additive for internal short protection

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Li Yuhan; Lee, Meng-Lun; Wang Fuming; Yang, Chang-Rung; Chu, Peter P.J.; Yau, Shueh-Lin; Pan, Jing-Pin

2012-01-01

Highlights: ► N-phenylmaleimide-containing branched oligomer has been employed as an additive in lithium cells. ► The branched oligomer additive enhances safety and cycling performance of Li ion battery. ► The highest temperature of branched oligomer-containing battery was only 85 °C in the nail penetration test. - Abstract: In this study, we have investigated N-phenylmaleimide/bismaleimide-containing branched oligomer (BO1) as additive in Li-ion batteries to increase the safety performance by reducing the probability of batteries suffering an internal short circuit. In the nail penetration test, a LiCoO 2 /MCMB full battery with N-phenylmaleimide/bismaleimide-containing branched oligomer (BO1) showed a significant improvement in thermal stability and was able to restrain the temperature of the battery at about 85 °C. Furthermore, we found that N-phenylmaleimide/bismaleimide-containing branched oligomer (BO1) contained battery revealed better cycling and electrochemical performance, compared with the battery with bismaleimide-containing branched oligomer (BO3) in the electrolyte. The improvement might result from the favorable ionic conductivity, Li ion mobility and lower resistance in the battery. This additive can meet the cycling performance and safety requirements for Li-ion batteries.

Evaluating Models of Human Performance: Safety-Critical Systems Applications

Science.gov (United States)

Feary, Michael S.

2012-01-01

This presentation is part of panel discussion on Evaluating Models of Human Performance. The purpose of this panel is to discuss the increasing use of models in the world today and specifically focus on how to describe and evaluate models of human performance. My presentation will focus on discussions of generating distributions of performance, and the evaluation of different strategies for humans performing tasks with mixed initiative (Human-Automation) systems. I will also discuss issues with how to provide Human Performance modeling data to support decisions on acceptability and tradeoffs in the design of safety critical systems. I will conclude with challenges for the future.

Key Element Performance In Occupational Safety And Health Management System In Organization (A Literature

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Agus Salim Nuzaihan Aras

2016-01-01

Full Text Available Setting an effective safety and health management system is crucial in order to reduce problem relating to accident and ill in management organizational. It is involve with multiple level of management and stakeholders who empower the organization to the management in handling the safety and health cases and issues in organizational. It is necessary to prepare a well knowledge about safety and health management systems and preparing the framework for setting a certain scale in measuring its performance in this area. The successful or failure of management does showing the capability of the organization in delivering the responsible to management levels [1]. The problem in safe work issues and practices cause by the management commitment and involvement that create improper safety program and procedures, and this crisis keep continuing till present [2]. This paper describes about key element of safety and health management system and measuring the performance in order to get an effective management system in organization that describes the process in achieving effectiveness in management. The literature review will be conducted through the data collection from research findings and defined the strong character of key element in which focusing on measuring performance. A guide on key element performance in occupational safety and health management system is specifically drawn to prepare for a future research.

Understanding the relationship between safety culture dimensions and safety performance of construction projects through partial least square method

Science.gov (United States)

Latief, Yusuf; Machfudiyanto, Rossy A.; Arifuddin, Rosmariani; Yogiswara, Yoko

2017-03-01

Based on the data, 32% of accidental cases in Indonesia occurs on constructional sectors. It is supported by the data from Public Work and Housing Department that 27.43% of the implementation level of Safety Management System policy at construction companies in Indonesia remains unsafe categories. Moreover, there are dimensions of occupational safety culture formed including leadership, behavior, strategy, policy, process, people, safety cost, value and contract system. The aim of this study is to determine the model of an effective safety culture and know the relationship between dimensions in construction industry. The method used in this research was questionnaire survey which was distributed to the sample of construction companies either in a national private one in Indonesia. The result of this research is supposed to be able to illustrate the development of the relationship among occupational safety culture dimensions which have influences to the performances of constructional companies in Indonesia.

Seismic performance assessment of base-isolated safety-related nuclear structures

Science.gov (United States)

Huang, Y.-N.; Whittaker, A.S.; Luco, N.

2010-01-01

Seismic or base isolation is a proven technology for reducing the effects of earthquake shaking on buildings, bridges and infrastructure. The benefit of base isolation has been presented in terms of reduced accelerations and drifts on superstructure components but never quantified in terms of either a percentage reduction in seismic loss (or percentage increase in safety) or the probability of an unacceptable performance. Herein, we quantify the benefits of base isolation in terms of increased safety (or smaller loss) by comparing the safety of a sample conventional and base-isolated nuclear power plant (NPP) located in the Eastern U.S. Scenario- and time-based assessments are performed using a new methodology. Three base isolation systems are considered, namely, (1) Friction Pendulum??? bearings, (2) lead-rubber bearings and (3) low-damping rubber bearings together with linear viscous dampers. Unacceptable performance is defined by the failure of key secondary systems because these systems represent much of the investment in a new build power plant and ensure the safe operation of the plant. For the scenario-based assessments, the probability of unacceptable performance is computed for an earthquake with a magnitude of 5.3 at a distance 7.5 km from the plant. For the time-based assessments, the annual frequency of unacceptable performance is computed considering all potential earthquakes that may occur. For both assessments, the implementation of base isolation reduces the probability of unacceptable performance by approximately four orders of magnitude for the same NPP superstructure and secondary systems. The increase in NPP construction cost associated with the installation of seismic isolators can be offset by substantially reducing the required seismic strength of secondary components and systems and potentially eliminating the need to seismically qualify many secondary components and systems. ?? 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Covariance of engineering management characteristics with engineering employee performance

Science.gov (United States)

Hesketh, Andrew Arthur

1998-12-01

As business in the 1990's grapples with the impact of continuous improvement and quality to meet market demands, there is an increased need to improve the leadership capabilities of our managers. Engineers have indicated desire for certain managerial characteristics in their leadership but there have been no studies completed that approached the problem of determining what managerial characteristics were best at improving employee performance. This study addressed the idea of identifying certain managerial characteristics that enhance employee performance. In the early 1990's, McDonnell Douglas Aerospace in St. Louis used a forced distribution system and allocated 35% of its employees into a "exceeds expectations" category and 60% into a "meets expectations" category. A twenty-question 5 point Likert scale survey on managerial capabilities was administered to a sample engineering population that also obtained their "expectations" category. A single factor ANOVA on the survey results determined a statistical difference between the "exceeds" and "meets" employees with four of the managerial capability questions. The "exceeds expectations" employee indicated that supervision did a better job of supporting subordinate development, clearly communicating performance expectations, and providing timely performance feedback when compared to the "meets expectations" employee. The "meets expectations" employee felt that their opinions, when different from their supervisor's, were more often ignored when compared to the "exceeds expectations" employee. These four questions relate to two specific managerial characteristics, "gaining (informal) authority and support" or "control" characteristic and "providing assistance and guidance" or "command" characteristic, that can be emphasized in managerial training programs.

Measuring safety culture in Dutch primary care: psychometric characteristics of the SCOPE-PC questionnaire.

Science.gov (United States)

Verbakel, Natasha J; Zwart, Dorien L M; Langelaan, Maaike; Verheij, Theo J M; Wagner, Cordula

2013-09-17

Patient safety has been a priority in primary healthcare in the last years. The prevailing culture is seen as an important condition for patient safety in practice and several tools to measure patient safety culture have therefore been developed. Although Dutch primary care consists of different professions, such as general practice, dental care, dietetics, physiotherapy and midwifery, a safety culture questionnaire was only available for general practices. The purpose of this study was to modify and validate this existing questionnaire to a generic questionnaire for all professions in Dutch primary care. A validated Dutch questionnaire for general practices was modified to make it usable for all Dutch primary care professions. Subsequently, this questionnaire was administered to a random sample of 2400 practices from eleven primary care professions. The instrument's factor structure, reliability and validity were examined using confirmatory and explorative factor analyses. 921 questionnaires were returned. Of these, 615 were eligible for factor analysis. The resulting SCOPE-PC questionnaire consisted of seven dimensions: 'open communication and learning from errors', 'handover and teamwork', 'adequate procedures and working conditions', 'patient safety management', 'support and fellowship', 'intention to report events' and 'organisational learning' with a total of 41 items. All dimensions had good reliability with Cronbach's alphas ranging from 0.70-0.90, and the questionnaire had a good construct validity. The SCOPE-PC questionnaire has sound psychometric characteristics for use by the different professions in Dutch primary care to gain insight in their safety culture.

Criticality safety research on nuclear fuel cycle facility

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Miyoshi, Yoshinori [Japan Atomic Energy Research Inst., Tokai, Ibaraki (Japan). Tokai Research Establishment

2004-07-01

This paper present d s current status and future program of the criticality safety research on nuclear fuel cycle made by Japan Atomic Energy Research Institute. Experimental research on solution fuel treated in reprocessing plant has been performed using two critical facilities, STACY and TRACY. Fundamental data of static and transient characteristics are accumulated for validation of criticality safety codes. Subcritical measurements are also made for developing a monitoring system for criticality safety. Criticality safety codes system for solution and power system, and evaluation method related to burnup credit are developed. (author)

Driver characteristics associated with child safety seat usage in Malaysia: a cross-sectional study.

Science.gov (United States)

Kulanthayan, S; Razak, Ahmad; Schenk, Ellen

2010-03-01

The rapidly motorizing environment in Malaysia has made child occupant safety a current public health concern. The usage of child safety seats (CSS) is a widely regarded intervention to enhance child occupant safety, yet no study has been conducted on CSS in Malaysia. This study aims to determine the CSS usage rates in Malaysia and to assess driver characteristics that are associated with CSS usage. Nine variables - urban versus rural study location, age, gender, marital status, educational status, monthly family income, number of children present in the vehicle, distance traveled to the study location, and attitude - were examined through a cross-sectional study of interviewing drivers of 230 vehicles transporting at least one child safety in Malaysia. The results indicate that interventional efforts should focus on educational programs geared toward drivers that are less educated or extended family members who inconsistently transport young children. Furthermore, any educational efforts could be strongly enhanced by legislation mandating the use of CSS. Every effort should be made to thoroughly assess the effectiveness of any educational or legislative activities that are implemented. Copyright 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Occupational driver safety: conceptualising a leadership-based intervention to improve safe driving performance.

Science.gov (United States)

Newnam, Sharon; Lewis, Ioni; Watson, Barry

2012-03-01

Occupational driving crashes are the most common cause of death and injury in the workplace. The physical and psychological outcomes following injury are also very costly to organizations. Thus, safe driving poses a managerial challenge. Some research has attempted to address this issue through modifying discrete and often simple target behaviours (e.g., driver training programs). However, current intervention approaches in the occupational driving field generally consider the role of organizational factors in workplace safety. This study adopts the A-B-C framework to identify the contingencies associated with an effective exchange of safety information within the occupational driving context. Utilizing a sample of occupational drivers and their supervisors, this multi-level study examines the contingencies associated with the exchange of safety information within the supervisor-driver relationship. Safety values are identified as an antecedent of the safety information exchange, and the quality of the leader-member exchange relationship and safe driving performance is identified as the behavioural consequences. We also examine the function of role overload as a factor influencing the relationship between safety values and the safety information exchange. Hierarchical linear modelling found that role overload moderated the relationship between supervisors' perceptions of the value given to safety and the safety information exchange. A significant relationship was also found between the safety information exchange and the subsequent quality of the leader-member exchange relationship. Finally, the quality of the leader-member exchange relationship was found to be significantly associated with safe driving performance. Theoretical and practical implications of these results are discussed. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Investigation of road network features and safety performance.

Science.gov (United States)

Wang, Xuesong; Wu, Xingwei; Abdel-Aty, Mohamed; Tremont, Paul J

2013-07-01

The analysis of road network designs can provide useful information to transportation planners as they seek to improve the safety of road networks. The objectives of this study were to compare and define the effective road network indices and to analyze the relationship between road network structure and traffic safety at the level of the Traffic Analysis Zone (TAZ). One problem in comparing different road networks is establishing criteria that can be used to scale networks in terms of their structures. Based on data from Orange and Hillsborough Counties in Florida, road network structural properties within TAZs were scaled using 3 indices: Closeness Centrality, Betweenness Centrality, and Meshedness Coefficient. The Meshedness Coefficient performed best in capturing the structural features of the road network. Bayesian Conditional Autoregressive (CAR) models were developed to assess the safety of various network configurations as measured by total crashes, crashes on state roads, and crashes on local roads. The models' results showed that crash frequencies on local roads were closely related to factors within the TAZs (e.g., zonal network structure, TAZ population), while crash frequencies on state roads were closely related to the road and traffic features of state roads. For the safety effects of different networks, the Grid type was associated with the highest frequency of crashes, followed by the Mixed type, the Loops & Lollipops type, and the Sparse type. This study shows that it is possible to develop a quantitative scale for structural properties of a road network, and to use that scale to calculate the relationships between network structural properties and safety. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

The effect of Health, Safety and Environment Management System (HSE-MS on the improvement of safety performance indices in Urea and Ammonia Kermanshah Petrochemical Company

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

M. S. Poursoleiman

2015-09-01

Full Text Available Introduction: Work-related accidents may cause damage to people, environment and lead to waste of time and money. Health, Safety and Environment Management System has been developed in order to reduce accidents. This study aimed to investigate the effect of implementation of this system on reduction of the accidents and its consequences and also on the safety performance indices in Kermanshah Petrochemical Company. Material and Method: In this study, records of accidents were collected by OSHA incident report form 301 over 4 years. Following, the mean annual accidents and its consequences and safety performance indices were calculated and reported. Then, using statistical analysis, the impacts of two years implementation of this system on the accidents and its consequences and safety performance indices were evaluated. Result: The results showed that the implementation of HSE system was significantly correlated with Frequency Severity Indicator, Accident Severity Rate, lost days, minor accidents and total incidents (P-value 0.05. Conclusion: The implementation of Health, Safety and the Environment Management System caused a reduction in accidents and its consequences and most of the safety performance indices in the entire process cycle of Kermanshah Petrochemical Company. Overall, safety condition has been improved considerably.

Safety and performance indicators for repositories in salt and clay formations

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Wolf, Jens; Ruebel, Andre; Noseck, Ulrich; Becker, Dirk

2008-07-01

The GRS (Gesellschaft fuer Reaktorsicherheit) study aims to the identification of suitable indicators for repositories in salt and clay formation. It is not intended to compare the two formations with respect to the safe disposal of radioactive waste. A first set of safety and performance indicators for both host rocks has been derived on the basis of results of the SPIN project. Reference values for the safety indicators have been determined. The suitability of the indicators and their significance for different time frames Is demonstrated by means of deterministic model calculations and external parameter variations of previous studies. The safety indicators considered in the report are the effective dose rate (Sv/a), the radiotoxicity concentration in the biosphere water (Sv/m 3 ) and the radiotoxicity flux from the geosphere (overlying rock) (Sv/a). The performance indicators considered in the study are the radiotoxicity inventory in different compartments (S), radiotoxicity fluxes from compartments and the integrated radiotoxicity fluxes from compartments (Sv).

Safety Management Characteristics Reflected in Interviews at Swedish Nuclear Power Plants: A System Perspective Approach

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Salo, Ilkka (Risk Analysis, Social and Decision Research Unit, Dept. of Psychology, Stockholm Univ., Stockholm (Sweden))

2005-12-15

The present study investigated safety management characteristics reflected in interviews with participants from two Swedish nuclear power plants. A document analysis regarding the plants' organization, safety policies, and safety culture work was carried out as well. The participants (n=9) were all nuclear power professionals, and the majority managers at different levels with at least 10 years of nuclear power experience. The interview comprised themes relevant for organizational safety and safety management, such as: organizational structures and organizational change, threats to safety, information feedback and knowledge transfer, safety analysis, safety policy, and accident and incident analysis and reporting. The results were in part modeled to important themes derived from a general system theoretical framework suggested by Svenson and developed by Svenson and Salo in relation to studies of 'non-nuclear' safety organizations. A primer to important features of the system theoretical framework is presented in the introductory chapter. The results from the interviews generated interesting descriptions about nuclear safety management in relation to the above themes. Regarding organizational restructuring, mainly centralizations of resources, several examples of reasons for the restructuring and related benefits for this centralization of resources were identified. A number of important reminders that ought to be considered in relation to reorganization were also identified. Regarding threats to the own organization a number of such was interpreted from the interviews. Among them are risks related to generation and competence change-over and risks related to outsourcing of activities. A thorough picture of information management and practical implications related to this was revealed in the interviews. Related to information feedback is the issue of organizational safety indicators and safety indicators in general. The interview answers indicated

Safety Management Characteristics Reflected in Interviews at Swedish Nuclear Power Plants: A System Perspective Approach

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Salo, Ilkka

2005-12-01

The present study investigated safety management characteristics reflected in interviews with participants from two Swedish nuclear power plants. A document analysis regarding the plants' organization, safety policies, and safety culture work was carried out as well. The participants (n=9) were all nuclear power professionals, and the majority managers at different levels with at least 10 years of nuclear power experience. The interview comprised themes relevant for organizational safety and safety management, such as: organizational structures and organizational change, threats to safety, information feedback and knowledge transfer, safety analysis, safety policy, and accident and incident analysis and reporting. The results were in part modeled to important themes derived from a general system theoretical framework suggested by Svenson and developed by Svenson and Salo in relation to studies of 'non-nuclear' safety organizations. A primer to important features of the system theoretical framework is presented in the introductory chapter. The results from the interviews generated interesting descriptions about nuclear safety management in relation to the above themes. Regarding organizational restructuring, mainly centralizations of resources, several examples of reasons for the restructuring and related benefits for this centralization of resources were identified. A number of important reminders that ought to be considered in relation to reorganization were also identified. Regarding threats to the own organization a number of such was interpreted from the interviews. Among them are risks related to generation and competence change-over and risks related to outsourcing of activities. A thorough picture of information management and practical implications related to this was revealed in the interviews. Related to information feedback is the issue of organizational safety indicators and safety indicators in general. The interview answers indicated that the area

Operational safety performance indicator system at the Dukovany Nuclear Power Plant - Experience with indicator aggregation

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Mandula, J.

2001-01-01

The operational safety performance indicators serve as an important tool of performance monitoring and management at the Dukovany NPP. A software-supported system has been developed, which has included: data collection, central data storage, graphic output production and periodical report generation. Analyses of performance indicator trends together with evaluation in respect of annually updated target values and acceptance criteria are used for operational safety reviews forming an integral part of continual self-assessment process. This contribution has been focused on experience obtained during development of the operational safety assessment model using indicator aggregation. It summarises problems that had to be paid specific attention in the development process. Thanks to their solution, the model has become a synoptic monitor and a useful tool for operational safety assessment. (author)

Barrier and system performances within a safety case: their functioning and evolution with time

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hedin, A.; Voinis, S.; Fillion, E.; Keller, S.; Lalieux, Ph.; Nachmilner, L.; Nys, V.; Rodriguez, J.; Sevougian, D.; Wollrath, J.

2002-01-01

The following six questions were used as the basis for the discussions in a Working Group: - What is the role of each barrier as a function of time or in the different time frames? What is its contribution to the overall system performance or safety as a function of time? - Which are the main uncertainties on the performance of barriers in the timescales? To what extent should we enhance the robustness of barriers because of the uncertainties of some component behaviour with time? - What is the requested or required performance versus the expected realistic or conservative behaviour with time? How are these safety margins used as arguments in a safety case? - What is the issue associated with the geosphere stability for different geological systems? - How are barriers and system performances, as a function of time, evaluated (presented and communicated) in a safety case? - What kind of measures are used for siting, designing and optimising robust barriers corresponding to situations that can vary with time? Are human actions considered to be relevant? (authors)

Influence of course characteristics, student characteristics, and behavior in learning management systems on student performance

OpenAIRE

Conijn, Rianne; Kleingeld, Ad; Matzat, Uwe; Snijders, Chris; van Zaanen, Menno

2016-01-01

The use of learning management systems (LMS) in education make it possible to track students’ online behavior. This data can be used for educational data mining and learning analytics, for example, by predicting student performance. Although LMS data might contain useful predictors, course characteristics and student characteristics have shown to influence student performance as well. However, these different sets of features are rarely combined or compared. Therefore, in the current study we...

Numerical indicators of nuclear power plant safety performance

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

1991-04-01

The workshop was attended by representatives from twenty-two Member States operating nuclear power plants (NPP). The current status of the development and use of numerical indicators of NPP safety performance was presented. A consensus on the benefits of use of numerical indicators was reached. The Technical Committee Meeting reviewed the progress in the development and use of performance indicators and identified them as the most appropriate ones for international use. The purpose of this document is to summarize the discussions held and conclusions reached in both meetings. Lists of participants and all the papers of both meetings are presented

Westinghouse Hanford Company health and safety performance report

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Rogers, L.

1996-01-01

Topping the list of WHC Safety recognition during this reporting period is a commendation received from the National Safety Council (NSC). The NSC bestowed their Award of Honor upon WHC for significant reduction of incidence rates during CY 1995. The award is based upon a reduction of 48 % or greater in cases involving days away from work, a 30 % or greater reduction in the number of days away, and a 15% or greater reduction in the total number of occupational injuries and illnesses. (page 2-1). A DOE-HQ review team representing the Office of Envirorunent, Safety and Health (EH), visited the Hanford Site during several weeks of the quarter. Ile 40-member Safety Management Evaluation Team (SMET) assessed WHC in the areas of management responsibility, comprehensive requirements, and competence commensurate with responsibility. As part of their new approach to oversight, they focused on the existence of management systems and programs (comparable approach to VPP). Plant/project areas selected for review within WHC were PFP, B Plant/WESF, Tank Farms, and K-Basins (page 2-2). Effective safety meetings, prejob safety meetings, etc., are a cornerstone of any successful safety program. In an effort to improve the reporting of safety meetings, the Safety/Security Meeting Report form was revised. It now provides a mechanism for recording and tracking safety issues (page 2-4). WHC has experienced an increase in the occupational injury and illness incidence rates during the first quarter of CY 1996. Trends show this increase can be partially attributed to inattention to workplace activities due 0999to the uncertainty Hanford employees currently face with recent reduction of force, reorganization, and reengineering efforts (page 2-7). The cumulative CY 1995 lost/restricted workday case incidence rate for the first quarter of CY 1996 (1.28) is 25% below the DOE CY 1991-93 average (1.70). However, the incidence rate increased 24% from the CY 1995 rate of 1.03 (page 2-8). The

Westinghouse Hanford Company health and safety performance report

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Rogers, L.

1996-05-15

Topping the list of WHC Safety recognition during this reporting period is a commendation received from the National Safety Council (NSC). The NSC bestowed their Award of Honor upon WHC for significant reduction of incidence rates during CY 1995. The award is based upon a reduction of 48 % or greater in cases involving days away from work, a 30 % or greater reduction in the number of days away, and a 15% or greater reduction in the total number of occupational injuries and illnesses. (page 2-1). A DOE-HQ review team representing the Office of Envirorunent, Safety and Health (EH), visited the Hanford Site during several weeks of the quarter. Ile 40-member Safety Management Evaluation Team (SMET) assessed WHC in the areas of management responsibility, comprehensive requirements, and competence commensurate with responsibility. As part of their new approach to oversight, they focused on the existence of management systems and programs (comparable approach to VPP). Plant/project areas selected for review within WHC were PFP, B Plant/WESF, Tank Farms, and K-Basins (page 2-2). Effective safety meetings, prejob safety meetings, etc., are a cornerstone of any successful safety program. In an effort to improve the reporting of safety meetings, the Safety/Security Meeting Report form was revised. It now provides a mechanism for recording and tracking safety issues (page 2-4). WHC has experienced an increase in the occupational injury and illness incidence rates during the first quarter of CY 1996. Trends show this increase can be partially attributed to inattention to workplace activities due 0999to the uncertainty Hanford employees currently face with recent reduction of force, reorganization, and reengineering efforts (page 2-7). The cumulative CY 1995 lost/restricted workday case incidence rate for the first quarter of CY 1996 (1.28) is 25% below the DOE CY 1991-93 average (1.70). However, the incidence rate increased 24% from the CY 1995 rate of 1.03 (page 2-8). The

Proceedings of the specialist meeting on safety performance indicators

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

NONE

2002-05-28

In 1998, the OECD/NEA committee on Nuclear Regulatory Activities (CNRA) initiated an activity with the objective of advancing the discussion on how to enhance and measure regulatory effectiveness in relation to nuclear installations. One of the outcome of this activity was to establish a Task group to develop internal (direct) performance indicators which would be used to monitor regulatory efficiency. On the initiative of the NEA/CSNI Working Group on Operating Experience the Spanish CSN hosted a workshop (Madrid, 2000) to review the state of the art on Safety Performance Indicators. This workshop, which was co-sponsored by the IAEA and WANO was attended by 73 participants from 19 countries, representing the industry, regulators, service companies as well as international organisations. The conclusions were: 1. there is considerable development effort on performance indicators in many countries; 2. utilities continue to rely on the WANO Performance indicators system which consists of indicators in 8 key areas and receives data from virtually all commercial NPP's in the world; 3. Regulators do not have a common set of performance indicators. This document gathers the 25 presentations given during this workshop. After this workshop, a joint CNRA/CSNI task group was launched in December 2000 to exchange information and develop external (indirect) indicators to measure regulatory effectiveness, i.e. impact on licensee's safety performance. These external indicators are, in other words, the traditional plant performance indicators (PI's). The task force consisted of regulators, organisations which have a performance indicators system in operation or under testing. The task force met in Paris on February 19-20, 2001 and the work performed by the group is summarized in a report (NEA-CSNI-R--2001-11) attached in appendix to these proceedings.

Proceedings of the specialist meeting on safety performance indicators

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

2002-01-01

In 1998, the OECD/NEA committee on Nuclear Regulatory Activities (CNRA) initiated an activity with the objective of advancing the discussion on how to enhance and measure regulatory effectiveness in relation to nuclear installations. One of the outcome of this activity was to establish a Task group to develop internal (direct) performance indicators which would be used to monitor regulatory efficiency. On the initiative of the NEA/CSNI Working Group on Operating Experience the Spanish CSN hosted a workshop (Madrid, 2000) to review the state of the art on Safety Performance Indicators. This workshop, which was co-sponsored by the IAEA and WANO was attended by 73 participants from 19 countries, representing the industry, regulators, service companies as well as international organisations. The conclusions were: 1. there is considerable development effort on performance indicators in many countries; 2. utilities continue to rely on the WANO Performance indicators system which consists of indicators in 8 key areas and receives data from virtually all commercial NPP's in the world; 3. Regulators do not have a common set of performance indicators. This document gathers the 25 presentations given during this workshop. After this workshop, a joint CNRA/CSNI task group was launched in December 2000 to exchange information and develop external (indirect) indicators to measure regulatory effectiveness, i.e. impact on licensee's safety performance. These external indicators are, in other words, the traditional plant performance indicators (PI's). The task force consisted of regulators, organisations which have a performance indicators system in operation or under testing. The task force met in Paris on February 19-20, 2001 and the work performed by the group is summarized in a report (NEA-CSNI-R--2001-11) attached in appendix to these proceedings

Road safety performance indicators for the interurban road network.

Science.gov (United States)

Yannis, George; Weijermars, Wendy; Gitelman, Victoria; Vis, Martijn; Chaziris, Antonis; Papadimitriou, Eleonora; Azevedo, Carlos Lima

2013-11-01

Various road safety performance indicators (SPIs) have been proposed for different road safety research areas, mainly as regards driver behaviour (e.g. seat belt use, alcohol, drugs, etc.) and vehicles (e.g. passive safety); however, no SPIs for the road network and design have been developed. The objective of this research is the development of an SPI for the road network, to be used as a benchmark for cross-region comparisons. The developed SPI essentially makes a comparison of the existing road network to the theoretically required one, defined as one which meets some minimum requirements with respect to road safety. This paper presents a theoretical concept for the determination of this SPI as well as a translation of this theory into a practical method. Also, the method is applied in a number of pilot countries namely the Netherlands, Portugal, Greece and Israel. The results show that the SPI could be efficiently calculated in all countries, despite some differences in the data sources. In general, the calculated overall SPI scores were realistic and ranged from 81 to 94%, with the exception of Greece where the SPI was relatively lower (67%). However, the SPI should be considered as a first attempt to determine the safety level of the road network. The proposed method has some limitations and could be further improved. The paper presents directions for further research to further develop the SPI. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Guidance on the implementation of a risk based safety performance monitoring system for nuclear power plants

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Sewell, R.T.; Kuritzky, A.S.; Khatib-Rahbar, M.

1997-05-01

The principal objective of the present study is to review and evaluate existing Performance Indicator (PI) monitoring programs, and to develop and demonstrate an overall PSA-based methodology and framework for the monitoring and use of risk-based PIs and SIs (Safety Indicator), that would enable: Identification of trends and patterns in safety performance at a specific plant and a population of plants; Assessment of the significance of the trends and patterns; Identification of precursors of accident sequences and safety reductions; Identification of the most critical functional areas of concern, especially as they relate to a defense-in-depth safety philosophy; Comparison of safety performance trends at a plant with those at comparable plants; Incorporation of the PIs and SIs into a risk- and performance-based decision process. To support the overall project objective, it is important that information needs and data collection procedures are clearly outlined. Of key significance in this regard is the premise that a performance monitoring system should not be burdened by an excessive number of low-level PIs that may have only a peripheral relationship to safety. Other supporting objectives of the study include: To identify and discuss other issues pertaining to the practical implementation of a safety performance monitoring system (outlining the databases and algorithms needed); and to demonstrate implementation of the preliminary guidance for monitoring and use of the selected set of PIs and SIs, within the proposed framework, via application to the operating history of a NPP having a PSA and readily available event data

Benchmarking road safety performance by grouping local territories : a study in The Netherlands.

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Aarts, L.T. & Houwing, S.

2015-01-01

The method of benchmarking provides an opportunity to learn from better performing territories to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of activities in a particular field of interest. Such a field of interest could be road safety. Road safety benchmarking can include several indicators, ranging

The Influence of Top Management Team Characteristics on BPD Performance

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Joy Elly Tulung

2015-12-01

Full Text Available Based on ”upper echelons theory”, this paper investigates the relation between top management team composition and BPD performance. For top management team characteristics, we employ age, level of education, background of education, gender, and functional background, while for measured the BPD performance we employ return on asset (ROA, return on equity (ROE, capital adequacy ratio (CAR, net interest margin (NIM, loan to deposit ratio (LDR, non-performing loan (NPL and operation expenses to operation income (BOPO. The results show that all characteristics have positive significant influences on BPD performance.

Contractors’ Attitude towards Enhancing Safety Performance: Case Study on Construction Firms in Penang

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ulang N. Md

2014-01-01

Full Text Available A qualitative study was conducted to investigate the contractors’ attitude towards enhancing the safety performance in construction site. Despite the fact that there are many safety initiatives established by the government, the rates of accidents are still in a critically high condition. Thus the purpose of this research is to study the contractors’ attitude towards enhancing the implementation of safety management system in construction site in order to increase the safety awareness of construction practitioners in construction site and improve the safety condition of construction sites. This study is conducted through oral interviews with the construction practitioners, and visual inspection of construction sites. The attitudes of contractors are evaluated from 3 aspects: Contractors’ efforts in implement and enforce the safety rules, Contractors efforts in overcoming the rate of accidents, and Reasons given by the contractors for not implement safety law.

Relationship Between Job Characteristics And Job Performance Of ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

The agricultural extension agent is a key stakeholder in extension systems. The nature of their work is so important that it has overriding effect on their job performance. This study investigates the relationship between job characteristics and job performance of agricultural extension agents in Imo and Rivers States, Nigeria.

Identifying the most significant indicators of the total road safety performance index.

Science.gov (United States)

Tešić, Milan; Hermans, Elke; Lipovac, Krsto; Pešić, Dalibor

2018-04-01

The review of the national and international literature dealing with the assessment of the road safety level has shown great efforts of the authors who tried to define the methodology for calculating the composite road safety index on a territory (region, state, etc.). The procedure for obtaining a road safety composite index of an area has been largely harmonized. The question that has not been fully resolved yet concerns the selection of indicators. There is a wide range of road safety indicators used to show a road safety situation on a territory. Road safety performance index (RSPI) obtained on the basis of a larger number of safety performance indicators (SPIs) enable decision makers to more precisely define the earlier goal- oriented actions. However, recording a broader comprehensive set of SPIs helps identify the strengths and weaknesses of a country's road safety system. Providing high quality national and international databases that would include comparable SPIs seems to be difficult since a larger number of countries dispose of a small number of identical indicators available for use. Therefore, there is a need for calculating a road safety performance index with a limited number of indicators (RSPI ln n ) which will provide a comparison of a sufficient quality, of as many countries as possible. The application of the Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) method and correlative analysis has helped to check if the RSPI ln n is likely to be of sufficient quality. A strong correlation between the RSPI ln n and the RSPI has been identified using the proposed methodology. Based on this, the most contributing indicators and methodologies for gradual monitoring of SPIs, have been defined for each country analyzed. The indicator monitoring phases in the analyzed countries have been defined in the following way: Phase 1- the indicators relating to alcohol, speed and protective systems; Phase 2- the indicators relating to roads and Phase 3- the indicators relating to

The assessment of technological and safety aspects of small power reactor SMART

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Antariksawan, A.R.; Ekariansyah, Andi S.; Sony, D.T.; Suharno; Hastowo, Hudi

2002-01-01

This paper describes and discusses the technology and safety of small nuclear power plant SMART. The reactor SMART produces 300 MWth of power is cooled and moderated with light water and integral PWR type developed by KAERI. At present, the development activities had reached the end of basic design stage. The concept design of reactor SMART is based on safety enhancement, economic competitiveness and high performance. The fuel is uranium oxide with approximately 5% w/o enrichment. The safety characteristics of the core are shown with low power density around 62.6 W/cc, high negative reactivity coefficient, and high shutdown and thermal margin. Besides the inherent safety characteristics, SMART is equipped with engineered safety features and severe accident management system which are in compliance with the IAEA recommendations. The application of SMART for dual-purpose produces 90 Mwe and 40,000 to fresh water a day. Based on the technology and core characteristics of the reactor SMART, it is very interesting to be deeply assessed

Risk-informed, performance-based safety-security interface

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Mrowca, B.; Eltawila, F.

2012-01-01

Safety-security interface is a term that is used as part of the commercial nuclear power security framework to promote coordination of the many potentially adverse interactions between plant security and plant safety. Its object is to prevent the compromise of either. It is also used to describe the concept of building security into a plant's design similar to the long standing practices used for safety therefore reducing the complexity of the operational security while maintaining or enhancing overall security. With this in mind, the concept of safety-security interface, when fully implemented, can influence a plant's design, operation and maintenance. It brings the approach use for plant security to one that is similar to that used for safety. Also, as with safety, the application of risk-informed techniques to fully implement and integrate safety and security is important. Just as designers and operators have applied these techniques to enhance and focus safety, these same techniques can be applied to security to not only enhance and focus the security but also to aid in the implementation of effective techniques to address the safety-security interfaces. Implementing this safety-security concept early within the design process can prevent or reduce security vulnerabilities through low cost solutions that often become difficult and expensive to retrofit later in the design and/or post construction period. These security considerations address many of the same issues as safety in ensuring that the response of equipment and plant personnel are adequate. That is, both safety and security are focused on reaching safe shutdown and preventing radiological release. However, the initiation of challenges and the progression of actions in response these challenges and even the definitions of safe shutdown can be considerably different. This paper explores the techniques and limitations that are employed to fully implement a risk-informed, safety-security interface

The next generation of power reactors - safety characteristics

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Modro, S.M.

1995-01-01

The next generation of commercial nuclear power reactors is characterized by a new approach to achieving reliability of their safety systems. In contrast to current generation reactors, these designs apply passive safety features that rely on gravity-driven transfer processes or stored energy, such as gas-pressurized accumulators or electric batteries. This paper discusses the passive safety system of the AP600 and Simplified Boiling Water Reactor (SBWR) designs

Performance and safety design of the advanced liquid metal reactor

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Berglund, R.C.; Magee, P.M.; Boardman, C.E.; Gyorey, G.L.

1991-01-01

The Advanced Liquid Metal Reactor (ALMR) program led by General Electric is developing, under U.S. Department of Energy sponsorship, a conceptual design for an advanced sodium-cooled liquid metal reactor plant. This design is intended to improve the already excellent level of plant safety achieved by the nuclear power industry while at the same time providing significant reductions in plant construction and operating costs. In this paper, the plant design and performance are reviewed, with emphasis on the ALMR's unique passive design safety features and its capability to utilize as fuel the actinides in LWR spent fuel

The Tiotropium Safety and Performance in Respimat® (TIOSPIR®) Trial

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Anzueto, Antonio; Wise, Robert; Calverley, Peter

2015-01-01

). The rate of FEV1 decline in GOLD I + II patients was greater than in GOLD III + IV patients (46 vs. 23 mL/year); as well as in current versus ex-smokers, in patients receiving combination therapies at baseline versus not, and in those experiencing an exacerbation during the study versus not. CONCLUSIONS......BACKGROUND: Tiotropium Safety and Performance in Respimat® (TIOSPIR®) compared the safety and efficacy of tiotropium Respimat® and tiotropium HandiHaler® in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). A prespecified spirometry substudy compared the lung function efficacy between...

Food safety management systems performance in the lamb production chain

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Oses, S.M.; Luning, P.A.; Jacxsens, L.; Jaime, I.; Rovira, J.

2012-01-01

This study describes a performance measurement of implemented food safety management system (FSMS) along the lamb chain using an FSMS-diagnostic instrument (FSMS-DI) and a Microbiological Assessment Scheme (MAS). Three slaughterhouses, 1 processing plant and 5 butcher shops were evaluated. All the

Safety and protection for large-scale superconducting magnets. FY'82 report

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Thome, R.J.; Pillsbury, R.D. Jr.; Iwasa, Y.; Mann, W.R.; Langton, W.G.

1982-10-01

The FY82 effort in safety and protection focused on tests and analyses in the following areas: (a) short circuit performance in the 30 T hybrid magnet, (b) arc voltage/current characteristics in simulated windings, (c) vapor-cooled lead burnout, (d) acoustic emission, and (e) joint MESA/MIT safety activity

W-1 Sodium Loop Safety Facility experiment centerline fuel thermocouple performance

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Meyers, S.C.; Henderson, J.M.

1980-05-01

The W-1 Sodium Loop Safety Facility (SLSF) experiment is the fifth in a series of experiments sponsored by the Department of Energy (DOE) as part of the National Fast Breeder Reactor (FBR) Safety Assurance Program. The experiments are being conducted under the direction of Argonne National Laboratory (ANL) and Hanford Engineering Development Laboratory (HEDL). The irradiation phase of the W-1 SLSF experiment was conducted between May 27 and July 20, 1979, and terminated with incipient fuel pin cladding failure during the final boiling transient. Experimental hardware and facility performed as designed, allowing completion of all planned tests and test objectives. This paper focuses on high temperature in-fuel thermocouples and discusses their development, fabrication, and performance in the W-1 experiment

The practice of safety culture construction in radiation processing enterprise

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kong Xiangshan; Zhang Yue; Yang Bin; Xu Tao; Liu Wei; Hao Jiangang

2014-01-01

Security is an integral part of the process of business operations. The radiation processing enterprises due to their own particularity, more need to focus on the operation of the safety factors, the construction of corporate safety culture is of great significance in guiding carry out the work of the Radiation Protection. Radiation processing enterprises should proceed from their own characteristics, the common attitude of security systems and security construction, and constantly improved to ensure the personal safety of radiation workers in the area of safety performance. (authors)

Introduction to safety theory

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Meyna, A.

1982-01-01

After a general introduction to safety theory, safety characteristics are defined and quantified. This is followed by a calculation of the safety characteristics of simple, safety-relevant systems in general and in consideration of common-mode errors. The qualitative and quantitative role of human errors is discussed for various models, and a simple man-machine model is developed for investigation of common-mode errors and human error. The main part of the paper deals with safety analysis in complex systems. After a general review, the common inductive and deductive methods of analysis are presented and commented on and their fields of application discussed. Analytical and simulation codes are presented as methods of evaluation for big, complex event trees - i.e. ''hazard trees in the sense of safety engineering (as a subset of safety relevance). After a basic classification and mathematical formulation of Markovian processes, the author shows that these may be used successfully for calculation of safety characteristics if transition rates are constant and if the number of system states is limited. (orig./RW) [de

Study on safety performance evaluation system of nuclear engineering construction units based on AHP

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Xu Yulin; Sun Jian; Shi Xiaofan

2012-01-01

As a very effectual management mean, the performance management has extensively used by many companies of China for staff assessment. The author explored the establishment of the 'Safety Performance Evaluation System' by finding out the similarities in operation between a company and a team of nuclear power projects. Then the author analyzed the principles of the performance management and good practices and summarized safety management experiences. The weight of the system index by using AHP method was calculated in this article. (authors)

Safety message broadcast in vehicular networks

CERN Document Server

Bi, Yuanguo; Zhuang, Weihua; Zhao, Hai

2017-01-01

This book presents the current research on safety message dissemination in vehicular networks, covering medium access control and relay selection for multi-hop safety message broadcast. Along with an overall overview of the architecture, characteristics, and applications of vehicular networks, the authors discuss the challenging issues in the research on performance improvement for safety applications, and provide a comprehensive review of the research literature. A cross layer broadcast protocol is included to support efficient safety message broadcast by jointly considering geographical location, physical-layer channel condition, and moving velocity of vehicles in the highway scenario. To further support multi-hop safety message broadcast in a complex road layout, the authors propose an urban multi-hop broadcast protocol that utilizes a novel forwarding node selection scheme. Additionally, a busy tone based medium access control scheme is designed to provide strict priority to safety applications in vehicle...

Safety and performance indicators for the assessment of long-term safety of deep geological disposal of radioactive waste

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hugi, M.; Schneider, J.W.; Dorp, F. van; Zuidema, P.

2005-01-01

The evaluation of the ability to isolate radioactive waste and the assessment of the long-term safety of a deep geological repository is usually done in terms of the calculated dose and/or risk for an average individual of the population which is potentially most affected by the potential impacts of the repository. At present, various countries and international organisations are developing so-called complementary indicators to supplement such calculations. These indicators are called ''safety indicators'' if they refer to the safety of the whole repository system; if they address the isolation capability of individual system components or the whole system from a more technical perspective, they are called ''performance indicators''. The need for complementary indicators follows from the long time frames which characterise the safety assessment of a geological repository, and the corresponding uncertainty of the calculated radiation dose. The main reason for these uncertainties is associated with the uncertain long-term prognosis of the surface environment and the related human behaviour. (orig.)

Modeling the Relationship between Safety Climate and Safety Performance in a Developing Construction Industry: A Cross-Cultural Validation Study.

Science.gov (United States)

Zahoor, Hafiz; Chan, Albert P C; Utama, Wahyudi P; Gao, Ran; Zafar, Irfan

2017-03-28

This study attempts to validate a safety performance (SP) measurement model in the cross-cultural setting of a developing country. In addition, it highlights the variations in investigating the relationship between safety climate (SC) factors and SP indicators. The data were collected from forty under-construction multi-storey building projects in Pakistan. Based on the results of exploratory factor analysis, a SP measurement model was hypothesized. It was tested and validated by conducting confirmatory factor analysis on calibration and validation sub-samples respectively. The study confirmed the significant positive impact of SC on safety compliance and safety participation , and negative impact on number of self-reported accidents/injuries . However, number of near-misses could not be retained in the final SP model because it attained a lower standardized path coefficient value. Moreover, instead of safety participation , safety compliance established a stronger impact on SP. The study uncovered safety enforcement and promotion as a novel SC factor, whereas safety rules and work practices was identified as the most neglected factor. The study contributed to the body of knowledge by unveiling the deviations in existing dimensions of SC and SP. The refined model is expected to concisely measure the SP in the Pakistani construction industry, however, caution must be exercised while generalizing the study results to other developing countries.

Relationships between Isometric Force-Time Characteristics and Dynamic Performance

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Thomas Dos’Santos

2017-09-01

Full Text Available The purpose of this study was to explore the relationships between isometric mid-thigh pull (IMTP force-time characteristics (peak force and time-specific force vales (100–250 ms and dynamic performance and compare dynamic performance between stronger and weaker athletes. Forty-three athletes from different sports (rowing, soccer, bicycle motocross, and hockey performed three trials of the squat jump (SJ, countermovement jump (CMJ, and IMTP, and performed a one repetition maximum power clean (PC. Reactive strength index modified (RSImod was also calculated from the CMJ. Statistically significant large correlations between IMTP force-time characteristics and PC (ρ = 0.569–0.674, p < 0.001, and moderate correlations between IMTP force-time characteristics (excluding force at 100 ms and RSImod (ρ = 0.389–0.449, p = 0.013–0.050 were observed. Only force at 250 ms demonstrated a statistically significant moderate correlation with CMJ height (ρ = 0.346, p = 0.016 and no statistically significant associations were observed between IMTP force-time characteristics and SJ height. Stronger athletes (top 10 demonstrated statistically significantly greater CMJ heights, RSImods, and PCs (p ≤ 0.004, g = 1.32–1.89 compared to weaker (bottom 10 athletes, but no differences in SJ height were observed (p = 0.871, g = 0.06. These findings highlight that the ability to apply rapidly high levels of force in short time intervals is integral for PC, CMJ height, and reactive strength.

South African exporter performance: new research into firm-specific and market characteristics

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Christopher May

2012-05-01

Full Text Available The export marketing performance of any firm is influenced by a multitude of different factors. Given the multi-faceted nature of the export market, this research study investigated specific factors such as how firm-specific characteristics, product characteristics, market characteristics and export marketing strategies impact on the export marketing performance of South African manufacturing firms. Some of the findings of this research study indicated that firm size, investment commitment and careful planning, as firm-specific characteristics, had a significant influence on export marketing performance. The relationship between export experience and export marketing performance was insignificant. The degree of pricing adaptation and product adaptation had a significant effect on export marketing performance, while this was not the case with respect to the degree of promotion adaptation and distributor support.

The effect of Health, Safety and Environment Management System (HSE-MS on the improvement of safety performance indices in Urea and Ammonia Kermanshah Petrochemical Company

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

M. S. Poursoleiman

2015-09-01

.Conclusion: The implementation of Health, Safety and the Environment Management System caused a reduction in accidents and its consequences and most of the safety performance indices in the entire process cycle of Kermanshah Petrochemical Company. Overall, safety condition has been improved considerably.

Thermic diode performance characteristics and design manual

Science.gov (United States)

Bernard, D. E.; Buckley, S.

1979-01-01

Thermic diode solar panels are a passive method of space and hot water heating using the thermosyphon principle. Simplified methods of sizing and performing economic analyses of solar heating systems had until now been limited to passive systems. A mathematical model of the thermic diode including its high level of stratification has been constructed allowing its performance characteristics to be studied. Further analysis resulted in a thermic diode design manual based on the f-chart method.

Performance and safety to NAVSEA instruction 9310.1A of lithium-thionyl chloride reserve batteries

Science.gov (United States)

Hall, J. C.

1984-09-01

The design, performance and safety of a fully engineered, selfcontained Li/SOCl2 battery as the power source for underwater applications. In addition to meeting the performance standards of the end user this battery is successfully tested under the rigorous safety conditions of NAVSEA Instruction 9310.1A for use on land, aircraft and surface ships.

Human performance analysis in the frame of probabilistic safety assessment of research reactors

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Farcasiu, Mita; Nitoi, Mirela; Apostol, Minodora; Turcu, I.; Florescu, Gh.

2005-01-01

Full text: The analysis of operating experience has identified the importance of human performance in reliability and safety of research reactors. In Probabilistic Safety Assessment (PSA) of nuclear facilities, human performance analysis (HPA) is used in order to estimate human error contribution to the failure of system components or functions. HPA is a qualitative and quantitative analysis of human actions identified for error-likely situations or accident-prone situations. Qualitative analysis is used to identify all man-machine interfaces that can lead to an accident, types of human interactions which may mitigate or exacerbate the accident, types of human errors and performance shaping factors. Quantitative analysis is used to develop estimates of human error probability as effects of human performance in reliability and safety. The goal of this paper is to accomplish a HPA in the PSA frame for research reactors. Human error probabilities estimated as results of human actions analysis could be included in system event tree and/or system fault tree. The achieved sensitivity analyses determine human performance sensibility at systematically variations both for dependencies level between human actions and for operator stress level. The necessary information was obtained from operating experience of research reactor TRIGA from INR Pitesti. The required data were obtained from generic data bases. (authors)

Road safety performance measures and AADT uncertainty from short-term counts.

Science.gov (United States)

Milligan, Craig; Montufar, Jeannette; Regehr, Jonathan; Ghanney, Bartholomew

2016-12-01

The objective of this paper is to enable better risk analysis of road safety performance measures by creating the first knowledge base on uncertainty surrounding annual average daily traffic (AADT) estimates when the estimates are derived by expanding short-term counts with the individual permanent counter method. Many road safety performance measures and performance models use AADT as an input. While there is an awareness that the input suffers from uncertainty, the uncertainty is not well known or accounted for. The paper samples data from a set of 69 permanent automatic traffic recorders in Manitoba, Canada, to simulate almost 2 million short-term counts over a five year period. These short-term counts are expanded to AADT estimates by transferring temporal information from a directly linked nearby permanent count control station, and the resulting AADT values are compared to a known reference AADT to compute errors. The impacts of five factors on AADT error are considered: length of short-term count, number of short-term counts, use of weekday versus weekend counts, distance from a count to its expansion control station, and the AADT at the count site. The mean absolute transfer error for expanded AADT estimates is 6.7%, and this value varied by traffic pattern group from 5% to 10.5%. Reference percentiles of the error distribution show that almost all errors are between -20% and +30%. Error decreases substantially by using a 48-h count instead of a 24-h count, and only slightly by using two counts instead of one. Weekday counts are superior to weekend counts, especially if the count is only 24h. Mean absolute transfer error increases with distance to control station (elasticity 0.121, p=0.001), and increases with AADT (elasticity 0.857, proad safety performance measures that use AADT as inputs. Analytical frameworks for such analysis exist but are infrequently used in road safety because the evidence base on AADT uncertainty is not well developed. Copyright �

Advanced power reactors with improved safety characteristics

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Birkhofer, A.

1994-01-01

The primary objective of nuclear safety is the protection of individuals, society and environment against radiological hazards from accidental releases of radioactive materials contained in nuclear reactors. Hereto, these materials are enclosed by several successive barriers and the barriers protected against mishaps and accidents by a multi-level system of safety precautions. The evolution of reactor technology continuously improves this concept and its implementation. At a world-wide scale, several advanced reactor concepts are currently being considered, some of them already at a design stage. Essential safety objectives include both further strengthening the prevention of accidents and improving the containment of fission products should an accident occur. The proposed solutions differ considerably with regard to technical principles, plant size and time scales considered for industrial application. Two typical approaches can be distinguished: The first approach basically aims at an evolution of power reactors currently in use, taking into account the findings from safety research and from operation of current plants. This approach makes maximum use of proven technology and operating experience but may nevertheless include new safety features. The corresponding designs are often termed 'large evolutionary'. The second approach consists in more fundamental changes compared to present designs, often with strong emphasis on specific passive features protecting the fuel and fuel cladding barriers. Owing to the nature and capability of those passive features such 'innovative designs' are mostly smaller in power output. The paper describes the basic objectives of such developments and illustrates important technical concepts focusing on next generation plants, i.e. designs to be available for industrial application until the end of this decade. 1 tab. (author)

Evaluation of the productive performance characteristics of red ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Evaluation of the productive performance characteristics of red tilapia ( Oreochromis sp.) injected with shark DNA into skeletal muscles and maintained diets containing different levels of probiotic and amino yeast.

A novel mechanical design of broken rope protection device for enhancing the safety performances of overhead manned equipment in coal mine

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Xiaoguang Zhang

2015-08-01

Full Text Available A novel mechanical design of the broken rope protection device is proposed to enhance the safety performances of the overhead manned equipment. According to the operating characteristics and functional requirements of the overhead manned equipment, a three-dimensional mechanical model of the broken rope protection device was redesigned. Based on the known parameters of the mechanical model, the stress and strength of the main components are readjusted using the statics characteristics of finite element analysis. To ensure the reliability of the control system of the broken rope protection device, the process of people’s falling, the response performance of the tension sensor, and the signal extraction of the broken rope are analyzed under different loading and unloading speeds. The working principle of the broken rope protection device is expounded in detail. The experimental results showed that better effect is obtained by the new broken rope protection device, which is characterized by good durability, low investment, and high reliability.

Performance and carcass characteristics of Yankasa ram fed with ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Remember me ... and 50% maize and wheat offal mixture, were better when compared to the control (B0) and other test diet in terms of performance and carcass characteristics. ... Key words: Performance, carcass, biscuit waste, Yankasa ram.

A proposal for performing software safety hazard analysis

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lawrence, J.D.; Gallagher, J.M.

1997-01-01

Techniques for analyzing the safety and reliability of analog-based electronic protection systems that serve to mitigate hazards in process control systems have been developed over many years, and are reasonably understood. An example is the protection system in a nuclear power plant. The extension of these techniques to systems which include digital computers is not well developed, and there is little consensus among software engineering experts and safety experts on how to analyze such systems. One possible technique is to extend hazard analysis to include digital computer-based systems. Software is frequently overlooked during system hazard analyses, but this is unacceptable when the software is in control of a potentially hazardous operation. In such cases, hazard analysis should be extended to fully cover the software. A method for performing software hazard analysis is proposed in this paper. The method concentrates on finding hazards during the early stages of the software life cycle, using an extension of HAZOP

Improved performance and safety of lithium ion cells with the use of fluorinated carbonate-based electrolytes

Science.gov (United States)

Smart, M. C.; Ratnakumar, B. V.; Ryan, V. S.; Surampudi, S.; Prakashi, G. K. S.; Hu, J.; Cheung, I.

2002-01-01

There has been increasing interest in developing lithium-ion electrolytes that possess enhanced safety characteristics, while still able to provide the desired stability and performance. Toward this end, our efforts have been focused on the development of lithium-ion electrolytes which contain partially and fully fluorinated carbonate solvents. The advantage of using such solvents is that they possess the requisite stability demonstrated by the hydrocarbon-based carbonates, while also possessing more desirable physical properties imparted by the presence of the fluorine substituents, such as lower melting points, increased stability toward oxidation, and favorable SEI film forming Characteristics on carbon. Specifically, we have demonstrated the beneficial effect of electrolytes which contain the following fluorinated carbonate-based solvents: methyl 2,2,2-trifluoroethyl carbonate (MTFEC), ethyl-2,2,2 trifluoroethyl carbonate (ETFEC), propyl 2,2,2-trifluoroethyl carbonate (PTFEC), methyl-2,2,2,2',2',2' -hexafluoro-i-propyl carbonate (MHFPC), ethyl- 2,2,2,2',2',2' -hexafluoro-i-propyl carbonate (EHFPC), and di-2,2,2-trifluoroethyl carbonate (DTFEC). These solvents have been incorporated into multi-component ternary and quaternary carbonate-based electrolytes and evaluated in lithium-carbon and carbon-LiNio.8Coo.202 cells (equipped with lithium reference electrodes). In addition to determining the charge/discharge behavior of these cells, a number of electrochemical techniques were employed (i.e., Tafel polarization measurements, linear polarization measurements, and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS)) to further characterize the performance of these electrolytes, including the SEI formation characteristics and lithium intercalatiodde-intercalation kinetics. In addition to their evaluation in experimental cells, cyclic voltammetry (CV) and conductivity measurements were performed on select electrolyte formulations to further our understanding of the trends

Evaluation on thermal-hydraulic characteristics for passive safety device of APR1400

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Yoo, Seong Yeon; Lee, S. H.; Son, M. K. [Korea Association for Nuclear Technology, Taejon (Korea, Republic of); Jee, M. S.; Chung, M. H. [Chungnam National Univ., Taejon (Korea, Republic of)

2001-07-15

To establish evaluation and verification guideline for the APR1400, thermal-hydraulic characteristics for fuel rod bundle, reactor vessel and fluidic device is analyzed using FLUENT. Scope and major results of research are as follows : Thermal-hydraulic characteristics for nuclear fuel rod bundle: design data for nuclear fuel rod bundle and structure are surveyed, and 3 x 3 sub-channel model is adopted to investigate the fluid flow and heat transfer characteristics in fuel rod bundle. Computational results are compared with the heat transfer data measured by naphthalene sublimation method, and numerical analysis and evaluation are performed at various design conditions and flow conditions. Thermal-hydraulic characteristics for reactor vessel: reactor vessel design data are surveyed to develop numerical model. Porous media model is applied for fuel rod bundle, and full-scale, three dimensional simulation is performed at actual operating conditions. Distributions of velocity, pressure and temperature are discussed. Flow characteristics for fluidic device: three dimensional numerical model for fluidic device is developed, and numerical results are compared with experimental data obtained at KAERI in order to verify numerical simulation. In addition, variation of flow rate is investigated at various elapsed times after valve operating, and flow characteristics is analyzed at low and high flow rate conditions, respectively.

Developing safety performance functions incorporating reliability-based risk measures.

Science.gov (United States)

Ibrahim, Shewkar El-Bassiouni; Sayed, Tarek

2011-11-01

Current geometric design guides provide deterministic standards where the safety margin of the design output is generally unknown and there is little knowledge of the safety implications of deviating from these standards. Several studies have advocated probabilistic geometric design where reliability analysis can be used to account for the uncertainty in the design parameters and to provide a risk measure of the implication of deviation from design standards. However, there is currently no link between measures of design reliability and the quantification of safety using collision frequency. The analysis presented in this paper attempts to bridge this gap by incorporating a reliability-based quantitative risk measure such as the probability of non-compliance (P(nc)) in safety performance functions (SPFs). Establishing this link will allow admitting reliability-based design into traditional benefit-cost analysis and should lead to a wider application of the reliability technique in road design. The present application is concerned with the design of horizontal curves, where the limit state function is defined in terms of the available (supply) and stopping (demand) sight distances. A comprehensive collision and geometric design database of two-lane rural highways is used to investigate the effect of the probability of non-compliance on safety. The reliability analysis was carried out using the First Order Reliability Method (FORM). Two Negative Binomial (NB) SPFs were developed to compare models with and without the reliability-based risk measures. It was found that models incorporating the P(nc) provided a better fit to the data set than the traditional (without risk) NB SPFs for total, injury and fatality (I+F) and property damage only (PDO) collisions. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Relationship Between Operating Room Teamwork, Contextual Factors, and Safety Checklist Performance.

Science.gov (United States)

Singer, Sara J; Molina, George; Li, Zhonghe; Jiang, Wei; Nurudeen, Suliat; Kite, Julia G; Edmondson, Lizabeth; Foster, Richard; Haynes, Alex B; Berry, William R

2016-10-01

Studies show that using surgical safety checklists (SSCs) reduces complications. Many believe SSCs accomplish this by enhancing teamwork, but evidence is limited. Our study sought to relate teamwork to checklist performance, understand how they relate, and determine conditions that affect this relationship. Using 2 validated tools for observing and coaching operating room teams, we evaluated the association between checklist performance with surgeon buy-in and 4 domains of surgical teamwork: clinical leadership, communication, coordination, and respect. Hospital staff in 10 South Carolina hospitals observed 207 procedures between April 2011 and January 2013. We calculated levels of checklist performance, buy-in, and measures of teamwork, and evaluated their relationship, controlling for patient and case characteristics. Few teams completed most or all SSC items. Teams more often completed items considered procedural "checks" than conversation "prompts." Surgeon buy-in, clinical leadership, communication, a summary measure of teamwork overall, and observers' teamwork ratings positively related to overall checklist completion (multivariable model estimates from 0.04, p < 0.05 for communication to 0.17, p < 0.01 for surgeon buy-in). All measures of teamwork and surgeon buy-in related positively to completing more conversation prompts; none related significantly to procedural checks (estimates from 0.10, p < 0.01 for communication to 0.27, p < 0.001 for surgeon buy-in). Patient age was significantly associated with completing the checklist and prompts (p < 0.05); only case duration was positively associated with performing more checks (p < 0.10). Surgeon buy-in and surgical teamwork characterized by shared clinical leadership, open communication, active coordination, and mutual respect were critical in prompting case-related conversations, but not in completing procedural checks. Findings highlight the importance of surgeon engagement and high-quality, consistent

Evaluation of Influence Factors within Implementing of Nuclear Safety Culture in Embarking Countries

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Situmorang, J.

2016-01-01

The evaluation of the implementation nuclear safety culture at BATAN has been performed. BATAN is Indonesia’s national nuclear energy agency. Nowadays, BATAN is planning to develop an experimental power reactor. To implement the nuclear safety culture BATAN has issued BATAN chairman regulation (Perka BATAN 200). Perka BATAN is the reference for individuals and organizations to implement nuclear safety culture which includes basic principles, mechanisms, assessment, as well as the implementation of the application of safety culture. It covers the establishment of safety policies, program development, program implementation, development and measurement of safety culture. Each facilities within BATAN is expected to well implement a safety culture. The implementation of safety culture is developed by considering the characteristics, attributes and indicators. The characteristics, attributes and indicators referenced are elaborated from the IAEA. The activities to strengthen safety culture are monthly workshop with participants is head of every facilities, safety leadership training and workshop for safety division manager in every facilities. It is also issued a handbook of safety that is distributed to all employees BATAN.

Health, safety and environmental unit performance assessment model under uncertainty (case study: steel industry).

Science.gov (United States)

Shamaii, Azin; Omidvari, Manouchehr; Lotfi, Farhad Hosseinzadeh

2017-01-01

Performance assessment is a critical objective of management systems. As a result of the non-deterministic and qualitative nature of performance indicators, assessments are likely to be influenced by evaluators' personal judgments. Furthermore, in developing countries, performance assessments by the Health, Safety and Environment (HSE) department are based solely on the number of accidents. A questionnaire is used to conduct the study in one of the largest steel production companies in Iran. With respect to health, safety, and environment, the results revealed that control of disease, fire hazards, and air pollution are of paramount importance, with coefficients of 0.057, 0.062, and 0.054, respectively. Furthermore, health and environment indicators were found to be the most common causes of poor performance. Finally, it was shown that HSE management systems can affect the majority of performance safety indicators in the short run, whereas health and environment indicators require longer periods of time. The objective of this study is to present an HSE-MS unit performance assessment model in steel industries. Moreover, we seek to answer the following question: what are the factors that affect HSE unit system in the steel industry? Also, for each factor, the extent of impact on the performance of the HSE management system in the organization is determined.

A Microbial Assessment Scheme to measure microbial performance of Food Safety Management Systems.

Science.gov (United States)

Jacxsens, L; Kussaga, J; Luning, P A; Van der Spiegel, M; Devlieghere, F; Uyttendaele, M

2009-08-31

A Food Safety Management System (FSMS) implemented in a food processing industry is based on Good Hygienic Practices (GHP), Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point (HACCP) principles and should address both food safety control and assurance activities in order to guarantee food safety. One of the most emerging challenges is to assess the performance of a present FSMS. The objective of this work is to explain the development of a Microbial Assessment Scheme (MAS) as a tool for a systematic analysis of microbial counts in order to assess the current microbial performance of an implemented FSMS. It is assumed that low numbers of microorganisms and small variations in microbial counts indicate an effective FSMS. The MAS is a procedure that defines the identification of critical sampling locations, the selection of microbiological parameters, the assessment of sampling frequency, the selection of sampling method and method of analysis, and finally data processing and interpretation. Based on the MAS assessment, microbial safety level profiles can be derived, indicating which microorganisms and to what extent they contribute to food safety for a specific food processing company. The MAS concept is illustrated with a case study in the pork processing industry, where ready-to-eat meat products are produced (cured, cooked ham and cured, dried bacon).

Growth performance, blood parameters and carcass characteristics ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

This study was carried out with one hundred and twenty (120) day-old marshal chicks to investigate the effect of Maxigrain® enzyme supplementation of corn bran based diets on growth performance, carcass characteristics, haematology and serum biochemistry of broilers in an eight weeks experiment. Four experimental ...

Development and integration of programmatic performance indicators

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Wreathall, J.; Appignani, P.; Modarres, M.

1990-01-01

Work is currently being performed to develop and integrate programmatic performance indicators, that is, indicators of performance associated with the influence on safety associated with plant functional areas like maintenance, operations and training. The process for identifying and evaluating indicators associated with maintenance and training has been described earlier. Since that time, the authors have evaluated the maintenance indicators: inadvertent engineered safety feature actuations due to test and maintenance errors, and daily power loss (DPL), which seemingly show relationships to safety. Work on training process will lead to characteristic sorts of behavior. In the integration study, several frameworks have been developed to provide a basis for describing the interrelationships of plant behavior, personnel behavior, and safety. These will be applied in the next phase of the work to perform the nominal integration

Operating experience: safety perspective

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Piplani, Vivek; Krishnamurthy, P.R.; Kumar, Neeraj; Upadhyay, Devendra

2015-01-01

Operating Experience (OE) provides valuable information for improving NPP safety. This may include events, precursors, deviations, deficiencies, problems, new insights to safety, good practices, lessons and corrective actions. As per INSAG-10, an OE program caters as a fundamental means for enhancing the defence-in-depth at NPPs and hence should be viewed as ‘Continuous Safety Performance Improvement Tool’. The ‘Convention on Nuclear Safety’ also recognizes the OE as a tool of high importance for enhancing the NPP safety and its Article 19 mandates each contracting party to establish an effective OE program at operating NPPs. The lessons drawn from major accidents at Three Mile Island, Chernobyl and Fukushima Daiichi NPPs had prompted nuclear stalwarts to change their safety perspective towards NPPs and to frame sound policies on issues like safety culture, severe accident prevention and mitigation. An effective OE program, besides correcting current/potential problems, help in proactively improving the NPP design, operating and maintenance procedures, practices, training, etc., and thus plays vital role in ensuring safe and efficient operation of NPPs. Further it enhances knowledge with regard to equipment operating characteristics, system performance trends and provides data for quantitative and qualitative safety analysis. Besides all above, an OE program inculcates a learning culture in the organisation and thus helps in continuously enhancing the expertise, technical competency and knowledge base of its staff. Nuclear and Radiation Facilities in India are regulated by Atomic Energy Regulatory Board (AERB). Operating Plants Safety Division (OPSD) of AERB is involved in managing operating experience activities. This paper provides insights about the operating experience program of OPSD, AERB (including its on-line data base namely OPSD STAR) and its utilisation in improving the regulations and safety at Indian NPPs/projects. (author)

Numerical simulation of flow characteristics of lean jet to cross-flow in safety injection of reactor cooling system

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Wang Haijun; He Huining; Luo Yushan; Wang Weishu

2011-01-01

In the present work, a numerical simulation was performed to study the flow characteristics of lean jet to cross flow in a main tube in the safety injection of reactor cooling system. The influence scope and mixing characteristics of the confined lean jet in cross-flow were studied. It can be concluded that three basic flow regimes are marked, namely the attached lean jet, lift-off lean jet and impinging lean jet. The velocity ratio V R is the key factor in the flow state. The depth and region of jet to main flow are enhanced with the increase of the velocity ratio. The jet flow penetrates through the main flow with the increase of the velocity ratio. At higher velocity ratio, the jet flow strikes the main flow bottom and circumfluence happens in upriver of main flow. The vortex flow characteristics dominate the flow near region of jet to cross-flow and the mixture of jet to cross-flow. At different velocity ratio V R , the vortex grows from the same displacement, but the vortex type and the vortex is different. At higher velocity ratio, the vortex develops fleetly, wears off sharp and dies out sharp. The study is very important to the heat transfer experiments of cross-flow jet and thermal stress analysis in the designs of nuclear engineering. (authors)

Psychosocial Characteristics of Optimum Performance in Isolated and Confined Environments (ICE)

Science.gov (United States)

Palinkas, Lawrence A.; Keeton, Kathryn E.; Shea, Camille; Leveton, Lauren B.

2010-01-01

The Behavioral Health and Performance (BHP) Element addresses human health risks in the NASA Human Research Program (HRP), including the Risk of Adverse Behavioral Conditions and the Risk of Psychiatric Disorders. BHP supports and conducts research to help characteristics and mitigate the Behavioral Medicine risk for exploration missions, and in some instances, current Flight Medical Operations. The Behavioral Health and Performance (BHP) Element identified research gaps within the Behavioral Medicine Risk, including Gap BMed6: What psychosocial characteristics predict success in an isolated, confined environment (ICE)? To address this gap, we conducted an extensive and exhaustive literature review to identify the following: 1) psychosocial characteristics that predict success in ICE environments; 2) characteristics that are most malleable; and 3) specific countermeasures that could enhance malleable characteristics.

Research of psychological characteristics and performance relativity of operators

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Fang Xiang; He Xuhong; Zhao Bingquan

2008-01-01

Based on the working tasks of an operator being taken into full consideration in this paper, on the one hand the table of measuring psychological characteristics is designed through the selection of special dimensions; on the other hand the table of performance appraisal is drafted through the choice of suitable standards of an operator. The paper analyzes the results of two aspects, sets relevant nuclear power plant operators as the research objective, and obtains the psychological characteristics and performance relativity of operators. The research can be as important and applied reference for the selection, evaluation and use of operators

The performance regulatory approach in quality assurance: Its application to safety in nuclear power plants

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Sajaroff, Pedro M.

2000-01-01

In early 1991, the IAEA assembled an Advisory Group on the Comprehensive Revision of the Code and the Safety on Quality Assurance of the NUSS Programme. The Group was made up by specialists from a number of countries and from ISO, FORATOM, the EC and the IAEA itself, and its objective was completed in June 1995. This paper is aimed at describing the conceptual contents of the final draft of the revision 2 of the 50-C-QA Code 'Quality Assurance for Safety in Nuclear Power Plants and other Nuclear Facilities' (hereinafter, the Code) which is essentially based on performance. Although the performance regulatory approach is not new in Argentina and in other countries, what is indeed novel is applying performance based QA. In such a way the Code will contribute to preventing both QA misinterpretations (i.e., a formalistic regulatory requirement) and the execution of non-effective work without attaining the needed quality level (what may be seen as a pathological deviation of QA). The Code contains ten basic requirements to be adopted when QA programmes are established and implemented in nuclear power plants. The goal is improving safety through an improvement in the methods applied for attaining quality. In line with the current developments in quality management techniques, priority is given to effectiveness of the QA programme. All the involved individuals (that is those in the managerial level, those performing the work and those assessing the work performed) must contribute to quality in a co-ordinated manner. The revised Safety Guides are being introduced, standing out those non existing before. Interrelation between quality assurance, safety culture and quality culture is to be noted. Besides QA for safety-related software mentioned as an issue to be considered by the IAEA. (author)

Performance characteristics of long-track speed skaters: a literature review.

Science.gov (United States)

Konings, Marco J; Elferink-Gemser, Marije T; Stoter, Inge K; van der Meer, Dirk; Otten, Egbert; Hettinga, Florentina J

2015-04-01

Speed skating is an intriguing sport to study from different perspectives due to the peculiar way of motion and the multiple determinants for performance. This review aimed to identify what is known on (long-track) speed skating, and which individual characteristics determine speed skating performance. A total of 49 studies were included. Based on a multidimensional performance model, person-related performance characteristics were categorized in anthropometrical, technical, physiological, tactical, and psychological characteristics. Literature was found on anthropometry, technique, physiology, and tactics. However, psychological studies were clearly under-represented. In particular, the role of self-regulation might deserve more attention to further understand mechanisms relevant for optimal performance and for instance pacing. Another remarkable finding was that the technically/biomechanically favourable crouched skating technique (i.e. small knee and trunk angle) leads to a physiological disadvantage: a smaller knee angle may increase the deoxygenation of the working muscles. This is an important underlying aspect for the pacing tactics in speed skating. Elite speed skaters need to find the optimal balance between obtaining a fast start and preventing negative technical adaptations later on in the race by distributing their available energy over the race in an optimal way. More research is required to gain more insight into how this impacts on the processes of fatigue and coordination during speed skating races. This can lead to a better understanding on how elite speed skaters can maintain the optimal technical characteristics throughout the entire race, and how they can adapt their pacing to optimize all identified aspects that determine performance.

ITER safety and operational scenario

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Shimomura, Y.; Saji, G.

1998-01-01

The safety and environmental characteristics of ITER and its operational scenario are described. Fusion has built-in safety characteristics without depending on layers of safety protection systems. Safety considerations are integrated in the design by making use of the intrinsic safety characteristics of fusion adequate to the moderate hazard inventories. In addition to this, a systematic nuclear safety approach has been applied to the design of ITER. The safety assessment of the design shows how ITER will safely accommodate uncertainties, flexibility of plasma operations, and experimental components, which is fundamental in ITER, the first experimental fusion reactor. The operation of ITER will progress step by step from hydrogen plasma operation with low plasma current, low magnetic field, short pulse and low duty factor without fusion power to deuterium-tritium plasma operation with full plasma current, full magnetic field, long pulse and high duty factor with full fusion power. In each step, characteristics of plasma and optimization of plasma operation will be studied which will significantly reduce uncertainties and frequency/severity of plasma transient events in the next step. This approach enhances reliability of ITER operation. (orig.)

Hospital ownership, decisions on supervisory board characteristics, and financial performance.

Science.gov (United States)

Kuntz, Ludwig; Pulm, Jannis; Wittland, Michael

2016-01-01

Dynamic and complex transformations in the hospital market increase the relevance of good corporate governance. However, hospital performance and the characteristics of supervisory boards differ depending on ownership. The question therefore arises whether hospital owners can influence performance by addressing supervisory board characteristics. The objective of this study is to explain differences in the financial performance of hospitals with regard to ownership by studying the size and composition of supervisory boards. The AMADEUS database was used to collect information on hospital financial performance in 2009 and 2010. Business and quality reports, hospital websites, and data from health insurer were used to obtain information on hospital and board characteristics. The resulting sample consisted of 175 German hospital corporations. We utilized ANOVA and regression analysis to test a mediation hypothesis that investigated whether decisions regarding board size and composition were associated with financial performance and could explain performance differences. Financial performance and board size and composition depend on ownership. An increase in board size and greater politician participation were negatively associated with all five tested measures of financial performance. Furthermore, an increase in physician participation was positively associated with one dimension of financial performance, whereas one negative relationship was identified for nurse and economist participation. For clerics, no associations were found. Decisions concerning board size and composition are important as they relate to hospital financial performance. We contribute to existing research by showing that, in addition to board size and physician participation, the participation of other professionals can also influence financial performance.

Operational safety performance indicator system - a management tool for the self assessment of safety and reliability of nuclear power plants

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Anil Kumar; Mandowara, S.L.; Mittal, S.

2006-01-01

Operational Safety Performance Indicator system is one of the self assessment tools for station management to monitor safety and reliability of nuclear power plants. It provides information to station management about the performance of various areas of the plants by means of different colours of relevant performance indicators. Such systems have been implemented at many nuclear power plants in the world and have been considered as strength during WANO Peer Review. IAEA had a Coordinated Research Programme (CRP) on this with several countries participating including India. In NPCIL this system has been implemented in KAPS about a year back and found very useful in identifying areas which needs to be given more attention. Based on the KAPS feedback Implementation of this system has been taken up in RAPS-3 and 4 and KGS-l and 2. (author)

Runway drainage characteristics related to tire friction performance

Science.gov (United States)

Yager, Thomas J.

1991-01-01

The capability of a runway pavement to rapidly drain water buildup during periods of precipitation is crucial to minimize tire hydroplaning potential and maintain adequate aircraft ground operational safety. Test results from instrumented aircraft, ground friction measuring vehicles, and NASA Langley's Aircraft Landing Dynamics Facility (ALDF) track have been summarized to indicate the adverse effects of pavement wetness conditions on tire friction performance. Water drainage measurements under a range of rainfall rates have been evaluated for several different runway surface treatments including the transversely grooved and longitudinally grinded concrete surfaces at the Space Shuttle Landing Facility (SLF) runway at NASA Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The major parameters influencing drainage rates and extent of flooding/drying conditions are identified. Existing drainage test data are compared to a previously derived empirical relationship and the need for some modification is indicated. The scope of future NASA Langley research directed toward improving empirical relationships to properly define runway drainage capability and consequently, enhance aircraft ground operational safety, is given.

Safety analysis of MOX fuels by fuel performance code

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Suzuki, Motoe [Japan Atomic Energy Research Inst., Tokai, Ibaraki (Japan). Tokai Research Establishment

2002-12-01

Performance of plutonium rick mixed oxide fuels specified for the Reduced-Moderation Water Reactor (RMWR) has been analysed by modified fuel performance code. Thermodynamic properties of these fuels up to 120 GWd/t burnup have not been measured and estimated using existing uranium fuel models. Fission product release, pressure rise inside fuel rods and mechanical loads of fuel cans due to internal pressure have been preliminarily assessed based on assumed axial power distribution history, which show the integrity of fuel performance. Detailed evaluation of fuel-cladding interactions due to thermal expansion or swelling of fuel pellets due to high burnup will be required for safety analysis of mixed oxide fuels. Thermal conductivity and swelling of plutonium rich mixed oxide fuels shall be taken into consideration. (T. Tanaka)

SafetyBarrierManager, a software tool to perform risk analysis using ARAMIS's principles

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Duijm, Nijs Jan

2017-01-01

of the ARAMIS project, Risø National Laboratory started developing a tool that could implement these methodologies, leading to SafetyBarrierManager. The tool is based on the principles of “safety‐barrier diagrams”, which are very similar to “bowties”, with the possibility of performing quantitative analysis......The ARAMIS project resulted in a number of methodologies, dealing with among others: the development of standard fault trees and “bowties”; the identification and classification of safety barriers; and including the quality of safety management into the quantified risk assessment. After conclusion....... The tool allows constructing comprehensive fault trees, event trees and safety‐barrier diagrams. The tool implements the ARAMIS idea of a set of safety barrier types, to which a number of safety management issues can be linked. By rating the quality of these management issues, the operational probability...

Key Performance Indicators in the Evaluation of the Quality of Radiation Safety Programs.

Science.gov (United States)

Schultz, Cheryl Culver; Shaffer, Sheila; Fink-Bennett, Darlene; Winokur, Kay

2016-08-01

Beaumont is a multiple hospital health care system with a centralized radiation safety department. The health system operates under a broad scope Nuclear Regulatory Commission license but also maintains several other limited use NRC licenses in off-site facilities and clinics. The hospital-based program is expansive including diagnostic radiology and nuclear medicine (molecular imaging), interventional radiology, a comprehensive cardiovascular program, multiple forms of radiation therapy (low dose rate brachytherapy, high dose rate brachytherapy, external beam radiotherapy, and gamma knife), and the Research Institute (including basic bench top, human and animal). Each year, in the annual report, data is analyzed and then tracked and trended. While any summary report will, by nature, include items such as the number of pieces of equipment, inspections performed, staff monitored and educated and other similar parameters, not all include an objective review of the quality and effectiveness of the program. Through objective numerical data Beaumont adopted seven key performance indicators. The assertion made is that key performance indicators can be used to establish benchmarks for evaluation and comparison of the effectiveness and quality of radiation safety programs. Based on over a decade of data collection, and adoption of key performance indicators, this paper demonstrates one way to establish objective benchmarking for radiation safety programs in the health care environment.

Operational safety performance and economical efficiency evaluation for nuclear power plants

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Liu Yachun; Zou Shuliang

2012-01-01

The economical efficiency of nuclear power includes a series of environmental parameters, for example, cleanliness. Nuclear security is the precondition and guarantee for its economy, and both are the direct embodiment of the social benefits of nuclear power. Through analyzing the supervision and management system on the effective operation of nuclear power plants, which has been put forward by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the World Association of Nuclear Operators (WANO), the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), and other organizations, a set of indexs on the safety performance and economical efficiency of nuclear power are explored and established; Based on data envelopment analysis, a DEA approach is employed to evaluate the efficiency of the operation performance of several nuclear power plants, Some primary conclusion are achieved on the basis of analyzing the threshold parameter's sensitivity and relativity which affected operational performance. To address the conflicts between certain security and economical indicators, a multi-objective programming model is established, where top priority is given to nuclear safety, and the investment behavior of nuclear power plant is thereby optimized. (authors)

Use of ultrasounds in the food industry-Methods and effects on quality, safety, and organoleptic characteristics of foods: A review.

Science.gov (United States)

Arvanitoyannis, Ioannis S; Kotsanopoulos, Konstantinos V; Savva, Amalia G

2017-01-02

The use of ultrasounds has recently gained significant interest in the food industry mainly due to the new trends of consumers toward functional foods. Offering several advantages, this form of energy can be applied for the improvement of qualitative characteristics of high-quality foods as well as for assuring safety of a vast variety of foodstuffs, and at the same time minimizing any negative effects of the sensory characteristics of foods. Furthermore, the non-destructive nature of this technology offers several opportunities for the compositional analysis of foods. However, further research is required for the improvement of related techniques and the reduction of application costs in order to render this technology efficient for industrial use. This review paper covers the main applications of ultrasounds as well as several advantages of the use of the technology in combination with conventional techniques. The effects of ultrasounds on the characteristics, microbial safety, and quality of several foods are also detailed.

Classification of research reactors and discussion of thinking of safety regulation based on the classification

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Song Chenxiu; Zhu Lixin

2013-01-01

Research reactors have different characteristics in the fields of reactor type, use, power level, design principle, operation model and safety performance, etc, and also have significant discrepancy in the aspect of nuclear safety regulation. This paper introduces classification of research reactors and discusses thinking of safety regulation based on the classification of research reactors. (authors)

Performance and Reliability of DSRC Vehicular Safety Communication: A Formal Analysis

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

2009-02-01

Full Text Available IEEE- and ASTM-adopted dedicated short range communications (DSRC standard toward 802.11p is a key enabling technology for the next generation of vehicular safety communication. Broadcasting of safety messages is one of the fundamental services in DSRC. There have been numerous publications addressing design and analysis of such broadcast ad hoc system based on the simulations. For the first time, an analytical model is proposed in this paper to evaluate performance and reliability of IEEE 802.11a-based vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V safety-related broadcast services in DSRC system on highway. The proposed model takes two safety services with different priorities, nonsaturated message arrival, hidden terminal problem, fading transmission channel, transmission range, IEEE 802.11 backoff counter process, and highly mobile vehicles on highway into account. Based on the solutions to the proposed analytic model, closed-form expressions of channel throughput, transmission delay, and packet reception rates are derived. From the obtained numerical results under various offered traffic and network parameters, new insights and enhancement suggestions are given.

Nuclear power performance and safety. V.5. Nuclear fuel cycle

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

1988-01-01

The International Conference on Nuclear Power Performance and Safety, organized by the International Atomic Energy Agency, was held at the Austria Centre Vienna (ACV) in Vienna, Austria, from 28 September to 2 October 1987. The objective of the Conference was to promote an exchange of worldwide information on the current trends in the performance and safety of nuclear power and its fuel cycle, and to take a forward look at the expectations and objectives for the 1990s. Policy decisions for waste management have already been taken in many countries and the 1990s should be a period of demonstration and implementation of these policies. As ilustrated by data presented from a number of countries, many years of experience in radioactive waste management have been achieved and the technology exists to implement the national plans and policies that have been developed. The establishment of criteria, the development of safety performance methodology and site investigation work are key activities essential to the successful selection, characterization and construction of geological repositories for the final disposal of radioactive waste. Considerable work has been done in these areas over the last ten years and will continue into the 1990s. However, countries that are considering geological disposal for high level waste now recognize the need for relating the technical aspects to public understanding and acceptance of the concept and decision making activities. The real challenge for the 1990s in waste disposal will be successfully to integrate technological activities within a process which responds to institutional and public concern. Volume 5 of the Proceedings comprehends the contributions on waste management in the 1990s. Decontamination and decommissioning, waste management, treatment and disposal, nuclear fuel cycle - present and future. Enrichment services and advanced reactor fuels, improvements in reactor fuel utilization and performance, spent fuel management

Key performance outcomes of patient safety curricula: root cause analysis, failure mode and effects analysis, and structured communications skills.

Science.gov (United States)

Fassett, William E

2011-10-10

As colleges and schools of pharmacy develop core courses related to patient safety, course-level outcomes will need to include both knowledge and performance measures. Three key performance outcomes for patient safety coursework, measured at the course level, are the ability to perform root cause analyses and healthcare failure mode effects analyses, and the ability to generate effective safety communications using structured formats such as the Situation-Background-Assessment-Recommendation (SBAR) situational briefing model. Each of these skills is widely used in patient safety work and competence in their use is essential for a pharmacist's ability to contribute as a member of a patient safety team.

Megawatts with safety

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Carpenter, E.W.; Dent, K.H.

1983-01-01

The comprehensive programme of research and development which backs the AGR stations being built and operated in the UK is described. The programme, operated by the UKAEA, the National Nuclear Corporation, British Nuclear Fuels Limited, the Central Electricity Generating Board and the Scottish Electricity Board, provides comprehensive technical support to the new stations being commissioned and endeavours to reduce costs by maximising plant performance and life without prejudice to the good safety characteristics of the AGR system. The programme is examined under the headings; fuel, core and coolant chemistry, circuit activity, shielding and nuclear heating, performance, corrosion and structural integrity, component development, irradiated fuel storage and transport. (U.K.)

Dynamics of safety performance and culture: a group model building approach.

Science.gov (United States)

Goh, Yang Miang; Love, Peter E D; Stagbouer, Greg; Annesley, Chris

2012-09-01

The management of occupational health and safety (OHS) including safety culture interventions is comprised of complex problems that are often hard to scope and define. Due to the dynamic nature and complexity of OHS management, the concept of system dynamics (SD) is used to analyze accident prevention. In this paper, a system dynamics group model building (GMB) approach is used to create a causal loop diagram of the underlying factors influencing the OHS performance of a major drilling and mining contractor in Australia. While the organization has invested considerable resources into OHS their disabling injury frequency rate (DIFR) has not been decreasing. With this in mind, rich individualistic knowledge about the dynamics influencing the DIFR was acquired from experienced employees with operations, health and safety and training background using a GMB workshop. Findings derived from the workshop were used to develop a series of causal loop diagrams that includes a wide range of dynamics that can assist in better understanding the causal influences OHS performance. The causal loop diagram provides a tool for organizations to hypothesize the dynamics influencing effectiveness of OHS management, particularly the impact on DIFR. In addition the paper demonstrates that the SD GMB approach has significant potential in understanding and improving OHS management. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Working Towards Unified Safety Design Criteria for Modular High Temperature Gas-cooled Reactor Designs

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Reitsma, Frederik; Silady, Fred; Kunitomi, Kazuhiko

2014-01-01

The Nuclear Power Development Section of the IAEA recently received approval for a Coordinated Research Project (CRP) to investigate and make proposals on modular High Temperature Gas-cooled Reactor (HTGR) Safety design criteria. It is expected that these criteria would consider past experience and existing safety standards in the light of modular HTGR material and design characteristics to propose safety design criteria. It will consider the deterministic and risk-informed safety design standards that apply to the wide spectrum of Off- normal events under development worldwide for existing and planned HTGRs. The CRP would also take into account lessons from the Fukushima Daiichi accident, clarifying the safety approach and safety evaluation criteria for design and beyond design basis events, including those events that can affect multiple reactor modules and/or are dependent on the application proximate to the plant site. (e. g., industrial process steam/heat). The logical flow of criteria is from the fundamental inherent safety characteristics of modular HTGRs and associated expected performance characteristics, to the safety functions required to ensure those characteristics during the wide spectrum of Off-normal events, and finally to specific criteria related to those functions. This is detailed in the paper with specific examples included of how it may be applied. The results of the CRP will be made available to the member states and HTGR community. (author)

Characteristics of safety critical organizations . work psychological perspective

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Oedewald, P.; Reiman, T.

2006-02-01

This book deals with organizations that operate in high hazard industries, such as the nuclear power, aviation, oil and chemical industry organisations. The society puts a great strain on these organisations to rigorously manage the risks inherent in the technology they use and the products they produce. In this book, an organisational psychology view is taken to analyse what are the typical challenges of daily work in these environments. The analysis is based on a literature review about human and organisational factors in safety critical industries, and on the interviews of Finnish safety experts and safety managers from four different companies. In addition to this, personnel interviews conducted in the Finnish nuclear power plants are utilised. The authors come up with eight themes that seem to be common organizational challenges cross the industries. These include e.g. how does the personnel understand the risks and what is the right level for rules and procedures to guide the work activities. The primary aim of this book is to contribute to the Finnish nuclear safety research and safety management discussion. However, the book is equally suitable for risk management, organizational development and human resources management specialists in different industries. The purpose is to encourage readers to consider how the human and organizational factors are seen in the field they work in. (orig.)

Special characteristics of safety organizations. Work psychological perspective

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Oedewald, P.; Reiman, T.

2007-03-15

This book deals with organizations that operate in high hazard industries, such as the nuclear power, aviation, oil and chemical industry organizations. The society puts a great strain on these organizations to rigorously manage the risks inherent in the technology they use and the products they produce. In this book, an organizational psychology view is taken to analyse what are the typical challenges of daily work in these environments. The analysis is based on a literature review about human and organizational factors in safety critical industries, and on the interviews of Finnish safety experts and safety managers from four different companies. In addition to this, personnel interviews conducted in the Finnish nuclear power plants are utilised. The authors come up with eight themes that seem to be common organizational challenges cross the industries. These include e.g. how does the personnel understand the risks and what is the right level for rules and procedures to guide the work activities. The primary aim of this book is to contribute to the nuclear safety research and safety management discussion. However, the book is equally suitable for risk management, organizational development and human resources management specialists in different industries. The purpose is to encourage readers to consider how the human and organizational factors are seen in the field they work in. (orig.)

Special characteristics of safety organizations. Work psychological perspective

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Oedewald, P.; Reiman, T.

2007-03-01

This book deals with organizations that operate in high hazard industries, such as the nuclear power, aviation, oil and chemical industry organizations. The society puts a great strain on these organizations to rigorously manage the risks inherent in the technology they use and the products they produce. In this book, an organizational psychology view is taken to analyse what are the typical challenges of daily work in these environments. The analysis is based on a literature review about human and organizational factors in safety critical industries, and on the interviews of Finnish safety experts and safety managers from four different companies. In addition to this, personnel interviews conducted in the Finnish nuclear power plants are utilised. The authors come up with eight themes that seem to be common organizational challenges cross the industries. These include e.g. how does the personnel understand the risks and what is the right level for rules and procedures to guide the work activities. The primary aim of this book is to contribute to the nuclear safety research and safety management discussion. However, the book is equally suitable for risk management, organizational development and human resources management specialists in different industries. The purpose is to encourage readers to consider how the human and organizational factors are seen in the field they work in. (orig.)

Acute and chronic safety and efficacy of dose dependent creatine nitrate supplementation and exercise performance.

Science.gov (United States)

Galvan, Elfego; Walker, Dillon K; Simbo, Sunday Y; Dalton, Ryan; Levers, Kyle; O'Connor, Abigail; Goodenough, Chelsea; Barringer, Nicholas D; Greenwood, Mike; Rasmussen, Christopher; Smith, Stephen B; Riechman, Steven E; Fluckey, James D; Murano, Peter S; Earnest, Conrad P; Kreider, Richard B

2016-01-01

Creatine monohydrate (CrM) and nitrate are popular supplements for improving exercise performance; yet have not been investigated in combination. We performed two studies to determine the safety and exercise performance-characteristics of creatine nitrate (CrN) supplementation. Study 1 participants (N = 13) ingested 1.5 g CrN (CrN-Low), 3 g CrN (CrN-High), 5 g CrM or a placebo in a randomized, crossover study (7d washout) to determine supplement safety (hepatorenal and muscle enzymes, heart rate, blood pressure and side effects) measured at time-0 (unsupplemented), 30-min, and then hourly for 5-h post-ingestion. Study 2 participants (N = 48) received the same CrN treatments vs. 3 g CrM in a randomized, double-blind, 28d trial inclusive of a 7-d interim testing period and loading sequence (4 servings/d). Day-7 and d-28 measured Tendo™ bench press performance, Wingate testing and a 6x6-s bicycle ergometer sprint. Data were analyzed using a GLM and results are reported as mean ± SD or mean change ± 95 % CI. In both studies we observed several significant, yet stochastic changes in blood markers that were not indicative of potential harm or consistent for any treatment group. Equally, all treatment groups reported a similar number of minimal side effects. In Study 2, there was a significant increase in plasma nitrates for both CrN groups by d-7, subsequently abating by d-28. Muscle creatine increased significantly by d-7 in the CrM and CrN-High groups, but then decreased by d-28 for CrN-High. By d-28, there were significant increases in bench press lifting volume (kg) for all groups (PLA, 126.6, 95 % CI 26.3, 226.8; CrM, 194.1, 95 % CI 89.0, 299.2; CrN-Low, 118.3, 95 % CI 26.1, 210.5; CrN-High, 267.2, 95 % CI 175.0, 359.4, kg). Only the CrN-High group was significantly greater than PLA (p power (PLA, 59.0, 95 % CI 4.5, 113.4; CrM, 68.6, 95 % CI 11.4, 125.8; CrN-Low, 40.9, 95 % CI -9.2, 91.0; CrN-High, 60.9, 95 % CI 10.8, 111.1, W) and

Leading safety performance indicators for resilience assessment of radiopharmaceuticals production process

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Grecco, Claudio H.S.; Santos, Isaac J.A.L.; Carvalho, Paulo V.R.

2011-01-01

Radiopharmaceuticals are radiation-emitting substances used in medicine for radiotherapy and imaging diagnosis. A Research Institute, located in Rio de Janeiro, produces three radiopharmaceuticals: the sodium iodate is used in the diagnosis of thyroid dysfunctions, the meta-iodo-benzyl guanidine is used in the diagnosis of cardiac diseases, and the fluorodeoxyglucose is used in diagnosis in cardiology, oncology, neurology and neuro psychiatry. This paper presents a leading safety performance indicators framework to assess the resilience of radiopharmaceuticals production processes. The organizations that use resilience indicators will be able to pro actively evaluate and manage safety. (author)

Leading safety performance indicators for resilience assessment of radiopharmaceuticals production process

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Grecco, Claudio H.S.; Santos, Isaac J.A.L.; Carvalho, Paulo V.R., E-mail: grecco@ien.gov.b, E-mail: luquetti@ien.gov.b, E-mail: paulov@ien.gov.b [Instituto de Engenharia Nuclear (IEN/CNEN-RJ), Rio de Janeiro, RJ (Brazil). Div. de Instrumentacao e Confiabilidade Humana; Vidal, Mario C.R., E-mail: mvidal@ergonomia.ufrj.b [Coordenacao dos Programas de Pos-Graduacao de Engenharia (PEP/COPPE/UFRJ), Rio de Janeiro, RJ (Brazil). Programa de Engenharia de Producao. Grupo de Ergonomia e Novas Tecnologias (GENTE)

2011-07-01

Radiopharmaceuticals are radiation-emitting substances used in medicine for radiotherapy and imaging diagnosis. A Research Institute, located in Rio de Janeiro, produces three radiopharmaceuticals: the sodium iodate is used in the diagnosis of thyroid dysfunctions, the meta-iodo-benzyl guanidine is used in the diagnosis of cardiac diseases, and the fluorodeoxyglucose is used in diagnosis in cardiology, oncology, neurology and neuro psychiatry. This paper presents a leading safety performance indicators framework to assess the resilience of radiopharmaceuticals production processes. The organizations that use resilience indicators will be able to pro actively evaluate and manage safety. (author)

Accounting for Health and Safety costs

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Rikhardsson, Pall M.

A part of the emerging sustainability management accounting is corporate health and safety performance. One performance dimension is the costs of occupational accidents in companies. The underlying logic for calculating these costs is that if occupational accidents are prevented then these costs...... could be avoided. This chapter presents and discusses selected methods for calculating the costs of occupational accidents. The focus is on presenting the characteristics of each method and disclosing the benefits and drawbacks of each method...

Benchmarking road safety performances of countries.

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Wegman, F.C.M. & Oppe, S.

2014-01-01

In order to obtain political interest in road safety problems and to learn from other countries’ ‘good practices’, it is often helpful to compare one’s own safety situation with that of other countries. In a number of projects tools have been developed for such comparisons. These tools range from

Haematological characteristics and performance of West African ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

The effects of feeding crude petroleum contaminated forage on haematological characteristics and performance of 36 young West African Dwarf (WAD) goats was investigated in order to simulate the impact of real crude oil spillage on livestock and game. Graded levels (0.0, 1.5 and 3.0 g per kg forage) of stabilized “Bonny ...

Anthropometric, physiological and performance characteristics of elite team-handball players.

Science.gov (United States)

Chaouachi, Anis; Brughelli, Matt; Levin, Gregory; Boudhina, Nahla Ben Brahim; Cronin, John; Chamari, Karim

2009-01-15

The objective of this study was to provide anthropometric, physiological, and performance characteristics of an elite international handball team. Twenty-one elite handball players were tested and categorized according to their playing positions (goalkeepers, backs, pivots, and wings). Testing consisted of anthropometric and physiological measures of height, body mass, percentage body fat and endurance (VO(2max)), performance measures of speed (5, 10, and 30 m), strength (bench press and squat), unilateral and bilateral horizontal jumping ability, and a 5-jump horizontal test. Significant differences were found between player positions for some anthropometric characteristics (height and percentage body fat) but not for the physiological or performance characteristics. Strong correlations were noted between single leg horizontal jumping distances with 5-, 10-, and 30-m sprint times (r = 0.51-0.80; P team-handball players appear to be very similar. Single leg horizontal jumping distance could be a specific standardized test for predicting sprinting ability in elite handball players.

Performance Test Results of Safety I and C Systems of SMART MMIS

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Suh, Yong Suk; Keum, Jong Yong; Jeong, Kwang Il; Lee, Joon Ku; Lee, Sang Seok; Kim, Kwan Woong

2011-01-01

KAERI has developed SMART (System-integrated Modular Advanced ReacTor), a 330MWt integral pressurized light water reactor that integrates four reactor coolant pumps, one pressurizer, eight steam generators, and one reactor core into a reactor vessel, since 1997 and submitted a SSAR (Standard design Safety Analysis Report) to Korea institute of nuclear safety (KINS) at the end of 2010 for the purpose of achieving the standard design approval (SDA) by the end of 2011. SMART MMIS has been designed with fully digitalized systems. Non-safety instrumentation and control (I and C) systems are designed based on the commercial distributed control systems. The safety I and C systems are designed using a new platform that was developed and validated by KAERI. Safety I and C systems are modularized using the platform. In the protection systems (PSs), datalinks are used to transmit data in a one-way direction in order to meet the independency requirement. In the engineered safety features-component control system (ESF-CCS), network switch devices (NSDs) are used to connect the group and loop controllers. The NSD was also newly developed and validated by KAERI. After validating the platform and NSD, a test facility was developed using the platform and NSDs to validate the performance of safety I and C systems. This paper presents the development and test results from the test facility

Geographically weighted negative binomial regression applied to zonal level safety performance models.

Science.gov (United States)

Gomes, Marcos José Timbó Lima; Cunto, Flávio; da Silva, Alan Ricardo

2017-09-01

Generalized Linear Models (GLM) with negative binomial distribution for errors, have been widely used to estimate safety at the level of transportation planning. The limited ability of this technique to take spatial effects into account can be overcome through the use of local models from spatial regression techniques, such as Geographically Weighted Poisson Regression (GWPR). Although GWPR is a system that deals with spatial dependency and heterogeneity and has already been used in some road safety studies at the planning level, it fails to account for the possible overdispersion that can be found in the observations on road-traffic crashes. Two approaches were adopted for the Geographically Weighted Negative Binomial Regression (GWNBR) model to allow discrete data to be modeled in a non-stationary form and to take note of the overdispersion of the data: the first examines the constant overdispersion for all the traffic zones and the second includes the variable for each spatial unit. This research conducts a comparative analysis between non-spatial global crash prediction models and spatial local GWPR and GWNBR at the level of traffic zones in Fortaleza/Brazil. A geographic database of 126 traffic zones was compiled from the available data on exposure, network characteristics, socioeconomic factors and land use. The models were calibrated by using the frequency of injury crashes as a dependent variable and the results showed that GWPR and GWNBR achieved a better performance than GLM for the average residuals and likelihood as well as reducing the spatial autocorrelation of the residuals, and the GWNBR model was more able to capture the spatial heterogeneity of the crash frequency. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Safety climate in the US federal wildland fire management community: influences of organizational, environmental, group, and individual characteristics

Science.gov (United States)

Anne E. Black; Brooke Baldauf McBride

2013-01-01

This study examined the effects of organisational, environmental, group and individual characteristics on five components of safety climate (High Reliability Organising Practices, Leadership, Group Culture, Learning Orientation and Mission Clarity) in the US federal wildland fire management community. Of particular interest were differences between perceptions based on...

Safety and performance assessment of geologic disposal systems for nuclear wastes

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Peltonen, E.

1987-01-01

This thesis presents a methodology for the safety and performance assesment of final disposal of nuclear wastes into crystalline bedrock. The applicability of radiation protection objectives is discussed, as well as the goals of the assessment in the various repository system development phases. Due consideration is given to the description of the pertinent analysis methods and to the comprehensive model system. The methodology has been applied to assess the acceptability of the basic disposal concepts and to study the possibilities for the optimization of protection. Furthermore, performance of different components in the multiple barrier disposal systems is estimated. The waste types dealt with are low- and intermediate-level waste as well as high-level spent nuclear fuel from a nuclear power plant. In addition, an option of high-level vitrified waste from reprocessing of spent fuel is taken into account. On the basis of the various analyses carried out it can be concluded that the disposal of different nuclear wastes in the Finnish bedrock in properly designed repositories meets the radiation protection objectives with good confidence. In addition, the studies indicate that the safety margins are considerable. This is due to the fact that the overall performance of the multiple barrier disposal systems analysed is not sensitive to possible unfavourable changes in barrier properties. From the optimization of protection point of view it can be concluded that there is no need to develop more effective repository designs than those analysed in this thesis. In fact, the results indicate that the most sophisticated designs have already gone beyond an optimal level of safety

Determination of performance criteria of safety systems in a nuclear power plant via simulated annealing optimization method

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Jung, Woo Sik

1993-02-01

This study presents and efficient methodology that derives design alternatives and performance criteria of safety functions/systems in commercial nuclear power plants. Determination of design alternatives and intermediate-level performance criteria is posed as a reliability allocation problem. The reliability allocation is performed for determination of reliabilities of safety functions/systems from top-level performance criteria. The reliability allocation is a very difficult multi objective optimization problem (MOP) as well as a global optimization problem with many local minima. The weighted Chebyshev norm (WCN) approach in combination with an improved Metropolis algorithm of simulated annealing is developed and applied to the reliability allocation problem. The hierarchy of probabilistic safety criteria (PSC) may consist of three levels, which ranges from the overall top level (e.g., core damage frequency, acute fatality and latent cancer fatality) through the interlnediate level (e.g., unavailiability of safety system/function) to the low level (e.g., unavailability of components, component specifications or human error). In order to determine design alternatives of safety functions/systems and the intermediate-level PSC, the reliability allocation is performed from the top-level PSC. The intermediated level corresponds to an objective space and the top level is related to a risk space. The reliability allocation is performed by means of a concept of two-tier noninferior solutions in the objective and risk spaces within the top-level PSC. In this study, two kinds of towtier noninferior solutions are defined: intolerable intermediate-level PSC and desirable design alternatives of safety functions/systems that are determined from Sets 1 and 2, respectively. Set 1 is obtained by maximizing simultaneously not only safety function/system unavailabilities but also risks. Set 1 reflects safety function/system unavailabilities in the worst case. Hence, the

Performance of balanced bellows safety relief valves

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lai, Y.S.

1992-01-01

By the nature of its design, the set point and lift of a conventional spring loaded safety relief valve are sensitive to back pressure. One way to reduce the adverse effects of the back pressure on the safety relief valve function is to install a balanced bellows in a safety relief valve. The metallic bellows has a rather wide range of manufacturing tolerance which makes the design of the bellows safety relief valve very complicated. The state-of-the-art balanced bellows safety relief valve can only substantially minimize, but cannot totally eliminate the back pressure effects on its set point and relieving capacity. Set point change is a linear function of the back pressure to the set pressure ratio. Depending on the valve design, the set point correction factor can be either greater or smaller than unity. There exists an allowable back pressure and critical back pressure for each safety relief valve. When total back pressure exceeds the R a , the relieving capacity will be reduced mainly resulting from the valve lift being reduced by the back pressure and the capacity reduction factor should be applied in valve sizing. Once the R c is exceeded, the safety relief valve becomes unstable and loses its over pressure protection capability. The capacity reduction factor is a function of system overpressure, but their relationship is non-linear in nature. (orig.)

A structural equation modelling approach examining the pathways between safety climate, behaviour performance and workplace slipping

OpenAIRE

Swedler, David I; Verma, Santosh K; Huang, Yueng-Hsiang; Lombardi, David A; Chang, Wen-Ruey; Brennan, Melayne; Courtney, Theodore K

2015-01-01

Objective: Safety climate has previously been associated with increasing safe workplace behaviours and decreasing occupational injuries. This study seeks to understand the structural relationship between employees’ perceptions of safety climate, performing a safety behaviour (ie, wearing slip-resistant shoes) and risk of slipping in the setting of limited-service restaurants. Methods: At baseline, we surveyed 349 employees at 30 restaurants for their perceptions of their safety training and m...

Application of RELAP5/MOD3.3 to Calculate Thermal Hydraulic Behavior of the Pressurizer Safety Valve Performance Test Facility

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Kim, Chang Hyun; Kim, Young Ae; Oh, Seung Jong; Park, Jong Woon [Korea Hydro and Nuclear Power Co., Ltd., Daejeon (Korea, Republic of)

2007-10-15

The increase of the acceptance tolerance of Pressurizer Safety Valve (PSV) test is vital for the safe operation of nuclear power plants because the frequent tests may make the valves decrepit and become a cause of leak. Recently, Korea Hydro and Nuclear Power Company (KHNP) is building a PSV performance test facility to provide the technical background data for the relaxation of the acceptance tolerance of PSV including the valve pop-up characteristics and the loop seal dynamics (if the plant has the loop seal in the upstream of PSV). The discharge piping and supports must be designed to withstand severe transient hydrodynamic loads when the safety valve actuates. The evaluation of hydrodynamic loads is a two-step process: first the thermal hydraulic behavior in the piping must be defined, and then the hydrodynamic loads are calculated from the thermal hydraulic parameters such as pressure and mass flow. The hydrodynamic loads are used as input to the structural analysis.

Issues affecting advanced passive light-water reactor safety analysis

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Beelman, R.J.; Fletcher, C.D.; Modro, S.M.

1992-01-01

Next generation commercial reactor designs emphasize enhanced safety through improved safety system reliability and performance by means of system simplification and reliance on immutable natural forces for system operation. Simulating the performance of these safety systems will be central to analytical safety evaluation of advanced passive reactor designs. Yet the characteristically small driving forces of these safety systems pose challenging computational problems to current thermal-hydraulic systems analysis codes. Additionally, the safety systems generally interact closely with one another, requiring accurate, integrated simulation of the nuclear steam supply system, engineered safeguards and containment. Furthermore, numerical safety analysis of these advanced passive reactor designs wig necessitate simulation of long-duration, slowly-developing transients compared with current reactor designs. The composite effects of small computational inaccuracies on induced system interactions and perturbations over long periods may well lead to predicted results which are significantly different than would otherwise be expected or might actually occur. Comparisons between the engineered safety features of competing US advanced light water reactor designs and analogous present day reactor designs are examined relative to the adequacy of existing thermal-hydraulic safety codes in predicting the mechanisms of passive safety. Areas where existing codes might require modification, extension or assessment relative to passive safety designs are identified. Conclusions concerning the applicability of these codes to advanced passive light water reactor safety analysis are presented