Relational databases for conditions data and event selection in ATLAS

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Viegas, F; Hawkings, R; Dimitrov, G

2008-01-01

The ATLAS experiment at LHC will make extensive use of relational databases in both online and offline contexts, running to O(TBytes) per year. Two of the most challenging applications in terms of data volume and access patterns are conditions data, making use of the LHC conditions database, COOL, and the TAG database, that stores summary event quantities allowing a rapid selection of interesting events. Both of these databases are being replicated to regional computing centres using Oracle Streams technology, in collaboration with the LCG 3D project. Database optimisation, performance tests and first user experience with these applications will be described, together with plans for first LHC data-taking and future prospects

Relational databases for conditions data and event selection in ATLAS

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Viegas, F; Hawkings, R; Dimitrov, G [CERN, CH-1211 Geneve 23 (Switzerland)

2008-07-15

The ATLAS experiment at LHC will make extensive use of relational databases in both online and offline contexts, running to O(TBytes) per year. Two of the most challenging applications in terms of data volume and access patterns are conditions data, making use of the LHC conditions database, COOL, and the TAG database, that stores summary event quantities allowing a rapid selection of interesting events. Both of these databases are being replicated to regional computing centres using Oracle Streams technology, in collaboration with the LCG 3D project. Database optimisation, performance tests and first user experience with these applications will be described, together with plans for first LHC data-taking and future prospects.

Guide on a national system for collecting, assessing and disseminating information on safety-related events in nuclear power plants

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

1983-02-01

There is a wide spectrum of safety significance in the events that can occur during nuclear power plant operations. It is important that lessons be learned from safety-related events (hereinafter referred to as unusual events) so as to improve the safety of nuclear power plants. Hence formal procedures should be established for this purpose. The purpose of this document is to provide guidance to Member States for establishing a system (hereinafter referred to as a national system) for collecting, storing, retrieving, assessing and disseminating information on unusual events in nuclear power plants. The guidance given is based on experience gained in the use of existing national and international systems. This guide covers a national system that is part of a programme to improve nuclear power plant safety using experience gained from operating plants both within and outside the country. Implementing the recommendations in this guide would render any national system compatible with other national systems and facilitate the participation in the IAEA System for Reporting Unusual Events with Safety Significance (hereinafter referred to as the IAEA Incident Reporting System, IAEA-IRS) for more widespread dissemination of lessons learned from nuclear power plant operation

Patient safety incident reports related to traditional Japanese Kampo medicines: medication errors and adverse drug events in a university hospital for a ten-year period.

Science.gov (United States)

Shimada, Yutaka; Fujimoto, Makoto; Nogami, Tatsuya; Watari, Hidetoshi; Kitahara, Hideyuki; Misawa, Hiroki; Kimbara, Yoshiyuki

2017-12-21

Kampo medicine is traditional Japanese medicine, which originated in ancient traditional Chinese medicine, but was introduced and developed uniquely in Japan. Today, Kampo medicines are integrated into the Japanese national health care system. Incident reporting systems are currently being widely used to collect information about patient safety incidents that occur in hospitals. However, no investigations have been conducted regarding patient safety incident reports related to Kampo medicines. The aim of this study was to survey and analyse incident reports related to Kampo medicines in a Japanese university hospital to improve future patient safety. We selected incident reports related to Kampo medicines filed in Toyama University Hospital from May 2007 to April 2017, and investigated them in terms of medication errors and adverse drug events. Out of 21,324 total incident reports filed in the 10-year survey period, we discovered 108 Kampo medicine-related incident reports. However, five cases were redundantly reported; thus, the number of actual incidents was 103. Of those, 99 incidents were classified as medication errors (77 administration errors, 15 dispensing errors, and 7 prescribing errors), and four were adverse drug events, namely Kampo medicine-induced interstitial pneumonia. The Kampo medicine (crude drug) that was thought to induce interstitial pneumonia in all four cases was Scutellariae Radix, which is consistent with past reports. According to the incident severity classification system recommended by the National University Hospital Council of Japan, of the 99 medication errors, 10 incidents were classified as level 0 (an error occurred, but the patient was not affected) and 89 incidents were level 1 (an error occurred that affected the patient, but did not cause harm). Of the four adverse drug events, two incidents were classified as level 2 (patient was transiently harmed, but required no treatment), and two incidents were level 3b (patient was

Insight and Lessons Learned on Organizational Factors and Safety Culture from the Review of Human Error-related Events of NPPs in Korea

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kim, Ji Tae; Lee, Dhong Hoon; Choi, Young Sung

2014-01-01

Event investigation is one of the key means of enhancing nuclear safety deriving effective measures and preventing recurrences. However, it is difficult to analyze organizational factors and safety culture. This paper tries to review human error-related events from perspectives of organizational factors and safety culture, and to derive insights and lessons learned in developing the regulatory infrastructure of plant oversight on safety culture

Insight and Lessons Learned on Organizational Factors and Safety Culture from the Review of Human Error-related Events of NPPs in Korea

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Kim, Ji Tae; Lee, Dhong Hoon; Choi, Young Sung [Korea Institute of Nuclear Safety, Daejeon (Korea, Republic of)

2014-08-15

Event investigation is one of the key means of enhancing nuclear safety deriving effective measures and preventing recurrences. However, it is difficult to analyze organizational factors and safety culture. This paper tries to review human error-related events from perspectives of organizational factors and safety culture, and to derive insights and lessons learned in developing the regulatory infrastructure of plant oversight on safety culture.

Assessing propensity to learn from safety-related events

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Drupsteen, L.; Wybo, J.L.

2015-01-01

Most organisations aim to use experience from the past to improve safety, for instance through learning from safety-related incidents and accidents. Whether an organisation is able to learn successfully can however only be determined afterwards. So far, there are no proactive measures to assess

Identification and selection of initiating events for experimental fusion facilities

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Cadwallader, L.C.

1989-01-01

This paper describes the current approaches used in probabilistic risk assessment (PRA) to identify and select accident initiating events for study in either probabilistic safety analysis or PRA. Current methods directly apply to fusion facilities as well as other types of industries, such as chemical processing and nuclear fission. These identification and selection methods include the Master Logic Diagram, historical document review, system level Failure Modes and Effects Analysis, and others. A combination of the historical document review, such as Safety Analysis Reports and fusion safety studies, and the Master Logic Diagram with appropriate quality assurance reviews, is suggested for standardizing US fusion PRA effects. A preliminary set of generalized initiating events applicable to fusion facilities derived from safety document review is presented as a framework to start from for the historical document review and Master Logic Diagram approach. Fusion designers should find this list useful for their design reviews. 29 refs., 2 tabs

Identification and selection of initiating events for experimental fusion facilities

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Cadwallader, L.C.

1989-01-01

This paper describes the current approaches used in probabilistic risk assessment (PRA) to identify and select accident initiating events for study in either probabilistic safety analysis or PRA. Current methods directly apply to fusion facilities as well as other types of industries, such as chemical processing and nuclear fission. These identification and selection methods include the Master Logic Diagram, historical document review, system level Failure Modes and Effects Analysis, and others. A combination of the historical document review, such as Safety Analysis Reports and fusion safety studies, and the Master Logic Diagram with appropriate quality assurance reviews, is suggested for standardizing U.S. fusion PRA efforts. A preliminary set of generalized initiating events applicable to fusion facilities derived from safety document review is presented as a framework to start from for the historical document review and Master Logic Diagram approach. Fusion designers should find this list useful for their design reviews. 29 refs., 1 tab

Criteria for safety-related operator actions

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Gray, L.H.; Haas, P.M.

1983-01-01

The Safety-Related Operator Actions (SROA) Program was designed to provide information and data for use by NRC in assessing the performance of nuclear power plant (NPP) control room operators in responding to abnormal/emergency events. The primary effort involved collection and assessment of data from simulator training exercises and from historical records of abnormal/emergency events that have occurred in operating plants (field data). These data can be used to develop criteria for acceptability of the use of manual operator action for safety-related functions. Development of criteria for safety-related operator actions are considered

Incidence of patient safety events and process-related human failures during intra-hospital transportation of patients: retrospective exploration from the institutional incident reporting system.

Science.gov (United States)

Yang, Shu-Hui; Jerng, Jih-Shuin; Chen, Li-Chin; Li, Yu-Tsu; Huang, Hsiao-Fang; Wu, Chao-Ling; Chan, Jing-Yuan; Huang, Szu-Fen; Liang, Huey-Wen; Sun, Jui-Sheng

2017-11-03

Intra-hospital transportation (IHT) might compromise patient safety because of different care settings and higher demand on the human operation. Reports regarding the incidence of IHT-related patient safety events and human failures remain limited. To perform a retrospective analysis of IHT-related events, human failures and unsafe acts. A hospital-wide process for the IHT and database from the incident reporting system in a medical centre in Taiwan. All eligible IHT-related patient safety events between January 2010 to December 2015 were included. Incidence rate of IHT-related patient safety events, human failure modes, and types of unsafe acts. There were 206 patient safety events in 2 009 013 IHT sessions (102.5 per 1 000 000 sessions). Most events (n=148, 71.8%) did not involve patient harm, and process events (n=146, 70.9%) were most common. Events at the location of arrival (n=101, 49.0%) were most frequent; this location accounted for 61.0% and 44.2% of events with patient harm and those without harm, respectively (pprocess step was the preparation of the transportation team (n=91, 48.9%). Contributing unsafe acts included perceptual errors (n=14, 7.5%), decision errors (n=56, 30.1%), skill-based errors (n=48, 25.8%), and non-compliance (n=68, 36.6%). Multivariate analysis showed that human failure found in the arrival and hand-off sub-process (OR 4.84, pprocess at the location of arrival and prevent errors other than omissions. Long-term monitoring of IHT-related events is also warranted. © Article author(s) (or their employer(s) unless otherwise stated in the text of the article) 2017. All rights reserved. No commercial use is permitted unless otherwise expressly granted.

Assessment of the nuclear installation's safety significant events

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Vidican, D.

2005-01-01

This document tries to establish, based on the available documentation, the main steps in development of Assessment of the Events in Nuclear Installations. It takes into account: selection of the safety significant occurrences, establishing the direct cause and contributors as well as the root cause and contributors. Also, the document presents the necessary corrective actions and generic lessons to be learned from the event. The document is based especially on IAEA - ASSET guidelines and DOE root cause analysis Guidance. (author)

Safety design guide for safety related systems for CANDU 9

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lee, Duk Su; Chang, Woo Hyun; Lee, Nam Young; A. C. D. Wright

1996-03-01

In general, two types of safety related systems and structures exist in the nuclear plant; The one is a systems and structures which perform safety functions during the normal operation of the plant, and the other is a systems and structures which perform safety functions to mitigate events caused by failure of the normally operating systems or by naturally occurring phenomena. In this safety design guide, these systems are identified in detail, and the major events for which the safety functions are required and the major safety requirements are identified in the list. As the probabilistic safety assessments are completed during the course of the project, additions or deletions to the list may be justified. 3 tabs. (Author) .new

Safety design guide for safety related systems for CANDU 9

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Lee, Duk Su; Chang, Woo Hyun; Lee, Nam Young [Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute, Daeduk (Korea, Republic of); Wright, A.C.D. [Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd., Toronto (Canada)

1996-03-01

In general, two types of safety related systems and structures exist in the nuclear plant; The one is a systems and structures which perform safety functions during the normal operation of the plant, and the other is a systems and structures which perform safety functions to mitigate events caused by failure of the normally operating systems or by naturally occurring phenomena. In this safety design guide, these systems are identified in detail, and the major events for which the safety functions are required and the major safety requirements are identified in the list. As the probabilistic safety assessments are completed during the course of the project, additions or deletions to the list may be justified. 3 tabs. (Author) .new.

Ventilator-Related Adverse Events: A Taxonomy and Findings From 3 Incident Reporting Systems.

Science.gov (United States)

Pham, Julius Cuong; Williams, Tamara L; Sparnon, Erin M; Cillie, Tam K; Scharen, Hilda F; Marella, William M

2016-05-01

In 2009, researchers from Johns Hopkins University's Armstrong Institute for Patient Safety and Quality; public agencies, including the FDA; and private partners, including the Emergency Care Research Institute and the University HealthSystem Consortium (UHC) Safety Intelligence Patient Safety Organization, sought to form a public-private partnership for the promotion of patient safety (P5S) to advance patient safety through voluntary partnerships. The study objective was to test the concept of the P5S to advance our understanding of safety issues related to ventilator events, to develop a common classification system for categorizing adverse events related to mechanical ventilators, and to perform a comparison of adverse events across different adverse event reporting systems. We performed a cross-sectional analysis of ventilator-related adverse events reported in 2012 from the following incident reporting systems: the Pennsylvania Patient Safety Authority's Patient Safety Reporting System, UHC's Safety Intelligence Patient Safety Organization database, and the FDA's Manufacturer and User Facility Device Experience database. Once each organization had its dataset of ventilator-related adverse events, reviewers read the narrative descriptions of each event and classified it according to the developed common taxonomy. A Pennsylvania Patient Safety Authority, FDA, and UHC search provided 252, 274, and 700 relevant reports, respectively. The 3 event types most commonly reported to the UHC and the Pennsylvania Patient Safety Authority's Patient Safety Reporting System databases were airway/breathing circuit issue, human factor issues, and ventilator malfunction events. The top 3 event types reported to the FDA were ventilator malfunction, power source issue, and alarm failure. Overall, we found that (1) through the development of a common taxonomy, adverse events from 3 reporting systems can be evaluated, (2) the types of events reported in each database were related

Ventilator-Related Adverse Events: A Taxonomy and Findings From 3 Incident Reporting Systems

Science.gov (United States)

Pham, Julius Cuong; Williams, Tamara L; Sparnon, Erin M; Cillie, Tam K; Scharen, Hilda F; Marella, William M

2016-01-01

BACKGROUND: In 2009, researchers from Johns Hopkins University's Armstrong Institute for Patient Safety and Quality; public agencies, including the FDA; and private partners, including the Emergency Care Research Institute and the University HealthSystem Consortium (UHC) Safety Intelligence Patient Safety Organization, sought to form a public-private partnership for the promotion of patient safety (P5S) to advance patient safety through voluntary partnerships. The study objective was to test the concept of the P5S to advance our understanding of safety issues related to ventilator events, to develop a common classification system for categorizing adverse events related to mechanical ventilators, and to perform a comparison of adverse events across different adverse event reporting systems. METHODS: We performed a cross-sectional analysis of ventilator-related adverse events reported in 2012 from the following incident reporting systems: the Pennsylvania Patient Safety Authority's Patient Safety Reporting System, UHC's Safety Intelligence Patient Safety Organization database, and the FDA's Manufacturer and User Facility Device Experience database. Once each organization had its dataset of ventilator-related adverse events, reviewers read the narrative descriptions of each event and classified it according to the developed common taxonomy. RESULTS: A Pennsylvania Patient Safety Authority, FDA, and UHC search provided 252, 274, and 700 relevant reports, respectively. The 3 event types most commonly reported to the UHC and the Pennsylvania Patient Safety Authority's Patient Safety Reporting System databases were airway/breathing circuit issue, human factor issues, and ventilator malfunction events. The top 3 event types reported to the FDA were ventilator malfunction, power source issue, and alarm failure. CONCLUSIONS: Overall, we found that (1) through the development of a common taxonomy, adverse events from 3 reporting systems can be evaluated, (2) the types of

The relationship between organizational leadership for safety and learning from patient safety events.

Science.gov (United States)

Ginsburg, Liane R; Chuang, You-Ta; Berta, Whitney Blair; Norton, Peter G; Ng, Peggy; Tregunno, Deborah; Richardson, Julia

2010-06-01

To examine the relationship between organizational leadership for patient safety and five types of learning from patient safety events (PSEs). Forty-nine general acute care hospitals in Ontario, Canada. A nonexperimental design using cross-sectional surveys of hospital patient safety officers (PSOs) and patient care managers (PCMs). PSOs provided data on organization-level learning from (a) minor events, (b) moderate events, (c) major near misses, (d) major event analysis, and (e) major event dissemination/communication. PCMs provided data on organizational leadership (formal and informal) for patient safety. Hospitals were the unit of analysis. Seemingly unrelated regression was used to examine the influence of formal and informal leadership for safety on the five types of learning from PSEs. The interaction between leadership and hospital size was also examined. Formal organizational leadership for patient safety is an important predictor of learning from minor, moderate, and major near-miss events, and major event dissemination. This relationship is significantly stronger for small hospitals (learning from safety events. Formal leadership support for safety is of particular importance in small organizations where the economic burden of safety programs is disproportionately large and formal leadership is closer to the front lines.

Selection of important initiating events for Level 1 probabilistic safety assessment study at Puspati TRIGA Reactor

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Maskin, M.; Charlie, F.; Hassan, A.; Prak Tom, P.; Ramli, Z.; Mohamed, F.

2016-01-01

Highlights: • Identifying possible important initiating events (IEs) for Level 1 probabilistic safety assessment performed on research nuclear reactor. • Methods in screening and grouping IEs are addressed. • Focusing only on internal IEs due to random failures of components. - Abstract: This paper attempts to present the results in identifying possible important initiating events (IEs) as comprehensive as possible to be applied in the development of Level-1 probabilistic safety assessment (PSA) study. This involves the approaches in listing and the methods in screening and grouping IEs, by focusing only on the internal IEs due to random failures of components and human errors with full power operational conditions and reactor core as the radioactivity source. Five approaches were applied in listing the IEs and each step of the methodology was described and commented. The criteria in screening and grouping the IEs were also presented. The results provided the information on how the Malaysian PSA team applied the approaches in selecting the most probable IEs as complete as possible in order to ensure the set of IEs was identified systematically and as representative as possible, hence providing confidence to the completeness of the PSA study. This study is perhaps one of the first to address classic comprehensive steps in identifying important IEs to be used in a Level-1 PSA study.

[Description of contributing factors in adverse events related to patient safety and their preventability].

Science.gov (United States)

Guerra-García, María Mercedes; Campos-Rivas, Beatriz; Sanmarful-Schwarz, Alexandra; Vírseda-Sacristán, Alicia; Dorrego-López, M Aránzazu; Charle-Crespo, Ángeles

2017-11-25

To assess the extent of healthcare related adverse events (AEs), their effect on patients, and their seriousness. To analyse the factors leading to the development of AEs, their relationship with the damage caused, and their degree of preventability. Retrospective descriptive study. Porriño, Pontevedra, Spain, Primary Care Service, from January-2014 to April-2016. Reported AEs were entered into the Patient Safety Reporting and Learning System (SiNASP). The variables measured were: Near Incident (NI) an occurrence with no effect or harm on the patient; Adverse Event (AE) an occurrence that affects or harms a patient. The level of harm is classified as minimal, minor, moderate, critical, and catastrophic. Preventability was classified as little evidence of being preventable, 50% preventable, and sound evidence of being preventable. percentages and Chi-squared test for qualitative variables; P<.05 with SPSS.15. SiNASP. Ethical considerations: approved by the Research Ethics Committee (2016/344). There were 166 recorded AEs (50.6% in males, and 46.4% in women. The mean age was 60.80years). Almost two-thirds 62.7% of AEs affected the patient, with 45.8% causing minimal damage, while 2.4% caused critical damages. Healthcare professionals were a contributing factor in 71.7% of the AEs, with the trend showing that poor communication and lack of protocols were related to the damage caused. Degree of preventability: 96.4%. Most AEs affected the patient, and were related to medication, diagnostic tests, and laboratory errors. The level of harm was related to communication problems, lack of, or deficient, protocols and a poor safety culture. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier España, S.L.U. All rights reserved.

Facilitated Nurse Medication-Related Event Reporting to Improve Medication Management Quality and Safety in Intensive Care Units.

Science.gov (United States)

Xu, Jie; Reale, Carrie; Slagle, Jason M; Anders, Shilo; Shotwell, Matthew S; Dresselhaus, Timothy; Weinger, Matthew B

Medication safety presents an ongoing challenge for nurses working in complex, fast-paced, intensive care unit (ICU) environments. Studying ICU nurse's medication management-especially medication-related events (MREs)-provides an approach to analyze and improve medication safety and quality. The goal of this study was to explore the utility of facilitated MRE reporting in identifying system deficiencies and the relationship between MREs and nurses' work in the ICUs. We conducted 124 structured 4-hour observations of nurses in three different ICUs. Each observation included measurement of nurse's moment-to-moment activity and self-reports of workload and negative mood. The observer then obtained MRE reports from the nurse using a structured tool. The MREs were analyzed by three experts. MREs were reported in 35% of observations. The 60 total MREs included four medication errors and seven adverse drug events. Of the 49 remaining MREs, 65% were associated with negative patient impact. Task/process deficiencies were the most common contributory factor for MREs. MRE occurrence was correlated with increased total task volume. MREs also correlated with increased workload, especially during night shifts. Most of these MREs would not be captured by traditional event reporting systems. Facilitated MRE reporting provides a robust information source about potential breakdowns in medication management safety and opportunities for system improvement.

An event-related brain potential study of visual selective attention to conjunctions of color and shape

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Smid, HGOM; Jakob, A; Heinze, HJ

What cognitive processes underlie event-related brain potential (ERP) effects related to visual multidimensional selective attention and how are these processes organized? We recorded ERPs when participants attended to one conjunction of color, global shape and local shape and ignored other

Probabilistic safety analysis for fire events for the NPP Isar 2

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Schmaltz, H.; Hristodulidis, A.

2007-01-01

The 'Probabilistic Safety Analysis for Fire Events' (Fire-PSA KKI2) for the NPP Isar 2 was performed in addition to the PSA for full power operation and considers all possible events which can be initiated due to a fire. The aim of the plant specific Fire-PSA was to perform a quantitative assessment of fire events during full power operation, which is state of the art. Based on simplistic assumptions referring to the fire induced failures, the influence of system- and component-failures on the frequency of the core damage states was analysed. The Fire-PSA considers events, which will result due to fire-induced failures of equipment on the one hand in a SCRAM and on the other hand in events, which will not have direct operational effects but because of the fire-induced failure of safety related installations the plant will be shut down as a precautionary measure. These events are considered because they may have a not negligible influence on the frequency of core damage states in case of failures during the plant shut down because of the reduced redundancy of safety related systems. (orig.)

Geriatric Patient Safety Indicators Based on Linked Administrative Health Data to Assess Anticoagulant-Related Thromboembolic and Hemorrhagic Adverse Events in Older Inpatients: A Study Proposal.

Science.gov (United States)

Le Pogam, Marie-Annick; Quantin, Catherine; Reich, Oliver; Tuppin, Philippe; Fagot-Campagna, Anne; Paccaud, Fred; Peytremann-Bridevaux, Isabelle; Burnand, Bernard

2017-05-11

Frail older people with multiple interacting conditions, polypharmacy, and complex care needs are particularly exposed to health care-related adverse events. Among these, anticoagulant-related thromboembolic and hemorrhagic events are particularly frequent and serious in older inpatients. The growing use of anticoagulants in this population and their substantial risk of toxicity and inefficacy have therefore become an important patient safety and public health concern worldwide. Anticoagulant-related adverse events and the quality of anticoagulation management should thus be routinely assessed to improve patient safety in vulnerable older inpatients. This project aims to develop and validate a set of outcome and process indicators based on linked administrative health data (ie, insurance claims data linked to hospital discharge data) assessing older inpatient safety related to anticoagulation in both Switzerland and France, and enabling comparisons across time and among hospitals, health territories, and countries. Geriatric patient safety indicators (GPSIs) will assess anticoagulant-related adverse events. Geriatric quality indicators (GQIs) will evaluate the management of anticoagulants for the prevention and treatment of arterial or venous thromboembolism in older inpatients. GPSIs will measure cumulative incidences of thromboembolic and bleeding adverse events based on hospital discharge data linked to insurance claims data. Using linked administrative health data will improve GPSI risk adjustment on patients' conditions that are present at admission and will capture in-hospital and postdischarge adverse events. GQIs will estimate the proportion of index hospital stays resulting in recommended anticoagulation at discharge and up to various time frames based on the same electronic health data. The GPSI and GQI development and validation process will comprise 6 stages: (1) selection and specification of candidate indicators, (2) definition of administrative data

External human induced events in site evaluation for nuclear power plants. Safety guide

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

2004-01-01

decommissioning of units located at the same site. In some cases other nuclear facilities (such as fuel fabrication units or fuel processing units) may be located at the same site and therefore should be considered in the hazard evaluation for the plant. While this Safety Guide deals primarily with site characterization stages, it also contains useful guidance for the site selection. preoperational and operational stages. Recommendations for the development of the design bases for design basis external human induced events (DBEHIE) are beyond the scope of the present publication. In this sense, the present Safety Guide concentrates on the definition of hazards for the site and on the general identification of major effects on the plant as a whole, according to the reference probabilistic or deterministic criteria, which are to be used in a design or in a design assessment framework. The next step in the full determination of the design basis for a specific plant is carried out in a design context, being intrinsically dependent on the layout and design. This additional step is therefore discussed in the series of standards relating to design, together with the detailed loading schemes and the design procedures, owing to their constitutive dependence. Hence, in this Safety Guide, the term 'design basis' should be understood as being limited mainly to that part of the determination of the design basis that is independent of any procedure for plant layout or design. In the selection between a deterministic and a probabilistic approach for hazard evaluation, several issues are determinant. These include: the availability of data for the site. The possibility of reliable extrapolation to lower excess values. The design approach to be adopted. The compatibility with national standards for hazard evaluation and design. And public acceptance issues. In this context, basic reference is made to a probabilistic approach for the site evaluation stage, while the derivation of single values on

Extreme meteorological events and nuclear facilities safety

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Almeida, Patricia Moco Princisval

2006-01-01

An External Event is an event that originates outside the site and whose effects on the Nuclear Power Plants (NPP) should be considered. Such events could be of natural or human induced origin and should be identified and selected for design purposes during the site evaluation process. This work shows that the subtropics and mid latitudes of South America east of the Andes Mountain Range have been recognized as prone to severe convective weather. In Brazil, the events of tornadoes are becoming frequent; however there is no institutionalized procedure for a systematic documentation of severe weather. The information is done only for some scientists and by the newspapers. Like strong wind can affect the structural integrity of buildings or the pressure differential can affect the ventilation system, our concern is the safety of NPP and for this purpose the recommendations of International Atomic Energy Agency, Nuclear Regulatory Commission and Comissao Nacional de Energia Nuclear are showed and also a data base of tornadoes in Brazil is done. (author)

An event-related brain potential study of visual selective attention to conjunctions of color and shape.

Science.gov (United States)

Smid, H G; Jakob, A; Heinze, H J

1999-03-01

What cognitive processes underlie event-related brain potential (ERP) effects related to visual multidimensional selective attention and how are these processes organized? We recorded ERPs when participants attended to one conjunction of color, global shape and local shape and ignored other conjunctions of these attributes in three discriminability conditions. Attending to color and shape produced three ERP effects: frontal selection positivity (FSP), central negativity (N2b), and posterior selection negativity (SN). The results suggested that the processes underlying SN and N2b perform independent within-dimension selections, whereas the process underlying the FSP performs hierarchical between-dimension selections. At posterior electrodes, manipulation of discriminability changed the ERPs to the relevant but not to the irrelevant stimuli, suggesting that the SN does not concern the selection process itself but rather a cognitive process initiated after selection is finished. Other findings suggested that selection of multiple visual attributes occurs in parallel.

Probabilistic safety assessment for seismic events

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

1993-10-01

This Technical Document on Probabilistic Safety Assessment for Seismic Events is mainly associated with the Safety Practice on Treatment of External Hazards in PSA and discusses in detail one specific external hazard, i.e. earthquakes

Analysis on typical illegal events for nuclear safety class 1 valve

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Tian Dongqing; Gao Runsheng; Jiao Dianhui; Yang Lili; Chen Peng

2014-01-01

Illegal welding events of nuclear safety class l valve forging occurred to the manufacturer, while the valve was returned to be repaired. Illegal nondestructive test event of nuclear safety class valve occurred also to the manufacturer in the manufacturing process. The two events have resulted in quality incipient fault for the installed valves and the valves in the manufacturing process. It was reflected that operation of the factory quality assurance system isn't activated, and nuclear power engineering and operating company have insufficient supervision. The event-related parties should strengthen quality management and process control, get rid of the quality incipient fault, and experience feedback should be done well to guarantee quality of equipment in nuclear power plant. (authors)

Event Safety-A Culture of Responsibility

Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

Christian Alexander Buschhoff

2015-01-01

In this paper, the author introduces the concept of events and the importance of safety. And what is emphasized is that guests must set up the safety awareness in the process of the implementation of the safety, to ensure that every guest can move in the area according to their will, and won't produce any risk.

Analysis for Human-related Events during the Overhaul

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Kim, Ji Tae; Kim, Min Chull; Choi, Dong Won; Lee, Durk Hun [Korea Institute of Nuclear Safety, Daejeon (Korea, Republic of)

2011-10-15

The event frequency due to human error is decreasing among 20 operating Nuclear Power Plants (NPPs) excluding the NPP (Shin-Kori unit-1) in the commissioning stage since 2008. However, the events due to human error during an overhaul (O/H) occur annually (see Table I). An analysis for human-related events during the O/H was performed. Similar problems were identified for each event from the analysis and also, organizational and safety cultural factors were also identified

Preliminary safety analysis of unscrammed events for KLFR

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kim, S.J.; Ha, G.S.

2005-01-01

The report presents the design features of KLFR; Safety Analysis Code; steady-state calculation results and analysis results of unscrammed events. The calculations of the steady-state and unscrammed events have been performed for the conceptual design of KLFR using SSC-K code. UTOP event results in no fuel damage and no centre-line melting. The inherent safety features are demonstrated through the analysis of ULOHS event. Although the analysis of ULOF has much uncertainties in the pump design, the analysis results show the inherent safety characteristics. 6% flow of rated flow of natural circulation is formed in the case of ULOF. In the metallic fuel rod, the cladding temperature is somewhat high due to the low heat transfer coefficient of lead. ULOHS event should be considered in design of RVACS for long-term cooling

A Study of Time Response for Safety-Related Operator Actions in Non-LOCA Safety Analysis

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Lee, Min Seok; Lee, Sang Seob; Park, Min Soo; Lee, Gyu Cheon; Kim, Shin Whan [KEPCO E and C Company, Daejeon (Korea, Republic of)

2014-10-15

The classification of initiating events for safety analysis report (SAR) chapter 15 is categorized into moderate frequency events (MF), infrequent events (IF), and limiting faults (LF) depending on the frequency of its occurrence. For the non-LOCA safety analysis with the purpose to get construction or operation license, however, it is assumed that the operator response action to mitigate the events starts at 30 minutes after the initiation of the transient regardless of the event categorization. Such an assumption of corresponding operator response time may have over conservatism with the MF and IF events and results in a decrease in the safety margin compared to its acceptance criteria. In this paper, the plant conditions (PC) are categorized with the definitions in SAR 15 and ANS 51.1. Then, the consequence of response for safety-related operator action time is determined based on the PC in ANSI 58.8. The operator response time for safety analysis regarding PC are reviewed and suggested. The clarifying alarm response procedure would be required for the guideline to reduce the operator response time when the alarms indicate the occurrence of the transient.

Selected problems and results of the transient event and reliability analyses for the German safety study

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hoertner, H.

1977-01-01

For the investigation of the risk of nuclear power plants loss-of-coolant accidents and transients have to be analyzed. The different functions of the engineered safety features installed to cope with transients are explained. The event tree analysis is carried out for the important transient 'loss of normal onsite power'. Preliminary results of the reliability analyses performed for quantitative evaluation of this event tree are shown. (orig.) [de

The definition of exertion-related cardiac events.

Science.gov (United States)

Rai, M; Thompson, P D

2011-02-01

Vigorous physical activity increases the risk of sudden cardiac death (SCD) and acute myocardial infarction (AMI) but there is no standard definition as to what constitutes an exertion-related cardiac event, specifically the time interval between physical exertion and cardiac event. A systematic review of studies related to exertion-related cardiac events was performed and the time interval between exertion and the event or the symptoms leading to the event was looked for in all the articles selected for inclusion. A total of 12 of 26 articles "suggested" or "defined" exertion-related events as those events whose symptoms started during or within 1 h of exertion. Others used definitions of 0.5 h, 2 h, "during exertion", "during or immediately post exertion" and "during or within several hours after exertion". It is suggested, therefore, that the definition of an exertion-related cardiac event be established as a cardiac event in which symptoms started during or within 1 h of physical exertion.

The influence of caffeine on spatial-selective attention: an event-related potential study.

Science.gov (United States)

Ruijter, J; de Ruiter, M B; Snel, J; Lorist, M M

2000-12-01

Following the indications of previous studies that caffeine might have a specific effect on the processing of spatial information compared with other types of information, the present study investigated the influence of caffeine on an often used spatial-selective attention task. Event-related potentials (ERPs) were recorded from 11 participants under conditions of caffeine (250 mg) and placebo. Spatial-selective attention effects were reflected in the ERPs as more positive going occipital P1 and broadly distributed P2 components, and more negative going occipital-temporal N1 and broadly distributed N2 components. A treatment effect was found as a more positive going frontal P2 component in the caffeine condition, whereas interactions between treatment and attention were observed for P2 and N2 components, but not for P1 and N1 components. This pattern of results suggests that caffeine has no specific influence on spatial-selective attention, but rather, has a more general facilitating effect on perceptual processing, as well as a possible effect on the frontal control mechanisms, i.e. focusing attention and increasing selectivity.

Potential off-normal events and associated radiological source terms for the compact ignition tokamak: Fusion Safety Program

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Holland, D.F.; Lyon, R.E.

1987-10-01

The Compact Ignition Tokamak (CIT), the latest step in the United States program to develop the commercial application of fusion power, is designed as the first fusion device to achieve ignition conditions. It is to be constructed near Princeton, New Jersey on the site of the existing Tokamak Fusion Test Reactor (TFTR). To address the environmental impact and public safety concerns, a preliminary analysis was performed of potential off-normal radiological releases. Operational occurrences, natural phenomena, accidents with external origins, and accidents external to the PPPL site were considered as potential sources for off-normal events. Based on an initial screening, events were selected for preliminary analysis. Included in these events were tritium releases from the tritium delivery and recovery system, tritium releases from the torus, releases of activated nitrogen from the test cell or cryostat, seismic events, and shipping accidents. In each case, the design considerations related to the event were reviewed and the release scenarios discussed. Because of the complexity of some of the proposed safety systems, in some cases event trees were used to describe the accident scenarios. For each scenario, the probability was estimated as well as the release magnitude, isotope, chemical form, and release mode. 10 refs., 17 figs., 5 tabs

Analysis of adverse events as a contribution to safety culture in the context of practice development

Science.gov (United States)

Hoffmann, Susanne; Frei, Irena Anna

2017-01-01

Background: Analysing adverse events is an effective patient safety measure. Aim: We show, how clinical nurse specialists have been enabled to analyse adverse events with the „Learning from Defects-Tool“ (LFD-Tool). Method: Our multi-component implementation strategy addressed both, the safety knowledge of clinical nurse specialists and their attitude towards patient safety. The culture of practice development was taken into account. Results: Clinical nurse specialists relate competency building on patient safety due to the application of the LFD-tool. Applying the tool, fosters the reflection of adverse events in care teams. Conclusion: Applying the „Learning from Defects-Tool“ promotes work-based learning. Analysing adverse events with the „Learning from Defects-Tool“ contributes to the safety culture in a hospital.

External Events Excluding Earthquakes in the Design of Nuclear Power Plants. Safety Guide

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

2008-01-01

This Safety Guide provides recommendations and guidance on design for the protection of nuclear power plants from the effects of external events (excluding earthquakes), i.e. events that originate either off the site or within the boundaries of the site but from sources that are not directly involved in the operational states of the nuclear power plant units. In addition, it provides recommendations on engineering related matters in order to comply with the safety objectives and requirements established in the IAEA Safety Requirements publication, Safety of Nuclear Power Plants: Design. It is also applicable to the design and safety assessment of items important to the safety of land based stationary nuclear power plants with water cooled reactors. Contents: 1. Introduction; 2. Application of safety criteria to the design; 3. Design basis for external events; 4. Aircraft crash; 5. External fire; 6. Explosions; 7. Asphyxiant and toxic gases; 8. Corrosive and radioactive gases and liquids; 9. Electromagnetic interference; 10. Floods; 11. Extreme winds; 12. Extreme meteorological conditions; 13. Biological phenomena; 14. Volcanism; 15. Collisions of floating bodies with water intakes and UHS components; Annex I: Aircraft crashes; Annex II: Detonation and deflagration; Annex III: Toxicity limits.

Operating experience feedback from safety significant events at research reactors

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Shokr, A.M. [Atomic Energy Authority, Abouzabal (Egypt). Egypt Second Research Reactor; Rao, D. [Bhabha Atomic Research Centre, Mumbai (India)

2015-05-15

Operating experience feedback is an effective mechanism to provide lessons learned from the events and the associated corrective actions to prevent recurrence of events, resulting in improving safety in the nuclear installations. This paper analyzes the events of safety significance that have been occurred at research reactors and discusses the root causes and lessons learned from these events. Insights from literature on events at research reactors and feedback from events at nuclear power plants that are relevant to research reactors are also presented along with discussions. The results of the analysis showed the importance of communication of safety information and exchange of operating experience are vital to prevent reoccurrences of events. The analysis showed also the need for continued attention to human factors and training of operating personnel, and the need for establishing systematic ageing management programmes of reactor facilities, and programmes for safety management of handling of nuclear fuel, core components, and experimental devices.

Operating experience feedback from safety significant events at research reactors

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Shokr, A.M.

2015-01-01

Operating experience feedback is an effective mechanism to provide lessons learned from the events and the associated corrective actions to prevent recurrence of events, resulting in improving safety in the nuclear installations. This paper analyzes the events of safety significance that have been occurred at research reactors and discusses the root causes and lessons learned from these events. Insights from literature on events at research reactors and feedback from events at nuclear power plants that are relevant to research reactors are also presented along with discussions. The results of the analysis showed the importance of communication of safety information and exchange of operating experience are vital to prevent reoccurrences of events. The analysis showed also the need for continued attention to human factors and training of operating personnel, and the need for establishing systematic ageing management programmes of reactor facilities, and programmes for safety management of handling of nuclear fuel, core components, and experimental devices.

Neural network real time event selection for the DIRAC experiment

CERN Document Server

Kokkas, P; Tauscher, Ludwig; Vlachos, S

2001-01-01

The neural network first level trigger for the DIRAC experiment at CERN is presented. Both the neural network algorithm used and its actual hardware implementation are described. The system uses the fast plastic scintillator information of the DIRAC spectrometer. In 210 ns it selects events with two particles having low relative momentum. Such events are selected with an efficiency of more than 0.94. The corresponding rate reduction for background events is a factor of 2.5. (10 refs).

Safety analyses for transient behavior of plasma and in-vessel components during plasma abnormal events in fusion reactor

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Honda, Takuro; Okazaki, Takashi; Bartels, H.W.; Uckan, N.A.; Seki, Yasushi.

1997-01-01

Safety analyses on plasma abnormal events have been performed using a hybrid code of a plasma dynamics model and a heat transfer model of in-vessel components. Several abnormal events, e.g., increase in fueling rate, were selected for the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) and transient behavior of the plasma and the invessel components during the events was analyzed. The physics model for safety analysis was conservatively prepared. In most cases, the plasma is terminated by a disruption or it returns to the original operation point. When the energy confinement improves by a factor of 2.0 in the steady state, which is a hypothetical assumption under the present plasma data, the maximum fusion power reaches about 3.3 GW at about 3.6 s and the plasma is terminated due to a disruption. However, the results obtained in this study show the confinement boundary of ITER can be kept almost intact during the abnormal plasma transients, as long as the cooling system works normally. Several parametric studies are needed to comprehend the overpower transient including structure behavior, since many uncertainties are connected to the filed of the plasma physics. And, future work will need to discuss the burn control scenario considering confinement mode transition, system specifications, experimental plans and safety regulations, etc. to confirm the safety related to the plasma anomaly. (author)

PRELIMINARY SELECTION OF MGR DESIGN BASIS EVENTS

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kappes, J.A.

1999-01-01

The purpose of this analysis is to identify the preliminary design basis events (DBEs) for consideration in the design of the Monitored Geologic Repository (MGR). For external events and natural phenomena (e.g., earthquake), the objective is to identify those initiating events that the MGR will be designed to withstand. Design criteria will ensure that radiological release scenarios resulting from these initiating events are beyond design basis (i.e., have a scenario frequency less than once per million years). For internal (i.e., human-induced and random equipment failures) events, the objective is to identify credible event sequences that result in bounding radiological releases. These sequences will be used to establish the design basis criteria for MGR structures, systems, and components (SSCs) design basis criteria in order to prevent or mitigate radiological releases. The safety strategy presented in this analysis for preventing or mitigating DBEs is based on the preclosure safety strategy outlined in ''Strategy to Mitigate Preclosure Offsite Exposure'' (CRWMS M andO 1998f). DBE analysis is necessary to provide feedback and requirements to the design process, and also to demonstrate compliance with proposed 10 CFR 63 (Dyer 1999b) requirements. DBE analysis is also required to identify and classify the SSCs that are important to safety (ITS)

Guide to the declaration procedure and coding system for criteria concerning significant events related to safety, radiation protection or the environment, applicable to basic nuclear installations and the transport of radioactive materials

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lacoste, Andre-Claude

2005-01-01

This guide notably contains various forms associated with the declaration of significant events, and explanations to fill them in: significant event declaration form for a basic nuclear installation, significant event declaration form for radioactive material transport, significant event report for a basic nuclear installation, significant event report for radioactive material transport, declaration criteria for significant events related to the safety of non-PWR basic nuclear installations, declaration criteria for significant events related to PWR safety, significant events declared further to events resulting in group 1 unavailability and non-compliance with technical operating specifications, declaration criteria for significant events concerning radiation protection for basic nuclear installations, declaration criteria for significant events concerning environmental protection, applicable to basic nuclear installations, and declaration criteria for significant events concerning radioactive material transport

New developments in file-based infrastructure for ATLAS event selection

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Gemmeren, P van; Malon, D M [Argonne National Laboratory, Argonne, Illinois 60439 (United States); Nowak, M, E-mail: gemmeren@anl.go [Brookhaven National Laboratory, Upton, NY 11973-5000 (United States)

2010-04-01

In ATLAS software, TAGs are event metadata records that can be stored in various technologies, including ROOT files and relational databases. TAGs are used to identify and extract events that satisfy certain selection predicates, which can be coded as SQL-style queries. TAG collection files support in-file metadata to store information describing all events in the collection. Event Selector functionality has been augmented to provide such collection-level metadata to subsequent algorithms. The ATLAS I/O framework has been extended to allow computational processing of TAG attributes to select or reject events without reading the event data. This capability enables physicists to use more detailed selection criteria than are feasible in an SQL query. For example, the TAGs contain enough information not only to check the number of electrons, but also to calculate their distance to the closest jet-a calculation that would be difficult to express in SQL. Another new development allows ATLAS to write TAGs directly into event data files. This feature can improve performance by supporting advanced event selection capabilities, including computational processing of TAG information, without the need for external TAG file or database access.

76 FR 7131 - Safety Zones; Eleventh Coast Guard District Annual Fireworks Events

Science.gov (United States)

2011-02-09

...-AA00 Safety Zones; Eleventh Coast Guard District Annual Fireworks Events AGENCY: Coast Guard, DHS... permanent safety zones to ensure public safety during annual firework displays at various locations in the... events, delete events that are no longer occurring, add new unlisted annual fireworks events to the...

Knowledge is power: averting safety-compromising events in the OR.

Science.gov (United States)

Catalano, Kathleen

2008-12-01

Surgical procedures can be unpredictable, and safety-compromising events can jeopardize patient safety. Perioperative nurses should be watchful for factors that can contribute to safety-compromising events, as well as the errors that can follow, and know how to avert them if possible. Knowledge is power and increased awareness of patient safety issues and the resources that are available to both health care practitioners and consumers can help perioperative nurses ward off patient safety problems before they occur.

Analysis of area events as part of probabilistic safety assessment for Romanian TRIGA SSR 14 MW reactor

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Mladin, D.; Stefan, I.

2005-01-01

The international experience has shown that the external events could be an important contributor to plant/ reactor risk. For this reason such events have to be included in the PSA studies. In the context of PSA for nuclear facilities, external events are defined as events originating from outside the plant, but with the potential to create an initiating event at the plant. To support plant safety assessment, PSA can be used to find methods for identification of vulnerable features of the plant and to suggest modifications in order to mitigate the impact of external events or the producing of initiating events. For that purpose, probabilistic assessment of area events concerning fire and flooding risk and impact is necessary. Due to the relatively large power level amongst research reactors, the approach to safety analysis of Romanian 14 MW TRIGA benefits from an ongoing PSA project. In this context, treatment of external events should be considered. The specific tasks proposed for the complete evaluation of area event analysis are: identify the rooms important for facility safety, determine a relative area event risk index for these rooms and a relative area event impact index if the event occurs, evaluate the rooms specific area event frequency, determine the rooms contribution to reactor hazard state frequencies, analyze power supply and room dependencies of safety components (as pumps, motor operated valves). The fire risk analysis methodology is based on Berry's method [1]. This approach provides a systematic procedure to carry out a relative index of different rooms. The factors, which affect the fire probability, are: personal presence in the room, number and type of ignition sources, type and area of combustibles, fuel available in the room, fuel location, and ventilation. The flooding risk analysis is based on the amount of piping in the room. For accuracy of the information regarding piping a facility walk-about is necessary. In case of flooding risk

Safety in the operating room during orthopedic trauma surgery-incidence of adverse events related to technical equipment and logistics

NARCIS (Netherlands)

van Delft, E. A. K.; Schepers, T.; Bonjer, H. J.; Kerkhoffs, G. M. M. J.; Goslings, J. C.; Schep, N. W. L.

2017-01-01

Safety in the operating room is widely debated. Adverse events during surgery are potentially dangerous for the patient and staff. The incidence of adverse events during orthopedic trauma surgery is unknown. Therefore, we performed a study to quantify the incidence of these adverse events. Primary

Accident sequence precursor events with age-related contributors

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Murphy, G.A.; Kohn, W.E.

1995-12-31

The Accident Sequence Precursor (ASP) Program at ORNL analyzed about 14.000 Licensee Event Reports (LERs) filed by US nuclear power plants 1987--1993. There were 193 events identified as precursors to potential severe core accident sequences. These are reported in G/CR-4674. Volumes 7 through 20. Under the NRC Nuclear Plant Aging Research program, the authors evaluated these events to determine the extent to which component aging played a role. Events were selected that involved age-related equipment degradation that initiated an event or contributed to an event sequence. For the 7-year period, ORNL identified 36 events that involved aging degradation as a contributor to an ASP event. Except for 1992, the percentage of age-related events within the total number of ASP events over the 7-year period ({approximately}19%) appears fairly consistent up to 1991. No correlation between plant ape and number of precursor events was found. A summary list of the age-related events is presented in the report.

Prevalence of Topical Corticosteroids Related Adverse Drug Events and Associated Factors in Selected Community Pharmacies and Cosmetic Shops of Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Mahlet Tsegaye

2018-03-01

Conclusion: Majority of the topical corticosteroids were obtained without prescription for the purpose of beautification rather than treatment. A higher proportion of cosmetic users reported to have experienced at least one adverse event. There needs to consider safety concerns related to topical corticosteroids use in the city.

Event Shape Sorting: selecting events with similar evolution

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Tomášik Boris

2017-01-01

Full Text Available We present novel method for the organisation of events. The method is based on comparing event-by-event histograms of a chosen quantity Q that is measured for each particle in every event. The events are organised in such a way that those with similar shape of the Q-histograms end-up placed close to each other. We apply the method on histograms of azimuthal angle of the produced hadrons in ultrarelativsitic nuclear collisions. By selecting events with similar azimuthal shape of their hadron distribution one chooses events which are likely that they underwent similar evolution from the initial state to the freeze-out. Such events can more easily be compared to theoretical simulations where all conditions can be controlled. We illustrate the method on data simulated by the AMPT model.

Crossmodal effects of Guqin and piano music on selective attention: an event-related potential study.

Science.gov (United States)

Zhu, Weina; Zhang, Junjun; Ding, Xiaojun; Zhou, Changle; Ma, Yuanye; Xu, Dan

2009-11-27

To compare the effects of music from different cultural environments (Guqin: Chinese music; piano: Western music) on crossmodal selective attention, behavioral and event-related potential (ERP) data in a standard two-stimulus visual oddball task were recorded from Chinese subjects in three conditions: silence, Guqin music or piano music background. Visual task data were then compared with auditory task data collected previously. In contrast with the results of the auditory task, the early (N1) and late (P300) stages exhibited no differences between Guqin and piano backgrounds during the visual task. Taking our previous study and this study together, we can conclude that: although the cultural-familiar music influenced selective attention both in the early and late stages, these effects appeared only within a sensory modality (auditory) but not in cross-sensory modalities (visual). Thus, the musical cultural factor is more obvious in intramodal than in crossmodal selective attention.

Auditory selective attention in adolescents with major depression: An event-related potential study.

Science.gov (United States)

Greimel, E; Trinkl, M; Bartling, J; Bakos, S; Grossheinrich, N; Schulte-Körne, G

2015-02-01

Major depression (MD) is associated with deficits in selective attention. Previous studies in adults with MD using event-related potentials (ERPs) reported abnormalities in the neurophysiological correlates of auditory selective attention. However, it is yet unclear whether these findings can be generalized to MD in adolescence. Thus, the aim of the present ERP study was to explore the neural mechanisms of auditory selective attention in adolescents with MD. 24 male and female unmedicated adolescents with MD and 21 control subjects were included in the study. ERPs were collected during an auditory oddball paradigm. Depressive adolescents tended to show a longer N100 latency to target and non-target tones. Moreover, MD subjects showed a prolonged latency of the P200 component to targets. Across groups, longer P200 latency was associated with a decreased tendency of disinhibited behavior as assessed by a behavioral questionnaire. To be able to draw more precise conclusions about differences between the neural bases of selective attention in adolescents vs. adults with MD, future studies should include both age groups and apply the same experimental setting across all subjects. The study provides strong support for abnormalities in the neurophysiolgical bases of selective attention in adolecents with MD at early stages of auditory information processing. Absent group differences in later ERP components reflecting voluntary attentional processes stand in contrast to results reported in adults with MD and may suggest that adolescents with MD possess mechanisms to compensate for abnormalities in the early stages of selective attention. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

An analysis of electronic health record-related patient safety concerns

Science.gov (United States)

Meeks, Derek W; Smith, Michael W; Taylor, Lesley; Sittig, Dean F; Scott, Jean M; Singh, Hardeep

2014-01-01

Objective A recent Institute of Medicine report called for attention to safety issues related to electronic health records (EHRs). We analyzed EHR-related safety concerns reported within a large, integrated healthcare system. Methods The Informatics Patient Safety Office of the Veterans Health Administration (VA) maintains a non-punitive, voluntary reporting system to collect and investigate EHR-related safety concerns (ie, adverse events, potential events, and near misses). We analyzed completed investigations using an eight-dimension sociotechnical conceptual model that accounted for both technical and non-technical dimensions of safety. Using the framework analysis approach to qualitative data, we identified emergent and recurring safety concerns common to multiple reports. Results We extracted 100 consecutive, unique, closed investigations between August 2009 and May 2013 from 344 reported incidents. Seventy-four involved unsafe technology and 25 involved unsafe use of technology. A majority (70%) involved two or more model dimensions. Most often, non-technical dimensions such as workflow, policies, and personnel interacted in a complex fashion with technical dimensions such as software/hardware, content, and user interface to produce safety concerns. Most (94%) safety concerns related to either unmet data-display needs in the EHR (ie, displayed information available to the end user failed to reduce uncertainty or led to increased potential for patient harm), software upgrades or modifications, data transmission between components of the EHR, or ‘hidden dependencies’ within the EHR. Discussion EHR-related safety concerns involving both unsafe technology and unsafe use of technology persist long after ‘go-live’ and despite the sophisticated EHR infrastructure represented in our data source. Currently, few healthcare institutions have reporting and analysis capabilities similar to the VA. Conclusions Because EHR-related safety concerns have complex

33 CFR 165.1191 - Safety zones: Northern California annual fireworks events.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-07-01

... annual fireworks events. 165.1191 Section 165.1191 Navigation and Navigable Waters COAST GUARD... § 165.1191 Safety zones: Northern California annual fireworks events. (a) General. Safety zones are.... Event Description Fireworks display. Date Last Saturday in May. Location 1,000 feet off Pier 30/32...

Effects of organizational safety practices and perceived safety climate on PPE usage, engineering controls, and adverse events involving liquid antineoplastic drugs among nurses.

Science.gov (United States)

DeJoy, David M; Smith, Todd D; Woldu, Henok; Dyal, Mari-Amanda; Steege, Andrea L; Boiano, James M

2017-07-01

Antineoplastic drugs pose risks to the healthcare workers who handle them. This fact notwithstanding, adherence to safe handling guidelines remains inconsistent and often poor. This study examined the effects of pertinent organizational safety practices and perceived safety climate on the use of personal protective equipment, engineering controls, and adverse events (spill/leak or skin contact) involving liquid antineoplastic drugs. Data for this study came from the 2011 National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) Health and Safety Practices Survey of Healthcare Workers which included a sample of approximately 1,800 nurses who had administered liquid antineoplastic drugs during the past seven days. Regression modeling was used to examine predictors of personal protective equipment use, engineering controls, and adverse events involving antineoplastic drugs. Approximately 14% of nurses reported experiencing an adverse event while administering antineoplastic drugs during the previous week. Usage of recommended engineering controls and personal protective equipment was quite variable. Usage of both was better in non-profit and government settings, when workers were more familiar with safe handling guidelines, and when perceived management commitment to safety was higher. Usage was poorer in the absence of specific safety handling procedures. The odds of adverse events increased with number of antineoplastic drugs treatments and when antineoplastic drugs were administered more days of the week. The odds of such events were significantly lower when the use of engineering controls and personal protective equipment was greater and when more precautionary measures were in place. Greater levels of management commitment to safety and perceived risk were also related to lower odds of adverse events. These results point to the value of implementing a comprehensive health and safety program that utilizes available hazard controls and effectively communicates

Evaluation of Adverse Events in Total Disc Replacement: A Meta-Analysis of FDA Summary of Safety and Effectiveness Data.

Science.gov (United States)

Anderson, Paul A; Nassr, Ahmad; Currier, Bradford L; Sebastian, Arjun S; Arnold, Paul M; Fehlings, Michael G; Mroz, Thomas E; Riew, K Daniel

2017-04-01

Systematic review and meta-analysis. The safety of new technology such as cervical total disc replacement (TDR) is of paramount importance and is best evaluated in randomized clinical trials (RCT). We compared complication risks of TDR to fusion using data from Investigational Device Exemptions. A systematic review of FDA Summary of Safety and Effectiveness reports of the 8 approved cervical TDRs was performed. These were all randomized controlled trials comparing anterior cervical discectomy and fusion (ACDF) to TDR. Important outcome variables were dysphagia, wound infection, neurologic injuries, heterotopic ossification, death, and secondary surgeries. A random effects model was selected a priori. Data on adverse events was abstracted and analyzed by calculating relative risk of ACDF to TDR by meta-analysis techniques. The study included 3027 patients with 1377 randomized to ACDF and 1652 to TDR. No statistical differences were present between the 2 groups in dysphagia/dysphonia, hardware related, heterotopic ossification, death, and overall neurologic adverse events and incidence of neurologic deterioration. The relative risk of wound-related problems ACDF to TDR was 0.76 (95% confidence interval [CI] = 0.59, 0.98) favoring ACDF, which was statistically significant, but these were minor and never required a second surgical procedure for deep wound infection. The relative risk of ACDF to TDR in surgical-related neurologic events and secondary surgeries was 1.62 (95% CI = 1.04, 2.53) and 1.79 (95% CI = 1.17, 2.74), both favoring TDR. Cervical TDR appears to be as safe as or safer than ACDF at 2-year follow-up.

Root Cause Analysis: Learning from Adverse Safety Events.

Science.gov (United States)

Brook, Olga R; Kruskal, Jonathan B; Eisenberg, Ronald L; Larson, David B

2015-10-01

Serious adverse events continue to occur in clinical practice, despite our best preventive efforts. It is essential that radiologists, both as individuals and as a part of organizations, learn from such events and make appropriate changes to decrease the likelihood that such events will recur. Root cause analysis (RCA) is a process to (a) identify factors that underlie variation in performance or that predispose an event toward undesired outcomes and (b) allow for development of effective strategies to decrease the likelihood of similar adverse events occurring in the future. An RCA process should be performed within the environment of a culture of safety, focusing on underlying system contributors and, in a confidential manner, taking into account the emotional effects on the staff involved. The Joint Commission now requires that a credible RCA be performed within 45 days for all sentinel or major adverse events, emphasizing the need for all radiologists to understand the processes with which an effective RCA can be performed. Several RCA-related tools that have been found to be useful in the radiology setting include the "five whys" approach to determine causation; cause-and-effect, or Ishikawa, diagrams; causal tree mapping; affinity diagrams; and Pareto charts. © RSNA, 2015.

External main-induced events in relation to nuclear power plant siting

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

1981-01-01

This safety Guide recomments procedures and provides information for use in implementing that part of the code of safety in Nuclear Power Plant Siting (IAEA Safety Series No. 50-C-S) which concerns man-induced events external to the plant, up to the evaluation of corresponding design basis parameters. Like the code, the Guide forms part of the IAEA's programme, referred to as the NUSS programme, for establishing codes of practice and safety Guides relating to land-based stationary thermal neutron power plants

MedWatch, the FDA Safety Information and Adverse Event Reporting Program

Science.gov (United States)

... Reporting Program MedWatch: The FDA Safety Information and Adverse Event Reporting Program Share Tweet Linkedin Pin it ... approved information that can help patients avoid serious adverse events. Potential Signals of Serious Risks/New Safety ...

Criteria for safety-related nuclear-power-plant operator actions: 1982 pressurized-water-reactor (PWR) simulator exercises

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Crowe, D.S.; Beare, A.N.; Kozinsky, E.J.; Haas, P.M.

1983-06-01

The primary objective of the Safety-Related Operator Action (SROA) Program at Oak Ridge National Laboratory is to provide a data base to support development of criteria for safety-related actions by nuclear power plant operators. When compared to field data collected on similar events, a base of operator performance data developed from the simulator experiments can then be used to establish safety-related operator action design evaluation criteria, evaluate the effects of performance shaping factors, and support safety/risk assessment analyses. This report presents data obtained from refresher training exercises conducted in a pressurized water reactor (PWR) power plant control room simulator. The 14 exercises were performed by 24 teams of licensed operators from one utility, and operator performance was recorded by an automatic Performance Measurement System. Data tapes were analyzed to extract operator response times (RTs) and error rate information. Demographic and subjective data were collected by means of brief questionnaires and analyzed in an attempt to evaluate the effects of selected performance shaping factors on operator performance

Case Study on Influence Factor Trend Analysis of the Accidents and Events of Nuclear Power Plants by applying Nuclear Safety Culture Framework

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Park, J. Y.; Park, Y. W.; Park, H.G.

2016-01-01

This study 1) established the standard based on frameworks of safety culture principles that show safety culture promotion goals, 2) analyzed the linkages with the frameworks that were established by analyzing each incident cause and weak point from selected 268 cases(rating over INES grade 1) among 4,088 cases (as of April 1, 2015). The 4,088 cases were selected as a result of database analysis from 702 accidents recorded in accident and rating evaluation reports that were published in the National Nuclear Safety Commission and overseas IRS (International Reporting System for operating Experience), and 3) finally conducted a trend analysis studies with these comprehensive results. From the investigations, followings were concluded. 1) In order to analyze the safety culture, analysis methodology is required. 2) Analytical methodology for building sustainable safety culture promoting a virtuous cycle system was developed 3) Among variety of process input data, 970 domestic and overseas incidents were selected as targets and 502 accidents were classified as safety culture related events by utilizing screen filter of IAEA GS-G-3.5 Appendix I and Framework (Nuclear Safety Culture Base Frame) developed by BEES, Inc. for safety culture analysis method. 4) As a result, complex safety culture influence factors for the one reason which was difficult to separate by conventional methods was able to be analyzed. 5) The cumulative data through the system was results of virtuous trend analysis rather than temporary results. Thus, it could be unique cultural factors of the domestic industry and could derive trend differences for domestic safety culture factors accordingly

Case Study on Influence Factor Trend Analysis of the Accidents and Events of Nuclear Power Plants by applying Nuclear Safety Culture Framework

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Park, J. Y.; Park, Y. W.; Park, H.G. [KAIST, Daejeon (Korea, Republic of)

2016-05-15

This study 1) established the standard based on frameworks of safety culture principles that show safety culture promotion goals, 2) analyzed the linkages with the frameworks that were established by analyzing each incident cause and weak point from selected 268 cases(rating over INES grade 1) among 4,088 cases (as of April 1, 2015). The 4,088 cases were selected as a result of database analysis from 702 accidents recorded in accident and rating evaluation reports that were published in the National Nuclear Safety Commission and overseas IRS (International Reporting System for operating Experience), and 3) finally conducted a trend analysis studies with these comprehensive results. From the investigations, followings were concluded. 1) In order to analyze the safety culture, analysis methodology is required. 2) Analytical methodology for building sustainable safety culture promoting a virtuous cycle system was developed 3) Among variety of process input data, 970 domestic and overseas incidents were selected as targets and 502 accidents were classified as safety culture related events by utilizing screen filter of IAEA GS-G-3.5 Appendix I and Framework (Nuclear Safety Culture Base Frame) developed by BEES, Inc. for safety culture analysis method. 4) As a result, complex safety culture influence factors for the one reason which was difficult to separate by conventional methods was able to be analyzed. 5) The cumulative data through the system was results of virtuous trend analysis rather than temporary results. Thus, it could be unique cultural factors of the domestic industry and could derive trend differences for domestic safety culture factors accordingly.

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

Patient safety event reporting in critical care: a study of three intensive care units.

Science.gov (United States)

Harris, Carolyn B; Krauss, Melissa J; Coopersmith, Craig M; Avidan, Michael; Nast, Patricia A; Kollef, Marin H; Dunagan, W Claiborne; Fraser, Victoria J

2007-04-01

To increase patient safety event reporting in three intensive care units (ICUs) using a new voluntary card-based event reporting system and to compare and evaluate observed differences in reporting among healthcare workers across ICUs. Prospective, single-center, interventional study. A medical ICU (19 beds), surgical ICU (24 beds), and cardiothoracic ICU (17 beds) at a 1,371-bed urban teaching hospital. Adult patients admitted to these three study ICUs. Use of a new, internally designed, card-based reporting program to solicit voluntary anonymous reporting of medical errors and patient safety concerns. During a 14-month period, 714 patient safety events were reported using a new card-based reporting system, reflecting a significant increase in reporting compared with pre-intervention Web-based reporting (20.4 reported events/1,000 patient days pre-intervention to 41.7 reported events/1,000 patient days postintervention; rate ratio, 2.05; 95% confidence interval, 1.79-2.34). Nurses submitted the majority of reports (nurses, 67.1%; physicians, 23.1%; other reporters, 9.5%); however, physicians experienced the greatest increase in reporting among their group (physicians, 43-fold; nurses, 1.7-fold; other reporters, 4.3-fold) relative to pre-intervention rates. There were significant differences in the reporting of harm by job description: 31.1% of reports from nurses, 36.2% from other staff, and 17.0% from physicians described events that did not reach/affect the patient (p = .001); and 33.9% of reports from physicians, 27.2% from nurses, and 13.0% from other staff described events that caused harm (p = .005). Overall reported patient safety events per 1,000 patient days differed by ICU (medical ICU = 55.5, cardiothoracic ICU = 25.3, surgical ICU = 40.2; p reporting system increased reporting significantly compared with pre-intervention Web-based reporting and revealed significant differences in reporting by healthcare worker and ICU. These differences may reveal

Nuclear safety regulation on nuclear safety equipment activities in relation to human and organizational factors

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Li Tianshu

2013-01-01

Based on years of knowledge in nuclear safety supervision and experience of investigating and dealing with violation events in repair welding of DFHM, this paper analyzes major faults in manufacturing and maintaining activities of nuclear safety equipment in relation to human and organizational factors. It could be deducted that human and organizational factors has definitely become key features in the development of nuclear energy and technology. Some feasible measures to reinforce supervision on nuclear safety equipment activities have also been proposed. (author)

Contrasting safety assessments of a runway incursion scenario: Event sequence analysis versus multi-agent dynamic risk modelling

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Stroeve, Sybert H.; Blom, Henk A.P.; Bakker, G.J.

2013-01-01

In the safety literature it has been argued, that in a complex socio-technical system safety cannot be well analysed by event sequence based approaches, but requires to capture the complex interactions and performance variability of the socio-technical system. In order to evaluate the quantitative and practical consequences of these arguments, this study compares two approaches to assess accident risk of an example safety critical sociotechnical system. It contrasts an event sequence based assessment with a multi-agent dynamic risk model (MA-DRM) based assessment, both of which are performed for a particular runway incursion scenario. The event sequence analysis uses the well-known event tree modelling formalism and the MA-DRM based approach combines agent based modelling, hybrid Petri nets and rare event Monte Carlo simulation. The comparison addresses qualitative and quantitative differences in the methods, attained risk levels, and in the prime factors influencing the safety of the operation. The assessments show considerable differences in the accident risk implications of the performance of human operators and technical systems in the runway incursion scenario. In contrast with the event sequence based results, the MA-DRM based results show that the accident risk is not manifest from the performance of and relations between individual human operators and technical systems. Instead, the safety risk emerges from the totality of the performance and interactions in the agent based model of the safety critical operation considered, which coincides very well with the argumentation in the safety literature.

Association between Selective Beta-adrenergic Drugs and Blood Pressure Elevation: Data Mining of the Japanese Adverse Drug Event Report (JADER) Database.

Science.gov (United States)

Ohyama, Katsuhiro; Inoue, Michiko

2016-01-01

Selective beta-adrenergic drugs are used clinically to treat various diseases. Because of imperfect receptor selectivity, beta-adrenergic drugs cause some adverse drug events by stimulating other adrenergic receptors. To examine the association between selective beta-adrenergic drugs and blood pressure elevation, we reviewed the Japanese Adverse Drug Event Reports (JADERs) submitted to the Japan Pharmaceuticals and Medical Devices Agency. We used the Medical Dictionary for Regulatory Activities (MedDRA) Preferred Terms extracted from Standardized MedDRA queries for hypertension to identify events related to blood pressure elevation. Spontaneous adverse event reports from April 2004 through May 2015 in JADERs, a data mining algorithm, and the reporting odds ratio (ROR) were used for quantitative signal detection, and assessed by the case/non-case method. Safety signals are considered significant if the ROR estimates and lower bound of the 95% confidence interval (CI) exceed 1. A total of 2021 reports were included in this study. Among the nine drugs examined, significant signals were found, based on the 95%CI for salbutamol (ROR: 9.94, 95%CI: 3.09-31.93) and mirabegron (ROR: 7.52, 95%CI: 4.89-11.55). The results of this study indicate that some selective beta-adrenergic drugs are associated with blood pressure elevation. Considering the frequency of their indications, attention should be paid to their use in elderly patients to avoid adverse events.

Effects of an educational patient safety campaign on patients' safety behaviours and adverse events.

Science.gov (United States)

Schwappach, David L B; Frank, Olga; Buschmann, Ute; Babst, Reto

2013-04-01

Rationale, aims and objectives  The study aims to investigate the effects of a patient safety advisory on patients' risk perceptions, perceived behavioural control, performance of safety behaviours and experience of adverse incidents. Method  Quasi-experimental intervention study with non-equivalent group comparison was used. Patients admitted to the surgical department of a Swiss large non-university hospital were included. Patients in the intervention group received a safety advisory at their first clinical encounter. Outcomes were assessed using a questionnaire at discharge. Odds ratios for control versus intervention group were calculated. Regression analysis was used to model the effects of the intervention and safety behaviours on the experience of safety incidents. Results  Two hundred eighteen patients in the control and 202 in the intervention group completed the survey (75 and 77% response rates, respectively). Patients in the intervention group were less likely to feel poorly informed about medical errors (OR = 0.55, P = 0.043). There were 73.1% in the intervention and 84.3% in the control group who underestimated the risk for infection (OR = 0.51, CI 0.31-0.84, P = 0.009). Perceived behavioural control was lower in the control group (meanCon  = 3.2, meanInt  = 3.5, P = 0.010). Performance of safety-related behaviours was unaffected by the intervention. Patients in the intervention group were less likely to experience any safety-related incident or unsafe situation (OR for intervention group = 0.57, CI 0.38-0.87, P = 0.009). There were no differences in concerns for errors during hospitalization. There were 96% of patients (intervention) who would recommend other patients to read the advisory. Conclusions  The results suggest that the safety advisory decreases experiences of adverse events and unsafe situations. It renders awareness and perceived behavioural control without increasing concerns for safety and

Study on the KALIMER safety approach

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kim, Eui Kwang; Han, Do Hee; Kim, Young Cheol.

1997-01-01

This study describes KALIMER's safety approach, how to establish the safety criteria and temperature limit, how to define safety evaluation events, and some safety research and development needs items. It is recommended that the KALIMER's approach to safety use seven levels of safety design and a defense-in-depth design approach with particular emphasis on inherent passive features. In order to establish as set DBEs for KALIMER safety evaluation, the procedure is explained how to define safety evaluation events. Final selection is to be determined later with the final establishment of design concepts. On the basis of preliminary studies and evaluation of the plant safety related areas, the KALIMER and PRISM have following three main difference that may require special research and development for KALIMER. (author). 7 refs., 6 tabs., 6 figs

Implementation of a patient safety program at a tertiary health system: A longitudinal analysis of interventions and serious safety events.

Science.gov (United States)

Cropper, Douglas P; Harb, Nidal H; Said, Patricia A; Lemke, Jon H; Shammas, Nicolas W

2018-04-01

We hypothesize that implementation of a safety program based on high reliability organization principles will reduce serious safety events (SSE). The safety program focused on 7 essential elements: (a) safety rounding, (b) safety oversight teams, (c) safety huddles, (d) safety coaches, (e) good catches/safety heroes, (f) safety education, and (g) red rule. An educational curriculum was implemented focusing on changing high-risk behaviors and implementing critical safety policies. All unusual occurrences were captured in the Midas system and investigated by risk specialists, the safety officer, and the chief medical officer. A multidepartmental committee evaluated these events, and a root cause analysis (RCA) was performed. Events were tabulated and serious safety event (SSE) recorded and plotted over time. Safety success stories (SSSs) were also evaluated over time. A steady drop in SSEs was seen over 9 years. Also a rise in SSSs was evident, reflecting on staff engagement in the program. The parallel change in SSEs, SSSs, and the implementation of various safety interventions highly suggest that the program was successful in achieving its goals. A safety program based on high-reliability organization principles and made a core value of the institution can have a significant positive impact on reducing SSEs. © 2018 American Society for Healthcare Risk Management of the American Hospital Association.

Risk and sensitivity analysis in relation to external events

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Alzbutas, R.; Urbonas, R.; Augutis, J.

2001-01-01

This paper presents risk and sensitivity analysis of external events impacts on the safe operation in general and in particular the Ignalina Nuclear Power Plant safety systems. Analysis is based on the deterministic and probabilistic assumptions and assessment of the external hazards. The real statistic data are used as well as initial external event simulation. The preliminary screening criteria are applied. The analysis of external event impact on the NPP safe operation, assessment of the event occurrence, sensitivity analysis, and recommendations for safety improvements are performed for investigated external hazards. Such events as aircraft crash, extreme rains and winds, forest fire and flying parts of the turbine are analysed. The models are developed and probabilities are calculated. As an example for sensitivity analysis the model of aircraft impact is presented. The sensitivity analysis takes into account the uncertainty features raised by external event and its model. Even in case when the external events analysis show rather limited danger, the sensitivity analysis can determine the highest influence causes. These possible variations in future can be significant for safety level and risk based decisions. Calculations show that external events cannot significantly influence the safety level of the Ignalina NPP operation, however the events occurrence and propagation can be sufficiently uncertain.(author)

Westinghouse Small Modular Reactor passive safety system response to postulated events

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Smith, M. C.; Wright, R. F.

2012-01-01

The Westinghouse Small Modular Reactor (SMR) is an 800 MWt (>225 MWe) integral pressurized water reactor. This paper is part of a series of four describing the design and safety features of the Westinghouse SMR. This paper focuses in particular upon the passive safety features and the safety system response of the Westinghouse SMR. The Westinghouse SMR design incorporates many features to minimize the effects of, and in some cases eliminates the possibility of postulated accidents. The small size of the reactor and the low power density limits the potential consequences of an accident relative to a large plant. The integral design eliminates large loop piping, which significantly reduces the flow area of postulated loss of coolant accidents (LOCAs). The Westinghouse SMR containment is a high-pressure, compact design that normally operates at a partial vacuum. This facilitates heat removal from the containment during LOCA events. The containment is submerged in water which also aides the heat removal and provides an additional radionuclide filter. The Westinghouse SMR safety system design is passive, is based largely on the passive safety systems used in the AP1000 R reactor, and provides mitigation of all design basis accidents without the need for AC electrical power for a period of seven days. Frequent faults, such as reactivity insertion events and loss of power events, are protected by first shutting down the nuclear reaction by inserting control rods, then providing cold, borated water through a passive, buoyancy-driven flow. Decay heat removal is provided using a layered approach that includes the passive removal of heat by the steam drum and independent passive heat removal system that transfers heat from the primary system to the environment. Less frequent faults such as loss of coolant accidents are mitigated by passive injection of a large quantity of water that is readily available inside containment. An automatic depressurization system is used to

Categorization of safety related motor operated valve safety significance for Ulchin Unit 3

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kang, D. I.; Kim, K. Y.

2002-03-01

We performed a categorization of safety related Motor Operated Valve (MOV) safety significance for Ulchin Unit 3. The safety evaluation of MOV of domestic nuclear power plants affects the generic data used for the quantification of MOV common cause failure ( CCF) events in Ulchin Units 3 PSA. Therefore, in this study, we re-estimated the MGL(Multiple Greek Letter) parameter used for the evaluation of MOV CCF probabilities in Ulchin Units 3 Probabilistic Safety Assessment (PSA) and performed a classification of the MOV safety significance. The re-estimation results of the MGL parameter show that its value is decreased by 30% compared with the current value in Ulchin Unit 3 PSA. The categorization results of MOV safety significance using the changed value of MGL parameter shows that the number of HSSCs(High Safety Significant Components) is decreased by 54.5% compared with those using the current value of it in Ulchin Units 3 PSA

The effects of power, leadership and psychological safety on resident event reporting.

Science.gov (United States)

Appelbaum, Nital P; Dow, Alan; Mazmanian, Paul E; Jundt, Dustin K; Appelbaum, Eric N

2016-03-01

Although the reporting of adverse events is a necessary first step in identifying and addressing lapses in patient safety, such events are under-reported, especially by frontline providers such as resident physicians. This study describes and tests relationships between power distance and leader inclusiveness on psychological safety and the willingness of residents to report adverse events. A total of 106 resident physicians from the departments of neurosurgery, orthopaedic surgery, emergency medicine, otolaryngology, neurology, obstetrics and gynaecology, paediatrics and general surgery in a mid-Atlantic teaching hospital were asked to complete a survey on psychological safety, perceived power distance, leader inclusiveness and intention to report adverse events. Perceived power distance (β = -0.26, standard error [SE] 0.06, 95% confidence interval [CI] -0.37 to 0.15; p leadership practices build psychological safety and minimise power distance between low- and high-status members in order to support greater reporting of adverse events. © 2016 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Recognising safety critical events: can automatic video processing improve naturalistic data analyses?

Science.gov (United States)

Dozza, Marco; González, Nieves Pañeda

2013-11-01

New trends in research on traffic accidents include Naturalistic Driving Studies (NDS). NDS are based on large scale data collection of driver, vehicle, and environment information in real world. NDS data sets have proven to be extremely valuable for the analysis of safety critical events such as crashes and near crashes. However, finding safety critical events in NDS data is often difficult and time consuming. Safety critical events are currently identified using kinematic triggers, for instance searching for deceleration below a certain threshold signifying harsh braking. Due to the low sensitivity and specificity of this filtering procedure, manual review of video data is currently necessary to decide whether the events identified by the triggers are actually safety critical. Such reviewing procedure is based on subjective decisions, is expensive and time consuming, and often tedious for the analysts. Furthermore, since NDS data is exponentially growing over time, this reviewing procedure may not be viable anymore in the very near future. This study tested the hypothesis that automatic processing of driver video information could increase the correct classification of safety critical events from kinematic triggers in naturalistic driving data. Review of about 400 video sequences recorded from the events, collected by 100 Volvo cars in the euroFOT project, suggested that drivers' individual reaction may be the key to recognize safety critical events. In fact, whether an event is safety critical or not often depends on the individual driver. A few algorithms, able to automatically classify driver reaction from video data, have been compared. The results presented in this paper show that the state of the art subjective review procedures to identify safety critical events from NDS can benefit from automated objective video processing. In addition, this paper discusses the major challenges in making such video analysis viable for future NDS and new potential

Projected large flood event sensitivity to projection selection and temporal downscaling methodology

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Raff, D. [U.S. Dept. of the Interior, Bureau of Reclamation, Denver, Colorado (United States)

2008-07-01

Large flood events, that influence regulatory guidelines as well as safety of dams decisions, are likely to be affected by climate change. This talk will evaluate the use of climate projections downscaled and run through a rainfall - runoff model and its influence on large flood events. The climate spatial downscaling is performed statistically and a re-sampling and scaling methodology is used to temporally downscale from monthly to daily signals. The signals are run through a National Weather Service operational rainfall-runoff model to produce 6-hour flows. The flows will be evaluated for changes in large events at look-ahead horizons from 2011 - 2040, 2041 - 2070, and 2071 - 2099. The sensitivity of results will be evaluated with respect to projection selection criteria and re-sampling and scaling criteria for the Boise River in Idaho near Lucky Peak Dam. (author)

Projected large flood event sensitivity to projection selection and temporal downscaling methodology

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Raff, D.

2008-01-01

Large flood events, that influence regulatory guidelines as well as safety of dams decisions, are likely to be affected by climate change. This talk will evaluate the use of climate projections downscaled and run through a rainfall - runoff model and its influence on large flood events. The climate spatial downscaling is performed statistically and a re-sampling and scaling methodology is used to temporally downscale from monthly to daily signals. The signals are run through a National Weather Service operational rainfall-runoff model to produce 6-hour flows. The flows will be evaluated for changes in large events at look-ahead horizons from 2011 - 2040, 2041 - 2070, and 2071 - 2099. The sensitivity of results will be evaluated with respect to projection selection criteria and re-sampling and scaling criteria for the Boise River in Idaho near Lucky Peak Dam. (author)

Time Based Workload Analysis Method for Safety-Related Operator Actions in Safety Analysis

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Kim, Yun Goo; Oh, Eung Se [Korea Hydro and Nuclear Power Co., Daejeon (Korea, Republic of)

2016-05-15

During the design basis event, the safety system performs safety functions to mitigate the event. The most of safety system is actuated by automatic system however, there are operator manual actions that are needed for the plant safety. These operator actions are classified as important human actions in human factors engineering design. The human factors engineering analysis and evaluation is needed for these important human actions to assure that operator successfully perform their tasks for plant safety and operational goals. The work load analysis is one of the required analysis for the important human actions.

Time Based Workload Analysis Method for Safety-Related Operator Actions in Safety Analysis

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kim, Yun Goo; Oh, Eung Se

2016-01-01

During the design basis event, the safety system performs safety functions to mitigate the event. The most of safety system is actuated by automatic system however, there are operator manual actions that are needed for the plant safety. These operator actions are classified as important human actions in human factors engineering design. The human factors engineering analysis and evaluation is needed for these important human actions to assure that operator successfully perform their tasks for plant safety and operational goals. The work load analysis is one of the required analysis for the important human actions.

Evaluation of common mode failure of safety functions for limiting fault events

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Rezendes, J.P.; Hyde, A.W.

2004-01-01

The draft U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) policy on digital protection system software requires all Advanced Light Water Reactors (ALWRs) to be evaluated assuming a hypothetical common mode failure (CMF) which incapacitates the normal automatic initiation of safety functions. The System 80 + ALWR has been evaluated for such hypothetical conditions. The results show that the diverse automatic and manual protective systems in System 80 + provide ample safety performance margins relative to core coolability, offsite radiological releases. Reactor Coolant System (RCS) pressurization and containment integrity. This deterministic evaluation served to quantify the significant inherent safety margins in the System 80 + Standard Plant design even in the event of this extremely low probability scenario of a common mode failure. (author)

Selecting of key safety parameters in reactor nuclear safety supervision

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

He Fan; Yu Hong

2014-01-01

The safety parameters indicate the operational states and safety of research reactor are the basis of nuclear safety supervision institution to carry out effective supervision to nuclear facilities. In this paper, the selecting of key safety parameters presented by the research reactor operating unit to National Nuclear Safety Administration that can express the research reactor operational states and safety when operational occurrence or nuclear accident happens, and the interrelationship between them are discussed. Analysis shows that, the key parameters to nuclear safety supervision of research reactor including design limits, operational limits and conditions, safety system settings, safety limits, acceptable limits and emergency action level etc. (authors)

Selective attention to sound location or pitch studied with event-related brain potentials and magnetic fields.

Science.gov (United States)

Degerman, Alexander; Rinne, Teemu; Särkkä, Anna-Kaisa; Salmi, Juha; Alho, Kimmo

2008-06-01

Event-related brain potentials (ERPs) and magnetic fields (ERFs) were used to compare brain activity associated with selective attention to sound location or pitch in humans. Sixteen healthy adults participated in the ERP experiment, and 11 adults in the ERF experiment. In different conditions, the participants focused their attention on a designated sound location or pitch, or pictures presented on a screen, in order to detect target sounds or pictures among the attended stimuli. In the Attend Location condition, the location of sounds varied randomly (left or right), while their pitch (high or low) was kept constant. In the Attend Pitch condition, sounds of varying pitch (high or low) were presented at a constant location (left or right). Consistent with previous ERP results, selective attention to either sound feature produced a negative difference (Nd) between ERPs to attended and unattended sounds. In addition, ERPs showed a more posterior scalp distribution for the location-related Nd than for the pitch-related Nd, suggesting partially different generators for these Nds. The ERF source analyses found no source distribution differences between the pitch-related Ndm (the magnetic counterpart of the Nd) and location-related Ndm in the superior temporal cortex (STC), where the main sources of the Ndm effects are thought to be located. Thus, the ERP scalp distribution differences between the location-related and pitch-related Nd effects may have been caused by activity of areas outside the STC, perhaps in the inferior parietal regions.

The role of safety analyses in site selection. Some personal observations based on the experience from the Swiss site selection process

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Zuidema, Piet [Nagra, Wettingen (Switzerland)

2015-07-01

In Switzerland, the site selection process according to the ''Sectoral Plan for Deep Geological Repositories'' (BFE 2008) is underway since 2008. This process takes place in three stages. In stage 1 geological siting regions (six for the L/ILW repository and three for the HLW repository) have been identified, in stage 2 sites for the surface facilities have been identified for all siting regions in close co-operation with the sting regions and a narrowing down of the number of siting regions based on geological criteria will take place. In stage 3 the sites for a general license application are selected and the general license applications will be submitted which eventually will lead to the siting decision for both repository types. In the Swiss site selection process, safety has the highest priority. Many factors affect safety and thus a whole range of safety-related issues are considered in the identification and screening of siting possibilities. Besides dose calculations a range of quantitative and qualitative issues are considered. Dose calculations are performed in all three stages of the site selection process. In stage 1 generic safety calculations were made to develop criteria to be used for the identification of potential siting regions. In stage 2, dose calculations are made for comparing the different siting regions according to a procedure prescribed in detail by the regulator. Combined with qualitative evaluations this will lead to a narrowing down of the number of siting regions to at least two siting regions for each repository type. In stage 3 full safety cases will be prepared as part of the documentation for the general license applications. Besides the dose calculations, many other issues related to safety are analyzed in a quantitative and qualitative manner. These consider the 13 criteria defined in the Sectoral Plan and the corresponding indicators. The features analyzed cover the following broad themes: efficiency of

The role of safety analyses in site selection. Some personal observations based on the experience from the Swiss site selection process

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Zuidema, Piet

2015-01-01

In Switzerland, the site selection process according to the ''Sectoral Plan for Deep Geological Repositories'' (BFE 2008) is underway since 2008. This process takes place in three stages. In stage 1 geological siting regions (six for the L/ILW repository and three for the HLW repository) have been identified, in stage 2 sites for the surface facilities have been identified for all siting regions in close co-operation with the sting regions and a narrowing down of the number of siting regions based on geological criteria will take place. In stage 3 the sites for a general license application are selected and the general license applications will be submitted which eventually will lead to the siting decision for both repository types. In the Swiss site selection process, safety has the highest priority. Many factors affect safety and thus a whole range of safety-related issues are considered in the identification and screening of siting possibilities. Besides dose calculations a range of quantitative and qualitative issues are considered. Dose calculations are performed in all three stages of the site selection process. In stage 1 generic safety calculations were made to develop criteria to be used for the identification of potential siting regions. In stage 2, dose calculations are made for comparing the different siting regions according to a procedure prescribed in detail by the regulator. Combined with qualitative evaluations this will lead to a narrowing down of the number of siting regions to at least two siting regions for each repository type. In stage 3 full safety cases will be prepared as part of the documentation for the general license applications. Besides the dose calculations, many other issues related to safety are analyzed in a quantitative and qualitative manner. These consider the 13 criteria defined in the Sectoral Plan and the corresponding indicators. The features analyzed cover the following broad themes: efficiency of

Climate and climate-related issues for the safety assessment SR-Site

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

2010-12-01

The purpose of this report is to document current scientific knowledge on climate and climate-related conditions, relevant to the long-term safety of a KBS-3 repository, to a level required for an adequate treatment in the safety assessment SR-Site. The report also presents a number of dedicated studies on climate and selected climate-related processes of relevance for the assessment of long term repository safety. Based on this information, the report presents a number of possible future climate developments for Forsmark, the site selected for building a repository for spent nuclear fuel in Sweden (Figure 1-1). The presented climate developments are used as basis for the selection and analysis of SR-Site safety assessment scenarios in the SR-Site main report /SKB 2011/. The present report is based on research conducted and published by SKB as well as on research reported in the general scientific literature

Climate and climate-related issues for the safety assessment SR-Site

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

2010-12-15

The purpose of this report is to document current scientific knowledge on climate and climate-related conditions, relevant to the long-term safety of a KBS-3 repository, to a level required for an adequate treatment in the safety assessment SR-Site. The report also presents a number of dedicated studies on climate and selected climate-related processes of relevance for the assessment of long term repository safety. Based on this information, the report presents a number of possible future climate developments for Forsmark, the site selected for building a repository for spent nuclear fuel in Sweden (Figure 1-1). The presented climate developments are used as basis for the selection and analysis of SR-Site safety assessment scenarios in the SR-Site main report /SKB 2011/. The present report is based on research conducted and published by SKB as well as on research reported in the general scientific literature

Empirical analysis of selected nuclear power plant maintenance factors and plant safety

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Olson, J.; Osborn, R.N.; Thurber, J.A.; Sommers, P.E.; Jackson, D.H.

1985-07-01

This report contains a statistical analysis of the relationship between selected aspects of nuclear power plant maintenance programs and safety related performance. The report identifies a large number of maintenance resources which can be expected to influence maintenance performance and subsequent plant safety performance. The resources for which data were readily available were related statistically to two sets of performance indicators: maintenance intermediate safety indicators and final safety performance indicators. The results show that the administrative structure of the plant maintenance program is a significant predictor of performance on both sets of indicators

Non-selective vs. selective beta-blocker treatment and the risk of thrombo-embolic events in patients with heart failure

NARCIS (Netherlands)

de Peuter, Olav R.; Souverein, Patrick C.; Klungel, Olaf H.; Büller, Harry R.; de Boer, Anthonius; Kamphuisen, Pieter W.

2011-01-01

Aims Heart failure (HF) is associated with a prothrombotic state, resulting in an increased risk for thrombo-embolic events. Studies suggest a reduced prothrombotic state when non-selective beta-blockers relative to selective beta-blockers are given. We studied the influence of non-selective

Selection and verification of safety parameters in safety parameter display system for nuclear power plants

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Zhang Yuangfang

1992-02-01

The method and results for safety parameter selection and its verification in safety parameter display system of nuclear power plants are introduced. According to safety analysis, the overall safety is divided into six critical safety functions, and a certain amount of safety parameters which can represent the integrity degree of each function and the causes of change are strictly selected. The verification of safety parameter selection is carried out from the view of applying the plant emergency procedures and in the accident man oeuvres on a full scale nuclear power plant simulator

Safety-related operator actions: methodology for developing criteria

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kozinsky, E.J.; Gray, L.H.; Beare, A.N.; Barks, D.B.; Gomer, F.E.

1984-03-01

This report presents a methodology for developing criteria for design evaluation of safety-related actions by nuclear power plant reactor operators, and identifies a supporting data base. It is the eleventh and final NUREG/CR Report on the Safety-Related Operator Actions Program, conducted by Oak Ridge National Laboratory for the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission. The operator performance data were developed from training simulator experiments involving operator responses to simulated scenarios of plant disturbances; from field data on events with similar scenarios; and from task analytic data. A conceptual model to integrate the data was developed and a computer simulation of the model was run, using the SAINT modeling language. Proposed is a quantitative predictive model of operator performance, the Operator Personnel Performance Simulation (OPPS) Model, driven by task requirements, information presentation, and system dynamics. The model output, a probability distribution of predicted time to correctly complete safety-related operator actions, provides data for objective evaluation of quantitative design criteria

Safety management as a foundation for evidence-based aeromedical standards and reporting of medical events.

Science.gov (United States)

Evans, Anthony D; Watson, Dougal B; Evans, Sally A; Hastings, John; Singh, Jarnail; Thibeault, Claude

2009-06-01

The different interpretations by States (countries) of the aeromedical standards established by the International Civil Aviation Organization has resulted in a variety of approaches to the development of national aeromedical policy, and consequently a relative lack of harmonization. However, in many areas of aviation, safety management systems have been recently introduced and may represent a way forward. A safety management system can be defined as "A systematic approach to managing safety, including the necessary organizational structures, accountabilities, policies, and procedures" (1). There are four main areas where, by applying safety management principles, it may be possible to better use aeromedical data to enhance flight safety. These are: 1) adjustment of the periodicity and content of routine medical examinations to more accurately reflect aeromedical risk; 2) improvement in reporting and analysis of routine medical examination data; 3) improvement in reporting and analysis of in-flight medical events; and 4) support for improved reporting of relevant aeromedical events through the promotion of an appropriate culture by companies and regulatory authorities. This paper explores how the principles of safety management may be applied to aeromedical systems to improve their contribution to safety.

Mutual information spectrum for selection of event-related spatial components. Application to eloquent motor cortex mapping.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Alexei eOssadtchi

2014-01-01

Full Text Available Spatial component analysis is often used to explore multidimensional time series data whose sources cannot be measured directly. Several methods may be used to decompose the data into a set of spatial components with temporal loadings. Component selection is of crucial importance, and should be supported by objective criteria. In some applications, the use of a well defined component selection criterion may provide for automation of the analysis.In this paper we describe a novel approach for ranking of spatial components calculated from the EEG or MEG data recorded within evoked response paradigm. Our method is called Mutual Information Spectrum and is based on gauging the amount of mutual information of spatial component temporal loadings with a synthetically created reference signal. We also describe the appropriate randomization based statistical assessment scheme that can be used for selection of components with statistically significant amount of mutual information. Using simulated data with realistic trial to trial variations and SNR corresponding to the real recordings we demonstrate the superior performance characteristics of the described mutual information based measure as compared to a more conventionally used power driven gauge. We also demonstrate the application of the Mutual Information Spectrum for the selection of task-related independent components from real MEG data. We show that the Mutual Information spectrum allows to identify task-related components reliably in a consistent fashion, yielding stable results even from a small number of trials. We conclude that the proposed method fits naturally the information driven nature of ICA and can be used for routine and automatic ranking of independent components calculated from the functional neuroimaging data collected within event-related paradigms.

Roy's safety-first portfolio principle in financial risk management of disastrous events.

Science.gov (United States)

Chiu, Mei Choi; Wong, Hoi Ying; Li, Duan

2012-11-01

Roy pioneers the concept and practice of risk management of disastrous events via his safety-first principle for portfolio selection. More specifically, his safety-first principle advocates an optimal portfolio strategy generated from minimizing the disaster probability, while subject to the budget constraint and the mean constraint that the expected final wealth is not less than a preselected disaster level. This article studies the dynamic safety-first principle in continuous time and its application in asset and liability management. We reveal that the distortion resulting from dropping the mean constraint, as a common practice to approximate the original Roy's setting, either leads to a trivial case or changes the problem nature completely to a target-reaching problem, which produces a highly leveraged trading strategy. Recognizing the ill-posed nature of the corresponding Lagrangian method when retaining the mean constraint, we invoke a wisdom observed from a limited funding-level regulation of pension funds and modify the original safety-first formulation accordingly by imposing an upper bound on the funding level. This model revision enables us to solve completely the safety-first asset-liability problem by a martingale approach and to derive an optimal policy that follows faithfully the spirit of the safety-first principle and demonstrates a prominent nature of fighting for the best and preventing disaster from happening. © 2012 Society for Risk Analysis.

Reports about Occurrence of Events with Effect on Aviation Safety

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Vladimír Plos

2014-07-01

Full Text Available This article deals with a system, that is established to report the events with effect on safety. This system is based on requirements published in Annex 13 to the Chicago Convention and legislative foundations laid down in Regulation L13, Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council (EU No 376/2014, Decree No. 359/2006 Sb. and Act No. 49/1997 Sb. Standards and legislative rules precisely define the types of events that are subject of reporting and also define the structure and content of the reporting message. This content is consists mainly of the identification data about the airplane and crew, information about the route and a short description of the damage to the airplane. In the following, we discuss the possible use of such a system of mandatory reporting for the needs of safety indicators. Then there are proposals of changes in the content of the reporting message for the need of safety indicators. The present knowledge indicates that the use of all opportunities provided by the law for the reporting of events can lead to a creating of sufficient basis for safety indicators.

Different underlying mechanisms for face emotion and gender processing during feature-selective attention: Evidence from event-related potential studies.

Science.gov (United States)

Wang, Hailing; Ip, Chengteng; Fu, Shimin; Sun, Pei

2017-05-01

Face recognition theories suggest that our brains process invariant (e.g., gender) and changeable (e.g., emotion) facial dimensions separately. To investigate whether these two dimensions are processed in different time courses, we analyzed the selection negativity (SN, an event-related potential component reflecting attentional modulation) elicited by face gender and emotion during a feature selective attention task. Participants were instructed to attend to a combination of face emotion and gender attributes in Experiment 1 (bi-dimensional task) and to either face emotion or gender in Experiment 2 (uni-dimensional task). The results revealed that face emotion did not elicit a substantial SN, whereas face gender consistently generated a substantial SN in both experiments. These results suggest that face gender is more sensitive to feature-selective attention and that face emotion is encoded relatively automatically on SN, implying the existence of different underlying processing mechanisms for invariant and changeable facial dimensions. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Safety analysis for research reactors

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

2008-01-01

The aim of safety analysis for research reactors is to establish and confirm the design basis for items important to safety using appropriate analytical tools. The design, manufacture, construction and commissioning should be integrated with the safety analysis to ensure that the design intent has been incorporated into the as-built reactor. Safety analysis assesses the performance of the reactor against a broad range of operating conditions, postulated initiating events and other circumstances, in order to obtain a complete understanding of how the reactor is expected to perform in these situations. Safety analysis demonstrates that the reactor can be kept within the safety operating regimes established by the designer and approved by the regulatory body. This analysis can also be used as appropriate in the development of operating procedures, periodic testing and inspection programmes, proposals for modifications and experiments and emergency planning. The IAEA Safety Requirements publication on the Safety of Research Reactors states that the scope of safety analysis is required to include analysis of event sequences and evaluation of the consequences of the postulated initiating events and comparison of the results of the analysis with radiological acceptance criteria and design limits. This Safety Report elaborates on the requirements established in IAEA Safety Standards Series No. NS-R-4 on the Safety of Research Reactors, and the guidance given in IAEA Safety Series No. 35-G1, Safety Assessment of Research Reactors and Preparation of the Safety Analysis Report, providing detailed discussion and examples of related topics. Guidance is given in this report for carrying out safety analyses of research reactors, based on current international good practices. The report covers all the various steps required for a safety analysis; that is, selection of initiating events and acceptance criteria, rules and conventions, types of safety analysis, selection of

Selecting safety standards for nuclear power plants

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

1981-01-01

Today, many thousands of documents are available describing the requirements, guidelines, and industrial standards which can be used as bases for a nuclear power plant programme. Many of these documents relate to nuclear safety which is currently the focus of world-wide attention. The multitude of documents available on the subject, and their varying status and emphasis, make the processes of selection and implementation very important. Because nuclear power plants are technically intricate and advanced, particularly in relation to the technological status of many developing countries, these processes are also complicated. These matters were the subject of a seminar held at the Agency's headquarters in Vienna last December. The IAEA Nuclear Safety Standards (NUSS) programme was outlined and explained at the Seminar. The five areas of the NUSS programme for nuclear power plants cover, governmental organization, siting, design; operation; quality assurance. In each area the Agency has issued Codes of Practice and is developing Safety Guides. These provide regulatory agencies with a framework for safety. The Seminar recognized that the NUSS programme should enable developing countries to identify priorities in their work, particularly the implementation of safety standards. The ISO activities in the nuclear field are carried out in the framework of its Technical Committee 85 (ISO/TC85). The work is distributed in sub-committees. Seminar on selection and implementation of safety standards for nuclear power plants, jointly organized by the IAEA and the International Organization for Standardization (ISO), and held in Vienna from 15 to 18 December 1980 concerned with: terminology, definitions, units and symbols (SC-1), radiation protection (SC-2), power reactor technology (SC-3), nuclear fuel technology (SC-5). There was general agreement that the ISO standards are complementary to the NUSS codes and guides. ISO has had close relations with the IAEA for several years

Review of EU-APR Design for Selected Safety Issues of WERNA RHWG 2013

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Kim, Yong Soo; Kim, Ji Hwan [KHNP CRI, Daejeon (Korea, Republic of)

2016-10-15

Western European Nuclear Regulators' Association (WENRA) was established in 1999 to develop a harmonized approach to nuclear safety and radiation protection and their regulation. In 2013, the Reactor Harmonization Working Group (RHWG) of WENRA sets out the common positions on the seven selected key safety issues. This paper is to introduce the regulatory positions of WENRA RHWG 2013 and to review the compliance of the EU-APR with them. In this paper, we reviewed the compliance of the EUAPR regarding seven safety issues for new NPPs presented by WERNA RHWG in 2013. The EU-APR design fully complies with all WERNA RHWG safety issues since the following measures have been incorporated in it: - Successive five levels of DiD maintaining independence between different levels of DiD - Diverse design against multiple failure events such as ATWS, SBO, Loss of Ultimate Heat Sink, and Loss of Spent Fuel Pool Cooling - SAs dedicated mitigation systems to ensure the containment integrity during the SAs. - Practically eliminates accident sequences with a large or early release of radiological materials by diverse designs for multiple failure events, SAs dedicated mitigation system, and double containment design - Standard site parameters not lead to core melt accidents due to natural or man-made external hazards.

Evaluating the impact of child safety seat check-up events on parental knowledge.

Science.gov (United States)

Herring, Ashley B; Jones, Ches; Nunez, Casandra

2002-12-01

Riding unrestrained is the greatest risk factor for death and injury among children in motor vehicles. Restraining a child can reduce the risk of death for that child by up to 71%. However, despite increased awareness, child safety seat usage rates are still disturbingly low. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the impact that child safety seat check-up events have on parental knowledge on child safety seats and installation. The subjects for this study were 101 parents/caregivers who attended child safety seat check-up events in northwest Arkansas from May 2000 through June 2001. A 20-item survey was conducted via the telephone. Results showed that the check-up events in northwest Arkansas have had an impact on self-efficacy. The participants of the events were primarily Caucasian and females in the 30-34 age group. Nine of 10 subjects scored in the high knowledge category. Conclusions are that check-up events do have an impact on parental knowledge and are accepted by the target group. Additionally, participants believed that car seats are of great importance and do protect their children in the event of a crash.

Selection of the situations taken into account for the safety demonstration of a repository in deep geological formations - French regulatory guidance and IPSN modelling experience

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Escalier des Orres, P.; Greneche, D.

1993-01-01

A regulatory guidance has been recently set up in France for the safety assessment of radwaste deep geological disposal: the present paper deals with the methodology related to the safety demonstration of such a disposal, particularly the situations to be taken into account to address the potential evolution of the repository under natural or human induced events. This approach, based on a selection of events considered as reasonably envisageable, relies on a reference scenario characterized by a great stability of the geological formation and on hypothetical situations corresponding to the occurrence of random events of natural origin or of conventional nature. The implementation of this methodology within the framework of the IPSN (Protection and Nuclear Safety Institute, CEA) participation in the CEC EVEREST project is addressed. This programme consists in the evaluation of the sensitivity of the radiological consequences associated to deep radwaste disposal systems to the different elements of the performance assessment (scenario characteristics, phenomena, physico-chemical parameters) in three types of geological formations (granite, salt and clay).(author). 11 refs., 3 tabs

Selective attention to spatial and non-spatial visual stimuli is affected differentially by age: Effects on event-related brain potentials and performance data

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Talsma, D.; Kok, Albert; Ridderinkhof, K. Richard

2006-01-01

To assess selective attention processes in young and old adults, behavioral and event-related potential (ERP) measures were recorded. Streams of visual stimuli were presented from left or right locations (Experiment 1) or from a central location and comprising two different spatial frequencies

Effects of nicotine on visuo-spatial selective attention as indexed by event-related potentials.

Science.gov (United States)

Meinke, A; Thiel, C M; Fink, G R

2006-08-11

Nicotine has been shown to specifically reduce reaction times to invalidly cued targets in spatial cueing paradigms. In two experiments, we used event-related potentials to test whether the facilitative effect of nicotine upon the detection of invalidly cued targets is due to a modulation of perceptual processing, as indexed by early attention-related event-related potential components. Furthermore, we assessed whether the effect of nicotine on such unattended stimuli depends upon the use of exogenous or endogenous cues. In both experiments, the electroencephalogram was recorded while non-smokers completed discrimination tasks in Posner-type paradigms after chewing a nicotine polacrilex gum (Nicorette 2 mg) in one session and a placebo gum in another session. Nicotine reduced reaction times to invalidly cued targets when cueing was endogenous. In contrast, no differential effect of nicotine on reaction times was observed when exogenous cues were used. Electrophysiologically, we found a similar attentional modulation of the P1 and N1 components under placebo and nicotine but a differential modulation of later event-related potential components at a frontocentral site. The lack of a drug-dependent modulation of P1 and N1 in the presence of a behavioral effect suggests that the effect of nicotine in endogenous visuo-spatial cueing tasks is not due to an alteration of perceptual processes. Rather, the differential modulation of frontocentral event-related potentials suggests that nicotine acts at later stages of target processing.

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

Safety-related site characteristics - a relative comparison of the Forsmark reference areas

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Winberg, Anders

2010-12-01

SKB has over the years from 2002 to 2008 conducted site investigations in Forsmark and Laxemar, with associated site modeling, design and safety analysis. In mid-2009 Forsmark was selected on the basis of analysis made as site for a future repository for spent nuclear fuel. Based on defined safety-related geoscientific location factors data from Forsmark are compared in relative terms with data from a number of locations in Sweden, previously studied by SKB. The factors compared include: the rock's composition and structures, future climate evolution, rock mechanical conditions, earthquakes, groundwater flow, groundwater composition, delay of solutes, and the ability to characterize and describe the location. Past comparisons of these properties for the selected sites show that none of these sites collectively show any significant benefit over Forsmark site for a repository. This does not preclude that there may be places on the basis of an overall assessment of geoscientific location factors could be equivalent to Forsmark

: Principles of safety measures of sports events organizers without the involvement of police

OpenAIRE

Buchalová, Kateřina

2013-01-01

Title: Principles of safety measures of sports events organizers without the involvement of police Objectives: The aim of this thesis is a description of security measures at sporting events organizers. Methods: The thesis theoretical style is focused on searching for available sources of study and research, and writing their summary comparing safety measures of the organizers. Results: This work describes the activities of the organizers of sports events and precautions that must be provided...

The selection of probabilistic safety assessment techniques for non-reactor nuclear facilities

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Vail, J.

1992-01-01

Historically, the probabilistic safety assessment (PSA) methodology of choice is the well known event tree/fault tree inductive technique. For reactor facilities is has stood the test of time. Some non-reactor nuclear facilities have found inductive methodologies difficult to apply. The stand-alone fault tree deductive technique has been used effectively to analyze risk in nuclear chemical processing facilities and waste handling facilities. The selection between the two choices suggest benefits from use of the deductive method for non-reactor facilities

Act to keep patients safe: device-related adverse event reporting.

Science.gov (United States)

Schoem, Scott R; Shah, Udayan K

2010-05-01

Primum non nocere- "Above all do no harm." Since the first year of medical school, we have all heard and spoken this dictum countless times. Translating this dictum into action may present challenges in our daily practice. Every day, clinicians must distinguish between scientific evidence, clinical experience, and marketing claims by industry vendors of improved efficacy and safety regarding medical devices. Adverse event reporting and device failure notification are generally laid out well in hospital practice settings. Reporting beyond the local level takes on a new dimension for most surgeons. Perceived stigma from peers and corporations, lack of confidentiality, and cynicism regarding protective actions for patients should not limit one from "raising the alarm" when concerns arise about device safety or performance. This commentary aims to explain the process for reporting device-related adverse events. Copyright 2010 American Academy of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery Foundation. Published by Mosby, Inc. All rights reserved.

Impact of Selection Bias on Estimation of Subsequent Event Risk

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Hu, Yi Juan; Schmidt, Amand F.; Dudbridge, Frank; Holmes, Michael V; Brophy, James M.; Tragante, Vinicius; Li, Ziyi; Liao, Peizhou; Quyyumi, Arshed A.; McCubrey, Raymond O.; Horne, Benjamin D.; Hingorani, Aroon D; Asselbergs, Folkert W; Patel, Riyaz S.; Long, Qi; Åkerblom, Axel; Algra, Ale; Allayee, Hooman; Almgren, Peter; Anderson, Jeffrey L.; Andreassi, Maria G.; Anselmi, Chiara V.; Ardissino, Diego; Arsenault, Benoit J.; Ballantyne, Christie M.; Baranova, Ekaterina V.; Behloui, Hassan; Bergmeijer, Thomas O; Bezzina, Connie R; Bjornsson, Eythor; Body, Simon C.; Boeckx, Bram; Boersma, Eric H.; Boerwinkle, Eric; Bogaty, Peter; Braund, Peter S; Breitling, Lutz P.; Brenner, Hermann; Briguori, Carlo; Brugts, Jasper J.; Burkhardt, Ralph; Cameron, Vicky A.; Carlquist, John F.; Carpeggiani, Clara; Carruthers, Kathryn F.; Casu, Gavino; Condorelli, Gianluigi; Cresci, Sharon; Danchin, Nicolas; de Faire, Ulf; Deanfield, John; Delgado, Graciela; Deloukas, Panos; Direk, Kenan; Doughty, Robert N.; Drexel, Heinz; Duarte, Nubia E.; Dubé, Marie Pierre; Dufresne, Line; Engert, James C; Eriksson, Niclas; Fitzpatrick, Natalie; Foco, Luisa; Ford, Ian; Fox, Keith A; Gigante, Bruna; Gijsberts, Crystel M.; Girelli, Domenico; Gong, Yan; Gudbjartsson, Daniel F.; Hagström, Emil; Hartiala, Jaana; Hazen, Stanley L.; Held, Claes; Helgadottir, Anna; Hemingway, Harry; Heydarpour, Mahyar; Hoefer, Imo E.; Hovingh, G. Kees; Hubacek, Jaroslav A; James, Stefan; Johnson, Julie A; Jukema, J Wouter; Kaczor, Marcin P.; Kaminski, Karol A.; Kettner, Jiri; Kiliszek, Marek; Kleber, Marcus; Klungel, Olaf H.; Kofink, Daniel; Kohonen, Mika; Kotti, Salma; Kuukasjärvi, Pekka; Lagerqvist, Bo; Lambrechts, Diether; Lang, Chim C; Laurikka, Jari O.; Leander, Karin; Lee, Vei Vei; Lehtimäki, Terho; Leiherer, Andreas; Lenzini, Petra A.; Levin, Daniel; Lindholm, Daniel; Lokki, Marja-Liisa; Lotufo, Paulo A; Lyytikäinen, Leo-Pekka; Mahmoodi, B. Khan; Maitland-Van Der Zee, Anke H.; Martinelli, Nicola; März, Winfried; Marziliano, Nicola; McPherson, Ruth; Melander, Olle; Mons, Ute; Muehlschlegel, Jochen D.; Muhlestein, Joseph B.; Nelson, Cristopher P.; Cheh, Chris Newton; Olivieri, Oliviero; Opolski, Grzegorz; Palmer, Colin Na; Pare, Guillaume; Pasterkamp, Gerard; Pepine, Carl J; Pepinski, Witold; Pereira, Alexandre C.; Pilbrow, Anna P.; Pilote, Louise; Pitha, Jan; Ploski, Rafal; Richards, A. Mark; Saely, Christoph H.; Samani, Nilesh J; Samman-Tahhan, Ayman; Sanak, Marek; Sandesara, Pratik B.; Sattar, Naveed; Scholz, Markus; Siegbahn, Agneta; Simon, Tabassome; Sinisalo, Juha; Smith, J. Gustav; Spertus, John A.; Stefansson, Kari; Stewart, Alexandre F R; Stott, David J.; Szczeklik, Wojciech; Szpakowicz, Anna; Tanck, Michael W.T.; Tang, Wilson H.; Tardif, Jean-Claude; Ten Berg, Jur M.; Teren, Andrej; Thanassoulis, George; Thiery, Joachim; Thorgeirsson, Gudmundur; Thorleifsson, Gudmar; Thorsteinsdottir, Unnur; Timmis, Adam; Trompet, Stella; Van de Werf, Frans; van der Graaf, Yolanda; Van Der Haarst, Pim; van der Laan, Sander W; Vilmundarson, Ragnar O.; Virani, Salim S.; Visseren, Frank L J; Vlachopoulou, Efthymia; Wallentin, Lars; Waltenberger, Johannes; Wauters, Els; Wilde, Arthur A M

2017-01-01

Background - Studies of recurrent or subsequent disease events may be susceptible to bias caused by selection of subjects who both experience and survive the primary indexing event. Currently, the magnitude of any selection bias, particularly for subsequent time-to-event analysis in genetic

Initiating events in the safety probabilistic analysis of nuclear power plants

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Stasiulevicius, R.

1989-01-01

The importance of the initiating event in the probabilistic safety analysis of nuclear power plants are discussed and the basic procedures necessary for preparing reports, quantification and grouping of the events are described. The examples of initiating events with its occurence medium frequency, included those calculated for OCONEE reactor and Angra-1 reactor are presented. (E.G.)

Development of Safety Significance Evaluation Program for Accidents and Events in NPPs

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Yang, Hui Chang; Hong, Seok Jin; Cho, Nam Chul; Chung, Dae Wook; Lee, Chang Joo

2010-01-01

To evaluate the significance in terms of safety for the accidents and events occurred in nuclear power plants using probabilistic safety assessment techniques can provide useful insights to the regulator. Based on the quantified risk information of accident or event occurred, regulators can decide which regulatory areas should be focused than the others. To support these regulatory analysis activities, KINS-ASP program was developed. KINS-ASP program can supports the risk increase due to the occurred accidents or events by providing the graphic interfaces and linked quantification engines for the PSA experts and non- PSA acquainted regulators both

76 FR 80850 - Special Local Regulations and Safety Zones; Recurring Events in Northern New England

Science.gov (United States)

2011-12-27

..., design, or operation; test methods; sampling procedures; and related management systems practices) that... safety of life or property. (f) For all power boat races listed, vessels operating within the regulated... that will not interfere with the progress of the event. (g) For all regattas and boat parades listed...

Statistical analysis of events related to emergency diesel generators failures in the nuclear industry

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Kančev, Duško, E-mail: dusko.kancev@ec.europa.eu [European Commission, DG-JRC, Institute for Energy and Transport, P.O. Box 2, NL-1755 ZG Petten (Netherlands); Duchac, Alexander; Zerger, Benoit [European Commission, DG-JRC, Institute for Energy and Transport, P.O. Box 2, NL-1755 ZG Petten (Netherlands); Maqua, Michael [Gesellschaft für Anlagen-und-Reaktorsicherheit (GRS) mbH, Schwetnergasse 1, 50667 Köln (Germany); Wattrelos, Didier [Institut de Radioprotection et de Sûreté Nucléaire (IRSN), BP 17 - 92262 Fontenay-aux-Roses Cedex (France)

2014-07-01

Highlights: • Analysis of operating experience related to emergency diesel generators events at NPPs. • Four abundant operating experience databases screened. • Delineating important insights and conclusions based on the operating experience. - Abstract: This paper is aimed at studying the operating experience related to emergency diesel generators (EDGs) events at nuclear power plants collected from the past 20 years. Events related to EDGs failures and/or unavailability as well as all the supporting equipment are in the focus of the analysis. The selected operating experience was analyzed in detail in order to identify the type of failures, attributes that contributed to the failure, failure modes potential or real, discuss risk relevance, summarize important lessons learned, and provide recommendations. The study in this particular paper is tightly related to the performing of statistical analysis of the operating experience. For the purpose of this study EDG failure is defined as EDG failure to function on demand (i.e. fail to start, fail to run) or during testing, or an unavailability of an EDG, except of unavailability due to regular maintenance. The Gesellschaft für Anlagen und Reaktorsicherheit mbH (GRS) and Institut de Radioprotection et de Sûreté Nucléaire (IRSN) databases as well as the operating experience contained in the IAEA/NEA International Reporting System for Operating Experience and the U.S. Licensee Event Reports were screened. The screening methodology applied for each of the four different databases is presented. Further on, analysis aimed at delineating the causes, root causes, contributing factors and consequences are performed. A statistical analysis was performed related to the chronology of events, types of failures, the operational circumstances of detection of the failure and the affected components/subsystems. The conclusions and results of the statistical analysis are discussed. The main findings concerning the testing

Statistical analysis of events related to emergency diesel generators failures in the nuclear industry

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kančev, Duško; Duchac, Alexander; Zerger, Benoit; Maqua, Michael; Wattrelos, Didier

2014-01-01

Highlights: • Analysis of operating experience related to emergency diesel generators events at NPPs. • Four abundant operating experience databases screened. • Delineating important insights and conclusions based on the operating experience. - Abstract: This paper is aimed at studying the operating experience related to emergency diesel generators (EDGs) events at nuclear power plants collected from the past 20 years. Events related to EDGs failures and/or unavailability as well as all the supporting equipment are in the focus of the analysis. The selected operating experience was analyzed in detail in order to identify the type of failures, attributes that contributed to the failure, failure modes potential or real, discuss risk relevance, summarize important lessons learned, and provide recommendations. The study in this particular paper is tightly related to the performing of statistical analysis of the operating experience. For the purpose of this study EDG failure is defined as EDG failure to function on demand (i.e. fail to start, fail to run) or during testing, or an unavailability of an EDG, except of unavailability due to regular maintenance. The Gesellschaft für Anlagen und Reaktorsicherheit mbH (GRS) and Institut de Radioprotection et de Sûreté Nucléaire (IRSN) databases as well as the operating experience contained in the IAEA/NEA International Reporting System for Operating Experience and the U.S. Licensee Event Reports were screened. The screening methodology applied for each of the four different databases is presented. Further on, analysis aimed at delineating the causes, root causes, contributing factors and consequences are performed. A statistical analysis was performed related to the chronology of events, types of failures, the operational circumstances of detection of the failure and the affected components/subsystems. The conclusions and results of the statistical analysis are discussed. The main findings concerning the testing

Aging related degradation in turbine drives and governors for safety related pumps

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Cox, D.F.

1991-01-01

This study is being performed to examine the relationship between time dependent degradation, and current industry practices in the areas of maintenance, surveillance, and operation of stem turbine drive for safety related pumps. These pumps are located in the Auxiliary Feedwater (AFW) system for pressurized water reactor (PWR) plants, and the Reactor Core Isolation Cooking (RCIC) and High Pressure Coolant Injection (HPCI) systems for Boiling Water Reactor (BWR) facilities. This research has been conducted by examining current information in the Nuclear Plant Reliability Data System (NPRDS), reviewing Licensee Event Reports, thoroughly investigating contacts with operating plant personnel, and by personal observation. This information was reviewed to determine the cause of each reported event and the method of discovery. From this data attempts have been made at determining the predictability of events and possible preventive measures that may be implemented

Safety assessment input for site selection - the Swedish example - 59031

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Andersson, Johan

2012-01-01

Svensk Kaernbraenslehantering AB (SKB) has performed comprehensive investigations of two candidate sites for a final repository for Sweden's spent nuclear fuel. In March 2011 SKB decided to submit licence applications for a final repository at Forsmark. Before selection, SKB stated that the site that offers the best prospects for achieving long-term safety in practice would be selected. Based on experiences previous safety assessments, a number of issues related to long-term safety need to be considered in the context of site comparison. The factors include sensitivity to climate change such as periods of permafrost and glaciations, rock mechanics evolution including the potential for thermally induced spalling and sensitivity to potential future earthquakes, current and future groundwater flow, evolution of groundwater composition and proximity to mineral resources. Each of these factors related to long-term safety for the two candidate sites is assessed in a comparative analysis of site characteristics. The assessment also considers differences in biosphere conditions and in the confidence of the site descriptions. The comparison is concluded by an assessment on how the identified differences would affect the estimated radiological risk from a repository located at either of the sites. The assessment concludes that there are a number of safety related site characteristics for which the analyses do not show any decisive differences in terms of implications on safety, between the sites Forsmark and Laxemar. However, the frequency of water conducting fractures at repository depth is much smaller at Forsmark than at Laxemar. This difference, in turn, affects the future stability of the current favourable groundwater composition, which combined with the much higher flows at Laxemar would, for the current repository design, lead to a breach in the safety functions for the buffer and the canister for many more deposition positions at Laxemar than at Forsmark. Thereby

Meteorological events in site evaluation for nuclear power plants. Safety guide

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

2005-01-01

This Safety Guide provides recommendations and guidance on conducting hazard assessments of extreme and rare meteorological phenomena. It is of interest to safety assessors and regulators involved in the licensing process as well as to designers of nuclear power plants. This Safety Guide was prepared under the IAEA programme for safety standards for nuclear power plants. It supplements the IAEA Safety Requirements publication on Site Evaluation for Nuclear Facilities which is to supersede the Code on the Safety of Nuclear Power Plants: Siting, Safety Series No. 50-C-S (Rev. 1), IAEA, Vienna (1988). The present Safety Guide supersedes two earlier Safety Guides: Safety Series No. 50-SG-S11A (1981) on Extreme Meteorological Events in Nuclear Power Plant Siting, Excluding Tropical Cyclones and Safety Series No. 50-SG-S11B (1984) on Design Basis Tropical Cyclone for Nuclear Power Plants. The purpose of this Safety Guide is to provide recommendations and guidance on conducting hazard assessments of extreme and rare meteorological phenomena. This Safety Guide provides interpretation of the Safety Requirements publication on Site Evaluation for Nuclear Facilities and guidance on how to fulfil these requirements. It is aimed at safety assessors or regulators involved in the licensing process as well as designers of nuclear power plants, and provides them with guidance on the methods and procedures for analyses that support the assessment of the hazards associated with extreme and rare meteorological events. This Safety Guide discusses the extreme values of meteorological variables and rare meteorological phenomena, as well as their rates of occurrence, according to the following definitions: (a) Extreme values of meteorological variables such as air temperature and wind speed characterize the meteorological or climatological environment. And (b) Rare meteorological phenomena

External man-induced events in relation to nuclear power plant design

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

1982-01-01

This Guide deals with the basic design requirements for nuclear power plants, and presents a general design approach for protection against the effects of man-induced events. Section 2 discusses the general design approach. Section 3 outlines the development of the basic information necessary for an evaluation of the adequacy of a design against the effects of aircraft crashes, fires, explosions, and the release of toxic gases or corrosive substances. Section 4 outlines the design logic for protection against external man-induced events. It indicates possible methods of ensuring overall plant safety, including protection against possible secondary effects. Included for each event are: a methodology for calculating the design input parameters from the data generated in the siting study, system protection considerations from the effects of this man-induced event, and criteria for judging the adequacy of the protection provided. Specific design guidance related to acts of sabotage is not provided in this Guide. It should be recognized, however, that for certain situations such acts can be important to safety and could constitute the controlling postulated initiating event for design. The list of events covered is not necessarily complete. However, important events on which enough work has already been done in various Member States to enable their effects to be converted into generally accepted design parameters are included. In addition, other man-induced events such as dam ruptures, ship collisions, construction accidents and the like are identified but no general guidelines for design can be specified for these at present. These events need to be considered on an ad hoc basis, in order to arrive at design input parameters for them

National Waste Repository Novi Han operational safety analysis report. Safety assessment methodology

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

2003-01-01

The scope of the safety assessment (SA), presented includes: waste management functions (acceptance, conditioning, storage, disposal), inventory (current and expected in the future), hazards (radiological and non-radiological) and normal and accidental modes. The stages in the development of the SA are: criteria selection, information collection, safety analysis and safety assessment documentation. After the review the facilities functions and the national and international requirements, the criteria for safety level assessment are set. As a result from the 2nd stage actual parameters of the facility, necessary for safety analysis are obtained.The methodology is selected on the base of the comparability of the results with the results of previous safety assessments and existing standards and requirements. The procedure and requirements for scenarios selection are described. A radiological hazard categorisation of the facilities is presented. Qualitative hazards and operability analysis is applied. The resulting list of events are subjected to procedure for prioritization by method of 'criticality analysis', so the estimation of the risk is given for each event. The events that fall into category of risk on the boundary of acceptability or are unacceptable are subjected to the next steps of the analysis. As a result the lists with scenarios for PSA and possible design scenarios are established. PSA logical modeling and quantitative calculations of accident sequences are presented

Regulatory instrument review: Management of aging of LWR [light water reactor] major safety-related components

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Werry, E.V.

1990-10-01

This report comprises Volume 1 of a review of US nuclear plant regulatory instruments to determine the amount and kind of information they contain on managing the aging of safety-related components in US nuclear power plants. The review was conducted for the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) by the Pacific Northwest Laboratory (PNL) under the NRC Nuclear Plant Aging Research (NPAR) Program. Eight selected regulatory instruments, e.g., NRC Regulatory Guides and the Code of Federal Regulations, were reviewed for safety-related information on five selected components: reactor pressure vessels, steam generators, primary piping, pressurizers, and emergency diesel generators. Volume 2 will be concluded in FY 1991 and will also cover selected major safety-related components, e.g., pumps, valves and cables. The focus of the review was on 26 NPAR-defined safety-related aging issues, including examination, inspection, and maintenance and repair; excessive/harsh testing; and irradiation embrittlement. The major conclusion of the review is that safety-related regulatory instruments do provide implicit guidance for aging management, but include little explicit guidance. The major recommendation is that the instruments be revised or augmented to explicitly address the management of aging

Differences in the rates of patient safety events by payer: implications for providers and policymakers.

Science.gov (United States)

Spencer, Christine S; Roberts, Eric T; Gaskin, Darrell J

2015-06-01

The reduction of adverse patient safety events and the equitable treatment of patients in hospitals are clinical and policy priorities. Health services researchers have identified disparities in the quality of care provided to patients, both by demographic characteristics and insurance status. However, less is known about the extent to which disparities reflect differences in the places where patients obtain care, versus disparities in the quality of care provided to different groups of patients in the same hospital. In this study, we examine whether the rate of adverse patient safety events differs by the insurance status of patients within the same hospital. Using discharge data from hospitals in 11 states, we compared risk-adjusted rates for 13 AHRQ Patient Safety Indicators by Medicare, Medicaid, and Private payer insurance status, within the same hospitals. We used multivariate regression to assess the relationship between insurance status and rates of adverse patient safety events within hospitals. Medicare and Medicaid patients experienced significantly more adverse safety events than private pay patients for 12 and 7 Patient Safety Indicators, respectively (at P patients had significantly lower event rates than private payers on 2 Patient Safety Indicators. Risk-adjusted Patient Safety Indicator rates varied with patients' insurance within the same hospital. More research is needed to determine the cause of differences in care quality received by patients at the same hospital, especially if quality measures are to be used for payment.

Social media for arthritis-related comparative effectiveness and safety research and the impact of direct-to-consumer advertising.

Science.gov (United States)

Curtis, Jeffrey R; Chen, Lang; Higginbotham, Phillip; Nowell, W Benjamin; Gal-Levy, Ronit; Willig, James; Safford, Monika; Coe, Joseph; O'Hara, Kaitlin; Sa'adon, Roee

2017-03-07

Social media may complement traditional data sources to answer comparative effectiveness/safety questions after medication licensure. The Treato platform was used to analyze all publicly available social media data including Facebook, blogs, and discussion boards for posts mentioning inflammatory arthritis (e.g. rheumatoid, psoriatic). Safety events were self-reported by patients and mapped to medical ontologies, resolving synonyms. Disease and symptom-related treatment indications were manually redacted. The units of analysis were unique terms in posts. Pre-specified conditions (e.g. herpes zoster (HZ)) were selected based upon safety signals from clinical trials and reported as pairwise odds ratios (ORs); drugs were compared with Fisher's exact test. Empirically identified events were analyzed using disproportionality analysis and reported as relative reporting ratios (RRRs). The accuracy of a natural language processing (NLP) classifier to identify cases of shingles associated with arthritis medications was assessed. As of October 2015, there were 785,656 arthritis-related posts. Posts were predominantly US posts (75%) from patient authors (87%) under 40 years of age (61%). For HZ posts (n = 1815), ORs were significantly increased with tofacitinib versus other rheumatoid arthritis therapies. ORs for mentions of perforated bowel (n = 13) were higher with tocilizumab versus other therapies. RRRs associated with tofacitinib were highest in conditions related to baldness and hair regrowth, infections and cancer. The NLP classifier had a positive predictive value of 91% to identify HZ. There was a threefold increase in posts following television direct-to-consumer advertisement (p = 0.04); posts expressing medication safety concerns were significantly more frequent than favorable posts. Social media is a challenging yet promising data source that may complement traditional approaches for comparative effectiveness research for new medications.

Selection of Photon Gluon Fusion Events in DIS

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kowalik, K.; Rondio, E.; Sulej, R.; Zaremba, K.

2001-01-01

A selection of the Photon Gluon Fusion (PGF) process with light quarks for deep inelastic scattering events is presented. This process is directly sensitive to gluon polarization and our goal is to find out the most effective selection on a sample of events simulated for the SMC experiment. We compare two general multi-class classification methods - Bayes method and neural network with a conventional selection procedure. The neural network algorithm presented here is a modification of method belonging to the family of directional minimization algorithms. This method is convenient and effective for photon gluon fusion selection and determination of gluon polarization. Finally we present the estimation for precision of gluon polarization for neural network method. (author)

Towards the creation of a flexible classification scheme for voluntarily reported transfusion and laboratory safety events.

Science.gov (United States)

Whitehurst, Julie M; Schroder, John; Leonard, Dave; Horvath, Monica M; Cozart, Heidi; Ferranti, Jeffrey

2012-05-18

Transfusion and clinical laboratory services are high-volume activities involving complicated workflows across both ambulatory and inpatient environments. As a result, there are many opportunities for safety lapses, leading to patient harm and increased costs. Organizational techniques such as voluntary safety event reporting are commonly used to identify and prioritize risk areas across care settings. Creation of functional, standardized safety data structures that facilitate effective exploratory examination is therefore essential to drive quality improvement interventions. Unfortunately, voluntarily reported adverse event data can often be unstructured or ambiguously defined. To address this problem, we sought to create a "best-of-breed" patient safety classification for data contained in the Duke University Health System Safety Reporting System (SRS). Our approach was to implement the internationally recognized World Health Organization International Classification for Patient Safety Framework, supplemented with additional data points relevant to our organization. Data selection and integration into the hierarchical framework is discussed, as well as placement of the classification into the SRS. We evaluated the impact of the new SRS classification on system usage through comparisons of monthly average report rates and completion times before and after implementation. Monthly average inpatient transfusion reports decreased from 102.1 ± 14.3 to 91.6 ± 11.2, with the proportion of transfusion reports in our system remaining consistent before and after implementation. Monthly average transfusion report rates in the outpatient and homecare environments were not significantly different. Significant increases in clinical lab report rates were present across inpatient and outpatient environments, with the proportion of lab reports increasing after implementation. Report completion times increased modestly but not significantly from a practical standpoint. A

Event Investigation

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Korosec, D.

2000-01-01

The events in the nuclear industry are investigated from the license point of view and from the regulatory side too. It is well known the importance of the event investigation. One of the main goals of such investigation is to prevent the circumstances leading to the event and the consequences of the event. The protection of the nuclear workers against nuclear hazard, and the protection of general public against dangerous effects of an event could be achieved by systematic approach to the event investigation. Both, the nuclear safety regulatory body and the licensee shall ensure that operational significant events are investigated in a systematic and technically sound manner to gather information pertaining to the probable causes of the event. One of the results should be appropriate feedback regarding the lessons of the experience to the regulatory body, nuclear industry and general public. In the present paper a general description of systematic approach to the event investigation is presented. The systematic approach to the event investigation works best where cooperation is present among the different divisions of the nuclear facility or regulatory body. By involving management and supervisors the safety office can usually improve their efforts in the whole process. The end result shall be a program which serves to prevent events and reduce the time and efforts solving the root cause which initiated each event. Selection of the proper method for the investigation and an adequate review of the findings and conclusions lead to the higher level of the overall nuclear safety. (author)

Safety of laboratories, plants, facilities being dismantled, waste processing, interim storage and disposal facilities. Lessons learned from events reported in 2009 and 2010

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

2013-01-01

This report presents the cross-disciplinary analysis performed by IRSN relating to significant events reported to the French Nuclear Safety Authority (ASN) during 2009 - 2010 for LUDD-type facilities (laboratories, plants, facilities being dismantled, and waste processing, interim storage and disposal facilities). It constitutes a follow-up to DSU Report 215 published in December 2009, relating to events reported to ASN during 2005 to 2008. The main developments observed since the analysis presented in that report have been underlined here, in order to highlight improvements, opportunities for progress and the main areas requiring careful attention. The present report is a continuation of DSU Report 215. Without claiming to be exhaustive, it presents lessons from IRSN's cross-disciplinary analysis of events reported to ASN during 2009 and 2010 at LUDD facilities while highlighting major changes from the previous analysis in order to underline improvements, areas where progress has been made, and main points for monitoring. The report has four sections: - the first gives a brief introduction to the various kinds of LUDD facilities and highlights changes with DSU Report 215; - the second provides a summary of major trends involving events reported to ASN during 2007-2010 as well as overall results of consequences of events reported during 2009 and 2010 for workers, the general public and the environment; - the third section gives a cross-disciplinary analysis of significant events reported during 2009 and 2010, performed from two complementary angles (analysis of main types of events grouped by type of risk and analysis of generic causes). Main changes from the analysis given in DSU Report 215 are considered in detail; - the last section describes selected significant events that occurred in 2009 and 2010 in order to illustrate the cross-disciplinary analysis with concrete examples. IRSN will publish this type of report periodically in coming years in order to

Extreme external events in the design and assessment of nuclear power plants

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

2003-03-01

The analysis of feedback experience from the operation of nuclear power plants (NPPs) in the past 20 years shows few cases of degradation of the plant safety initiated by external events. However, when these have occurred, the consequences have been serious, involving challenges to the defence in depth of the plant. Part of the problem involves the definition of the design basis parameters for some scenarios and differences among regulators on the methods for the protection of operational NPPs in relation to external events. This results in different engineering practices in Member States for the siting and design of NPPs. In the framework of the present revision of the IAEA safety standards on siting and design of NPPs, many initiatives have been implemented by the IAEA in recent years aimed at a systematic analysis of engineering practices in Member States. The most recent event in this connection was a Technical Committee Meeting (TCM) on Structural Safety of NPPs in Relation to Extreme External Loads, organized with the specific objective of evaluating the state of the art of NPP design in relation to external events. Such an analysis provided a technical background for the development of a common technical basis for an integrated approach in site evaluation, design and operation in relation to extreme external events. The scope included new and existing plants, as they are required to meet the same general safety principles, in spite of their peculiarities. The objective of this publication is to provide a technical background to drive regulators, plant owners and designers in the definition of a consistent strategy in selected safety issues on site evaluation, design and operation in relation to extreme external events. This publication is also of support to the IAEA in the development of safety standards since many Safety Guides dealing with related topics are under periodic review. Four major tasks were identified to comply with these general objectives

Trending of low level events and near misses to enhance safety performance in nuclear power plants

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

2005-11-01

The IAEA Safety Fundamentals publication, Safety of Nuclear Installations, Safety Series No. 110, states the need for operating organizations to establish a programme for the collection and analysis of operating experience in nuclear power plants. Such a programme ensures that operating experience is analysed, events important to safety are reviewed in depth, and lessons learned are disseminated to the staff of the organization and to relevant national and international organizations. As a result of the effort to enhance safety in operating organizations, incidents are progressively decreasing in number and significance. This means that in accordance with international reporting requirements the amount of collected data becomes less sufficient to draw meaningful statistical conclusions. This is where the collection and trend analysis of low level events and near misses can prove to be very useful. These trends can show which of the safety barriers are weak or failing more frequently. Evaluation and trending of low level events and near misses will help to prevent major incidents because latent weaknesses have been identified and corrective actions taken to prevent recurrence. This leads to improved safety and production. Low level events and near misses, which may reach several thousand per reactor operating year, need to be treated by the organizations as learning opportunities. A system for capturing these low level events and near misses truly needs to be an organization-wide system in which all levels of the organization, including contractors, participate. It is desirable that the overall operational experience feedback (OEF) process should integrate the lessons learned and the associated data from significant events with those of lower level events and near misses. To be able to effectively implement a process dealing with low level events and near misses, it is necessary that the organization have a well established OEF process for significant events

Seismic safety in nuclear-waste disposal

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Carpenter, D.W.; Towse, D.

1979-01-01

Seismic safety is one of the factors that must be considered in the disposal of nuclear waste in deep geologic media. This report reviews the data on damage to underground equipment and structures from earthquakes, the record of associated motions, and the conventional methods of seismic safety-analysis and engineering. Safety considerations may be divided into two classes: those during the operational life of a disposal facility, and those pertinent to the post-decommissioning life of the facility. Operational hazards may be mitigated by conventional construction practices and site selection criteria. Events that would materially affect the long-term integrity of a decommissioned facility appear to be highly unlikely and can be substantially avoided by conservative site selection and facility design. These events include substantial fault movement within the disposal facility and severe ground shaking in an earthquake epicentral region. Techniques need to be developed to address the question of long-term earthquake probability in relatively aseismic regions, and for discriminating between active and extinct faults in regions where earthquake activity does not result in surface ruptures

Seismic safety in nuclear-waste disposal

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Carpenter, D.W.; Towse, D.

1979-04-26

Seismic safety is one of the factors that must be considered in the disposal of nuclear waste in deep geologic media. This report reviews the data on damage to underground equipment and structures from earthquakes, the record of associated motions, and the conventional methods of seismic safety-analysis and engineering. Safety considerations may be divided into two classes: those during the operational life of a disposal facility, and those pertinent to the post-decommissioning life of the facility. Operational hazards may be mitigated by conventional construction practices and site selection criteria. Events that would materially affect the long-term integrity of a decommissioned facility appear to be highly unlikely and can be substantially avoided by conservative site selection and facility design. These events include substantial fault movement within the disposal facility and severe ground shaking in an earthquake epicentral region. Techniques need to be developed to address the question of long-term earthquake probability in relatively aseismic regions, and for discriminating between active and extinct faults in regions where earthquake activity does not result in surface ruptures.

Operational safety experience feedback by means of unusual event reports

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

1996-07-01

Operational experience of nuclear power plants can be used to great advantage to enhance safety performance provided adequate measures are in place to collect and analyse it and to ensure that the conclusions drawn are acted upon. Feedback of operating experience is thus an extremely important tool to ensure high standards of safety in operational nuclear power plants and to improve the capability to prevent serious accidents and to learn from minor deviations and equipment failures - which can serve as early warnings -to prevent even minor events from occurring. Mechanisms also need to be developed to ensure that operating experience is shared both nationally as well as internationally. The operating experience feedback process needs to be fully and effectively established within the nuclear power plant, the utility, the regulatory organization as well as in other institutions such as technical support organizations and designers. The main purpose of this publication is to reflect the international consensus as to the general principles and practices in the operational safety experience feedback process. The examples of national practices for the whole or for particular parts of the process are given in annexes. The publication complements the IAEA Safety Series No.93 ''Systems for Reporting Unusual Events in Nuclear Power Plants'' (1989) and may also give a general guidance for Member States in fulfilling their obligations stipulated in the Nuclear Safety Convention. Figs, tabs

Operational safety experience feedback by means of unusual event reports

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

NONE

1996-07-01

Operational experience of nuclear power plants can be used to great advantage to enhance safety performance provided adequate measures are in place to collect and analyse it and to ensure that the conclusions drawn are acted upon. Feedback of operating experience is thus an extremely important tool to ensure high standards of safety in operational nuclear power plants and to improve the capability to prevent serious accidents and to learn from minor deviations and equipment failures - which can serve as early warnings -to prevent even minor events from occurring. Mechanisms also need to be developed to ensure that operating experience is shared both nationally as well as internationally. The operating experience feedback process needs to be fully and effectively established within the nuclear power plant, the utility, the regulatory organization as well as in other institutions such as technical support organizations and designers. The main purpose of this publication is to reflect the international consensus as to the general principles and practices in the operational safety experience feedback process. The examples of national practices for the whole or for particular parts of the process are given in annexes. The publication complements the IAEA Safety Series No.93 ``Systems for Reporting Unusual Events in Nuclear Power Plants`` (1989) and may also give a general guidance for Member States in fulfilling their obligations stipulated in the Nuclear Safety Convention. Figs, tabs.

Development of the NUMO pre-selection, site-specific safety case

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Fujiyama, Tetsuo; Suzuki, Satoru; Deguchi, Akira; Umeki, Hiroyuki

2016-01-01

Key conclusions: ◆ “The NUMO pre-selection, site-specific safety case” provides the basic structure for subsequent safety cases that will be applied to any selected site, emphasising practical approaches and methodology which will be applicable for the conditions/constraints during an actual siting process. ◆ The preliminary results of the design and safety assessment would underpin the feasibility and safety of geological disposal in Japan.

Study of fundamental safety-related aspects in connection with the decommissioning of nuclear installations. Pt. 2. Safety considerations and emissions

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

John, T.; Thierfeldt, S.

1993-01-01

The procedures used so far for the examination of selected decommissioning projects in expert opinions on safety, in particular of nuclear power plants, were screened, with special emphasis on the examination of safety considerations, i.e. analysis of possible accidents. Generic examinations on safety in connection with the decommissioning of nuclear installations were used to assess safety considerations. Different approaches were taken with regard to the selection of analysed accidents and determination of parameters defining activity release and assumptions in safety opinions. Therefore it seems to be appropriate to establish a scenario to be used for nuclear power plant accident analyses, which covers the range of radiologically relevant accidents during decommissioning activities. Although it might be controversially discussed, because of specific plant designs (test and prototype reactors as well as first power reactors), to establish such a radiologically covering accident scenario for older nuclear power plants, it seems to be no problem for modern light water reactors. The radiologically most relevant possible accident in a decommissioned nuclear power plant is fire in the plant. Parameter values and assumptions are suggested which determine the source term in the event of a fire in the plant. Inspite of a conservative determination of parameter values and assumptions, an environmental dose commitment of less than 50 mSv is to be expected for the resulting source term. (orig.) [de

Emotion and attention : Event-related brain potential studies

OpenAIRE

Schupp, Harald Thomas; Flaisch, Tobias; Stockburger, Jessica; Junghöfer, Markus

2006-01-01

Emotional pictures guide selective visual attention. A series of event-related brain potential (ERP) studies is reviewed demonstrating the consistent and robust modulation of specific ERP components by emotional images. Specifically, pictures depicting natural pleasant and unpleasant scenes are associated with an increased early posterior negativity, late positive potential, and sustained positive slow wave compared with neutral contents. These modulations are considered to index different st...

Are measurements of patient safety culture and adverse events valid and reliable? Results from a cross sectional study.

Science.gov (United States)

Farup, Per G

2015-05-02

The association between measurements of the patient safety culture and the "true" patient safety has been insufficiently documented, and the validity of the tools used for the measurements has been questioned. This study explored associations between the patient safety culture and adverse events, and evaluated the validity of the tools. In 2008/2009, a survey on patient safety culture was performed with Hospital Survey on Patient Safety Culture (HSOPSC) in two medical departments in two geographically separated hospitals of Innlandet Hospital Trust. Later, a retrospective analysis of adverse events during the same period was performed with the Global Trigger Tool (GTT). The safety culture and adverse events were compared between the departments. 185 employees participated in the study, and 272 patient records were analysed. The HSOPSC scores were lower and adverse events less prevalent in department 1 than in department 2. In departments 1 and 2 the mean HSOPSC scores (SD) were at the unit level 3.62 (0.42) and 3.90 (0.37) (p culture and adverse events. Until the criterion validity of the tools for measuring patient safety culture and tracking of adverse events have been further evaluated, measurement of patient safety culture could not be used as a proxy for the "true" safety.

The association between event learning and continuous quality improvement programs and culture of patient safety.

Science.gov (United States)

Mazur, Lukasz; Chera, Bhishamjit; Mosaly, Prithima; Taylor, Kinley; Tracton, Gregg; Johnson, Kendra; Comitz, Elizabeth; Adams, Robert; Pooya, Pegah; Ivy, Julie; Rockwell, John; Marks, Lawrence B

2015-01-01

To present our approach and results from our quality and safety program and to report their possible impact on our culture of patient safety. We created an event learning system (termed a "good catch" program) and encouraged staff to report any quality or safety concerns in real time. Events were analyzed to assess the utility of safety barriers. A formal continuous quality improvement program was created to address these reported events and make improvements. Data on perceptions of the culture of patient safety were collected using the Agency for Health Care Research and Quality survey administered before, during, and after the initiatives. Of 560 good catches reported, 367 could be ascribed to a specific step on our process map. The calculated utility of safety barriers was highest for those embedded into the pretreatment quality assurance checks performed by physicists and dosimetrists (utility score 0.53; 93 of 174) and routine checks done by therapists on the initial day of therapy. Therapists and physicists reported the highest number of good catches (24% each). Sixty-four percent of events were caused by performance issues (eg, not following standardized processes, including suboptimal communications). Of 31 initiated formal improvement events, 26 were successfully implemented and sustained, 4 were discontinued, and 1 was not implemented. Most of the continuous quality improvement program was conducted by nurses (14) and therapists (7). Percentages of positive responses in the patient safety culture survey appear to have increased on all dimensions (p continuous quality improvement programs can be successfully implemented and that there are contemporaneous improvements in the culture of safety. Copyright © 2015 American Society for Radiation Oncology. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Knowledge Translation and Patient Safety: The Canadian Adverse Events Study

OpenAIRE

Baker, G. Ross; Norton, Peter; Flintoft, Virginia

2006-01-01

The Canadian Adverse Events Study was the first national study of adverse events in Canadian hospitals. Learning from the controversy surrounding similar studies in other countries, the team engaged in extensive knowledge translation activities throughout the life of the project. Using meetings, Web-based communication and other tools, the team successfully prepared most Canadian stakeholders for the study’s release, allowing them to develop anticipatory patient safety initiatives. However, u...

Aviation Trends Related to Atmospheric Environment Safety Technologies Project Technical Challenges

Science.gov (United States)

Reveley, Mary S.; Withrow, Colleen A.; Barr, Lawrence C.; Evans, Joni K.; Leone, Karen M.; Jones, Sharon M.

2014-01-01

Current and future aviation safety trends related to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's Atmospheric Environment Safety Technologies Project's three technical challenges (engine icing characterization and simulation capability; airframe icing simulation and engineering tool capability; and atmospheric hazard sensing and mitigation technology capability) were assessed by examining the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) accident database (1989 to 2008), incidents from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) accident/incident database (1989 to 2006), and literature from various industry and government sources. The accident and incident data were examined for events involving fixed-wing airplanes operating under Federal Aviation Regulation (FAR) Parts 121, 135, and 91 for atmospheric conditions related to airframe icing, ice-crystal engine icing, turbulence, clear air turbulence, wake vortex, lightning, and low visibility (fog, low ceiling, clouds, precipitation, and low lighting). Five future aviation safety risk areas associated with the three AEST technical challenges were identified after an exhaustive survey of a variety of sources and include: approach and landing accident reduction, icing/ice detection, loss of control in flight, super density operations, and runway safety.

Safety in surgery: is selection the missing link?

Science.gov (United States)

Paice, Alistair G; Aggarwal, Rajesh; Darzi, Ara

2010-09-01

Health care providers comprise an example of a "high risk organization." Safety failings within these organizations have the potential to cause significant public harm. Significant safety improvements in other high risk organizations such as the aviation industry have led to the concept of a high reliability organization (HRO)--a high risk organization that has enjoyed a prolonged safety record. A strong organizational culture is common to all successful HROs, encompassing powerful systems of selection and training. Aircrew selection processes provide a good example of this and are examined in detail in this article using the Royal Air Force process as an example. If the lessons of successful HROs are to be applied to health care organizations, candidate selection to specialties such as surgery must become more objective and robust. Other HROs can provide valuable lessons in how this may be approached.

78 FR 20454 - Safety Zones; Annual Events Requiring Safety Zones in the Captain of the Port Lake Michigan Zone

Science.gov (United States)

2013-04-05

... Zone. The last three entries within this rule have been added for races in the Chicago, IL area and on... written--Celebrate Americafest/Fire over the Fox. This event has historically involved both a fireworks... day of the event. To ensure the safety of the Celebrate Americafest/Fire over the Fox event in its...

Use of the event tree method for evaluate the safety of radioactive facilities

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hernandez S, A.; Cornejo D, N.; Callis F, E.

2006-01-01

The work shows the validity of the use of Trees of Events like a quantitative method appropriate to carry out evaluations of radiological safety. Its were took like base the evaluations of safety of five Radiotherapy Departments, carried out in the mark of the process of authorization of these facilities. The risk values were obtained by means of the combination of the probabilities of occurrence of the events with its consequences. The use of the method allowed to suggest improvements to the existent safety systems, as well as to confirm that the current regulator requirements for this type of facilities to lead to practices with acceptable risk levels. (Author)

Blanket safety by GEMSAFE methodology

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Sawada, Tetsuo; Saito, Masaki

2001-01-01

General Methodology of Safety Analysis and Evaluation for Fusion Energy Systems (GEMSAFE) has been applied to a number of fusion system designs, such as R-tokamak, Fusion Experimental Reactor (FER), and the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) designs in the both stages of Conceptual Design Activities (CDA) and Engineering Design Activities (EDA). Though the major objective of GEMSAFE is to reasonably select design basis events (DBEs) it is also useful to elucidate related safety functions as well as requirements to ensure its safety. In this paper, we apply the methodology to fusion systems with future tritium breeding blankets and make clear which points of the system should be of concern from safety ensuring point of view. In this context, we have obtained five DBEs that are related to the blanket system. We have also clarified the safety functions required to prevent accident propagations initiated by those blanket-specific DBEs. The outline of the methodology is also reviewed. (author)

Safety Needs Mediate Stressful Events Induced Mental Disorders

Science.gov (United States)

Gu, Simeng; Lei, Yu; Lu, Shanshan

2016-01-01

“Safety first,” we say these words almost every day, but we all take this for granted for what Maslow proposed in his famous theory of Hierarchy of Needs: safety needs come second to physiological needs. Here we propose that safety needs come before physiological needs. Safety needs are personal security, financial security, and health and well-being, which are more fundamental than physiological needs. Safety worrying is the major reason for mental disorders, such as anxiety, phobia, depression, and PTSD. The neural basis for safety is amygdala, LC/NE system, and corticotrophin-releasing hormone system, which can be regarded as a “safety circuitry,” whose major behavior function is “fight or flight” and “fear and anger” emotions. This is similar to the Appraisal theory for emotions: fear is due to the primary appraisal, which is related to safety of individual, while anger is due to secondary appraisal, which is related to coping with the unsafe situations. If coping is good, the individual will be happy; if coping failed, the individual will be sad or depressed. PMID:27738527

Safety Needs Mediate Stressful Events Induced Mental Disorders.

Science.gov (United States)

Zheng, Zheng; Gu, Simeng; Lei, Yu; Lu, Shanshan; Wang, Wei; Li, Yang; Wang, Fushun

2016-01-01

"Safety first," we say these words almost every day, but we all take this for granted for what Maslow proposed in his famous theory of Hierarchy of Needs : safety needs come second to physiological needs. Here we propose that safety needs come before physiological needs. Safety needs are personal security, financial security, and health and well-being, which are more fundamental than physiological needs. Safety worrying is the major reason for mental disorders, such as anxiety, phobia, depression, and PTSD. The neural basis for safety is amygdala, LC/NE system, and corticotrophin-releasing hormone system, which can be regarded as a "safety circuitry," whose major behavior function is "fight or flight" and "fear and anger" emotions. This is similar to the Appraisal theory for emotions: fear is due to the primary appraisal, which is related to safety of individual, while anger is due to secondary appraisal, which is related to coping with the unsafe situations. If coping is good, the individual will be happy; if coping failed, the individual will be sad or depressed.

Safety Needs Mediate Stressful Events Induced Mental Disorders

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Zheng Zheng

2016-01-01

Full Text Available “Safety first,” we say these words almost every day, but we all take this for granted for what Maslow proposed in his famous theory of Hierarchy of Needs: safety needs come second to physiological needs. Here we propose that safety needs come before physiological needs. Safety needs are personal security, financial security, and health and well-being, which are more fundamental than physiological needs. Safety worrying is the major reason for mental disorders, such as anxiety, phobia, depression, and PTSD. The neural basis for safety is amygdala, LC/NE system, and corticotrophin-releasing hormone system, which can be regarded as a “safety circuitry,” whose major behavior function is “fight or flight” and “fear and anger” emotions. This is similar to the Appraisal theory for emotions: fear is due to the primary appraisal, which is related to safety of individual, while anger is due to secondary appraisal, which is related to coping with the unsafe situations. If coping is good, the individual will be happy; if coping failed, the individual will be sad or depressed.

A probabilistic method for optimization of fire safety in nuclear power plants

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hosser, D.; Sprey, W.

1986-01-01

As part of a comprehensive fire safety study for German Nuclear Power Plants a probabilistic method for the analysis and optimization of fire safety has been developed. It follows the general line of the American fire hazard analysis, with more or less important modifications in detail. At first, fire event trees in selected critical plant areas are established taking into account active and passive fire protection measures and safety systems endangered by the fire. Failure models for fire protection measures and safety systems are formulated depending on common parameters like time after ignition and fire effects. These dependences are properly taken into account in the analysis of the fire event trees with the help of first-order system reliability theory. In addition to frequencies of fire-induced safety system failures relative weights of event paths, fire protection measures within these paths and parameters of the failure models are calculated as functions of time. Based on these information optimization of fire safety is achieved by modifying primarily event paths, fire protection measures and parameters with the greatest relative weights. This procedure is illustrated using as an example a German 1300 MW PWR reference plant. It is shown that the recommended modifications also reduce the risk to plant personnel and fire damage

Method to Find Recovery Event Combinations in Probabilistic Safety Assessment

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Jung, Woo Sik; Riley, Jeff

2016-01-01

These research activities may develop mathematical methods, engineering analyses, and business processes. The research activities of the project covered by this scope are directed toward the specific issues of implementing the methods and strategies on a computational platform, identifying the features and enhancements to EPRI tools that would be necessary to realize significant improvements to the risk assessments performed by the end user. Fault tree analysis is extensively and successfully applied to the risk assessment of safety-critical systems such as nuclear, chemical and aerospace systems. The fault tree analysis is being used together with an event tree analysis in PSA of nuclear power plants. Fault tree solvers for a PSA are mostly based on the cutset-based algorithm. They generate minimal cut sets (MCSs) from a fault tree. The most popular fault tree solver in the PSA industry is FTREX. During the course of this project, certain technical issues (see Sections 2 to 5) have been identified that need to be addressed regarding how minimal cut sets are generated and quantified. The objective of this scope of the work was to develop new methods or techniques to address these technical limitations. By turning on all the cutset initiators (%1, %2, %3, %), all the possible minimal cut sets can be calculated easier than with the original fault tree. It is accomplished by the fact that the number of events in the minimal cut sets are significantly reduced by using cutset initiators instead of random failure events. And byy turning on a few chosen cutset initiators and turning off the other cutset initiators, minimal cut sets of the selected cutset initiator(s) can be easily calculated. As explained in the previous Sections, there is no way to calculate these minimal cut sets by turning off/on the random failure events in the original fault tree

Method to Find Recovery Event Combinations in Probabilistic Safety Assessment

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Jung, Woo Sik [Sejong University, Seoul (Korea, Republic of); Riley, Jeff [Electric Power Research, Palo Alto (United States)

2016-05-15

These research activities may develop mathematical methods, engineering analyses, and business processes. The research activities of the project covered by this scope are directed toward the specific issues of implementing the methods and strategies on a computational platform, identifying the features and enhancements to EPRI tools that would be necessary to realize significant improvements to the risk assessments performed by the end user. Fault tree analysis is extensively and successfully applied to the risk assessment of safety-critical systems such as nuclear, chemical and aerospace systems. The fault tree analysis is being used together with an event tree analysis in PSA of nuclear power plants. Fault tree solvers for a PSA are mostly based on the cutset-based algorithm. They generate minimal cut sets (MCSs) from a fault tree. The most popular fault tree solver in the PSA industry is FTREX. During the course of this project, certain technical issues (see Sections 2 to 5) have been identified that need to be addressed regarding how minimal cut sets are generated and quantified. The objective of this scope of the work was to develop new methods or techniques to address these technical limitations. By turning on all the cutset initiators (%1, %2, %3, %), all the possible minimal cut sets can be calculated easier than with the original fault tree. It is accomplished by the fact that the number of events in the minimal cut sets are significantly reduced by using cutset initiators instead of random failure events. And byy turning on a few chosen cutset initiators and turning off the other cutset initiators, minimal cut sets of the selected cutset initiator(s) can be easily calculated. As explained in the previous Sections, there is no way to calculate these minimal cut sets by turning off/on the random failure events in the original fault tree.

Safety of Basic nuclear facilities (INB) other than electronuclear reactors. Lessons learned from declared significant events in 2011 and 2012

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

2013-01-01

The first part of this report presents the different types of basic nuclear facilities other than electronuclear reactors. These installations can be industrial installations dedicated or not to the nuclear fuel cycle, research and support installations, be definitively stopped or being dismantled, or radioactive waste storage installations. After a comment of the main trends noticed in 2011 and 2012, the report proposes a transverse analysis of events which occurred in these installations. These events are related to various risks: dissemination of radioactive materials, exposure to ionizing radiations, criticality, fire and explosion, handling operations, loss of electric supplies or fluids, external aggression. Other events are those significant for the environment with a radiological component, or related to periodic controls and tests. The causes of these events are analysed. Specific events are presented which occurred on different sites (in the MELOX plant, in Areva sites in La Hague, Pierrelatte, in CEA sites in Cadarache and Saclay, in a fuel factory in Romans). Other topics are finally addressed: safety measures after the Fukushima accident, safety and radiation protection management systems of Areva and CEA, dismantling of nuclear installations

General principles of nuclear safety management related to research reactor decommissioning

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Banciu, Ortenzia; Vladescu, Gabriela

2003-01-01

The paper contents the general principles applicable to the decommissioning of research reactors to ensure a proper nuclear safety management, during both decommissioning activities and post decommissioning period. The main objective of decommissioning is to ensure the protection of workers, population and environment against all radiological and non-radiological hazards that could result after a reactor shutdown and dismantling. In the same time, it is necessary, by some proper provisions, to limit the effect of decommissioning for the future generation, according to the new Romanian, IAEA and EU Norms and Regulations. Assurance of nuclear safety during decommissioning process involves, in the first step, to establish of some safety principles and requirements to be taken into account during whole process. In the same time, it is necessary to perform a series of analyses to ensure that the whole process is conducted in a planned and safe manner. The general principles proposed for a proper management of safety during research reactor decommissioning are as follows: - Set-up of all operations included in a Decommissioning Plan; - Set-up and qualitative evaluation of safety problems, which could appear during normal decommissioning process, both radiological and nonradiological risks for workers and public; - Set-up of accident list related to decommissioning process the events that could appear both due to some abnormal working conditions and to some on-site and off-site events like fires, explosions, flooding, earthquake, etc.); - Development and qualitative/ quantitative evaluation of scenarios for each incidents; - Development (and evaluation) of safety indicator system. The safety indicators are the most important tools used to assess the level of nuclear safety during decommissioning process, to discover the weak points and to establish safety measures. The paper contains also, a safety case evaluation (description of facility according to the decommissioning

Adverse event reporting in Slovenia - the influence of safety culture, supervisors and communication

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Birk Karin

2016-01-01

Full Text Available Background/Aim. The provision of safe healthcare is considered a priority in European Union (EU member states. Along with other preventative measures in healthcare, the EU also strives to eliminate the “causes of harm to human health”. The aim of this survey was to determine whether safety culture, supervisors and communication between co-workers influence the number of adverse event reports submitted to the heads of clinical departments and to the management of an institution. Methods. This survey is based on cross-sectional analysis. It was carried out in the largest Slovenian university hospital. We received 235 completed questionnaires. Respondents included professionals in the fields of nursingcare, physiotherapy, occupational therapy and radiological technology. Results. Safety culture influences the number of adverse event reports submitted to the head of a clinical department from the organizational point of view. Supervisors and communication between co-workers do not influence the number of adverse event reports. Conclusion. It can be concluded that neither supervisors nor the level of communication between co-workers influence the frequency of adverse event reporting, while safety culture does influence it from an organizational point of view. The presumed factors only partly influence the number of submitted adverse event reports, thus other causes of under-reporting must be sought elsewhere.

Scalp topography of event-related brain potentials and cognitive transitions during childhood.

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Molenaar, P.C.M.; van der Molen, M.W.; Stauder, J.E.A.

1993-01-01

Examined the relation between cognitive development (CGD) and the ontogenesis of event-related brain potentials (ERPs) during childhood among 48 girls (aged 5-7 yrs). The level of CGD was assessed with a standard Piagetian conservation kit. Ss performed a visual selective attention (oddball) task

Preparation of the requirements for the safety regulation related to human and organizational factors

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

NONE

2013-08-15

The outline of the project in the current fiscal year is to investigate and analyze issues associated with Human and Organizational Factors involved in incidents of nuclear facilities, and to study and develop evaluation methods of these countermeasures. The guideline to evaluate licensee's safety culture and root cause analysis (RCA) had been developed for further improving safety on nuclear power plants at 2007. These guidelines have been used at regulatory inspection since that time. Based on experience of using these existing guidelines, some activities for improving guidelines are now under investigation; these are selecting candidate quantitative indicators for safety culture evaluation and researching good practices for RCA issues. JNES implemented human factor analysis about 18 domestic events including the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant accident. (author)

Extreme meteorological events and nuclear facilities safety; Fenomenos meteorologicos extremos e a seguranca das instalacoes nucleares

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Almeida, Patricia Moco Princisval

2006-07-01

An External Event is an event that originates outside the site and whose effects on the Nuclear Power Plants (NPP) should be considered. Such events could be of natural or human induced origin and should be identified and selected for design purposes during the site evaluation process. This work shows that the subtropics and mid latitudes of South America east of the Andes Mountain Range have been recognized as prone to severe convective weather. In Brazil, the events of tornadoes are becoming frequent; however there is no institutionalized procedure for a systematic documentation of severe weather. The information is done only for some scientists and by the newspapers. Like strong wind can affect the structural integrity of buildings or the pressure differential can affect the ventilation system, our concern is the safety of NPP and for this purpose the recommendations of International Atomic Energy Agency, Nuclear Regulatory Commission and Comissao Nacional de Energia Nuclear are showed and also a data base of tornadoes in Brazil is done. (author)

Event-Related Potentials (ERPs) in Second Language Research: A Brief Introduction to the Technique, a Selected Review, and an Invitation to Reconsider Critical Periods in L2

Science.gov (United States)

Steinhauer, Karsten

2014-01-01

This article provides a selective overview of recent event-related brain potential (ERP) studies in L2 morpho-syntax, demonstrating that the ERP evidence supporting the critical period hypothesis (CPH) may be less compelling than previously thought. The article starts with a general introduction to ERP methodology and language-related ERP profiles…

Safety-related LWR research. Annual report 1989

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

1990-11-01

The main topics in this annual report 1989 are phenomena of heavy fuel damage and single aspects of a core meltdown accident. The examined single aspects refer to aerosol behavior and filter engineering and to methods for assessment and minimization of the radiological consequences of reactor accidents. Different contributions to selected, safety-related problems of an advanced pressurized-water reactor complete the topic spectrum. The annual report 1989 describes the progress of the research work wich was carried out in the area of safety research by institutes and departments of the KfK, and on behalf of the KfK by external institutions. The individual contributions represent the status of work at the end of the year under review, 1989. (orig./HP) [de

Resistance ability evaluation of safety-related structures for the simulated aircraft accident

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Kim, Young Jin; Kim, Sung Woon; Choi, Jang Kyu [Daewoo E and C Co., Ltd., Suwon (Korea, Republic of)] (and others)

2003-03-15

Aircraft accidents on nuclear safety-related structures can cause severe damage to the safety of NPP(Nuclear Power Plant)s. To assess the safety of nuclear safety-related structures, the local damage and the dynamic response of global structures should be investigated together. This study have compared several local damage assessment formulas suggested for aircraft as an impactor, and have set the assessment system of local damage for impact-proof design of NPP containment buildings. And the local damage of nuclear safety-related structures in operation in Korea for commercial aircraft as impactor have been estimated. Impact load-time functions of the aircraft crash have been decided to assessment the safety of nuclear safety-related structures against the intentional colliding of commercial aircraft. Boeing 747 and Boeing 767 is selected as target aircraft based on the operation frequencies and weights. Comparison of the fire analysis methods showed that the method considering heat convection and radiation is adequate for the temperature analysis of the aircraft fuel fire. Finally, the study covered the analysis of the major structural drawings and design drawings with which three-dimensional finite element model analysis is expected to be performed.

Safety Review Services, Site Review Services and IRRS

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Yllera, Javier

2010-01-01

The selection and the evaluation of the site for a nuclear power plant are crucial parts of establishing a nuclear power programme and can be significantly affected by costs, public acceptance and safety considerations. Siting is the process of selecting a suitable site for a facility. This is area containing the plant, defined by a boundary and under effective control of the Plant Management. For safety related issues comparison within topics is generally quite straightforward. For example, sites with relatively higher seismic hazard would be penalized in comparison with those in more stable areas. The site for the NPP is generally chosen at a relatively ‘aseismic’ part of the country. This generally means that well known seismogenic sources are more than at least 50 kms from the site. The proposed sites for nuclear installations shall be examined with respect to the frequency and the severity of natural and human induced events and phenomena that could affect the safety of the installation. The Events unconnected with the operation of a facility or activity which could have an effect on the safety of the facility or activity. The relationship between the site and the design for the nuclear installation shall be examined to ensure that the radiological risk to the public and the environment arising from releases defined by the source terms is acceptably low. The Nuclear Regulatory Authority should issue a document that sets out the technical safety and security criteria against which the Site Permit Application for a new NPP will be reviewed. The objective of the Site Safety Review Services (SSRS) is provided upon request from a Member State. An independent review and assessment of the site and nuclear installation safety in relation to external natural and man induced hazards. This is to make recommendations on additional analysis or plant modifications to be carried out in order to comply with the IAEA Safety Standards and to enhance safety

Bertolette Selected as EHS Champion of Safety | Poster

Science.gov (United States)

Dan Bertolette has been selected as the most recent NCI at Frederick Champion of Safety, as part of the Champions of Safety Program sponsored by the Environment, Health, and Safety Program (EHS). The goal of the program, which began last year, is to raise awareness and promote a culture of safety by showing NCI at Frederick staff at work in their respective workplaces, according to Terri Bray, director, EHS. “Since we have so many varied work environments here, safety often takes on a different look, according to workplace. We want to take the opportunity to show real people in real situations, to encourage safety everywhere,” Bray said.

76 FR 42048 - Safety Zones; Swimming Events in Captain of the Port Boston Zone

Science.gov (United States)

2011-07-18

...-AA00 Safety Zones; Swimming Events in Captain of the Port Boston Zone AGENCY: Coast Guard, DHS. ACTION... events within the Captain of the Port (COTP) Boston Zone for swimming events. This action is necessary to... property on navigable waters from the hazardous nature of swimming events such as large numbers of swimmers...

Visualization of Spatio-Temporal Relations in Movement Event Using Multi-View

Science.gov (United States)

Zheng, K.; Gu, D.; Fang, F.; Wang, Y.; Liu, H.; Zhao, W.; Zhang, M.; Li, Q.

2017-09-01

Spatio-temporal relations among movement events extracted from temporally varying trajectory data can provide useful information about the evolution of individual or collective movers, as well as their interactions with their spatial and temporal contexts. However, the pure statistical tools commonly used by analysts pose many difficulties, due to the large number of attributes embedded in multi-scale and multi-semantic trajectory data. The need for models that operate at multiple scales to search for relations at different locations within time and space, as well as intuitively interpret what these relations mean, also presents challenges. Since analysts do not know where or when these relevant spatio-temporal relations might emerge, these models must compute statistical summaries of multiple attributes at different granularities. In this paper, we propose a multi-view approach to visualize the spatio-temporal relations among movement events. We describe a method for visualizing movement events and spatio-temporal relations that uses multiple displays. A visual interface is presented, and the user can interactively select or filter spatial and temporal extents to guide the knowledge discovery process. We also demonstrate how this approach can help analysts to derive and explain the spatio-temporal relations of movement events from taxi trajectory data.

VISUALIZATION OF SPATIO-TEMPORAL RELATIONS IN MOVEMENT EVENT USING MULTI-VIEW

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

K. Zheng

2017-09-01

Full Text Available Spatio-temporal relations among movement events extracted from temporally varying trajectory data can provide useful information about the evolution of individual or collective movers, as well as their interactions with their spatial and temporal contexts. However, the pure statistical tools commonly used by analysts pose many difficulties, due to the large number of attributes embedded in multi-scale and multi-semantic trajectory data. The need for models that operate at multiple scales to search for relations at different locations within time and space, as well as intuitively interpret what these relations mean, also presents challenges. Since analysts do not know where or when these relevant spatio-temporal relations might emerge, these models must compute statistical summaries of multiple attributes at different granularities. In this paper, we propose a multi-view approach to visualize the spatio-temporal relations among movement events. We describe a method for visualizing movement events and spatio-temporal relations that uses multiple displays. A visual interface is presented, and the user can interactively select or filter spatial and temporal extents to guide the knowledge discovery process. We also demonstrate how this approach can help analysts to derive and explain the spatio-temporal relations of movement events from taxi trajectory data.

A review for identification of initiating events in event tree development process on nuclear power plants

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Riyadi, Eko H.

2014-01-01

Initiating event is defined as any event either internal or external to the nuclear power plants (NPPs) that perturbs the steady state operation of the plant, if operating, thereby initiating an abnormal event such as transient or loss of coolant accident (LOCA) within the NPPs. These initiating events trigger sequences of events that challenge plant control and safety systems whose failure could potentially lead to core damage or large early release. Selection for initiating events consists of two steps i.e. first step, definition of possible events, such as by evaluating a comprehensive engineering, and by constructing a top level logic model. Then the second step, grouping of identified initiating event's by the safety function to be performed or combinations of systems responses. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to discuss initiating events identification in event tree development process and to reviews other probabilistic safety assessments (PSA). The identification of initiating events also involves the past operating experience, review of other PSA, failure mode and effect analysis (FMEA), feedback from system modeling, and master logic diagram (special type of fault tree). By using the method of study for the condition of the traditional US PSA categorization in detail, could be obtained the important initiating events that are categorized into LOCA, transients and external events

Trends and characteristics observed in nuclear events based on international nuclear event scale reports

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Watanabe, Norio

2001-01-01

The International Nuclear Event Scale (INES) is jointly operated by the IAEA and the OECD-NEA as a means designed for providing prompt, clear and consistent information related to nuclear events, that occurred at nuclear facilities, and facilitating communication between the nuclear community, the media and the public. Nuclear events are reported to the INES with the Scale', a consistent safety significance indicator, which runs from level 0, for events with no safety significance, to level 7 for a major accident with widespread health and environmental effects. Since the operation of INES was initiated in 1990, approximately 500 events have been reported and disseminated. The present paper discusses the trends observed in nuclear events, such as overall trends of the reported events and characteristics of safety significant events with level 2 or higher, based on the INES reports. (author)

Trend analysis of cables failure events at nuclear power plants

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Fushimi, Yasuyuki

2007-01-01

In this study, 152 failure events related with cables at overseas nuclear power plants are selected from Nuclear Information Database, which is owned by The Institute of Nuclear Safety System, and these events are analyzed in view of occurrence, causal factor, and so on. And 15 failure events related with cables at domestic nuclear power plants are selected from Nuclear Information Archives, which is owned by JANTI, and these events are analyzed by the same manner. As a result of comparing both trends, it is revealed following; 1) A cable insulator failure rate is lower at domestic nuclear power plants than at foreign ones. It is thought that a deterioration diagnosis is performed broadly in Japan. 2) Many buried cables failure events have been occupied a significant portion of cables failure events during work activity at overseas plants, however none has been occurred at domestic plants. It is thought that sufficient survey is conducted before excavating activity in Japan. 3) A domestic age related cables failure rate in service is lower than the overseas one and domestic improper maintenance rate is higher than the overseas one. Maintenance worker' a skill improvement is expected in order to reduce improper maintenance. (author)

SYSTEMS SAFETY ANALYSIS FOR FIRE EVENTS ASSOCIATED WITH THE ECRB CROSS DRIFT

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

R. J. Garrett

2001-01-01

The purpose of this analysis is to systematically identify and evaluate fire hazards related to the Yucca Mountain Site Characterization Project (YMP) Enhanced Characterization of the Repository Block (ECRB) East-West Cross Drift (commonly referred to as the ECRB Cross-Drift). This analysis builds upon prior Exploratory Studies Facility (ESF) System Safety Analyses and incorporates Topopah Springs (TS) Main Drift fire scenarios and ECRB Cross-Drift fire scenarios. Accident scenarios involving the fires in the Main Drift and the ECRB Cross-Drift were previously evaluated in ''Topopah Springs Main Drift System Safety Analysis'' (CRWMS M and O 1995) and the ''Yucca Mountain Site Characterization Project East-West Drift System Safety Analysis'' (CRWMS M and O 1998). In addition to listing required mitigation/control features, this analysis identifies the potential need for procedures and training as part of defense-in-depth mitigation/control features. The inclusion of this information in the System Safety Analysis (SSA) is intended to assist the organization(s) (e.g., Construction, Environmental Safety and Health, Design) responsible for these aspects of the ECRB Cross-Drift in developing mitigation/control features for fire events, including Emergency Refuge Station(s). This SSA was prepared, in part, in response to Condition/Issue Identification and Reporting/Resolution System (CIRS) item 1966. The SSA is an integral part of the systems engineering process, whereby safety is considered during planning, design, testing, and construction. A largely qualitative approach is used which incorporates operating experiences and recommendations from vendors, the constructor and the operating contractor. The risk assessment in this analysis characterizes the scenarios associated with fires in terms of relative risk and includes recommendations for mitigating all identified hazards. The priority for recommending and implementing mitigation control features is: (1) Incorporate

Earthquake-associated events. Annual safety research report, JFY 2011

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

2012-01-01

For the tsunami and slope stability as the earthquake-associated events that increased with the revision of the regulatory guide for reviewing seismic design of nuclear power reactor facilities, related technical standard and analysis code were leveled up to support the safety examination of the country. For tsunami study, the original plan was changed due to the 2011 Tohoku earthquake tsunami, analysis code of river run-up, sedimentation, probabilistic tsunami hazard and tsunami trace database were developed. For slope study, in addition to conventional stress criteria, in order to build a slope stability evaluation method, incorporating new indicators, such as deformation and strain, the following study was conducted. The large-scale shaking table test for E-defense, the test data were obtained. The applicability of slope stability analysis code was examined by using the shaking table test data. (author)

Frontend event selection with an MBD using Q

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Amann, J.F.

1981-01-01

A problem common to many complex experiments in Nuclear Physics is the need to provide for event selection at a level beyond that readily available in a fast hardware trigger. This may be desirable as a means of reducing the amount of unwanted data going to tape, or be needed to reduce system deadtime, so as not to miss an infrequent good event. The latter criterion is particularly important at low duty factor accelerators such as LAMPF, where instantaneous trigger rates may be quite high. The need for such an event selection mechanism has arisen in conjunction with the installation of a polarimeter in the focal plane of the High Resolution Spectrometer (HRS) at LAMPF. It has been met using a combination of buffered CAMAC electronics and an enhancement to the LAMPF standard Q data acquisition system. The enhancement to Q allows the experimeter to specify at runtime, a set of simple tests to be performed on each event as it is processed by the MBD, and before it is passed to the PDP-11 for taping and further analysis

Online Event Selection at the CMS experiment

CERN Document Server

Konecki, M

2004-01-01

Triggering in the high-rate environment of the LHC is a challenging task. The CMS experiment has developed a two-stage trigger system. The Level-1 Trigger is based on custom hardware devices and is designed to reduce the 40 MHz LHC bunch-crossing rate to a maximum event rate of ~100 kHz. The further reduction of the event rate to O(100 Hz), suitable for permanent storage, is performed in the High-Level Trigger (HLT) which is based on a farm of commercial processors. The methods used for object identification and reconstruction are presented. The CMS event selection strategy is discussed. The performance of the HLT is also given.

An initial examination of aging related degradation in turbine drives and governors for safety related pumps

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Cox, D.F.

1991-01-01

This study is being performed to examine the relationship between time dependent degradation, and current industry practices in the areas of maintenance, surveillance, and operation of steam turbine drives for safety related pumps. These pumps are located in the Auxiliary Feedwater (AFW) system for pressurized water reactor (PWR) plants, and the Reactor Core Isolation Cooling (RCIC) and High Pressure Coolant Injection (HPCI) systems for Boiling Water Reactor (BWR) facilities. This research has been conducted by examining current information in NPRDS, reviewing Licensee Event Reports, and thoroughly investigating contacts with operating plant personnel, and by personal observation. The reported information was reviewed to determine the cause of the event and the method of discovery. From this data attempts have been made at determining the predictability of events and possible preventive measures that may be implemented. Findings in a recent study on the Auxiliary Feedwater System (NUREG/CR-5404) indicate that the turbine drive is the single largest contributor to AFW system degradation. Recent improvements in maintenance practices and procedures, combined with a stabilization of the design seem to indicate that this equipment can be a reliable component in safety systems

Safety related studies on the accident behaviour of the HTR-100

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Wolters, J.; Mertens, J.; Altes, J.; Bongartz, R.; Breitbach, G.; David, P.H.; Degen, G.; Ehrlich, H.G.; Escherich, K.H.; Frank, E.; Hennings, W.; Jahn, W.; Koschmieder, R.; Marx, J.; Meister, G.; Moormann, R.; Rehm, W.; Verfondern, K.

1991-10-01

The aim of investigations was to verify the safety concept of the plant for balance and to quantify the radiological risk to be expected in operating an HTR-100 double unit system. Moreover, aspects of the investment risk were considered. The spectrum of initiating events ranged from so-called transients to leaks in the primary circuit and steam generator and even included earthquakes. Some of the event trees derived were highly complex and extensive due to the situation of the steam generator above the core and with regard to the double unit plant concept with increased possibilities of accident control, but also with respect to potential accident propagation. Correspondingly sophisticated analyses were required to identify risk-relevant event sequences. Environmental exposure for all risk-relevant accidents is so low that accident consequence calculations do not reveal any lethal radiation doses and practically no stochastic fatal injuries. These calculations neither assumed acute protective measures nor long-term resettlement or decontamination. The radiological risk caused by an HTR-100 plant is therefore to be classified as very low. The initiating events selected as representative and the event sequences studied in detail cover the risk-relevant event spectrum well into the hypothetical range. (orig./HP) [de

Safety of nuclear installations in Slovakia

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

1998-01-01

In this part next aspects are described: (1) Site selection (Legislation related to site selection; Meeting criteria at Bohunice and Mochovce sites; International agreements); (2) Design preparation and construction (Designing and construction-relevant legislation; Nuclear installation project preparation of nuclear installation at Mochovce site); (3) Operation (Operator licensing procedure; Operation limits and conditions; Maintenance testing and control documentation for management and operation; Technical support of operation; Analysis of events at nuclear installations and Radioactive waste production); (4) Planned safety upgrading activities at nuclear installations

Attitude of the Korean dentists towards radiation safety and selection criteria

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lee, Byung Do; Ludlow, John B.

2013-01-01

X-ray exposure should be clinically justified and each exposure should be expected to give patients benefits. Since dental radiographic examination is one of the most frequent radiological procedures, radiation hazard becomes an important public health concern. The purpose of this study was to investigate the attitude of Korean dentists about radiation safety and use of criteria for selecting the frequency and type of radiographic examinations. The study included 267 Korean dentists. Five questions related to radiation safety were asked of each of them. These questions were about factors associated with radiation protection of patients and operators including the use of radiographic selection criteria for intraoral radiographic procedures. The frequency of prescription of routine radiographic examination (an example is a panoramic radiograph for screening process for occult disease) was 34.1%, while that of selective radiography was 64.0%. Dentists' discussion of radiation risk and benefit with patients was infrequent. More than half of the operators held the image receptor by themselves during intraoral radiographic examinations. Lead apron/thyroid collars for patient protection were used by fewer than 22% of dental offices. Rectangular collimation was utilized by fewer than 15% of dental offices. The majority of Korean dentists in the study did not practice radiation protection procedures which would be required to minimize exposure to unnecessary radiation for patients and dental professionals. Mandatory continuing professional education in radiation safety and development of Korean radiographic selection criteria is recommended.

Attitude of the Korean dentists towards radiation safety and selection criteria

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Lee, Byung Do [Dept. of Oral and Maxillofacial Radiology and Wonkwang Dental Research Institute, College of Dentistry, Wonkwang University, Iksan (Korea, Republic of); Ludlow, John B. [Graduate Program in Oral and Maxillofacial Radiology, School of Dentistry, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill (United States)

2013-09-15

X-ray exposure should be clinically justified and each exposure should be expected to give patients benefits. Since dental radiographic examination is one of the most frequent radiological procedures, radiation hazard becomes an important public health concern. The purpose of this study was to investigate the attitude of Korean dentists about radiation safety and use of criteria for selecting the frequency and type of radiographic examinations. The study included 267 Korean dentists. Five questions related to radiation safety were asked of each of them. These questions were about factors associated with radiation protection of patients and operators including the use of radiographic selection criteria for intraoral radiographic procedures. The frequency of prescription of routine radiographic examination (an example is a panoramic radiograph for screening process for occult disease) was 34.1%, while that of selective radiography was 64.0%. Dentists' discussion of radiation risk and benefit with patients was infrequent. More than half of the operators held the image receptor by themselves during intraoral radiographic examinations. Lead apron/thyroid collars for patient protection were used by fewer than 22% of dental offices. Rectangular collimation was utilized by fewer than 15% of dental offices. The majority of Korean dentists in the study did not practice radiation protection procedures which would be required to minimize exposure to unnecessary radiation for patients and dental professionals. Mandatory continuing professional education in radiation safety and development of Korean radiographic selection criteria is recommended.

Feature extraction and sensor selection for NPP initiating event identification

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lin, Ting-Han; Wu, Shun-Chi; Chen, Kuang-You; Chou, Hwai-Pwu

2017-01-01

Highlights: • A two-stage feature extraction scheme for NPP initiating event identification. • With stBP, interrelations among the sensors can be retained for identification. • With dSFS, sensors that are crucial for identification can be efficiently selected. • Efficacy of the scheme is illustrated with data from the Maanshan NPP simulator. - Abstract: Initiating event identification is essential in managing nuclear power plant (NPP) severe accidents. In this paper, a novel two-stage feature extraction scheme that incorporates the proposed sensor type-wise block projection (stBP) and deflatable sequential forward selection (dSFS) is used to elicit the discriminant information in the data obtained from various NPP sensors to facilitate event identification. With the stBP, the primal features can be extracted without eliminating the interrelations among the sensors of the same type. The extracted features are then subjected to a further dimensionality reduction by selecting the sensors that are most relevant to the events under consideration. This selection is not easy, and a combinatorial optimization technique is normally required. With the dSFS, an optimal sensor set can be found with less computational load. Moreover, its sensor deflation stage allows sensors in the preselected set to be iteratively refined to avoid being trapped into a local optimum. Results from detailed experiments containing data of 12 event categories and a total of 112 events generated with a Taiwan’s Maanshan NPP simulator are presented to illustrate the efficacy of the proposed scheme.

Signal detection to identify serious adverse events (neuropsychiatric events in travelers taking mefloquine for chemoprophylaxis of malaria

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Naing C

2012-08-01

Full Text Available Cho Naing,1,3 Kyan Aung,1 Syed Imran Ahmed,2 Joon Wah Mak31School of Medical Sciences, 2School of Pharmacy and Health Sciences, 3School of Postgraduate Studies and Research, International Medical University, Kuala Lumpur, MalaysiaBackground: For all medications, there is a trade-off between benefits and potential for harm. It is important for patient safety to detect drug-event combinations and analyze by appropriate statistical methods. Mefloquine is used as chemoprophylaxis for travelers going to regions with known chloroquine-resistant Plasmodium falciparum malaria. As such, there is a concern about serious adverse events associated with mefloquine chemoprophylaxis. The objective of the present study was to assess whether any signal would be detected for the serious adverse events of mefloquine, based on data in clinicoepidemiological studies.Materials and methods: We extracted data on adverse events related to mefloquine chemoprophylaxis from the two published datasets. Disproportionality reporting of adverse events such as neuropsychiatric events and other adverse events was presented in the 2 × 2 contingency table. Reporting odds ratio and corresponding 95% confidence interval [CI] data-mining algorithm was applied for the signal detection. The safety signals are considered significant when the ROR estimates and the lower limits of the corresponding 95% CI are ≥2.Results: Two datasets addressing adverse events of mefloquine chemoprophylaxis (one from a published article and one from a Cochrane systematic review were included for analyses. Reporting odds ratio 1.58, 95% CI: 1.49–1.68 based on published data in the selected article, and 1.195, 95% CI: 0.94–1.44 based on data in the selected Cochrane review. Overall, in both datasets, the reporting odds ratio values of lower 95% CI were less than 2.Conclusion: Based on available data, findings suggested that signals for serious adverse events pertinent to neuropsychiatric event were

Calculation and definition of safety indicators

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Cristian, I.; Branzeu, N.; Vidican, D.; Vladescu, G.

1997-01-01

This paper presents, based on Cernavoda safety indicators proposal, the purpose definition and calculation formulas for each of the selected safety indicators. Five categories of safety indicators for Cernavoda Unit 1 were identified, namely: overall plant safety performance; initiating events; safety system availability, physical barrier integrity; indirect indicators. Definition, calculation and use of some safety indicators are shown in a tabular form. (authors)

Mandatory Rest Stops Improve Athlete Safety during Event Medical Coverage for Ultramarathons.

Science.gov (United States)

Joslin, Jeremy; Mularella, Joshua; Bail, Allison; Wojcik, Susan; Cooney, Derek R

2016-02-01

Provisions of medical direction and clinical services for ultramarathons require specific attention to heat illness. Heat stress can affect athlete performance negatively, and heat accumulation without acclimatization is associated with the development of exertional heat stroke (EHS). In order to potentially mitigate the risk of this safety concern, the Jungle Marathon (Para, Brazil) instituted mandatory rest periods during the first two days of this 7-day, staged, Brazilian ultramarathon. Race records were reviewed retrospectively to determine the number of runners that suffered an emergency medical complication related to heat stress and did not finish (DNF) the race. Review of records included three years before and three years after the institution of these mandatory rest periods. A total of 326 runners competed in the Jungle Marathon during the 2008-2013 period of study. During the pre-intervention years, a total of 46 athletes (21%) DNF the full race with 25 (54.3%) cases attributed to heat-related factors. During the post-intervention years, a total of 26 athletes (24.3%) DNF the full race with four (15.4%) cases attributed to heat-related factors. Mandatory rest stops during extreme running events in hot or tropical environments, like the Jungle Marathon, are likely to improve athlete safety and improve the heat acclimatization process.

Insights from event-related potentials into the temporal and hierarchical organization of the ventral and dorsal streams of the visual system in selective attention.

Science.gov (United States)

Martín-Loeches, M; Hinojosa, J A; Rubia, F J

1999-11-01

The temporal and hierarchical relationships between the dorsal and the ventral streams in selective attention are known only in relation to the use of spatial location as the attentional cue mediated by the dorsal stream. To improve this state of affairs, event-related brain potentials were recorded while subjects attended simultaneously to motion direction (mediated by the dorsal stream) and to a property mediated by the ventral stream (color or shape). At about the same time, a selection positivity (SP) started for attention mediated by both streams. However, the SP for color and shape peaked about 60 ms later than motion SP. Subsequently, a selection negativity (SN) followed by a late positive component (LPC) were found simultaneously for attention mediated by both streams. A hierarchical relationship between the two streams was not observed, but neither SN nor LPC for one property was completely insensitive to the values of the other property.

MODULATION OF EVENT-RELATED POTENTIALS BY WORD REPETITION - THE ROLE OF VISUAL SELECTIVE ATTENTION

NARCIS (Netherlands)

OTTEN, LJ; RUGG, MD; DOYLE, MC

1993-01-01

Event-related potentials (ERPs) were recorded while subjects viewed visually presented words, some of which occurred twice. Each trial consisted of two colored letter strings, the requirement being to attend to and make a word/nonword discrimination for one of the strings. Attention was manipulated

Defining initiating events for purposes of probabilistic safety assessment

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

1993-09-01

This document is primarily directed towards technical staff involved in the performance or review of plant specific Probabilistic Safety Assessment (PSA). It highlights different approaches and provides typical examples useful for defining the Initiating Events (IE). The document also includes the generic initiating event database, containing about 300 records taken from about 30 plant specific PSAs. In addition to its usefulness during the actual performance of a PSA, the generic IE database is of the utmost importance for peer reviews of PSAs, such as the IAEA's International Peer Review Service (IPERS) where reference to studies on similar NPPs is needed. 60 refs, figs and tabs

Application of the Integrated Safety Assessment methodology to safety margins. Dynamic Event Trees, Damage Domains and Risk Assessment

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ibánez, L.; Hortal, J.; Queral, C.; Gómez-Magán, J.; Sánchez-Perea, M.; Fernández, I.; Meléndez, E.; Expósito, A.; Izquierdo, J.M.; Gil, J.; Marrao, H.; Villalba-Jabonero, E.

2016-01-01

The Integrated Safety Assessment (ISA) methodology, developed by the Consejo de Seguridad Nuclear, has been applied to an analysis of Zion NPP for sequences with Loss of the Component Cooling Water System (CCWS). The ISA methodology proposal starts from the unfolding of the Dynamic Event Tree (DET). Results from this first step allow assessing the sequence delineation of standard Probabilistic Safety Analysis results. For some sequences of interest of the outlined DET, ISA then identifies the Damage Domain (DD). This is the region of uncertain times and/or parameters where a safety limit is exceeded, which indicates the occurrence of certain damage situation. This paper illustrates application of this concept obtained simulating sequences with MAAP and with TRACE. From information of simulation results of sequence transients belonging to the DD and the time-density probability distributions of the manual actions and of occurrence of stochastic phenomena, ISA integrates the dynamic reliability equations proposed to obtain the sequence contribution to the global Damage Exceedance Frequency (DEF). Reported results show a slight increase in the DEF for sequences investigated following a power uprate from 100% to 110%. This demonstrates the potential use of the method to help in the assessment of design modifications. - Highlights: • This paper illustrates an application of the ISA methodology to safety margins. • Dynamic Event Trees are useful tool for verifying the standard PSA Event Trees. • The ISA methodology takes into account the uncertainties in human action times. • The ISA methodology shows the Damage Exceedance Frequency increase in power uprates.

Optimization of safety equipment outages improves safety

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Cepin, Marko

2002-01-01

Testing and maintenance activities of safety equipment in nuclear power plants are an important potential for risk and cost reduction. An optimization method is presented based on the simulated annealing algorithm. The method determines the optimal schedule of safety equipment outages due to testing and maintenance based on minimization of selected risk measure. The mean value of the selected time dependent risk measure represents the objective function of the optimization. The time dependent function of the selected risk measure is obtained from probabilistic safety assessment, i.e. the fault tree analysis at the system level and the fault tree/event tree analysis at the plant level, both extended with inclusion of time requirements. Results of several examples showed that it is possible to reduce risk by application of the proposed method. Because of large uncertainties in the probabilistic safety assessment, the most important result of the method may not be a selection of the most suitable schedule of safety equipment outages among those, which results in similarly low risk. But, it may be a prevention of such schedules of safety equipment outages, which result in high risk. Such finding increases the importance of evaluation speed versus the requirement of getting always the global optimum no matter if it is only slightly better that certain local one

Relation of management, supervision, and personnel practices to nuclear power plant safety

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Layton, W.L.; Turnage, J.J.

1980-01-01

The knowledge base of industrial/organization psychology suggests three major areas of research with important implications for nuclear power plant safety. These areas are: Management and Supervision: Personnel Selection, Training and Placement; and Organizational Climate. Evidence drawn from several Three Mile Island investigations confirms that organizational structure of plants and supervisory practices, the selection and training of personnel, and organizational climate are important factors. Difficulties in decision making and coordination of personnel are pinpointed. Deficiencies in training are highlighted and the climate of working atmosphere is discussed. These matters are related to nuclear power plant safety. Future research directions are presented

A novel safety assessment strategy applied to non-selective extracts.

Science.gov (United States)

Koster, Sander; Leeman, Winfried; Verheij, Elwin; Dutman, Ellen; van Stee, Leo; Nielsen, Lene Munch; Ronsmans, Stefan; Noteborn, Hub; Krul, Lisette

2015-06-01

A main challenge in food safety research is to demonstrate that processing of foodstuffs does not lead to the formation of substances for which the safety upon consumption might be questioned. This is especially so since food is a complex matrix in which the analytical detection of substances, and consequent risk assessment thereof, is difficult to determine. Here, a pragmatic novel safety assessment strategy is applied to the production of non-selective extracts (NSEs), used for different purposes in food such as for colouring purposes, which are complex food mixtures prepared from reference juices. The Complex Mixture Safety Assessment Strategy (CoMSAS) is an exposure driven approach enabling to efficiently assess the safety of the NSE by focussing on newly formed substances or substances that may increase in exposure during the processing of the NSE. CoMSAS enables to distinguish toxicologically relevant from toxicologically less relevant substances, when related to their respective levels of exposure. This will reduce the amount of work needed for identification, characterisation and safety assessment of unknown substances detected at low concentration, without the need for toxicity testing using animal studies. In this paper, the CoMSAS approach has been applied for elderberry and pumpkin NSEs used for food colouring purposes. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

A Longitudinal Investigation of Mandarin-speaking Preschoolers' Relation of Events in Narratives: From Unrelated to Related Events

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Wen-hui Sah

2007-06-01

Full Text Available This study focuses on the way preschoolers relate events in a story. Twelve Mandarin-speaking preschoolers served as subjects; their narratives were elicited through the use of a picture book, Frog, where are you? Our data suggest that children’s progression from treating single, unrelated events to related ones requires proper linguistic and cognitive capacities. The data also support earlier findings that most 5-year-olds are not able to relate a chain of events well. Additionally, it is found that there is dissociation in abilities for producing linguistic expressions and for inferring relations between events. We try to interpret the dissociation in terms of Karmiloff-Smith’s problem-solving model.

EEG Channel Selection Using Particle Swarm Optimization for the Classification of Auditory Event-Related Potentials

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Alejandro Gonzalez

2014-01-01

Full Text Available Brain-machine interfaces (BMI rely on the accurate classification of event-related potentials (ERPs and their performance greatly depends on the appropriate selection of classifier parameters and features from dense-array electroencephalography (EEG signals. Moreover, in order to achieve a portable and more compact BMI for practical applications, it is also desirable to use a system capable of accurate classification using information from as few EEG channels as possible. In the present work, we propose a method for classifying P300 ERPs using a combination of Fisher Discriminant Analysis (FDA and a multiobjective hybrid real-binary Particle Swarm Optimization (MHPSO algorithm. Specifically, the algorithm searches for the set of EEG channels and classifier parameters that simultaneously maximize the classification accuracy and minimize the number of used channels. The performance of the method is assessed through offline analyses on datasets of auditory ERPs from sound discrimination experiments. The proposed method achieved a higher classification accuracy than that achieved by traditional methods while also using fewer channels. It was also found that the number of channels used for classification can be significantly reduced without greatly compromising the classification accuracy.

Safety-related control air systems

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Anon.

1977-01-01

This Standard applies to those portions of the control air system that furnish air required to support, control, or operate systems or portions of systems that are safety related in nuclear power plants. This Standard relates only to the air supply system(s) for safety-related air operated devices and does not apply to the safety-related air operated device or to air operated actuators for such devices. The objectives of this Standard are to provide (1) minimum system design requirements for equipment, piping, instruments, controls, and wiring that constitute the air supply system; and (2) the system and component testing and maintenance requirements

Preliminary safety analysis for key design features of KALIMER

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Hahn, D. H.; Kwon, Y. M.; Chang, W. P.; Suk, S. D.; Lee, S. O.; Lee, Y. B.; Jeong, K. S

2000-07-01

KAERI is currently developing the conceptual design of a liquid metal reactor, KALIMER(Korea Advanced Liquid Metal Reactor) under the long-term nuclear R and D program. In this report, descriptions of the KALIMER safety design features and safety analyses results for selected ATWS accidents are presented. First, the basic approach to achieve the safety goal is introduced in chapter 1, and the safety evaluation procedure for the KALIMER design is described in chapter 2. It includes event selection, event categorization, description of design basis events, and beyond design basis events. In chapter 3, results of inherent safety evaluations for the KALIMER conceptual design are presented. The KALIMER core and plant system are designed to assure design performance during a selected set of events without either reactor control or protection system intervention. Safety analyses for the postulated anticipated transient without scram(ATWS) have been performed to investigate the KALIMER system response to the events. They are categorized as bounding events(BEs) because of their low probability of occurrence. In chapter 4, the design of the KALIMER containment dome and the results of its performance analysis are presented. The designs of the existing LMR containment and the KALIMER containment dome have been compared in this chapter. Procedure of the containment performance analysis and the analysis results are described along with the accident scenario and source terms. Finally, a simple methodology is introduced to investigate the core kinetics and hydraulic behavior during HCDA in chapter 5. Mathematical formulations have been developed in the framework of the modified bethe-tait method, and scoping analyses have been performed for the KALIMER core behavior during super-prompt critical excursions.

A review for identification of initiating events in event tree development process on nuclear power plants

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Riyadi, Eko H., E-mail: e.riyadi@bapeten.go.id [Center for Regulatory Assessment of Nuclear Installation and Materials, Nuclear Energy Regulatory Agency (BAPETEN), Jl. Gajah Mada 8 Jakarta 10120 (Indonesia)

2014-09-30

Initiating event is defined as any event either internal or external to the nuclear power plants (NPPs) that perturbs the steady state operation of the plant, if operating, thereby initiating an abnormal event such as transient or loss of coolant accident (LOCA) within the NPPs. These initiating events trigger sequences of events that challenge plant control and safety systems whose failure could potentially lead to core damage or large early release. Selection for initiating events consists of two steps i.e. first step, definition of possible events, such as by evaluating a comprehensive engineering, and by constructing a top level logic model. Then the second step, grouping of identified initiating event's by the safety function to be performed or combinations of systems responses. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to discuss initiating events identification in event tree development process and to reviews other probabilistic safety assessments (PSA). The identification of initiating events also involves the past operating experience, review of other PSA, failure mode and effect analysis (FMEA), feedback from system modeling, and master logic diagram (special type of fault tree). By using the method of study for the condition of the traditional US PSA categorization in detail, could be obtained the important initiating events that are categorized into LOCA, transients and external events.

Patient Drug Safety Reporting: Diabetes Patients' Perceptions of Drug Safety and How to Improve Reporting of Adverse Events and Product Complaints.

Science.gov (United States)

Patel, Puja; Spears, David; Eriksen, Betina Østergaard; Lollike, Karsten; Sacco, Michael

2018-03-01

Global health care manufacturer Novo Nordisk commissioned research regarding awareness of drug safety department activities and potential to increase patient feedback. Objectives were to examine patients' knowledge of pharmaceutical manufacturers' responsibilities and efforts regarding drug safety, their perceptions and experiences related to these efforts, and how these factors influence their thoughts and behaviors. Data were collected before and after respondents read a description of a drug safety department and its practices. We conducted quantitative survey research across 608 health care consumers receiving treatment for diabetes in the United States, Germany, United Kingdom, and Italy. This research validated initial, exploratory qualitative research (across 40 comparable consumers from the same countries) which served to guide design of the larger study. Before reading a drug safety department description, 55% of respondents were unaware these departments collect safety information on products and patients. After reading the description, 34% reported the department does more than they expected to ensure drug safety, and 56% reported "more confidence" in the industry as a whole. Further, 66% reported themselves more likely to report an adverse event or product complaint, and 60% reported that they were more likely to contact a drug safety department with questions. The most preferred communication methods were websites/online forums (39%), email (27%), and telephone (25%). Learning about drug safety departments elevates consumers' confidence in manufacturers' safety efforts and establishes potential for patients to engage in increased self-monitoring and reporting. Study results reveal potentially actionable insights for the industry across patient and physician programs and communications.

Safety issues relating to the design of fusion power facilities

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Stasko, R.R.; Wong, K.Y.; Russell, S.B.

1986-06-01

In order to make fusion power a viable future source of energy, it will be necessary to ensure that the cost of power for fusion electric generation is competitive with advanced fission concepts. In addition, fusion power will have to live up to its original promise of being a more radiologically benign technology than fission, and be able to demonstrate excellent operational safety performance. These two requirements are interrelated, since the selection of an appropriate safety philosophy early in the design phase could greatly reduce or eliminate the capital costs of elaborate safety related and protective sytems. This paper will briefly overview a few of the key safety issues presently recognized as critical to the ultimate achievement of licensable, environmentally safe and socially acceptable fusion power facilities. 12 refs

An overview of safety and environmental considerations in the selection of materials for fusion facilities

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Petti, D.A.; Piet, S.J.; Seki, Y.

1996-01-01

Safety and environmental considerations can play a large role in the selection of fusion materials. In this paper, we review the attributes of different structural, plasma facing, and breeding materials from a safety perspective and discuss some generic waste management issues as they relate to fusion materials in general. Specific safety concerns exist for each material that must be dealt with in fusion facility design. Low activation materials offer inherent safety benefits compared with conventional materials, but more work is needed before these materials have the requisite certified databases. In the interim, the international thermonuclear experimental reactor (ITER) has selected more conventional materials and is showing that the safety concerns with these materials can be addressed by proper attention to design. In the area of waste management disposal criteria differ by country. However, the criteria are all very strict making disposal of fusion components difficult. As a result, recycling has gained increasing attention. (orig.)

Preventive Effects of Safety Helmets on Traumatic Brain Injury after Work-Related Falls

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Sang Chul Kim

2016-10-01

Full Text Available Introduction: Work-related traumatic brain injury (TBI caused by falls is a catastrophic event that leads to disabilities and high socio-medical costs. This study aimed to measure the magnitude of the preventive effect of safety helmets on clinical outcomes and to compare the effect across different heights of fall. Methods: We collected a nationwide, prospective database of work-related injury patients who visited the 10 emergency departments between July 2010 and October 2012. All of the adult patients who experienced work-related fall injuries were eligible, excluding cases with unknown safety helmet use and height of fall. Primary and secondary endpoints were intracranial injury and in-hospital mortality. We calculated adjusted odds ratios (AORs of safety helmet use and height of fall for study outcomes, and adjusted for any potential confounders. Results: A total of 1298 patients who suffered from work-related fall injuries were enrolled. The industrial or construction area was the most common place of fall injury occurrence, and 45.0% were wearing safety helmets at the time of fall injuries. The safety helmet group was less likely to have intracranial injury comparing with the no safety helmet group (the adjusted odds ratios (ORs (95% confidence interval (CI: 0.42 (0.24–0.73, however, there was no statistical difference of in-hospital mortality between two groups (the adjusted ORs (95% CI: 0.83 (0.34–2.03. In the interaction analysis, preventive effects of safety helmet on intracranial injury were significant within 4 m height of fall. Conclusions: A safety helmet is associated with prevention of intracranial injury resulting from work-related fall and the effect is preserved within 4 m height of fall. Therefore, wearing a safety helmet can be an intervention for protecting fall-related intracranial injury in the workplace.

Adverse Events of Massage Therapy in Pain-Related Conditions: A Systematic Review

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ping Yin

2014-01-01

Full Text Available Pain-related massage, important in traditional Eastern medicine, is increasingly used in the Western world. So the widening acceptance demands continual safety assessment. This review is an evaluation of the frequency and severity of adverse events (AEs reported mainly for pain-related massage between 2003 and 2013. Relevant all-languages reports in 6 databases were identified and assessed by two coauthors. During the 11-year period, 40 reports of 138 AEs were associated with massage. Author, year of publication, country of occurrence, participant related (age, sex or number of patients affected, the details of manual therapy, and clinician type were extracted. Disc herniation, soft tissue trauma, neurologic compromise, spinal cord injury, dissection of the vertebral arteries, and others were the main complications of massage. Spinal manipulation in massage has repeatedly been associated with serious AEs especially. Clearly, massage therapies are not totally devoid of risks. But the incidence of such events is low.

Pharmacist work stress and learning from quality related events.

Science.gov (United States)

Boyle, Todd A; Bishop, Andrea; Morrison, Bobbi; Murphy, Andrea; Barker, James; Ashcroft, Darren M; Phipps, Denham; Mahaffey, Thomas; MacKinnon, Neil J

2016-01-01

Among the many stresses faced by pharmacy staff, quality related event (QRE) learning can be among the most significant. In the absence of a supportive organizational culture, the potential for blaming individuals, versus identifying key process flaws, is significant and can be very intimidating to those involved in such discussions and may increase an already stressful work environment. This research develops and tests a model of the relationship between the work stress faced by pharmacists and the extent of QRE learning in community pharmacies. Building upon recent research models that explore job characteristics and safety climate, the model proposes that work stress captured by the effort that the pharmacist invests into job performance, the extent to which the pharmacist is rewarded for such efforts, and the extent of pharmacist work-related commitment to their job, influence pharmacist assessment of the working conditions within their community pharmacy. It is further proposed that working conditions influence the extent of a blame culture and safety focus in the pharmacy, which, in turn, influences organizational learning from QREs. This research formed part of a larger study focused on QRE reporting in community pharmacies. As part of the larger study, a total of 1035 questionnaires were mailed to community pharmacists, pharmacy managers, and pharmacy owners in the Canadian province of Saskatchewan during the fall of 2013 and winter and spring of 2014. Partial least squares (PLS) using SmartPLS was selected to test and further develop the proposed model. An examination of the statistical significance of latent variable paths, convergent validity, construct reliability, discriminant validity, and variance explained was used to assess the overall quality of the model. Of the 1035 questionnaire sent, a total of 432 questionnaires were returned for an initial response rate of approximately 42%. However, for this research, only questionnaires from staff

Safety analysis on Non-LOCA events for the revision of Wolsong NPP unit 2,3,4 sar

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kim, Jong Hyun; Jin, Dong Sik; Ryu, Eui Seung; Kho, Dong Wook; Kim, Sung Min

2015-01-01

Korean Wolsong Nuclear Power Plant Units 2,3,4 (CANDU-6 Type) has prepared the revision of safety analysis report (Final Safety Analysis Report (FSAR) chapter 15) from the original performed in the year of 1990s, using the updated and state-of-the-art methodology and tools including IST safety analysis codes and more detail modelling. Compared with the original FSAR15, the revised FSAR15 has significant improvement in both the scope and the depth of safety analysis, which has demonstrated the safety analysis results have complied with the safety requirements(acceptance criteria). This paper will present the analysis scope for Non-LOCA events re-analyzed or added for the FSAR15 revision, methodologies applied such as codes and modelling and some important analysis results will be demonstrated with comparison to acceptance criteria. Application of more detail and near-realistic assumptions and method including Dev-PDO options and uncertainty related to the CHF correlations has altogether brought about more safety margin compared with the original FSAR15 with respect to SDS trip effectiveness etc. (author)

A study on method to identify actual causes and conditions of safety rule deviations through analyzing events due to unsafe acts of workers

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hirotsu, Yuko; Takeda, Daisuke

2010-01-01

The purpose of this study is to establish a method to understand actual causes and condition of intentional deviation from safety rules (including norm and written rules that has developed to anticipate, prevent, detect and recover human errors) in an organization by analyzing events due to unsafe acts of workers (human factor events) and to propose effective measures. Firstly, by reviewing literature regarding safety violations, the following two advantages of investigating actual condition of safety rule deviation through human factor event analysis were extracted, such as (a) being able to clarify relationships between deviations, human errors, and events, and (b) being able to identify specific causal factors that influenced the decision to deviate, including acts of people concerned, problems with rules, task demands, environment and management. Next, through the analysis of human factor event data in accordance with existing human error analysis method on the basis of advantages above, the following three requirements for analyzing event data were extracted, such as (a) gathering information such as rules concerning to the work activities related to the human factor events, and whether there are intentional deviations of the rules, (b) gathering information and identify interrelations among causal factors of the intentional deviations, and (c) gathering information on general condition of deviations and the causal factors. (author)

Physiological and Selective Attention Demands during an International Rally Motor Sport Event

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Anthony P. Turner

2015-01-01

Full Text Available Purpose. To monitor physiological and attention responses of drivers and codrivers during a World Rally Championship (WRC event. Methods. Observational data were collected from ten male drivers/codrivers on heart rate (HR, core body (Tcore and skin temperature (Tsk, hydration status (urine osmolality, fluid intake (self-report, and visual and auditory selective attention (performance tests. Measures were taken pre-, mid-, and postcompetition day and also during the precompetition reconnaissance. Results. In ambient temperatures of 20.1°C (in-car peak 33.9°C mean (SD peak HR and Tcore were significantly elevated (P<0.05 during rally compared to reconnaissance (166 (17 versus 111 (16 beats·min−1 and 38.5 (0.4 versus 37.6 (0.2°C, resp.. Values during competitive stages were substantially higher in drivers. High urine osmolality was indicated in some drivers within competition. Attention was maintained during the event but was significantly lower prerally, though with considerable individual variation. Conclusions. Environmental and physical demands during rally competition produced significant physiological responses. Challenges to thermoregulation, hydration status, and cognitive function need to be addressed to minimise potentially negative effects on performance and safety.

A Study on the Organizational Components Affecting the Communication-Related Events in Nuclear Power Plant

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lee, Seung Min; Jang, In Seok; Seong, Poong Hyun

2009-01-01

It is important to communicate clearly and effectively in order to achieve and improve team performance, also in the view point of safety, in nuclear power plant (NPP). Researchers have studied on lots of accidents and incidents related to communication and analyzed the elements affecting communication fail in the side of sender-receiver communication process so that they have found which process was failed to communicate each other. But we cannot disregard on human cognition, level of understanding, and individual or team characteristic on the communication process, so we need to analyze the elements of communication-related events in the side of human and team components that we will find why operators could not avoid failing their communication. In this paper we enumerate key organizational components, collect events related to communication in NPP and count the total number of components affecting communication fail. Finally we perform the pairwise-comparison using those values and understand major factors affecting communication-related events

Occupational Safety Review of High Technology Facilities

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Lee Cadwallader

2005-01-31

This report contains reviews of operating experiences, selected accident events, and industrial safety performance indicators that document the performance of the major US DOE magnetic fusion experiments and particle accelerators. These data are useful to form a basis for the occupational safety level at matured research facilities with known sets of safety rules and regulations. Some of the issues discussed are radiation safety, electromagnetic energy exposure events, and some of the more widespread issues of working at height, equipment fires, confined space work, electrical work, and other industrial hazards. Nuclear power plant industrial safety data are also included for comparison.

75 FR 35650 - Safety Zone; Northern California Annual Fireworks Events, Independence Day Fireworks

Science.gov (United States)

2010-06-23

... Zone; Northern California Annual Fireworks Events, Independence Day Fireworks AGENCY: Coast Guard, DHS... July Fireworks safety zone from 7 a.m. through 10 p.m. on July 3, 2010 in position 39[deg]13'55.37'' N... will enforce the safety zone for the annual Kings Beach 4th of July Fireworks in 33 CFR 165.1191 on...

Decision Trajectories in Dementia Care Networks: Decisions and Related Key Events.

Science.gov (United States)

Groen-van de Ven, Leontine; Smits, Carolien; Oldewarris, Karen; Span, Marijke; Jukema, Jan; Eefsting, Jan; Vernooij-Dassen, Myrra

2017-10-01

This prospective multiperspective study provides insight into the decision trajectories of people with dementia by studying the decisions made and related key events. This study includes three waves of interviews, conducted between July 2010 and July 2012, with 113 purposefully selected respondents (people with beginning to advanced stages of dementia and their informal and professional caregivers) completed in 12 months (285 interviews). Our multilayered qualitative analysis consists of content analysis, timeline methods, and constant comparison. Four decision themes emerged-managing daily life, arranging support, community living, and preparing for the future. Eight key events delineate the decision trajectories of people with dementia. Decisions and key events differ between people with dementia living alone and living with a caregiver. Our study clarifies that decisions relate not only to the disease but to living with the dementia. Individual differences in decision content and sequence may effect shared decision-making and advance care planning.

Real time event selection and flash analog-to-digital converters

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Imori, Masatosi

1983-01-01

In high-energy particle experiments, high-speed analog logic is employed to select events on a real-time basis. Flash analog-to-digital converters replace the high-speed analog logic with digital logic. The digital logic gives great flexibility to the scheme for real-time event selection. This paper proposes the use of flash A/D converters for the logic used to obtain the total sum of the energy deposited in individual counters in a shower detector. (author)

The use of probabilistic safety assessment based maintenance indicators to increase the availability of safety related systems in nuclear power plants

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kirchsteiger, C.

1991-04-01

This work describes the theoretical development of a Probabilistic Safety Assessment (PSA) based Performance Indicator (PI) model for a comprehensive Maintenance Efficiency Analysis (MEA) and its practical application to past operational history data of a certain Nuclear Power Plant. Plant specific equipment history and maintenance work order data have been collected and analysed using various advanced statistical procedures (nonparametric methods, multivariate analysis) in order to be able to estimate safety system related equipment and maintenance process trends. The main results of such a MEA case study are the trends in the (in)effectiveness of the performance of a selected safety system and its dominant maintenance related causes of its bad (good) equipment performance. Finally, the therefrom gained results are used to propose a new set of safety system based and maintenance related Performance Indicators, including suggestions for a corresponding plant specific maintenance data collection system. (author)

Climate and climate-related issues for the safety assessment SR-Can

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Naeslund, Jens-Ove

2006-11-01

The purpose of this report is to document current scientific knowledge of the climate-related conditions and processes relevant to the long-term safety of a KBS-3 repository to a level required for an adequate treatment in the safety assessment SR-Can. The report also includes a concise background description of the climate system. The report includes three main chapters: A description of the climate system (Chapter 2); Identification and discussion of climate-related issues (Chapter 3); and, A description of the evolution of climate-related conditions for the safety assessment (Chapter 4). Chapter 2 includes an overview of present knowledge of the Earth climate system and the climate conditions that can be expected to occur in Sweden on a 100,000 year time perspective. Based on this, climate-related issues relevant for the long-term safety of a KBS-3 repository are identified. These are documented in Chapter 3 'Climate-related issues' to a level required for an adequate treatment in the safety assessment. Finally, in Chapter 4, 'Evolution of climate-related conditions for the safety assessment' an evolution for a 120,000 year period is presented, including discussions of identified climate-related issues of importance for repository safety. The documentation is from a scientific point of view not exhaustive, since such a treatment is neither necessary for the purposes of the safety assessment nor possible within the scope of a safety assessment. As further described in the SR-Can Main Report and in the Features Events and Processes report, the content of the present report has been audited by comparison with FEP databases compiled in other assessment projects. This report follows as far as possible the template for documentation of processes regarded as internal to the repository system. However, the term processes is not used in this report, instead the term issue has been used. Each issue includes a set of processes together resulting in the behaviour of a

Climate and climate-related issues for the safety assessment SR-Can

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Naeslund, Jens-Ove (comp.)

2006-11-15

The purpose of this report is to document current scientific knowledge of the climate-related conditions and processes relevant to the long-term safety of a KBS-3 repository to a level required for an adequate treatment in the safety assessment SR-Can. The report also includes a concise background description of the climate system. The report includes three main chapters: A description of the climate system (Chapter 2); Identification and discussion of climate-related issues (Chapter 3); and, A description of the evolution of climate-related conditions for the safety assessment (Chapter 4). Chapter 2 includes an overview of present knowledge of the Earth climate system and the climate conditions that can be expected to occur in Sweden on a 100,000 year time perspective. Based on this, climate-related issues relevant for the long-term safety of a KBS-3 repository are identified. These are documented in Chapter 3 'Climate-related issues' to a level required for an adequate treatment in the safety assessment. Finally, in Chapter 4, 'Evolution of climate-related conditions for the safety assessment' an evolution for a 120,000 year period is presented, including discussions of identified climate-related issues of importance for repository safety. The documentation is from a scientific point of view not exhaustive, since such a treatment is neither necessary for the purposes of the safety assessment nor possible within the scope of a safety assessment. As further described in the SR-Can Main Report and in the Features Events and Processes report, the content of the present report has been audited by comparison with FEP databases compiled in other assessment projects. This report follows as far as possible the template for documentation of processes regarded as internal to the repository system. However, the term processes is not used in this report, instead the term issue has been used. Each issue includes a set of processes together resulting in the

Safety analysis results for the control rod banks withdrawal event at a full power of the SMART-P

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Yang, S. H.; Chung, Y. J.; Kim, H. C.; Zee, S. Q.

2005-01-01

For the validation of the 330 MWt SMART (System-integrated Modular Advanced ReacTor), a detailed design for the SMART-P has been accomplished by KAERI. In the SMART-P design similar to the SMART design, the soluble boron free design is adapted. This concept results in a larger reactivity worth of the control rod bank compared to that of the commercial pressurized water reactor. Moreover, in the SMART-P design, the control rod banks are fairly well inserted into the core, even at a full power condition. Therefore, accidents related to the reactivity anomalies have been evaluated as crucial events when compared to the other initiating events. In this paper, safety analysis for the control rod banks withdrawal event at a full power of the SMART-P has been accomplished by considering various initial conditions, different withdrawal times of the control rod banks and the reactivity feedback. To perform the safety analysis, the TASS/SMR (Transients And Setpoint Simulation/Small and Medium Reactor) code for a system response and SSF-1 correlation for a CHFR (Critical Heat Flux Ratio) have been used

The future of event-level information repositories, indexing, and selection in ATLAS

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Barberis, D; Cranshaw, J; Malon, D; Gemmeren, P Van; Zhang, Q; Dimitrov, G; Nairz, A; Sorokoletov, R; Doherty, T; Quilty, D; Gallas, E J; Hrivnac, J; Nowak, M

2014-01-01

ATLAS maintains a rich corpus of event-by-event information that provides a global view of the billions of events the collaboration has measured or simulated, along with sufficient auxiliary information to navigate to and retrieve data for any event at any production processing stage. This unique resource has been employed for a range of purposes, from monitoring, statistics, anomaly detection, and integrity checking, to event picking, subset selection, and sample extraction. Recent years of data-taking provide a foundation for assessment of how this resource has and has not been used in practice, of the uses for which it should be optimized, of how it should be deployed and provisioned for scalability to future data volumes, and of the areas in which enhancements to functionality would be most valuable. This paper describes how ATLAS event-level information repositories and selection infrastructure are evolving in light of this experience, and in view of their expected roles both in wide-area event delivery services and in an evolving ATLAS analysis model in which the importance of efficient selective access to data can only grow.

Seismic safety of nuclear power plants

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Guerpinar, A.; Godoy, A.

2001-01-01

This paper summarizes the work performed by the International Atomic Energy Agency in the areas of safety reviews and applied research in support of programmes for the assessment and enhancement of seismic safety in Eastern Europe and in particular WWER type nuclear power plants during the past seven years. Three major topics are discussed; engineering safety review services in relation to external events, technical guidelines for the assessment and upgrading of WWER type nuclear power plants, and the Coordinated Research Programme on 'Benchmark study for the seismic analysis and testing of WWER type nuclear power plants'. These topics are summarized in a way to provide an overview of the past and present safety situation in selected WWER type plants which are all located in Eastern European countries. Main conclusion of the paper is that although there is now a thorough understanding of the seismic safety issues in these operating nuclear power plants, the implementation of seismic upgrades to structures, systems and components are lagging behind, particularly for those cases in which the re-evaluation indicated the necessity to strengthen the safety related structures or install new safety systems. (author)

Development and application of a methodology for the analysis of significant human related event trends in nuclear power plants

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Cho, H.Y.

1981-01-01

A methodology is developed to identify and flag significant trends related to the safety and availability of U.S. commercial nuclear power plants. The development is intended to aid in reducing likelihood of human errors. To assure that the methodology can be easily adapted to various types of classification schemes of operation data, a data bank classified by the Transient Analysis Classification and Evaluation (TRACE) scheme is selected for the methodology. The significance criteria for human-initiated events affecting the systems and for events caused by human deficiencies were developed. Clustering analysis was used to verify the learning trend in multidimensional histograms. A computer code is developed based on the K-Means algorithm and applied to find the learning period in which error rates are monotonously decreasing with plant age. The Freeman-Tukey (F-T) deviates are used to select generic problems identified by a large positive value (here approximately over 2.0) for the deviate. The identified generic problems are: decision errors which are highly associated with reactor startup operations in the learning period of PWR plants (PWRs), response errors which are highly associated with Secondary Non-Nuclear Systems (SNS) in PWRs, and significant errors affecting systems and which are caused by response action are highly associated with startup reactor mode in BWRS

Semantic ambiguity processing in sentence context: Evidence from event-related fMRI

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Zempleni, Monika-Zita; Renken, Remco; Hoeks, John C. J.; Hoogduin, Johannes M.; Stowe, Laurie A.

2007-01-01

Lexical semantic ambiguity is the phenomenon when a word has multiple meanings (e.g. 'bank'). The aim of this event-related functional MRI study was to identify those brain areas, which are involved in contextually driven ambiguity resolution. Ambiguous words were selected which have a most

Safety Assessment for transient event occurred during the ASTS test of Hanbit Unit 2

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Yang, Changkeun; Kim, Yohan; Ha, Sangjun

2014-01-01

Safety Injection has been actuated during the ASTS (Automatic Seismic Trip System) test of Hanbit Unit 2 on Feb. 28, 2014. It could be bad effect on system integrity. KHNP has been performed safety assessment of system for effect of Safety Injection (SI) actuation occurred during the ASTS test of hanbit Unit 2. Stable state of nuclear power plant system has been confirmed according to Safety Injection and reactor trip event occurred during the ASTS test of hanbit Unit 2. In the result of system safety assessment, major variables of nuclear power plant are located in optimal range and not exceed safety limit. It remains nuclear fuel and the integrity of the power plant is in a safe condition were conformed. After ASTS action, thermal elimination has been processed throughout the turbine until turbine signal occurrence because ASTS is connected to M-G set in the present hanbit Unit 2. Therefore, Safety Injection signal has been actuated by rapid reduction of Steam Generator pressure. In this paper, it is concluded that consideration of equipment and setpoint is needed for that Safety Injection has been not occurred under the unnecessary situation. Stable state of nuclear power plant system has been confirmed for Safety Injection and reactor trip event occurred during the ASTS test of hanbit Unit 2. In the result of system safety assessment, major variables of nuclear power plant are located in optimal range and not exceed safety limit. It remains nuclear fuel and the integrity of the plant is in a safe condition were conformed. It is concluded that consideration of equipment and setpoint is needed for that Safety Injection has been not occurred under the unnecessary situation

NPP unusual events: data, analysis and application

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Tolstykh, V.

1990-01-01

Subject of the paper are the IAEA cooperative patterns of unusual events data treatment and utilization of the operating safety experience feedback. The Incident Reporting System (IRS) and the Analysis of Safety Significant Event Team (ASSET) are discussed. The IRS methodology in collection, handling, assessment and dissemination of data on NPP unusual events (deviations, incidents and accidents) occurring during operations, surveillance and maintenance is outlined by the reports gathering and issuing practice, the experts assessment procedures and the parameters of the system. After 7 years of existence the IAEA-IRS contains over 1000 reports and receives 1.5-4% of the total information on unusual events. The author considers the reports only as detailed technical 'records' of events requiring assessment. The ASSET approaches implying an in-depth occurrences analysis directed towards level-1 PSA utilization are commented on. The experts evaluated root causes for the reported events and some trends are presented. Generally, internal events due to unexpected paths of water in the nuclear installations, occurrences related to the integrity of the primary heat transport systems, events associated with the engineered safety systems and events involving human factor represent the large groups deserving close attention. Personal recommendations on how to use the events related information use for NPP safety improvement are given. 2 tabs (R.Ts)

Self-esteem, narcissism, and stressful life events: Testing for selection and socialization.

Science.gov (United States)

Orth, Ulrich; Luciano, Eva C

2015-10-01

We examined whether self-esteem and narcissism predict the occurrence of stressful life events (i.e., selection) and whether stressful life events predict change in self-esteem and narcissism (i.e., socialization). The analyses were based on longitudinal data from 2 studies, including samples of 328 young adults (Study 1) and 371 adults (Study 2). The effects of self-esteem and narcissism were mutually controlled for each other and, moreover, controlled for effects of depression. After conducting the study-level analyses, we meta-analytically aggregated the findings. Self-esteem had a selection effect, suggesting that low self-esteem led to the occurrence of stressful life events; however, this effect became nonsignificant when depression was controlled for. Regardless of whether depression was controlled for or not, narcissism had a selection effect, suggesting that high narcissism led to the occurrence of stressful life events. Moreover, stressful life events had a socialization effect on self-esteem, but not on narcissism, suggesting that the occurrence of stressful life events decreased self-esteem. Analyses of trait-state models indicated that narcissism consisted almost exclusively of perfectly stable trait variance, providing a possible explanation for the absence of socialization effects on narcissism. The findings have significant implications because they suggest that a person's level of narcissism influences whether stressful life events occur, and that self-esteem is shaped by the occurrence of stressful life events. Moreover, we discuss the possibility that depression mediates the selection effect of low self-esteem on stressful life events. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2015 APA, all rights reserved).

Patient safety goals for the proposed Federal Health Information Technology Safety Center.

Science.gov (United States)

Sittig, Dean F; Classen, David C; Singh, Hardeep

2015-03-01

The Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology is expected to oversee creation of a Health Information Technology (HIT) Safety Center. While its functions are still being defined, the center is envisioned as a public-private entity focusing on promotion of HIT related patient safety. We propose that the HIT Safety Center leverages its unique position to work with key administrative and policy stakeholders, healthcare organizations (HCOs), and HIT vendors to achieve four goals: (1) facilitate creation of a nationwide 'post-marketing' surveillance system to monitor HIT related safety events; (2) develop methods and governance structures to support investigation of major HIT related safety events; (3) create the infrastructure and methods needed to carry out random assessments of HIT related safety in complex HCOs; and (4) advocate for HIT safety with government and private entities. The convening ability of a federally supported HIT Safety Center could be critically important to our transformation to a safe and effective HIT enabled healthcare system. © The Author 2014. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the American Medical Informatics Association. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oup.com.

INES rating of radiation protection related events

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hort, M.

2009-01-01

In this presentation, based on the draft Manual, a short review of the use of the INES rating of events concerning radiation protection is given, based on a new INES User's Manual edition. The presentation comprises a brief history of the scale development, general description of the scale and the main principles of the INES rating. Several examples of the use of the scale for radiation protection related events are mentioned. In the presentation, the term 'radiation protection related events' is used for radiation source and transport related events outside the nuclear installations. (authors)

Patient safety: Safety culture and patient safety ethics

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Madsen, Marlene Dyrløv

2006-01-01

,demonstrating significant, consistent and sometimes large differences in terms of safety culture factors across the units participating in the survey. Paper 5 is the results of a study of the relation between safety culture, occupational health andpatient safety using a safety culture questionnaire survey......Patient safety - the prevention of medical error and adverse events - and the initiative of developing safety cultures to assure patients from harm have become one of the central concerns in quality improvement in healthcare both nationally andinternationally. This subject raises numerous...... challenging issues of systemic, organisational, cultural and ethical relevance, which this dissertation seeks to address through the application of different disciplinary approaches. The main focus of researchis safety culture; through empirical and theoretical studies to comprehend the phenomenon, address...

Challenges in the management of gas voids in safety related systems

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ezekoye, L.I.; Turkowski, W.M.; Ferraraccio, F.P.; Swartz, M.M.

2009-01-01

Gas intrusion into Safety Related Systems, such as the Emergency Core Cooling System (ECCS), Decay Heat Removal (DHR) and Containment Spray (CS) in nuclear power plants is undesirable and can lead to pump binding (depending on the void fraction and flow rate) and damaging water hammer events. Gas ingestion in pumps can result in total or momentary loss of hydraulic performance resulting in possible pump shaft seizure rendering the pumps unable to perform their safety functions or reduce the pump discharge pressure and flow capacity to the point that the system cannot perform its design function. Extreme cases of gas water hammer can result in physical damage to system piping, components and supports, and possible relief valve lifting events with consequential loss of inventory. NRC Generic Letter GL 2008 01, 'Managing Gas Accumulation in Emergency Core Cooling, Decay Heat Removal, and Containment Spray Systems,' requires US utilities to demonstrate that suitable design, operational and testing measures are in place to maintain licensing commitments. The Generic Letter (GL 2008 01) outlines a number of actions that are detailed in nature, such as establishing pump void tolerance limits; establishing limits on pump suction void fractions, assuring adequate system venting capability, identification of all possible sources of gas intrusion, preventing vortex formation in tanks, and determining acceptable limits of gas in system discharge piping.. Regarding one of these issues, GL 2008 01 indicates that the amount of gas that can be ingested without significant impact on pump design, gas dispersion and flow rate. Each US nuclear power plant licensee is required to evaluate their ECCS, DHR and CS system design, operation and test procedures to assure that gas intrusion is minimized and monitored in order to maintain system operability and compliance with the requirements of 10 CFR 50 Appendix B. Typically, gas pockets get into the safety related systems through a number

Challenges in the management of gas voids in safety related systems

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Ezekoye, L.I.; Turkowski, W.M.; Ferraraccio, F.P.; Swartz, M.M. [Westinghouse Electric Company LLC, Pittsburgh (United States)

2009-04-15

Gas intrusion into Safety Related Systems, such as the Emergency Core Cooling System (ECCS), Decay Heat Removal (DHR) and Containment Spray (CS) in nuclear power plants is undesirable and can lead to pump binding (depending on the void fraction and flow rate) and damaging water hammer events. Gas ingestion in pumps can result in total or momentary loss of hydraulic performance resulting in possible pump shaft seizure rendering the pumps unable to perform their safety functions or reduce the pump discharge pressure and flow capacity to the point that the system cannot perform its design function. Extreme cases of gas water hammer can result in physical damage to system piping, components and supports, and possible relief valve lifting events with consequential loss of inventory. NRC Generic Letter GL 2008 01, 'Managing Gas Accumulation in Emergency Core Cooling, Decay Heat Removal, and Containment Spray Systems,' requires US utilities to demonstrate that suitable design, operational and testing measures are in place to maintain licensing commitments. The Generic Letter (GL 2008 01) outlines a number of actions that are detailed in nature, such as establishing pump void tolerance limits; establishing limits on pump suction void fractions, assuring adequate system venting capability, identification of all possible sources of gas intrusion, preventing vortex formation in tanks, and determining acceptable limits of gas in system discharge piping.. Regarding one of these issues, GL 2008 01 indicates that the amount of gas that can be ingested without significant impact on pump design, gas dispersion and flow rate. Each US nuclear power plant licensee is required to evaluate their ECCS, DHR and CS system design, operation and test procedures to assure that gas intrusion is minimized and monitored in order to maintain system operability and compliance with the requirements of 10 CFR 50 Appendix B. Typically, gas pockets get into the safety related systems through

Basic Safety Considerations for Nuclear Power Plant Dealing with External Human Induced Events

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Salem, W., E-mail: wafaasalem21@yahoo.com [Nuclear and Radiological Regulatory Authority (Egypt)

2014-10-15

Facilities and human activities in the region in which a nuclear power plant is located may under some conditions affect its safety. The potential sources of human induced events external to the plant should be identified and the severity of the possible resulting hazard phenomena should be evaluated to derive the appropriate design bases for the plant. They should also be monitored and periodically assessed over the lifetime of the plant to ensure that consistency with the design assumptions is maintained. External human induced events that could affect safety should be investigated in the site evaluation stage for every nuclear power plant site. The region is required to be examined for facilities and human activities that have the potential, under certain conditions, to endanger the nuclear power plant over its entire lifetime. Each relevant potential source is required to be identified and assessed to determine the potential interactions with personnel and plant items important to safety. (author)

Engineering safety review mission Krsko NPP external events PSA. Ljubljana, Slovenia 19-23 February 1996. Final report

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Budnitz, R.J.; Smith, P.

1996-01-01

Within the scope of the TC Project RER/9/035, a review mission visited Ljubljana, Slovenia, 19-23 February 1996. Two outside experts, Messrs. R.J. Budnitz (USA) and Paul Smith (USA), as well as a staff member, A. Guerpinar (ESS-NSNI) took part in the review. The purpose of the mission was to assist the Slovenian Nuclear Safety Administration to review the external events PSA prepared by Krsko NPP consultants Westinghouse Energy Systems Europe and EQE International. Another seismic safety review was performed concurrently in Ljubljana involving the investigations in relation to the tectonic stability and reassessment of the design basis ground motion characterization for the Krsko NPP site

Features, events, processes, and safety factor analysis applied to a near-surface low-level radioactive waste disposal facility

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Stephens, M.E.; Dolinar, G.M.; Lange, B.A. [Atomic Energy of Canada Limited, Ontario (Canada)] [and others

1995-12-31

An analysis of features, events, processes (FEPs) and other safety factors was applied to AECL`s proposed IRUS (Intrusion Resistant Underground Structure) near-surface LLRW disposal facility. The FEP analysis process which had been developed for and applied to high-level and transuranic disposal concepts was adapted for application to a low-level facility for which significant efforts in developing a safety case had already been made. The starting point for this process was a series of meetings of the project team to identify and briefly describe FEPs or safety factors which they thought should be considered. At this early stage participants were specifically asked not to screen ideas. This initial list was supplemented by selecting FEPs documented in other programs and comments received from an initial regulatory review. The entire list was then sorted by topic and common issues were grouped, and issues were classified in three priority categories and assigned to individuals for resolution. In this paper, the issue identification and resolution process will be described, from the initial description of an issue to its resolution and inclusion in the various levels of the safety case documentation.

75 FR 19304 - Safety Zones; Annual Fireworks Events in the Captain of the Port Detroit Zone

Science.gov (United States)

2010-04-14

... previously published in Coast Guard regulations. These safety zones are necessary to protect spectators...-AA00 Safety Zones; Annual Fireworks Events in the Captain of the Port Detroit Zone AGENCY: Coast Guard, DHS. ACTION: Notice of proposed rulemaking. SUMMARY: The Coast Guard proposes establishment of safety...

77 FR 64411 - Safety Zone; Cooper T. Smith Fireworks Event; Mobile River; Mobile, AL

Science.gov (United States)

2012-10-22

... 1625-AA00 Safety Zone; Cooper T. Smith Fireworks Event; Mobile River; Mobile, AL AGENCY: Coast Guard... safety zone for a portion of the Mobile River, Mobile, AL in the vicinity of Cooper Riverside Park. This..., mariners, and persons unless specifically authorized by the Captain of the Port Mobile or a designated...

Development of accident event trees and evaluation of safety system failure modes for the nuclear ultra large crude carrier

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lewe, C.K.; Coffey, R.S.; Goodwin, E.F.; Maltese, J.G.; Pyatt, D.W.

1978-01-01

A method of applying the probabilistic accident event tree methodology to safety assessments of a nuclear powered Ultra Large Crude Carrier is presented. Also presented are the procedures by which an external accident initiating event, such as a ship collision, may be correlated with the probabilities of damage to the ship's safety systems and to their ultimate availabilities to perform required safety functions

Engineering approach to relative quantitative assessment of safety culture and related social issues in NPP operation

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Sivokon, V.; Gladyshev, M.; Malkin, S.

2005-01-01

The report is devoted to presentation of engineering approach and software tool developed for Safety Culture (SC) assessment as well as to the results of their implementation at Smolensk NPP. The engineering approach is logic evolution of the IAEA ASSET method broadly used at European NPPs in 90-s. It was implemented at Russian and other plants including Olkiluoto NPP in Finland. The approach allows relative quantitative assessing and trending the aspects of SC by the analysis of evens features and causes, calculation and trending corresponding indicators. At the same time plant's operational performances and related social issues, including efficiency of plant operation and personnel reliability, can be monitored. With the help of developed tool the joint team combined from personnel of Smolensk NPP and RRC 'Kurchatov Institute' ('KI') issued the SC self-assessment report, which identifies: families of recurrent events, main safety and operational problems ; their trends and importance to SC and plant efficiency; recommendations to enhance SC and operational performance

Recent adaptive events in human brain revealed by meta-analysis of positively selected genes.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Yue Huang

Full Text Available BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Analysis of positively-selected genes can help us understand how human evolved, especially the evolution of highly developed cognitive functions. However, previous works have reached conflicting conclusions regarding whether human neuronal genes are over-represented among genes under positive selection. METHODS AND RESULTS: We divided positively-selected genes into four groups according to the identification approaches, compiling a comprehensive list from 27 previous studies. We showed that genes that are highly expressed in the central nervous system are enriched in recent positive selection events in human history identified by intra-species genomic scan, especially in brain regions related to cognitive functions. This pattern holds when different datasets, parameters and analysis pipelines were used. Functional category enrichment analysis supported these findings, showing that synapse-related functions are enriched in genes under recent positive selection. In contrast, immune-related functions, for instance, are enriched in genes under ancient positive selection revealed by inter-species coding region comparison. We further demonstrated that most of these patterns still hold even after controlling for genomic characteristics that might bias genome-wide identification of positively-selected genes including gene length, gene density, GC composition, and intensity of negative selection. CONCLUSION: Our rigorous analysis resolved previous conflicting conclusions and revealed recent adaptation of human brain functions.

Transient safety performance of the PRISM innovative liquid metal reactor

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Magee, P.M.; Dubberley, A.E.; Rhow, S.K.; Wu, T.

1988-01-01

The PRISM sodium-cooled reactor concept utilizes passive safety characteristics and modularity to increase performance margins, improve licensability, reduce owner's risk and reduce costs. The relatively small size of each reactor module (471 MWt) facilitates the use of passive self-shutdown and shutdown heat removal features, which permit design simplification and reduction of safety-related systems. Key to the transient performance is the inherent negative reactivity feedback characteristics of the core design resulting from the use of metal (U-Pu-Zr) swing, and very low control rod runout worth. Selected beyond design basis events relying only on these core design features are analyzed and the design margins summarized to demonstrate the advancement in reactor safety achieved with the PRISM design concept

Evaluation of Generic Issue 57: Effects of fire protection system actuation on safety-related equipment

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lambright, J.; Bohn, M.; Lynch, J.; Ross, S.; Brosseau, D.

1992-12-01

Nuclear power plants have experienced actuations of fire protection systems (FPSs) under conditions for which these systems were not intended to actuate and also have experienced advertent actuations with the presence of a fire. These actuations have often damaged safety-related equipment. A review of the impact of past occurrences of both types of such events and their impact on plant safety systems, an analysis of the risk impacts of such events on nuclear power plant safety, and a cost-benefit analysis of potential corrective measures have been performed. Thirteen different scenarios leading to actuation of fire protection systems due to a variety of causes were identified. These scenarios ranged from inadvertent actuation caused by human error to hardware failure, and include seismic root causes and seismic/fire interactions. A quantification of these thirteen root causes, where applicable, was performed on generically applicable scenarios. This document, Volume 4, contains appendices E and F of this report

Composing Distributed Services for Selection and Retrieval of Event Data in the ATLAS Experiment

CERN Document Server

Vinek, E; The ATLAS collaboration

2011-01-01

TAGs are event-level metadata allowing a quick search for interesting events for further analysis, based on selection criteria defined by the user. They are stored in a file-based format as well as in relational databases. The overall TAG system encompasses a range of web services providing functionality for the required use cases. The data as well as the services are replicated to several ATLAS sites, i.e. inside each service group there exist several concrete deployments, differing only in site-related non-functional attributes. In order to satisfy a user's request, the above mentioned atomic data sources and web services have to be composed on demand to provide the required functionality. As several instances of each service exist, one service has to be selected out of each group. The overall goal is to maximize the system’s throughput, in order to give to as many users as possible efficient access to the TAGs, while meeting end-to-end quality of service (QoS) requirements. Many approaches can be found t...

Composing Distributed Services for Selection and Retrieval of Event Data in the ATLAS Experiment

CERN Document Server

Vinek, E; The ATLAS collaboration; Zhang, Q

2010-01-01

TAGs are event-level metadata allowing a quick search for interesting events for further analysis, based on selection criteria defined by the user. They are stored in a file-based format as well as in relational databases. The overall TAG system encompasses a range of web services providing functionality for the required use cases. The data as well as the services are replicated to several ATLAS sites, i.e. inside each service group there exist several concrete deployments, differing only in site-related non-functional attributes. In order to satisfy a user’s request, the above mentioned atomic data sources and web services have to be composed on demand to provide the full functionality. As several instances of each service exist, one service has to be selected out of each group. The overall goal is to maximize the system’s throughput, in order to give to as many users as possible efficient access to the TAGs, while meeting end-to-end quality of service (QoS) requirements. Many approaches can be found to ...

The use of probabilistic safety assessment (PSA) based maintenance indicators to increase the availability of safety related systems in nuclear power plants

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kirchsteiger, C.

1991-04-01

This work describes the theoretical development of a Probabilistic Safety Assessment (PSA) based Performance Indicator (PI) model for a comprehensive Maintenance Efficiency Analysis (MEA) and its practical application to past operational history data of a certain nuclear power plant. Plant specific equipment history and maintenance work on data have been collected and analysed using various advanced statistical procedures (nonparametric methods, multivariate analysis in order to be able to estimate safety system related equipment and maintenance process trends. The main results of such a MEA case study are the trends in the (in)effectiveness of the performance of a selected safety system and its dominant components as well as the detection of the dominant maintenance related causes of its bad (good) equipment performance. Finally, the therefrom gained results are used to propose a new set of safety system-based and maintenance-related performance indicators, including suggestions for a corresponding plant specific maintenance data collection system. (author)

A comparison of U.S. and European methods for accident scenario, identificaton, selection and quantification

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Cadwallader, L.C.; Djerassi, H.; Lampin, I.

1989-10-01

This paper presents a comparison of the varying methods used to identify and select accident-initiating events for safety analysis and probabilistic risk assessment (PRA). Initiating events are important in that they define the extent of a given safety analysis or PRA. Comprehensiveness in identification and selection of initiating events is necessary to ensure that a thorough analysis is being performed. While total completeness cannot ever be realized, inclusion of all safety significant events can be attained. The European approach to initiating event identification and selection arises from within a newly developed Safety Analysis methodology framework. This is a functional approach, with accident initiators based on events that will cause a system or facility loss of function. The US method divides accident initiators into two groups, internal accident initiators into two groups, internal and external events. Since traditional US PRA techniques are applied to fusion facilities, the recommended PRA-based approach is a review of historical safety documents coupled with a facility-level Master Logic Diagram. The US and European methods are described, and both are applied to a proposed International Thermonuclear Experiment Reactor (ITER) Magnet System in a sample problem. Contrasts in the US and European methods are discussed. Within their respective frameworks, each method can provide the comprehensiveness of safety-significant events needed for a thorough analysis. 4 refs., 8 figs., 11 tabs

A study of the recovery from 120 events

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Baumont, Genevieve; Menage, F.; Bigot, F.

1998-01-01

The author reports a study which aimed at providing additional information for improving safety by using event analysis. The approach concentrates on the dynamics of error detection and the way errors and shortcomings are managed. The study is based on a systematic analysis of 120 events in nuclear power plants. The authors first outline the differences between the activities described in significant events and that which is assumed to take place during event and accident situations. They describe the methods used to transpose human reliability PSA model to event analysis, report the analysis (event selection, data studied during event analysis, types of errors). Studies concern events during power operation or plant outage. Results are analyzed in terms of number of events, percentage of error type, percentage of activation of engineered safety features before operators recovered the situation. They comment who recovers the error and how it is recovered, and more precisely discuss the case of multiple error situations

Key issues on safety design basis selection and safety assessment

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

An, S.; Togo, Y.

1976-01-01

In current fast reactor design in Japan, four design accident conditions and four design seismic conditions are adopted as the design base classifications. These are classified by the considerations on both likelihood of occurrence and the severeness of the consequences. There are several major problem areas in safety design consideration such as core accident problems which include fuel sodium interaction, fuel failure propagation and residual decay heat removal, and decay heat removal systems problems which is more or less the problem of selection of appropriate system and of assurance of high reliability of the system. In view of licensing, two kinds of accidents are postulated in evaluating the adequacy of a reactor site. The one is the ''major accident'' which is the accident to give most severe radiation hazard to the public from technical point of view. The other is the ''hypothetical accident'', induced public accident of which is severer than that of major accident. While the concept of the former is rather unique to Japanese licensing, the latter is almost equivalent to design base hypothetical accident of the US practice. In this paper, design bases selections, key safety issues and some of the licensing considerations in Japan are described

Extensive Analysis of Worldwide Events Related to The Construction and Commissioning of Nuclear Power Plants: Lessons Learned and Recommendations

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Noel, M.; Zerger, B.; Vuorio, U.; )

2011-01-01

Lessons learnt from past experience are extensively used to improve the safety of nuclear power plants (NPPs) worldwide. Although the process of analyzing operational experience is now widespread and well developed, the need for establishment of a similar process for construction experience was highlighted by several countries embarking on construction of new NPPs and in some international forums including the Working Group on the Regulation of New Reactors (WGRNR) of the OECD-NEA. In 2008, EU Member State Safety Authorities participating to the EU Clearinghouse on Operational Experience Feedback decided to launch a topical study on events related to pre-operational stages of NPPs. The aim of this topical study is to reduce the recurrence of events related to the construction, the initial component manufacturing and the commissioning of NPPs, by identifying the main recurring and safety significant issues. For this study, 1090 IRS event reports, 857 US Licensee Event Reports (LERs) and approximately 100 WGRNR reports have been preselected based on key word searches and screened. The screening period starts from the beginning of the databases operation (in the 1980's as far as IRS and LER database are concerned) and ends in November 2009. After this initial screening, a total of 582 reports have been found applicable (247 IRS reports, 309 LERs and 26 WGRNR reports). Events considered for this study were those which have been initiated before the start of commercial operation, and detected before or even long after commercial operation. The events have been classified into 3 main categories (construction, manufacturing and commissioning), and into further sub-categories (building structures, metallic liners, electrical components, anchors, I and C, penetrations and building seals, emergency diesel generators, pipes, valves, welds, pumps, etc.) in order to facilitate the detailed analysis with the final objective to formulate both equipment specific

The selection of field component reliability data for use in nuclear safety studies

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Coxson, B.A.; Tabaie, Mansour

1990-01-01

The paper reviews the user requirements for field component failure data in nuclear safety studies, and the capability of various data sources to satisfy these requirements. Aspects such as estimating the population of items exposed to failure, incompleteness, and under-reporting problems are discussed. The paper takes as an example the selection of component reliability data for use in the Pre-Operational Safety Report (POSR) for Sizewell 'B' Power Station, where field data has in many cases been derived from equipment other than that to be procured and operated on site. The paper concludes that the main quality sought in the available data sources for such studies is the ability to examine failure narratives in component reliability data systems for equipment performing comparable duties to the intended plant application. The main benefit brought about in the last decade is the interactive access to data systems which are adequately structured with regard to the equipment covered, and also provide a text-searching capability of quality-controlled event narratives. (author)

Safety based on organisational learning (SOL) - Conceptual approach and verification of a method for event analysis

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Miller, R.; Wilpert, B.; Fahlbruch, B.

1999-01-01

This paper discusses a method for analysing safety-relevant events in NPP which is known as 'SOL', safety based on organisational learning. After discussion of the specific organisational and psychological problems examined in the event analysis, the analytic process using the SOL approach is explained as well as the required general setting. The SOL approach has been tested both with scientific experiments and from the practical perspective, by operators of NPPs and experts from other branches of industry. (orig./CB) [de

The Recording and Quantification of Event-Related Potentials: II. Signal Processing and Analysis

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Paniz Tavakoli

2015-06-01

Full Text Available Event-related potentials are an informative method for measuring the extent of information processing in the brain. The voltage deflections in an ERP waveform reflect the processing of sensory information as well as higher-level processing that involves selective attention, memory, semantic comprehension, and other types of cognitive activity. ERPs provide a non-invasive method of studying, with exceptional temporal resolution, cognitive processes in the human brain. ERPs are extracted from scalp-recorded electroencephalography by a series of signal processing steps. The present tutorial will highlight several of the analysis techniques required to obtain event-related potentials. Some methodological issues that may be encountered will also be discussed.

["Re-evaluation upon suspected event" is an approach for post-marketing clinical study: lessons from adverse drug events related to Bupleuri Radix preparations].

Science.gov (United States)

Wu, Shu-Xin; Sun, Hong-Feng; Yang, Xiao-Hui; Long, Hong-Zhu; Ye, Zu-Guang; Ji, Shao-Liang; Zhang, Li

2014-08-01

We revisited the "Xiao Chaihu Decoction event (XCHDE)" occurred in late 1980s in Japan and the Bupleuri Radix related adverse drug reaction (ADR) reports in China After careful review, comparison, analysis and evaluation, we think the interstitial pneumonitis, drug induced Liver injury (DILI) and other severe adverse drug envents (ADEs) including death happened in Japan is probably results from multiple factors, including combinatory use of XCHDE with interferon, Kampo usage under modern medicine theory guidance, and use of XCHD on the basis of disease diagnosis instead of traditional Chinese syndrome complex differentiation. There are less ADE case reports related to XCHD preparation in China compared to Japan, mostly manifest with hypersensitivity responses of skin and perfuse perspiration. The symptoms of Radix Bupleuri injection related ADEs mainly manifest hypersensitivity-like response, 2 cases of intravenous infusion instead of intramuscular injection developed hypokalemia and renal failure. One case died from severe hypersensitivity shock. In Chinese literatures, there is no report of the interstitial pneumonitis and DILI associated with XCHDG in Japan. So far, there is no voluntary monitoring data and large sample clinical research data available. The author elaborated the classification of "reevaluation" and clarified "re-evaluation upon events" included the reaction to the suspected safety and efficacy events. Based on the current status of the clinical research on the Radix Bupleuri preparations, the author points out that post-marketing "re-evaluation upon suspected event" is not only a necessity of continuous evaluation of the safety, efficacy of drugs, it is also a necessity for providing objective clinical research data to share with the international and domestic drug administrations in the risk-benefit evaluation. It is also the unavoidable pathway to culture and push the excellent species and famous brands of TCM to the international market, in

Contribution from Belgium - Belgian contribution to the PWG1 Generic Study on Undetected Failures of Safety systems

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Vincke, Marc

1997-01-01

In the frame of its participation to the PWG 1 generic study on 'Undetected Failures of Safety Systems', AVN performed a search of such cases among the Belgian plants, using the proposed criterion: to find significant events where equipment remained inoperable, or would have been unable to fulfil correctly its safety function for an extended period of time until their condition was discovered. An extended period of time means one cycle duration or several test interval periods at least; if unknown, it has to be estimated w.r.t. plant lifetime. Note that non safety systems preventing safety systems to perform their function are to be included. As a first information source, a screening of AVN's DIANE (Domestic Information about Nuclear Events) database, for undetected failures of safety systems was performed. This database is used to store and retrieve information on a selection of events which have occurred in the Belgian NPPs since 1985. The sources of information are the incident reports which AVN receives from the utilities, completed with the reports of our inspectors on site. The coding system used within this database is based on the IRS Coding Manual. This coding system does not always allow for an easy retrieval of events related to a specific subject. In addition the DIANE-coding system does not allow for direct retrieval of undetected failures. In a first step, the following systems were scanned: reactor coolant system, reactor heat removal system, emergency core cooling system, chemical and volume control, containment spray, main and auxiliary feedwater, component cooling water, control rod drives. For each system, records were selected by examining their title. Careful reading of the 64 reports selected this way finally led to two cases compatible with the criteria. The decennial revision studies formed a second set of information sources. An inquiry to AVN's engineers responsible for the decennial revision projects allowed to

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)

Feedback from peer review missions of the self-assessment of operational events reflecting safety culture (Leningrad, Smolemsk and Balakovo NPP's, the Russian Federation)

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Gantchev, T.

1997-01-01

The presentation discusses the following issues: criteria for reporting events inside NPP; screening of the plant operational events; third safety culture indicator; list of the pending safety problems; significance of the safety problems for plant reliability; prioritization of the safety culture issues. Tabs

Development of safety related technology and infrastructure for safety assessment

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Venkat Raj, V.

1997-01-01

Development and optimum utilisation of any technology calls for the building up of the necessary infrastructure and backup facilities. This is particularly true for a developing country like India and more so for an advanced technology like nuclear technology. Right from the inception of its nuclear power programme, the Indian approach has been to develop adequate infrastructure in various areas such as design, construction, manufacture, installation, commissioning and safety assessment of nuclear plants. This paper deals with the development of safety related technology and the relevant infrastructure for safety assessment. A number of computer codes for safety assessment have been developed or adapted in the areas of thermal hydraulics, structural dynamics etc. These codes have undergone extensive validation through data generated in the experimental facilities set up in India as well as participation in international standard problem exercises. Side by side with the development of the tools for safety assessment, the development of safety related technology was also given equal importance. Many of the technologies required for the inspection, ageing assessment and estimation of the residual life of various components and equipment, particularly those having a bearing on safety, were developed. This paper highlights, briefly, the work carried out in some of the areas mentioned above. (author)

Assessing the impact of safety monitoring on the efficacy analysis in large Phase III group sequential trials with non-trivial safety event rate.

Science.gov (United States)

Weng, Yanqiu; Palesch, Yuko Y; DeSantis, Stacia M; Zhao, Wenle

2016-01-01

In Phase III clinical trials for life-threatening conditions, some serious but expected adverse events, such as early deaths or congestive heart failure, are often treated as the secondary or co-primary endpoint, and are closely monitored by the Data and Safety Monitoring Committee (DSMC). A naïve group sequential design (GSD) for such a study is to specify univariate statistical boundaries for the efficacy and safety endpoints separately, and then implement the two boundaries during the study, even though the two endpoints are typically correlated. One problem with this naïve design, which has been noted in the statistical literature, is the potential loss of power. In this article, we develop an analytical tool to evaluate this negative impact for trials with non-trivial safety event rates, particularly when the safety monitoring is informal. Using a bivariate binary power function for the GSD with a random-effect component to account for subjective decision-making in safety monitoring, we demonstrate how, under common conditions, the power loss in the naïve design can be substantial. This tool may be helpful to entities such as the DSMCs when they wish to deviate from the prespecified stopping boundaries based on safety measures.

Development of time dependent safety analysis code for plasma anomaly events in fusion reactors

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Honda, Takuro; Okazaki, Takashi; Bartels, H.W.; Uckan, N.A.; Seki, Yasushi.

1997-01-01

A safety analysis code SAFALY has been developed to analyze plasma anomaly events in fusion reactors, e.g., a loss of plasma control. The code is a hybrid code comprising a zero-dimensional plasma dynamics and a one-dimensional thermal analysis of in-vessel components. The code evaluates the time evolution of plasma parameters and temperature distributions of in-vessel components. As the plasma-safety interface model, we proposed a robust plasma physics model taking into account updated data for safety assessment. For example, physics safety guidelines for beta limit, density limit and H-L mode confinement transition threshold power, etc. are provided in the model. The model of the in-vessel components are divided into twenty temperature regions in the poloidal direction taking account of radiative heat transfer between each surface of each region. This code can also describe the coolant behavior under hydraulic accidents with the results by hydraulics code and treat vaporization (sublimation) from plasma facing components (PFCs). Furthermore, the code includes the model of impurity transport form PFCs by using a transport probability and a time delay. Quantitative analysis based on the model is possible for a scenario of plasma passive shutdown. We examined the possibility of the code as a safety analysis code for plasma anomaly events in fusion reactors and had a prospect that it would contribute to the safety analysis of the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER). (author)

Procedure for conducting probabilistic safety assessment: level 1 full power internal event analysis

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Jung, Won Dae; Lee, Y. H.; Hwang, M. J. [and others

2003-07-01

This report provides guidance on conducting a Level I PSA for internal events in NPPs, which is based on the method and procedure that was used in the PSA for the design of Korea Standard Nuclear Plants (KSNPs). Level I PSA is to delineate the accident sequences leading to core damage and to estimate their frequencies. It has been directly used for assessing and modifying the system safety and reliability as a key and base part of PSA. Also, Level I PSA provides insights into design weakness and into ways of preventing core damage, which in most cases is the precursor to accidents leading to major accidents. So Level I PSA has been used as the essential technical bases for risk-informed application in NPPs. The report consists six major procedural steps for Level I PSA; familiarization of plant, initiating event analysis, event tree analysis, system fault tree analysis, reliability data analysis, and accident sequence quantification. The report is intended to assist technical persons performing Level I PSA for NPPs. A particular aim is to promote a standardized framework, terminology and form of documentation for PSAs. On the other hand, this report would be useful for the managers or regulatory persons related to risk-informed regulation, and also for conducting PSA for other industries.

Safety Review related to Commercial Grade Digital Equipment in Safety System

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Yu, Yeongjin; Park, Hyunshin; Yu, Yeongjin; Lee, Jaeheung

2013-01-01

The upgrades or replacement of I and C systems on safety system typically involve digital equipment developed in accordance with non-nuclear standards. However, the use of commercial grade digital equipment could include the vulnerability for software common-mode failure, electromagnetic interference and unanticipated problems. Although guidelines and standards for dedication methods of commercial grade digital equipment are provided, there are some difficulties to apply the methods to commercial grade digital equipment for safety system. This paper focuses on regulatory guidelines and relevant documents for commercial grade digital equipment and presents safety review experiences related to commercial grade digital equipment in safety system. This paper focuses on KINS regulatory guides and relevant documents for dedication of commercial grade digital equipment and presents safety review experiences related to commercial grade digital equipment in safety system. Dedication including critical characteristics is required to use the commercial grade digital equipment on safety system in accordance with KEPIC ENB 6370 and EPRI TR-106439. The dedication process should be controlled in a configuration management process. Appropriate methods, criteria and evaluation result should be provided to verify acceptability of the commercial digital equipment used for safety function

Drug safety data mining with a tree-based scan statistic.

Science.gov (United States)

Kulldorff, Martin; Dashevsky, Inna; Avery, Taliser R; Chan, Arnold K; Davis, Robert L; Graham, David; Platt, Richard; Andrade, Susan E; Boudreau, Denise; Gunter, Margaret J; Herrinton, Lisa J; Pawloski, Pamala A; Raebel, Marsha A; Roblin, Douglas; Brown, Jeffrey S

2013-05-01

In post-marketing drug safety surveillance, data mining can potentially detect rare but serious adverse events. Assessing an entire collection of drug-event pairs is traditionally performed on a predefined level of granularity. It is unknown a priori whether a drug causes a very specific or a set of related adverse events, such as mitral valve disorders, all valve disorders, or different types of heart disease. This methodological paper evaluates the tree-based scan statistic data mining method to enhance drug safety surveillance. We use a three-million-member electronic health records database from the HMO Research Network. Using the tree-based scan statistic, we assess the safety of selected antifungal and diabetes drugs, simultaneously evaluating overlapping diagnosis groups at different granularity levels, adjusting for multiple testing. Expected and observed adverse event counts were adjusted for age, sex, and health plan, producing a log likelihood ratio test statistic. Out of 732 evaluated disease groupings, 24 were statistically significant, divided among 10 non-overlapping disease categories. Five of the 10 signals are known adverse effects, four are likely due to confounding by indication, while one may warrant further investigation. The tree-based scan statistic can be successfully applied as a data mining tool in drug safety surveillance using observational data. The total number of statistical signals was modest and does not imply a causal relationship. Rather, data mining results should be used to generate candidate drug-event pairs for rigorous epidemiological studies to evaluate the individual and comparative safety profiles of drugs. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Persistent Data Layout and Infrastructure for Efficient Selective Retrieval of Event Data in ATLAS

CERN Document Server

INSPIRE-00084279; Malon, David

2011-01-01

The ATLAS detector at CERN has completed its first full year of recording collisions at 7 TeV, resulting in billions of events and petabytes of data. At these scales, physicists must have the capability to read only the data of interest to their analyses, with the importance of efficient selective access increasing as data taking continues. ATLAS has developed a sophisticated event-level metadata infrastructure and supporting I/O framework allowing event selections by explicit specification, by back navigation, and by selection queries to a TAG database via an integrated web interface. These systems and their performance have been reported on elsewhere. The ultimate success of such a system, however, depends significantly upon the efficiency of selective event retrieval. Supporting such retrieval can be challenging, as ATLAS stores its event data in column-wise orientation using ROOT trees for a number of reasons, including compression considerations, histogramming use cases, and more. For 2011 data, ATLAS wi...

Preliminary safety analysis for key design features of KALIMER with breakeven core

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Hahn, Do Hee; Kwon, Y. M.; Chang, W. P.; Suk, S. D.; Lee, Y. B.; Jeong, K. S

2001-06-01

KAERI is currently developing the conceptual design of a Liquid Metal Reactor, KALIMER (Korea Advanced Liquid MEtal Reactor) under the Long-term Nuclear R and D Program. KALIMER addresses key issues regarding future nuclear power plants such as plant safety, economics, proliferation, and waste. In this report, descriptions of safety design features and safety analyses results for selected ATWS accidents for the breakeven core KALIMER are presented. First, the basic approach to achieve the safety goal is introduced in Chapter 1, and the safety evaluation procedure for the KALIMER design is described in Chapter 2. It includes event selection, event categorization, description of design basis events, and beyond design basis events.In Chapter 3, results of inherent safety evaluations for the KALIMER conceptual design are presented. The KALIMER core and plant system are designed to assure benign performance during a selected set of events without either reactor control or protection system intervention. Safety analyses for the postulated anticipated transient without scram (ATWS) have been performed to investigate the KALIMER system response to the events. In Chapter 4, the design of the KALIMER containment dome and the results of its performance analyses are presented. The design of the existing containment and the KALIMER containment dome are compared in this chapter. Procedure of the containment performance analysis and the analysis results are described along with the accident scenario and source terms. Finally, a simple methodology is introduced to investigate the core energetics behavior during HCDA in Chapter 5. Sensitivity analyses have been performed for the KALIMER core behavior during super-prompt critical excursions, using mathematical formulations developed in the framework of the Modified Bethe-Tait method. Work energy potential was then calculated based on the isentropic fuel expansion model.

Adverse events analysis as an educational tool to improve patient safety culture in primary care: a randomized trial.

Science.gov (United States)

González-Formoso, Clara; Martín-Miguel, María Victoria; Fernández-Domínguez, Ma José; Rial, Antonio; Lago-Deibe, Fernando Isidro; Ramil-Hermida, Luis; Pérez-García, Margarita; Clavería, Ana

2011-06-14

the intervention has ended, the survey will once again be provided to all participants. Change in safety culture as measured by Hospital Survey on Patient Safety CultureCONSORT Extension for Non-Pharmacologic Treatments 2008 was applied. The most significant limitations on the project are related to selecting a tool to measure the safety environment, the training calendar of residents in Family and Community Medicine in last year of studies and the no-answer bias inherent to research conducted through self-administered surveys.The development and application of a safety culture in the health sector, specifically in primary care, is as yet limited. Thus, identifying the strengths and weaknesses in the safety environment may assist in designing strategies for improvement in the primary care health centers of our region. ISRCTN: ISRCTN41911128.

Nuclear fuel cycle facilities, laboratories, irradiators, particle accelerators, under-decommissioning reactors and radioactive waste management facilities safety. Lessons learned from events notified between 2005 and 2008

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

2001-01-01

Maintaining high levels of safety in nuclear facilities requires constant vigilance by everyone involved, especially by plant operators who are first and foremost responsible for safety in their facilities. Safety can never be taken for granted; constant efforts must be made to improve it, by taking new knowledge and available operating feedback into account. In this respect, a substantial part of operating feedback is made up of lessons learned from analysing events, incidents or accidents occurring in France or in similar facilities abroad. To encourage the diffusion of operating feedback, IRSN has produced a report concerning events notified to the Nuclear Safety Authority (ASN) by operators of LUDD facilities between 2005 and 2008. The main objective is to make general lessons for safety in this type of facility available based on a cross-disciplinary analysis of notified events and noted evolution trends. IRSN has had tools for managing information concerning events occurring in France and abroad for many years. These tools are used to analyse the events in order to take into account the relevant lessons learned in the safety assessments performed on behalf of ASN and also to define study and research programmes to maintain its expertise and expand its knowledge. The report has 4 sections: - the first section (chapters 2 to 4) presents the LUDD facilities so that the facilities themselves, their diversity and the main associated risks can be better understood. It also includes a brief reminder of plant operator obligations in notifying events and describes the database used by the Institute to manage the data relating to the notified events; - the second section (chapter 5) summarises the main changes noted in the events notified to ASN during 2005 to 2008 and provides an overall assessment of the consequences of these events for the environment, the population and the workers; - the third section (chapter 6) describes significant events occurring in France

The Safety, Pharmacokinetics, and Effects of LGD-4033, a Novel Nonsteroidal Oral, Selective Androgen Receptor Modulator, in Healthy Young Men

Science.gov (United States)

Basaria, Shehzad; Collins, Lauren; Dillon, E. Lichar; Orwoll, Katie; Storer, Thomas W.; Miciek, Renee; Ulloor, Jagadish; Zhang, Anqi; Eder, Richard; Zientek, Heather; Gordon, Gilad; Kazmi, Syed; Sheffield-Moore, Melinda

2013-01-01

Background. Concerns about potential adverse effects of testosterone on prostate have motivated the development of selective androgen receptor modulators that display tissue-selective activation of androgenic signaling. LGD-4033, a novel nonsteroidal, oral selective androgen receptor modulator, binds androgen receptor with high affinity and selectivity. Objectives. To evaluate the safety, tolerability, pharmacokinetics, and effects of ascending doses of LGD-4033 administered daily for 21 days on lean body mass, muscle strength, stair-climbing power, and sex hormones. Methods. In this placebo-controlled study, 76 healthy men (21–50 years) were randomized to placebo or 0.1, 0.3, or 1.0 mg LGD-4033 daily for 21 days. Blood counts, chemistries, lipids, prostate-specific antigen, electrocardiogram, hormones, lean and fat mass, and muscle strength were measured during and for 5 weeks after intervention. Results. LGD-4033 was well tolerated. There were no drug-related serious adverse events. Frequency of adverse events was similar between active and placebo groups. Hemoglobin, prostate-specific antigen, aspartate aminotransferase, alanine aminotransferase, or QT intervals did not change significantly at any dose. LGD-4033 had a long elimination half-life and dose-proportional accumulation upon multiple dosing. LGD-4033 administration was associated with dose-dependent suppression of total testosterone, sex hormone–binding globulin, high density lipoprotein cholesterol, and triglyceride levels. follicle-stimulating hormone and free testosterone showed significant suppression at 1.0-mg dose only. Lean body mass increased dose dependently, but fat mass did not change significantly. Hormone levels and lipids returned to baseline after treatment discontinuation. Conclusions. LGD-4033 was safe, had favorable pharmacokinetic profile, and increased lean body mass even during this short period without change in prostate-specific antigen. Longer randomized trials should

Probabilities of Natural Events Occurring at Savannah River Plant

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Huang, J.C.

2001-07-17

This report documents the comprehensive evaluation of probability models of natural events which are applicable to Savannah River Plant. The probability curves selected for these natural events are recommended to be used by all SRP/SRL safety analysts. This will ensure a consistency in analysis methodology for postulated SAR incidents involving natural phenomena.

Root-Cause Analysis of a Potentially Sentinel Transfusion Event: Lessons for Improvement of Patient Safety

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ali Reza Jeddian

2012-09-01

Full Text Available Errors prevention and patient safety in transfusion medicine are a serious concern. Errors can occur at any step in transfusion and evaluation of their root causes can be helpful for preventive measures. Root cause analysis as a structured and systematic approach can be used for identification of underlying causes of adverse events. To specify system vulnerabilities and illustrate the potential of such an approach, we describe the root cause analysis of a case of transfusion error in emergency ward that could have been fatal. After reporting of the mentioned event, through reviewing records and interviews with the responsible personnel, the details of the incident were elaborated. Then, an expert panel meeting was held to define event timeline and the care and service delivery problems and discuss their underlying causes, safeguards and preventive measures. Root cause analysis of the mentioned event demonstrated that certain defects of the system and the ensuing errors were main causes of the event. It also points out systematic corrective actions. It can be concluded that health care organizations should endeavor to provide opportunities to discuss errors and adverse events and introduce preventive measures to find areas where resources need to be allocated to improve patient safety.

Selective attention and error processing in an illusory conjunction task - An event-related brain potential study

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Wijers, AA; Boksem, MAS

2005-01-01

We recorded event-related potentials in an illusory conjunction task, in which subjects were cued on each trial to search for a particular colored letter in a subsequently presented test array, consisting of three different letters in three different colors. In a proportion of trials the target

Safety of nuclear power plants: Design. Safety requirements

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

2000-01-01

other reactor types, including innovative developments in future systems, some of the requirements may not be applicable, or may need some judgment in their interpretation. Various Safety Guides will provide guidance in the interpretation and implementation of these requirements. This publication is intended for use by organizations designing, manufacturing, constructing and operating nuclear power plants as well as by regulatory bodies. This publication establishes design requirements for structures, systems and components important to safety that must be met for safe operation of a nuclear power plant, and for preventing or mitigating the consequences of events that could jeopardize safety. It also establishes requirements for a comprehensive safety assessment, which is carried out in order to identify the potential hazards that may arise from the operation of the plant, under the various plant states (operational states and accident conditions). The safety assessment process includes the complementary techniques of deterministic safety analysis and probabilistic safety analysis. These analyses necessitate consideration of postulated initiating events (PlEs), which include many factors that, singly or in combination, may affect safety and which may: originate in the operation of the nuclear power plant itself; be caused by human action; be directly related to the nuclear power plant and its environment. This publication also addresses events that are very unlikely to occur, such as severe accidents that may result in major radioactive releases, and for which it may be appropriate and practicable to provide preventive or mitigatory features in the design. This publication does not address: external natural or human induced events that are extremely unlikely (such as the impact of a meteorite or an artificial satellite); conventional industrial accidents that under no circumstances could affect the safety of the nuclear power plant; or non-radiological effects arising

Safety of nuclear power plants: Design. Safety requirements

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

2004-01-01

other reactor types, including innovative developments in future systems, some of the requirements may not be applicable, or may need some judgment in their interpretation. Various Safety Guides will provide guidance in the interpretation and implementation of these requirements. This publication is intended for use by organizations designing, manufacturing, constructing and operating nuclear power plants as well as by regulatory bodies. This publication establishes design requirements for structures, systems and components important to safety that must be met for safe operation of a nuclear power plant, and for preventing or mitigating the consequences of events that could jeopardize safety. It also establishes requirements for a comprehensive safety assessment, which is carried out in order to identify the potential hazards that may arise from the operation of the plant, under the various plant states (operational states and accident conditions). The safety assessment process includes the complementary techniques of deterministic safety analysis and probabilistic safety analysis. These analyses necessitate consideration of postulated initiating events (PlEs), which include many factors that, singly or in combination, may affect safety and which may: originate in the operation of the nuclear power plant itself. Be caused by human action. Be directly related to the nuclear power plant and its environment. This publication also addresses events that are very unlikely to occur, such as severe accidents that may result in major radioactive releases, and for which it may be appropriate and practicable to provide preventive or mitigatory features in the design. This publication does not address: external natural or human induced events that are extremely unlikely (such as the impact of a meteorite or an artificial satellite). Conventional industrial accidents that under no circumstances could affect the safety of the nuclear power plant. Or non-radiological effects arising

New trends in the evaluation and implementation of the safety-related operating experience associated with NRC-licensed reactors

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Michelson, C.; Heltemes, C.J.

1981-01-01

This article is an overview of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission program for the evaluation and dissemination of the safety-related operating experience associated with all NRC-licensed reactors. It discusses the historical background and past problems that led to the recent formation of NRC's Office for Analysis and Evaluation of Operational Data (AEOD) and details its activities, organization, staffing, and proposed analysis and evaluation methodology. The programs of industry organizations and nuclear plant licensees and the integration of foreign operating experience are included in the overview. The problems and limitations of the Licensee Event Report (LER) program and the Nuclear Plant Reliability Data system program are discussed. The AEOD analysis and evaluation methodology program includes some new improvements in the assessment of safety-related operating experience. Of particular note is the sequence coding and search procedure being developed by AEOD under a contract with the Nuclear Safety Information Center at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory. This computer-based retrieval system will have markedly improved search strategy capability for such items as commoncause failures or complex system interactions involving various failure sequences and other relationships associated with an event. The system retrieves failure data and information on the principal LER occurrence and on related component and system responses. The computer-generated Power Reactor Watch List enables AEOD to monitor all critical or unusual situations warranting close attention because of potential public health and safety. This listing is supported by a preestablished computer search strategy of the historical data base permitting identification of all past events and statistical information that are applicable to the situation being watched

TJC: HCOs need to be on alert for HIT problems related to sociotechnical factors, take steps to improve safety culture, process, and leadership.

Science.gov (United States)

2015-06-01

Noting that too many errors related to health information technology (HIT) are resulting in adverse consequences, The Joint Commission (TJC) has issued a Sentinel Event Alert, urging health care providers to take steps to improve their safety culture, approach to process improvement, and leadership in this area. In this latest alert, the accrediting agency is taking particular aim at risks posed by sociotechnical factors--or the ways in which HIT is implemented and used. Experts say that many of these risks are, in fact, exemplified at a higher level in the emergency setting, where providers are under constant pressure to see more patients and move them though the system faster. In an analysis of 3,375 sentinel events that resulted in permanent patient harm or death between January 1, 2010, and June 20, 2013, The Joint Commission (TJC) found that 120 events included HIT-related contributing factors. Many of the problems cited by TJC relate to orders or medicines being prescribed for the wrong patients. These can result from toggling errors or pop-up screens where providers are asked to click on the appropriate patient or medicine, and they mistakenly click on the wrong selection. In the ED, experts recommend the creation of a multidisciplinary performance improvement group to continuously monitor the ED information system (EDIS), recognize problems, and work with the vendor to resolve them. Also important is a quick and easy way for providers to report HIT-related problems. Experts add that emergency providers need to be fully engaged in the process of selecting HIT that they will be using, and that health care organizations should arrange for usability assessments before purchasing HIT.

Environmental tests of a digital safety channel: An investigation of stress-related vulnerabilities of computer-based safety system

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Korsah, K.; Wilson, T.L.; Wood, R.; Tanaka, T.

1997-01-01

This article presents the results of environmental stress tests performed on an experimental digital safety channel (EDSC) assembled at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory as part of the Qualification of Advanced Instrumentation and Controls Systems Research program, which was sponsored by the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission. The program is expected to provide recommendations for environmental qualification of digital safety systems. The purpose of the study was to investigate potential vulnerabilities of distributed computer systems used in safety applications when subjected to environmental stressors. The EDSC assembled for the tests employs technologies and digital subsystems representative of those proposed for use in advanced light-water reactors or as retrofits in existing plants. Subsystems include computers, electrical and optical serial communication links, fiber-optic network links, analog-to-digital and digital-to-analog converters, and multiplexers. The EDSC was subjected to selected stressors that are a potential risk to digital equipment in a mild environment. The selected stressors were electromagnetic and radiofrequency interferences (EMI-RFI), temperature, humidity, and smoke exposure. The stressors were applied at levels of intensity considerably higher than the safety channel is likely to experience in a normal nuclear power plant environment. Ranges of stress were selected at a sufficiently high level to induce errors so that failure modes that are characteristic of the technologies employed could be identified. On the basis of the incidence of functional errors observed during testing, EMI-RFI, smoke exposure, and high temperature coupled with high relative humidity, in that order, were found to have the greatest impact of the stressors investigated. The most prevalent stressor-induced upsets, as well as the most severe, were found to occur during the EMI-RFI tests

Safety analysis and evaluation of the next fusion device

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kobayashi, Shigetada; Honda, Tsutomu; Ohmura, Hiroshi; Kawai, Masayoshi; Shimizu, Takeshi; Yamaoka, Mitsuaki; Nakahara, Katsuhiko; Seki, Yasushi.

1988-12-01

As a part of safety evaluation, a probabilistic risk assessment (PRA) has been attempted for the Next Fusion Device system. Among the various events related to safety, a number of representative events have been selected for assessment, from the events in normal operation state, repair and maintenance state and accidental state. In the first chapter, in order to conduct the probabilistic risk assessment of the whole Fusion Experimental Reactor (FER), the data base required for the analysis was investigated in 1.1, the results on the failure mode and effects analysis (FMEA), accident sequence, radioactive inventory leakage flow path, event tree analysis (ETA) and fault tree analysis (FTA) were summarized in 1.2 to 1.5, respectively. Based on these results, accident initiating events were evaluated in 1.6, and overall risk was assessed in 1.7 and the tasks for the future were summarized in 1.8. It is important to analyze and evaluate various events during normal operations, repair and maintenance and accidents. However, due to the large uncertainties in the modeling of phenomena or the data base, there are many events for which realistic analyses are difficult. Three such events were selected and studied in chapter two. In 2.1, the temperature rise in the reactor structure after the Loss-of-Coolant-Accident caused by the decay heat under various heat removal conditions were investigated. In 2.2, the radiation dose of personnel during repair and maintenance period caused by the release of activated dust were estimated. Lastly, in 2.3 tritium behavior in the stainless steel first wall and graphite armour were studied. (author)

Safety design requirements for safety systems and components of JSFR

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kubo, Shigenobu; Shimakawa, Yoshio; Yamano, Hidemasa; Kotake, Shoji

2011-01-01

Safety design requirements for JSFR were summarized taking the development targets of the FaCT project and design feature of JSFR into account. The related safety principle and requirements for Monju, CRBRP, PRISM, SPX, LWRs, IAEA standards, goals of GIF, basic principle of INPRO etc. were also taken into account so that the safety design requirements can be a next-generation global standard. The development targets for safety and reliability are set based on those of FaCT, namely, ensuring safety and reliability equal to future LWR and related fuel cycle facilities. In order to achieve these targets, the defence-in-depth concept is used as the basic safety design principle. General features of the safety design requirements are 1) Achievement of higher reliability, 2) Achievement of higher inspectability and maintainability, 3) Introduction of passive safety features, 4) Reduction of operator action needs, 5) Design consideration against Beyond Design Basis Events, 6) In-Vessel Retention of degraded core materials, 7) Prevention and mitigation against sodium chemical reactions, and 8) Design against external events. The current specific requirements for each system and component are summarized taking the basic design concept of JSFR into account, which is an advanced loop-type large-output power plant with a mixed-oxide-fuelled core. (author)

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)

78 FR 26508 - Safety Zone; Fireworks Event in Captain of the Port New York Zone

Science.gov (United States)

2013-05-07

... Harbor located in approximate Safety Zone, 33 CFR 165.160(3.8). position 40[deg]51'58'' N, 073[deg]39'34... Zone; Fireworks Event in Captain of the Port New York Zone AGENCY: Coast Guard, DHS. ACTION: Notice of enforcement of regulation. SUMMARY: The Coast Guard will enforce safety zones in the Captain of the Port New...

Feedback from peer review missions of the self-assessment of operational events reflecting safety culture (Leningrad, Smolemsk and Balakovo NPP`s, the Russian Federation)

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Gantchev, T [Committee on the Use of Atomic Energy for Peaceful Purposes (Bulgaria)

1997-10-01

The presentation discusses the following issues: criteria for reporting events inside NPP; screening of the plant operational events; third safety culture indicator; list of the pending safety problems; significance of the safety problems for plant reliability; prioritization of the safety culture issues. Tabs.

Selection of low-risk design guidelines for energetic events

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ferguson, D.; Marchaterre, J.; Graham, J.

1982-01-01

This paper recommends the establishment of specific design guidelines for protection against potential, but low-probability, energetic events. These guidelines recognize the plant protective features incorporated to prevent such events, as well as the inherent capability of the plant to accommodate a certain level of energy release. Further, their application is recommended within the context of necessary standardized and agreed-upon acceptance criteria which are less restrictive than ASME code requirements. The paper provides the background upon which the selection of the design is made, including the characterization of energetic events dependent on various core-design parameters, and including the necessity of a low-risk design balanced between prevention of accidents and the mitigation of consequences

Qualification of safety-related valve actuators

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Anon.

1981-01-01

This Standard describes the qualification of all types of power-driven valve actuators, including damper actuators, for safety-related functions in nuclear power generating stations. It may also be used to separately qualify actuator components. This Standard establishes the minimum requirements for, and guidance regarding, the methods and procedures for qualification of all safety-related functions of power-driven valve actuators

Highway Safety Program Manual: Volume 8: Alcohol in Relation to Highway Safety.

Science.gov (United States)

National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (DOT), Washington, DC.

Volume 8 of the 19-volume Highway Safety Program Manual (which provides guidance to State and local governments on preferred highway safety practices) concentrates on alcohol in relation to highway safety. The purpose and objectives of the alcohol program are outlined. Federal authority in the area of highway safety and general policies regarding…

Safety culture in nuclear installations: Bangladesh perspectives and key lessons learned from major events

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Jalil, A.; Rabbani, G.

2002-01-01

Steps necessary to be taken to ensure safety in nuclear installations are suggested. One of the steps suggested is enhancing the safety culture. It is necessary to gain a common understanding of the concept itself, the development stages of safety culture by way of good management practices and leadership for safety culture improvement in the long-term. International topical meetings on safety culture may serve as an important forum for exchange of experiences. From such conventions new initiatives and programmes may crop up which when implemented around the world is very likely to improve safety management and thus boost up the safety culture in nuclear installations. International co-operation and learning are to be prompted to facilitate the sharing of the achievements to face the challenges involved in the management of safety and fixing priorities for future work and identify areas of co-operations. Key lessons learned from some major events have been reported. Present status and future trend of nuclear safety culture in Bangladesh have been dealt with. (author)

Selective Attention in Multi-Chip Address-Event Systems

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Giacomo Indiveri

2009-06-01

Full Text Available Selective attention is the strategy used by biological systems to cope with the inherent limits in their available computational resources, in order to efficiently process sensory information. The same strategy can be used in artificial systems that have to process vast amounts of sensory data with limited resources. In this paper we present a neuromorphic VLSI device, the “Selective Attention Chip” (SAC, which can be used to implement these models in multi-chip address-event systems. We also describe a real-time sensory-motor system, which integrates the SAC with a dynamic vision sensor and a robotic actuator. We present experimental results from each component in the system, and demonstrate how the complete system implements a real-time stimulus-driven selective attention model.

Selective attention in multi-chip address-event systems.

Science.gov (United States)

Bartolozzi, Chiara; Indiveri, Giacomo

2009-01-01

Selective attention is the strategy used by biological systems to cope with the inherent limits in their available computational resources, in order to efficiently process sensory information. The same strategy can be used in artificial systems that have to process vast amounts of sensory data with limited resources. In this paper we present a neuromorphic VLSI device, the "Selective Attention Chip" (SAC), which can be used to implement these models in multi-chip address-event systems. We also describe a real-time sensory-motor system, which integrates the SAC with a dynamic vision sensor and a robotic actuator. We present experimental results from each component in the system, and demonstrate how the complete system implements a real-time stimulus-driven selective attention model.

Age-related decline in bottom-up processing and selective attention in the very old.

Science.gov (United States)

Zhuravleva, Tatyana Y; Alperin, Brittany R; Haring, Anna E; Rentz, Dorene M; Holcomb, Philip J; Daffner, Kirk R

2014-06-01

Previous research demonstrating age-related deficits in selective attention have not included old-old adults, an increasingly important group to study. The current investigation compared event-related potentials in 15 young-old (65-79 years old) and 23 old-old (80-99 years old) subjects during a color-selective attention task. Subjects responded to target letters in a specified color (Attend) while ignoring letters in a different color (Ignore) under both low and high loads. There were no group differences in visual acuity, accuracy, reaction time, or latency of early event-related potential components. The old-old group showed a disruption in bottom-up processing, indexed by a substantially diminished posterior N1 (smaller amplitude). They also demonstrated markedly decreased modulation of bottom-up processing based on selected visual features, indexed by the posterior selection negativity (SN), with similar attenuation under both loads. In contrast, there were no group differences in frontally mediated attentional selection, measured by the anterior selection positivity (SP). There was a robust inverse relationship between the size of the SN and SP (the smaller the SN, the larger the SP), which may represent an anteriorly supported compensatory mechanism. In the absence of a decline in top-down modulation indexed by the SP, the diminished SN may reflect age-related degradation of early bottom-up visual processing in old-old adults.

Probabilistic analysis of external events with focus on the Fukushima event

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kollasko, Heiko; Jockenhoevel-Barttfeld, Mariana; Klapp, Ulrich

2014-01-01

External hazards are those natural or man-made hazards to a site and facilities that are originated externally to both the site and its processes, i.e. the duty holder may have very little or no control over the hazard. External hazards can have the potential of causing initiating events at the plant, typically transients like e.g., loss of offsite power. Simultaneously, external events may affect safety systems required to control the initiating event and, where applicable, also back-up systems implemented for risk-reduction. The plant safety may especially be threatened when loads from external hazards exceed the load assumptions considered in the design of safety-related systems, structures and components. Another potential threat is given by hazards inducing initiating events not considered in the safety demonstration otherwise. An example is loss of offsite power combined with prolonged plant isolation. Offsite support, e.g., delivery of diesel fuel oil, usually credited in the deterministic safety analysis may not be possible in this case. As the Fukushima events have shown, the biggest threat is likely given by hazards inducing both effects. Such hazards may well be dominant risk contributors even if their return period is very high. In order to identify relevant external hazards for a certain Nuclear Power Plant (NPP) location, a site specific screening analysis is performed, both for single events and for combinations of external events. As a result of the screening analysis, risk significant and therefore relevant (screened-in) single external events and combinations of them are identified for a site. The screened-in events are further considered in a detailed event tree analysis in the frame of the Probabilistic Safety Analysis (PSA) to calculate the core damage/large release frequency resulting from each relevant external event or from each relevant combination. Screening analyses of external events performed at AREVA are based on the approach provided

Compiler issues associated with safety-related software

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Feinauer, L.R.

1991-01-01

A critical issue in the quality assurance of safety-related software is the ability of the software to produce identical results, independent of the host machine, operating system, or compiler version under which the software is installed. A study is performed using the VIPRE-0l, FREY-01, and RETRAN-02 safety-related codes. Results from an IBM 3083 computer are compared with results from a CYBER 860 computer. All three of the computer programs examined are written in FORTRAN; the VIPRE code uses the FORTRAN 66 compiler, whereas the FREY and RETRAN codes use the FORTRAN 77 compiler. Various compiler options are studied to determine their effect on the output between machines. Since the Control Data Corporation and IBM machines inherently represent numerical data differently, methods of producing equivalent accuracy of data representation were an important focus of the study. This paper identifies particular problems in the automatic double-precision option (AUTODBL) of the IBM FORTRAN 1.4.x series of compilers. The IBM FORTRAN version 2 compilers provide much more stable, reliable compilation for engineering software. Careful selection of compilers and compiler options can help guarantee identical results between different machines. To ensure reproducibility of results, the same compiler and compiler options should be used to install the program as were used in the development and testing of the program

Developing and Testing the Health Care Safety Hotline: A Prototype Consumer Reporting System for Patient Safety Events.

Science.gov (United States)

Schneider, Eric C; Ridgely, M Susan; Quigley, Denise D; Hunter, Lauren E; Leuschner, Kristin J; Weingart, Saul N; Weissman, Joel S; Zimmer, Karen P; Giannini, Robert C

2017-06-01

This article describes the design, development, and testing of the Health Care Safety Hotline, a prototype consumer reporting system for patient safety events. The prototype was designed and developed with ongoing review by a technical expert panel and feedback obtained during a public comment period. Two health care delivery organizations in one metropolitan area collaborated with the researchers to demonstrate and evaluate the system. The prototype was deployed and elicited information from patients, family members, and caregivers through a website or an 800 phone number. The reports were considered useful and had little overlap with information received by the health care organizations through their usual risk management, customer service, and patient safety monitoring systems. However, the frequency of reporting was lower than anticipated, suggesting that further refinements, including efforts to raise awareness by actively soliciting reports from subjects, might be necessary to substantially increase the volume of useful reports. It is possible that a single technology platform could be built to meet a variety of different patient safety objectives, but it may not be possible to achieve several objectives simultaneously through a single consumer reporting system while also establishing trust with patients, caregivers, and providers.

A retrospective look on plant events for prospective affirmation of nuclear safety

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Koshy, Thomas; Khamis, Ibrahim

2014-01-01

The nuclear industry continues to rise above the challenges resulting from major plant events around the world. It is important to study the significant events, develop solutions to overcome the vulnerabilities identified, and retain the lessons while technology evolves to the next generation. The historical Station-Black-Out needs to be examined further in a new dimension in the light of 'Fukushima type' events where normal AC power recovery in a reasonable period was not practical. The plants would need to incorporate diversity in emergency core cooling to account for a condition that inhibits electrical energy as a source of motive power. An electrical event in Sweden that propagated from an electrical switchyard resulted in two core cooling divisions disabled and consequently exacerbating the plant condition by opening the relief system for reactor coolant system and that significantly increased the probability for core damage. A minor spark in an electronic control system card in a US plant caused inadvertent emergency core cooling and disabled the Control Room Operators' capability to intervene and prevent the primary loop from getting completely filled. A renewed assessment is needed to address the following areas for advancing reactor safety in the new evolving generation of plants to advance safety from the event lessons of the past. - Evaluate the diversity in core cooling systems following loss of all AC power onsite - Confirm independence in Reactor Trip, Depressurization and Core and Containment cooling systems for sensors, power supplies and actuation systems - Evaluate the suitability of logic/control system failure mode resulting from power supply failures in instrument channels and/or divisions (Conduct Failure Mode and Effects Analysis for system, power supplies and components). (authors)

Seismic safety of nuclear power plants in Eastern Europe

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Gurpinar, A.; Godoy, A.

1995-01-01

This paper summarizes the work performed by the International Atomic Energy Agency in the areas of safety reviews and applied research in support of programmes for the assessment and enhancement of seismic safety in WWER type nuclear power plants during the past five years. Three major topics are discussed; engineering safety review services in relation to external events, technical guidelines for the assessment and upgrading of WWER type nuclear power plants, and the Coordinated Research Programme on B enchmark study for the seismic analysis and testing of WWER type nuclear power plants . These topics are summarized in a way to provide an overview of the past and present safety situation in selected WWER type plants which are all located in Eastern European countries. Main conclusion of the paper is that although there is now a thorough understanding of the seismic safety issues in these operating nuclear power plants, the implementation of seismic upgrades to structures, systems and components are lagging behind, particularly for those cases in which the re-evaluation indicated the necessity to strengthen the safety related structures or install new safety systems. (author)

Safety-related control air systems - approved 1977

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Anon.

1978-01-01

This standard applies to those portions of the control air system that furnish air required to support, control, or operate systems or portions of systems that are safety related in nuclear power plants. This standard relates only to the air supply system(s) for safety-related air operated devices and does not apply to the safety-related air operated device or to air operated actuators for such devices. The objectives of this standard are to provide (1) minimum system design requirements for equipment, piping, instruments, controls, and wiring that constitute the air supply system; and (2) the system and component testing and maintenance requirements

75 FR 35649 - Safety Zone; Northern California Annual Fireworks Events, July 4th Fireworks Display

Science.gov (United States)

2010-06-23

... Zone; Northern California Annual Fireworks Events, July 4th Fireworks Display AGENCY: Coast Guard, DHS... July Fireworks Display safety zone, from 9 a.m. through 10 p.m. on July 4, 2010 in position 39[deg]10... safety zone for the annual Tahoe City 4th of July Fireworks in 33 CFR 165.1191 on July 4, 2010, from 9 a...

External Events PSA for the Paks NPP

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Bareith, Attila; Karsa, Zoltan; Siklossy, Tamas; Vida, Zoltan

2014-01-01

Initially, probabilistic safety assessment of external events was limited to the analysis of earthquakes for the Paks Nuclear Power Plant in Hungary. The level 1 seismic PSA was completed in 2002 showing a significant contribution of seismic failures to core damage risk. Although other external events of natural origin had previously been screened out from detailed plant PSA mostly on the basis of event frequencies, a review of recent experience on extreme weather phenomena made during the periodic safety review of the plant led to the initiation of PSA for external events other than earthquakes in 2009. In the meantime, the accident of the Fukushima Dai-ichi Nuclear Power Plant confirmed further the importance of such an analysis. The external event PSA for the Paks plant followed the commonly known steps: selection and screening of external hazards, hazard assessment for screened-in external events, analysis of plant response and fragility, PSA model development, and risk quantification and interpretation of results. As a result of event selection and screening the following weather related external hazards were subject to detailed analysis: extreme wind, extreme rainfall (precipitation), extreme snow, extremely high and extremely low temperatures, lightning, frost and ice formation. The analysis proved to be a significant challenge due to scarcity of data, lack of knowledge, as well as limitations of existing PSA methodologies. This paper presents an overview of the external events PSA performed for the Paks NPP. Important methodological aspects are summarised. Key analysis findings and unresolved issues that need further elaboration are highlighted. Development of external events PSA for the Paks NPP was completed by the end of 2012. The analysis followed the commonly known steps: selection and screening of external hazards, hazard assessment for screened-in external events, analysis of plant response and fragility, PSA model development, and risk

75 FR 16140 - Common Formats for Patient Safety Data Collection and Event Reporting

Science.gov (United States)

2010-03-31

... FR 45457-45458. Definition of Common Formats The term ``Common Formats'' is used to describe clinical... DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality Common Formats for Patient Safety Data Collection and Event Reporting AGENCY: Agency for Healthcare Research and...

76 FR 37646 - Safety Zone; Northern California Annual Fireworks Events, Fourth of July Fireworks, City of...

Science.gov (United States)

2011-06-28

... Zone; Northern California Annual Fireworks Events, Fourth of July Fireworks, City of Sausalito... Guard will enforce the Fourth of July Fireworks, City of Sausalito annual safety zone. This action is... for the annual Fourth of July Fireworks, City of Sausalito, safety zone in 33 CFR 165.1191 on July 4...

Nuclear safety review for the year 2001

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

2002-07-01

The Nuclear Safety Review for the Year 2001 reports on worldwide efforts to strengthen nuclear and radiation safety, including radioactive waste safety. It is in three parts. Part 1 describes those events in 2001 that have, or may have, significance for nuclear, radiation and waste safety worldwide. It includes developments such as new initiatives in international cooperation, events of safety significance and events that may be indicative of trends in safety. Part 2 describes some of the IAEA's efforts to strengthen international co-operation in nuclear, radiation and waste safety during 2001. It covers legally binding international agreements, non-binding safety standards, and provisions for the application of safety standards. This is done in a very brief manner, because these issues are addressed in more detail in the Agency's Annual Report for 2001. Part 3 presents a brief look ahead to some issues that are likely to be prominent in the coming year(s). The topics covered were selected by the IAEA Secretariat on the basis of trends observed in recent years, account being taken of planned or expected future developments. A draft of the Nuclear Safety Review for the Year 2001 was presented to the March 2002 session of IAEA's Board of Governors. This final version has been prepared taking account of the discussion in the Board. In some places, information has been added to describe developments early in 2002 that were considered pertinent to the discussion of events during 2001

Selected safety aspects of containments for nuclear power plants with WWER-440 reactors

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Jankowski, M.W.; Kulig, M.J.; Strupczewski, A.; Balabanov, E.D.

1996-01-01

Considerable attention has been and continues to be focused on the design and operational features that prevent the release of radioactive materials to the environment for a spectrum of accidents for the two classes of WWER-440 reactors: the older 230 model and the more recently designed 213 models. This paper, based on published and unpublished information, aims to clarify the perceptions of the Russian WWER-440 models 230 and 213 nuclear power plant containment system designs and their relevance to selected aspects of accident mitigation. It should be noted that these are unclearly and often negatively perceived, primarily because of a lack of reliable information and a poorly assembled experimental database. Conflicting statements have been made regarding the nature and the features of the plant's containment system. The paper presents a brief outline of the design of both WWER-440 models with respect to their confinement functions. Selected safety-related aspects of the accident localization systems are discussed, and the recognized shortcomings and safety merits are pointed out. The older 230 units experience high leak rates and are designed to withstand medium-size pipe breaks. The possible implications for safety are pointed out in the paper. The on going studies that concentrate on improving the system are highlighted. (orig.)

SAFETY BASIS DESIGN DEVELOPMENT CHALLENGES IMECE2007-42747

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

RYAN GW

2007-09-24

'Designing in Safety' is a desired part of the development of any new potentially hazardous system, process, or facility. It is a required part of nuclear safety activities as specified in the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Order 420.B, Facility Safety. This order addresses the design of nuclear related facilities developed under federal regulation IOCFR830, Nuclear Safety Management. IOCFR830 requires that safety basis documentation be provided to identify how nuclear safety is being adequately addressed as a condition for system operation (e.g., the safety basis). To support the development of the safety basis, a safety analysis is performed. Although the concept of developing a design that addresses 'Safety is simple, the execution can be complex and challenging. This paper addresses those complexities and challenges for the design activity of a system to treat sludge, a corrosion product of spent nuclear fuel, at DOE's Hanford Site in Washington State. The system being developed is referred to as the Sludge Treatment Project (STP). This paper describes the portion of the safety analysis that addresses the selection of design basis events using the experience gained from the STP and the development of design requirements for safety features associated with those events. Specifically, the paper describes the safety design process and the application of the process for two types of potential design basis accidents associated with the operation of the system, (1) flashing spray leaks and (2) splash and splatter leaks. Also presented are the technical challenges that are being addressed to develop effective safety features to deal with these design basis accidents.

SAFETY BASIS DESIGN DEVELOPMENT CHALLENGES IMECE2007-42747

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

RYAN GW

2007-01-01

'Designing in Safety' is a desired part of the development of any new potentially hazardous system, process, or facility. It is a required part of nuclear safety activities as specified in the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Order 420.B, Facility Safety. This order addresses the design of nuclear related facilities developed under federal regulation IOCFR830, Nuclear Safety Management. IOCFR830 requires that safety basis documentation be provided to identify how nuclear safety is being adequately addressed as a condition for system operation (e.g., the safety basis). To support the development of the safety basis, a safety analysis is performed. Although the concept of developing a design that addresses 'Safety is simple, the execution can be complex and challenging. This paper addresses those complexities and challenges for the design activity of a system to treat sludge, a corrosion product of spent nuclear fuel, at DOE's Hanford Site in Washington State. The system being developed is referred to as the Sludge Treatment Project (STP). This paper describes the portion of the safety analysis that addresses the selection of design basis events using the experience gained from the STP and the development of design requirements for safety features associated with those events. Specifically, the paper describes the safety design process and the application of the process for two types of potential design basis accidents associated with the operation of the system, (1) flashing spray leaks and (2) splash and splatter leaks. Also presented are the technical challenges that are being addressed to develop effective safety features to deal with these design basis accidents

Interim staff position on environmental qualification of safety-related electrical equipment: including staff responses to public comments. Regulatory report

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Szukiewicz, A.J.

1981-07-01

This document provides the NRC staff positions regarding selected areas of environmental qualification of safety-related electrical equipment, in the resolution of Unresolved Safety Issue A-24, 'Qualification of Class IE Safety-Related Equipment.' The positions herein are applicable to plants that are or will be in the construction permit (CP) or operating license (OL) review process and that are required to satisfy the requirements set forth in either the 1971 or the 1974 version of IEEE-323 standard

Event-related oscillations (EROs) and event-related potentials (ERPs) comparison in facial expression recognition.

Science.gov (United States)

Balconi, Michela; Pozzoli, Uberto

2007-09-01

The study aims to explore the significance of event-related potentials (ERPs) and event-related brain oscillations (EROs) (delta, theta, alpha, beta, gamma power) in response to emotional (fear, happiness, sadness) when compared with neutral faces during 180-250 post-stimulus time interval. The ERP results demonstrated that the emotional face elicited a negative peak at approximately 230 ms (N2). Moreover, EEG measures showed that motivational significance of face (emotional vs. neutral) could modulate the amplitude of EROs, but only for some frequency bands (i.e. theta and gamma bands). In a second phase, we considered the resemblance of the two EEG measures by a regression analysis. It revealed that theta and gamma oscillations mainly effect as oscillation activity at the N2 latency. Finally, a posterior increased power of theta was found for emotional faces.

Different event-related patterns of gamma-band power in brain waves of fast- and slow-reacting subjects.

Science.gov (United States)

Jokeit, H; Makeig, S

1994-01-01

Fast- and slow-reacting subjects exhibit different patterns of gamma-band electroencephalogram (EEG) activity when responding as quickly as possible to auditory stimuli. This result appears to confirm long-standing speculations of Wundt that fast- and slow-reacting subjects produce speeded reactions in different ways and demonstrates that analysis of event-related changes in the amplitude of EEG activity recorded from the human scalp can reveal information about event-related brain processes unavailable using event-related potential measures. Time-varying spectral power in a selected (35- to 43-Hz) gamma frequency band was averaged across trials in two experimental conditions: passive listening and speeded reacting to binaural clicks, forming 40-Hz event-related spectral responses. Factor analysis of between-subject event-related spectral response differences split subjects into two near-equal groups composed of faster- and slower-reacting subjects. In faster-reacting subjects, 40-Hz power peaked near 200 ms and 400 ms poststimulus in the react condition, whereas in slower-reacting subjects, 40-Hz power just before stimulus delivery was larger in the react condition. These group differences were preserved in separate averages of relatively long and short reaction-time epochs for each group. gamma-band (20-60 Hz)-filtered event-related potential response averages did not differ between the two groups or conditions. Because of this and because gamma-band power in the auditory event-related potential is small compared with the EEG, the observed event-related spectral response features must represent gamma-band EEG activity reliably induced by, but not phase-locked to, experimental stimuli or events. PMID:8022783

Prescription-event monitoring: developments in signal detection.

Science.gov (United States)

Ferreira, Germano

2007-01-01

Prescription-event monitoring (PEM) is a non-interventional intensive method for post-marketing drug safety monitoring of newly licensed medicines. PEM studies are cohort studies where exposure is obtained from a centralised service and outcomes from simple questionnaires completed by general practitioners. Follow-up forms are sent for selected events. Because PEM captures all events and not only the suspected adverse drug reactions, PEM cohorts potentially differ in respect to the distribution of number of events per person depending on the nature of the drug under study. This variance can be related either with the condition for which the drug is prescribed (e.g. a condition causing high morbidity will have, in average, a higher number of events per person compared with a condition with lower morbidity) or with the drug effect itself. This paper describes an exploratory investigation of the distortion caused by product-related variations of the number of events to the interpretation of the proportional reporting ratio (PRR) values ("the higher the PRR, the greater the strength of the signal") computed using drug-cohort data. We studied this effect by assessing the agreement between the PRR based on events (event of interest vs all other events) and PRR based on cases (cases with the event of interest vs cases with any other events). PRR were calculated for all combinations reported to ten selected drugs against a comparator of 81 other drugs. Three of the ten drugs had a cohort with an apparent higher proportion of patients with lower number of events. The PRRs based on events were systematically higher than the PRR based on cases for the combinations reported to these three drugs. Additionally, when applying the threshold criteria for signal screening (n > or =3, PRR > or =1.5 and Chi-squared > or =4), the binary agreement was generally high but apparently lower for these three drugs. In conclusion, the distribution of events per patient in drug cohorts shall be

Analysis on relation between safety input and accidents

Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

YAO Qing-guo; ZHANG Xue-mu; LI Chun-hui

2007-01-01

The number of safety input directly determines the level of safety, and there exists dialectical and unified relations between safety input and accidents. Based on the field investigation and reliable data, this paper deeply studied the dialectical relationship between safety input and accidents, and acquired the conclusions. The security situation of the coal enterprises was related to the security input rate, being effected little by the security input scale, and build the relationship model between safety input and accidents on this basis, that is the accident model.

76 FR 34867 - Safety Zones; Annual Fireworks Events in the Captain of the Port Detroit Zone

Science.gov (United States)

2011-06-15

....941(a)(51) Target Fireworks, Detroit, MI The first safety zone will be enforced from 7 a.m. on June 24... Zones; Annual Fireworks Events in the Captain of the Port Detroit Zone AGENCY: Coast Guard, DHS. ACTION: Notice of enforcement of regulation. SUMMARY: The Coast Guard will enforce various safety zones for...

Assessment of the safety of Ulchin nuclear power plant in the event of tsunami using parametric study

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kim, Ji Young; Kang, Keum Seok

2011-01-01

Previous evaluations of the safety of the Ulchin Nuclear Power Plant in the event of a tsunami have the shortcoming of uncertainty of the tsunami sources. To address this uncertainty, maximum and minimum wave heights at the intake of Ulchin NPP have been estimated through a parametric study, and then assessment of the safety margin for the intake has been carried out. From the simulation results for the Ulchin NPP site, it can be seen that the coefficient of eddy viscosity considerably affects wave height at the inside of the breakwater. In addition, assessment of the safety margin shows that almost all of the intake water pumps have a safety margin over 2 m, and Ulchin NPP site seems to be safe in the event of a tsunami according to this parametric study, although parts of the CWPs rarely have a margin for the minimum wave height

Emotion and attention: event-related brain potential studies.

Science.gov (United States)

Schupp, Harald T; Flaisch, Tobias; Stockburger, Jessica; Junghöfer, Markus

2006-01-01

Emotional pictures guide selective visual attention. A series of event-related brain potential (ERP) studies is reviewed demonstrating the consistent and robust modulation of specific ERP components by emotional images. Specifically, pictures depicting natural pleasant and unpleasant scenes are associated with an increased early posterior negativity, late positive potential, and sustained positive slow wave compared with neutral contents. These modulations are considered to index different stages of stimulus processing including perceptual encoding, stimulus representation in working memory, and elaborate stimulus evaluation. Furthermore, the review includes a discussion of studies exploring the interaction of motivated attention with passive and active forms of attentional control. Recent research is reviewed exploring the selective processing of emotional cues as a function of stimulus novelty, emotional prime pictures, learned stimulus significance, and in the context of explicit attention tasks. It is concluded that ERP measures are useful to assess the emotion-attention interface at the level of distinct processing stages. Results are discussed within the context of two-stage models of stimulus perception brought out by studies of attention, orienting, and learning.

Probabilistic assessment of fire related events in CWPH (Pilot study)

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Chatterjee, D.; Maity, S.C.; Guptan, Rajee; Mohan, Nalini; Ghadge, S.G.; Bajaj, S.S.

2006-01-01

As a part of Fire PSA for KAPS, a pilot study has been taken up identifying CWPH as the important zone vulnerable to fire. As the CWPH houses pumps belonging to all important cooling (APWC, FFW, NAHPPW, NALPW, etc.) of both the units, a single fire leads to failure of multiple safety/safety support system cooling affecting the safety of the plant. The objective of this study is as follows: Familiarising with the various published Fire-PSA study, comparing and finalisation of the computer code amongst various codes available with DAE, identifying and sequencing different activities involved for carrying out Fire PSA, i.e. Zoning and Sub-Zoning of Fire Source Area, Fire vulnerability of System and Component surrounding Fire Source, etc., finalization of report format and documentation. Computer Code FDS is used to carry out Fire Hazard Analysis. FDS is the latest state-of the-art software package extensively used for Fire Hazard Analysis. It develops a 3D scenario for any given fire giving credit to actual physical location of fire load and ventilation. It gives the time dependent of any fire in a specific zone crediting the time required by operator to take necessary preventive action which helps in quantifying the probability of error for any particular operator's for PSA study. To identify the most vulnerable sub-zone in CWPH, a walk down was organized and physical location of each load; their separation, fire barrier, ventilator in the room, arrangement of fire protection/fighting system, localized operator's room were reviewed. Fire in the middle diesel tank with pump is considered as initiating event in the sub-zone of CWPH. The Event Tree for this initiating event for CWPH was developed. Event Tree end states are identified as large fire i.e. fire which is failed to be detected by both means, i.e. early and late and failure in fighting by both means i.e. early and late. (author)

77 FR 30245 - Safety Zones; Annual Fireworks Events in the Captain of the Port Detroit Zone

Science.gov (United States)

2012-05-22

...'' N, 082-51'-18.70'' W (NAD 83). This proposed zone would be enforced one evening during the last week...-AA00 Safety Zones; Annual Fireworks Events in the Captain of the Port Detroit Zone AGENCY: Coast Guard... by adding three permanent safety zones within the Captain of the Port Detroit Zone. This action is...

Analysis of contributing factors associated to related patients safety incidents in Intensive Care Medicine.

Science.gov (United States)

Martín Delgado, M C; Merino de Cos, P; Sirgo Rodríguez, G; Álvarez Rodríguez, J; Gutiérrez Cía, I; Obón Azuara, B; Alonso Ovies, Á

2015-01-01

To explore contributing factors (CF) associated to related critical patients safety incidents. SYREC study pos hoc analysis. A total of 79 Intensive Care Departments were involved. The study sample consisted of 1.017 patients; 591 were affected by one or more incidents. The CF were categorized according to a proposed model by the National Patient Safety Agency from United Kingdom that was modified. Type, class and severity of the incidents was analyzed. A total 2,965 CF were reported (1,729 were associated to near miss and 1,236 to adverse events). The CF group more frequently reported were related patients factors. Individual factors were reported more frequently in near miss and task related CF in adverse events. CF were reported in all classes of incidents. The majority of CF were reported in the incidents classified such as less serious, even thought CF patients factors were associated to serious incidents. Individual factors were considered like avoidable and patients factors as unavoidable. The CF group more frequently reported were patient factors and was associated to more severe and unavoidable incidents. By contrast, individual factors were associated to less severe and avoidable incidents. In general, CF most frequently reported were associated to near miss. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier España, S.L.U. and SEMICYUC. All rights reserved.

Probabilistic safety analysis on an SBWR 72 hours after the initiating event

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Dominguez Bautista, M.T.; Peinador Veira, M.

1996-01-01

Passive plants, including SBWRs, are designed to carry out safety functions with passive systems during the first 72 hours after the initiation event with no need for manual actions or external support. After this period, some recovery actions are required to enable the passive systems to continue performing their safety functions. The study was carried out by the INITEC-Empresarios Agrupados Joint Venture within the framework of the international group collaborating with GE on this project. Its purpose has been to assess, by means of probabilistic criteria, the importance to safety of each of these support actions, in order to define possible requirements to be considered in the design in respect of said recovery actions. In brief, the methodology developed for this objective consists of (1) quantifying success event trees from the PSA up to 72 hours, (2) determining the actions required in each sequence to maintain Steady State after 72 hours, (3) identifying available alternative core cooling methods in each sequence, (4) establishing the approximate (order of magnitude) realizability of each alternative method, (5) calculating the frequency of core damage as a function of the failure probability of post-72-hour actions and (6) analysing the importance of post-72-hour actions. The results of this analysis permit the establishment, right from the conceptual design phase, of the requirements that will arise to ensure these actions in the long term, enhancing their reliability and preventing the accident from continuing beyond this period. (Author)

Duke Surgery Patient Safety: an open-source application for anonymous reporting of adverse and near-miss surgical events.

Science.gov (United States)

Pietrobon, Ricardo; Lima, Raquel; Shah, Anand; Jacobs, Danny O; Harker, Matthew; McCready, Mariana; Martins, Henrique; Richardson, William

2007-05-01

Studies have shown that 4% of hospitalized patients suffer from an adverse event caused by the medical treatment administered. Some institutions have created systems to encourage medical workers to report these adverse events. However, these systems often prove to be inadequate and/or ineffective for reviewing the data collected and improving the outcomes in patient safety. To describe the Web-application Duke Surgery Patient Safety, designed for the anonymous reporting of adverse and near-miss events as well as scheduled reporting to surgeons and hospital administration. SOFTWARE ARCHITECTURE: DSPS was developed primarily using Java language running on a Tomcat server and with MySQL database as its backend. Formal and field usability tests were used to aid in development of DSPS. Extensive experience with DSPS at our institution indicate that DSPS is easy to learn and use, has good speed, provides needed functionality, and is well received by both adverse-event reporters and administrators. This is the first description of an open-source application for reporting patient safety, which allows the distribution of the application to other institutions in addition for its ability to adapt to the needs of different departments. DSPS provides a mechanism for anonymous reporting of adverse events and helps to administer Patient Safety initiatives. The modifiable framework of DSPS allows adherence to evolving national data standards. The open-source design of DSPS permits surgical departments with existing reporting mechanisms to integrate them with DSPS. The DSPS application is distributed under the GNU General Public License.

Computerized surveillance of opioid-related adverse drug events in perioperative care: a cross-sectional study

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Gattis Katherine G

2009-08-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background Given the complexity of surgical care, perioperative patients are at high risk of opioid-related adverse drug events. Existing methods of detection, such as trigger tools and manual chart review, are time-intensive which makes sustainability challenging. Using strategic rule design, computerized surveillance may be an efficient, pharmacist-driven model for event detection that leverages existing staff resources. Methods Computerized adverse drug event surveillance uses a logic-based rules engine to identify potential adverse drug events or evolving unsafe clinical conditions. We extended an inpatient rule (administration of naloxone to detect opioid-related oversedation and respiratory depression to perioperative care at a large academic medical center. Our primary endpoint was the adverse drug event rate. For all patients with a naloxone alert, manual chart review was performed by a perioperative clinical pharmacist to assess patient harm. In patients with confirmed oversedation, other patient safety event databases were queried to determine if they could detect duplicate, prior, or subsequent opioid-related events. Results We identified 419 cases of perioperative naloxone administration. Of these, 101 were given postoperatively and 69 were confirmed as adverse drug events after chart review yielding a rate of 1.89 adverse drug events/1000 surgical encounters across both the inpatient and ambulatory settings. Our ability to detect inpatient opioid adverse drug events increased 22.7% by expanding surveillance into perioperative care. Analysis of historical surveillance data as well as a voluntary reporting database revealed that 11 of our perioperative patients had prior or subsequent harmful oversedation. Nine of these cases received intraoperative naloxone, and 2 had received naloxone in the post-anesthesia care unit. Pharmacist effort was approximately 3 hours per week to evaluate naloxone alerts and confirm adverse drug

Safety-related site characteristics - a relative comparison of the Forsmark reference areas; Saekerhetsrelaterade platsegenskaper - en relativ jaemfoerelse av Forsmark med referensomraaden

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Winberg, Anders (Conterra AB, Uppsala (Sweden))

2010-12-15

SKB has over the years from 2002 to 2008 conducted site investigations in Forsmark and Laxemar, with associated site modeling, design and safety analysis. In mid-2009 Forsmark was selected on the basis of analysis made as site for a future repository for spent nuclear fuel. Based on defined safety-related geoscientific location factors data from Forsmark are compared in relative terms with data from a number of locations in Sweden, previously studied by SKB. The factors compared include: the rock's composition and structures, future climate evolution, rock mechanical conditions, earthquakes, groundwater flow, groundwater composition, delay of solutes, and the ability to characterize and describe the location. Past comparisons of these properties for the selected sites show that none of these sites collectively show any significant benefit over Forsmark site for a repository. This does not preclude that there may be places on the basis of an overall assessment of geoscientific location factors could be equivalent to Forsmark

Overview of AEOD's program for trending reactor operational events

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Baranowsky, P.W.; O'Reilly, P.D.; Rasmuson, D.M.; Houghton, J.R.

1994-01-01

This paper presents an overview of the trending program being performed by AEOD. The major elements of the program include: (1) system and component reliability trending and analysis, (2) special data collection and analysis (e.g., IPE and PRA component failure data, common cause failure event data), (3) risk assessment of safety issues based on actual operating experience, (4) Accident Sequence Precursor (ASP) Program, and (5) trending US industry risk. AEOD plans to maintain up-to-date safety data trends for selected high risk or high regulatory profile components, systems, accident initiators, accident sequences, and regulatory issues. AEOD will also make greater use of PRA insights and perform limited probabilistic safety assessments to evaluate the safety significance of qualitative results. Examples of a system study and an issue evaluation are presented, as well as a summary of the common cause failure event database

Common cause failure data collection and analysis for safety-related components of TRIGA SSR-14MW Pitesti, Romania

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Radu, G.; Mladin, D.

2003-01-01

This paper presents a study performed on the set of common cause failures (CCF) of safety-related components of the research reactor TRIGA SSR-14 MW Pitesti. The data collected cover a period of 20 years, from 1979 to 2000. The sources of data are Shift Supervisor Reports, Work Authorizations, and Reactor Log Books. Events collected are analyzed by failure mode and degrees of failure. Qualitative analysis of root causes, coupling factors and corrective actions and quantitative analysis of CCF events are studied. The objective of this work is to develop qualitative insights in the nature of the reported events and to build a site-specific common cause events database. (author)

Identification of new unresolved safety issues relating to nuclear power plants - special report to Congress. Congressional report

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

1981-03-01

As a result of NRC staff review and extended collegial consultations and investigations within the NRC, the Commission has designated four new Unresolved Safety Issues (USIs). This report describes the process used to evaluate the large number of concerns and recommendations which resulted from the major investigations of the Three Mile Island-2 accident as well as other events and investigations of the past year, and the report identifies the four new USIs selected as follows: (1) Shutdown decay heat removal requirements (Task A-45); (2) Seismic qualification of equipment in operating plants (Task A-46); (3) Safety implications of control systems (Task A-47); and (4) Hydrogen control measures and effects of hydrogen burns on safety equipment (Task A-48). Appendix A of the report presents an expanded discussion of each new USI including issue definition, a preliminary discussion of the action plan and a basis for continued plant operations and licensing. Appendix B of the report provides a brief discussion of each of the candidate safety issues not designated as an USI

Safe disposal of radioactive waste. Post-closure safety assessment of permanent repository in Novi han

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Mateeva, M.

2007-01-01

A presented material is the third part of the monograph with title 'Safe disposal of radioactive waste. Post-closure safety assessment of the permanent repository in Novi Han'. This part deals with review of the scenario selection procedure. The process system of permanent repository for radioactive waste is describing in details for different levels. Preliminary screening process of features, events and processes is presented here. Interaction matrixes for basic disposal system components are constructed. Final selection and grouping between the included features, events and processes is done. Selected and defined scenarios for post-closure safety assessment are presented too. Key words: post-closure safety assessment, scenario generation procedure, process system, process influence diagram, and interaction matrix

Deterministic Safety Analysis for Nuclear Power Plants. Specific Safety Guide (Russian Edition)

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

2014-01-01

The objective of this Safety Guide is to provide harmonized guidance to designers, operators, regulators and providers of technical support on deterministic safety analysis for nuclear power plants. It provides information on the utilization of the results of such analysis for safety and reliability improvements. The Safety Guide addresses conservative, best estimate and uncertainty evaluation approaches to deterministic safety analysis and is applicable to current and future designs. Contents: 1. Introduction; 2. Grouping of initiating events and associated transients relating to plant states; 3. Deterministic safety analysis and acceptance criteria; 4. Conservative deterministic safety analysis; 5. Best estimate plus uncertainty analysis; 6. Verification and validation of computer codes; 7. Relation of deterministic safety analysis to engineering aspects of safety and probabilistic safety analysis; 8. Application of deterministic safety analysis; 9. Source term evaluation for operational states and accident conditions; References

Selection of detailed items for periodic safety review on PWR radwaste management system

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Sung, K. B.; Ahn, Y. S.; Park, Y. S.; Kim, S. H.; Kim, J. T. [Korea Hydric and Nuclear Power Company, Taejon (Korea, Republic of)

2003-10-01

Selection of detailed-items for Periodic Safety Review on PWR radwaste management system, the main component could be faithfully clarified according to the purpose of establishment on each system and basic purpose. It is proper to select detailed-items those of radioactivities in the reactor coolant activity levels and the released volume of liquid and gaseous radioactive material on safety performance. It's also proper to select solid radwaste production quantities as detailed-item that it would be predict the next ten years trends after PSR.

Effects of inter- and intramodal selective attention to non-spatial visual stimuli: An event-related potential analysis.

NARCIS (Netherlands)

de Ruiter, M.B.; Kok, A.; van der Schoot, M.

1998-01-01

Event-related potentials (ERPs) were recorded to trains of rapidly presented auditory and visual stimuli. ERPs in conditions in which Ss attended to different features of visual stimuli were compared with ERPs to the same type of stimuli when Ss attended to different features of auditory stimuli,

Nuclear safety review for the year 2000

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

2001-06-01

The nuclear safety review for the year 2000 reports on worldwide efforts to strengthen nuclear and radiation safety, including radioactive waste safety. It is in three parts: Part 1 describes those events in 2000 that have, or may have, significance for nuclear, radiation and waste safety worldwide. It includes developments such as new initiatives in international cooperation, events of safety significance and events that may be indicative of trends in safety; Part 2 describes some of the IAEA efforts to strengthen international co-operation in nuclear, radiation and waste safety during 2000. It covers legally binding international agreements, non-binding safety standards, and provisions for the application of safety standards. This is done in a very brief manner, because these issues are addressed in more detail in the Agency's Annual Report for 2000; Part 3 presents a brief look ahead to some issues that are likely to be prominent in the coming year(s). The topics covered were selected by the IAEA Secretariat on the basis of trends observed in recent years, account being taken of planned or expected future developments. A draft of the Nuclear Safety Review for the Year 2000 was presented to the March 2001 session of the IAEA Board of Governors. This final version has been prepared taking account of the discussion in the Board. In some places, information has been added to describe developments early in 2001 that were considered pertinent to the discussion of events during 2000. In such cases, a note containing the more recent information has been provided in the form of a footnote

Implementation and Performance of the Event Filter Muon Selection for the ATLAS experiment at LHC

CERN Document Server

Ventura, A; Assamagan, Ketevi A; Baines, J T M; Bee, C P; Bellomo, M; Biglietti, M; Bogaerts, J A C; Boisvert, V; Bosman, M; Carlino, G; Caron, B; Casado, M P; Cataldi, G; Cavalli, D; Cervetto, M; Comune, G; Conde-Muíño, P; Conventi, F; De Santo, A; De Seixas, J M; Díaz-Gómez, M; Di Mattia, A; Dos Anjos, A; Dosil, M; Ellis, Nick; Emeliyanov, D; Epp, B; Falciano, S; Farilla, A; George, S; Ghete, V M; González, S; Grothe, M; Kabana, S; Khomich, A; Kilvington, G; Konstantinidis, N P; Kootzw, A; Lowe, A; Luminari, L; Maeno, T; Masik, J; Meessen, C; Mello, A G; Merino, G; Moore, R; Morettini, P; Negri, A; Nikitin, N V; Nisati, A; Padilla, C; Panikashvili, N; Parodi, F; Pérez-Réale, V; Pinfold, J L; Pinto, P; Primavera, M; Qian, Z; Resconi, S; Rosati, S; Sánchez, C; Santamarina-Rios, C; Scannicchio, D A; Schiavi, C; Segura, E; Sivoklokov, S Yu; Soluk, R A; Stefanidis, E; Sushkov, S; Sutton, M; Tapprogge, Stefan; Thomas, E; Touchard, F; Venda-Pinto, B; Vercesi, V; Werner, P; 2004 IEEE Nuclear Science Symposium And Medical Imaging Conference

2005-01-01

The ATLAS Trigger system is composed of three levels: an initial hardware trigger level (LVL1) followed by two software-based stages (LVL2 trigger and Event Filter) included in the High Level Trigger (HLT) and implemented on processor farms. The LVL2 trigger starts from LVL1 information concerning pointers to restricted so-called Regions of Interest (ROI) and performs event selection by means of optimized algorithms. If the LVL2 is passed, the full event is built and sent to the Event Filter (EF) algorithms for further selection and classification. After that, events are finally collected and put into mass storage for subsequent physics analysis. Even if many differences arise in the requirements and in the interfaces between the two HLT stages, they have a coherent approach to event selection. Therefore, the design of a common core software framework has been implemented in order to allow the HLT architecture to be flexible to changes (background conditions, luminosity, description of the detector, etc.). Al...

Associations of patient safety outcomes with models of nursing care organization at unit level in hospitals.

Science.gov (United States)

Dubois, Carl-Ardy; D'amour, Danielle; Tchouaket, Eric; Clarke, Sean; Rivard, Michèle; Blais, Régis

2013-04-01

To examine the associations of four distinct nursing care organizational models with patient safety outcomes. Cross-sectional correlational study. Using a standardized protocol, patients' records were screened retrospectively to detect occurrences of patient safety-related events. Binary logistic regression was used to assess the associations of those events with four nursing care organizational models. Twenty-two medical units in 11 hospitals in Quebec, Canada, were clustered into 4 nursing care organizational models: 2 professional models and 2 functional models. Two thousand six hundred and ninety-nine were patients hospitalized for at least 48 h on the selected units. Composite of six safety-related events widely-considered sensitive to nursing care: medication administration errors, falls, pneumonia, urinary tract infection, unjustified restraints and pressure ulcers. Events were ultimately sorted into two categories: events 'without major' consequences for patients and events 'with' consequences. After controlling for patient characteristics, patient risk of experiencing one or more events (of any severity) and of experiencing an event with consequences was significantly lower, by factors of 25-52%, in both professional models than in the functional models. Event rates for both functional models were statistically indistinguishable from each other. Data suggest that nursing care organizational models characterized by contrasting staffing, work environment and innovation characteristics may be associated with differential risk for hospitalized patients. The two professional models, which draw mainly on registered nurses (RNs) to deliver nursing services and reflect stronger support for nurses' professional practice, were associated with lower risks than are the two functional models.

Relationships between organizational climates and safety-related events at four wood manufacturers

Science.gov (United States)

Demetrice D. Evans; Judd H. Michael; Janice K. Wiedenbeck; Charles D. Ray; Charles D. Ray

2005-01-01

Most segments of thewood manufacturing industry place a great deal of emphasis on production in order to meet daily orweekly productivity quotas. Unfortunately, conflicts often exist between productivity and employee safety, aswell as between productivity and quality. The perceived emphasis placed on each of these areas by an organization?s management will cultivate a...

Attribution of extreme weather and climate-related events.

Science.gov (United States)

Stott, Peter A; Christidis, Nikolaos; Otto, Friederike E L; Sun, Ying; Vanderlinden, Jean-Paul; van Oldenborgh, Geert Jan; Vautard, Robert; von Storch, Hans; Walton, Peter; Yiou, Pascal; Zwiers, Francis W

2016-01-01

Extreme weather and climate-related events occur in a particular place, by definition, infrequently. It is therefore challenging to detect systematic changes in their occurrence given the relative shortness of observational records. However, there is a clear interest from outside the climate science community in the extent to which recent damaging extreme events can be linked to human-induced climate change or natural climate variability. Event attribution studies seek to determine to what extent anthropogenic climate change has altered the probability or magnitude of particular events. They have shown clear evidence for human influence having increased the probability of many extremely warm seasonal temperatures and reduced the probability of extremely cold seasonal temperatures in many parts of the world. The evidence for human influence on the probability of extreme precipitation events, droughts, and storms is more mixed. Although the science of event attribution has developed rapidly in recent years, geographical coverage of events remains patchy and based on the interests and capabilities of individual research groups. The development of operational event attribution would allow a more timely and methodical production of attribution assessments than currently obtained on an ad hoc basis. For event attribution assessments to be most useful, remaining scientific uncertainties need to be robustly assessed and the results clearly communicated. This requires the continuing development of methodologies to assess the reliability of event attribution results and further work to understand the potential utility of event attribution for stakeholder groups and decision makers. WIREs Clim Change 2016, 7:23-41. doi: 10.1002/wcc.380 For further resources related to this article, please visit the WIREs website.

Removal of Open Safety Pin in Larynx: A Challenging Event for an Otolaryngologist

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Alok Kumar

2013-11-01

Full Text Available Inhalation of foreign body is a serious event. The numbers of foreign bodies that become impacted in the larynx are small and require urgent recognition. We describe the case of a 12 year old girl with an impacted open safety pin in the larynx. The sharp end of the safety pin was upward, below the level of the vocal cords and had pierced the soft tissue. Tracheostomy was required to secure the airway and the child had an uneventful recovery. We discuss the management and describe our method of removal of the foreign body with a brief review of literature.

Correction: Cecotti, H. and Rivet, B. Subject Combination and Electrode Selection in Cooperative Brain-Computer Interface Based on Event Related Potentials. Brain Sci. 2014, 4, 335–355

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Hubert Cecotti

2014-09-01

Full Text Available The authors wish to make the following correction to this paper (Cecotti, H.; Rivet, B. Subject Combination and Electrode Selection in Cooperative Brain-Computer Interface Based on Event Related Potentials. Brain Sci. 2014, 4, 335–355: Due to an internal error, the reference numbers in the original published paper were not shown, and the error was not due to the authors. The former main text should be replaced as below.

Plant specific safety inspection of German nuclear power plants taking into account the Fukushima-I (Japan) events

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

2011-01-01

The German Parliament requested (17 March 2011) a comprehensive inspection of German nuclear power plants. For this purpose independent expert commissions should perform a new risk analysis of all German NPPS and nuclear installations with respect to the lessons learned from the Fukushima (Japan) events and other extraordinary damage scenarios. The Reactor safety commission (RSK) was assigned by the German Bundesamt fuer Strahlenschutz to develop a catalogue of requirements for this safety inspection. The contribution summarizes the required inspection volume (status 30.03.2011) including the following events: natural events like earth quakes, floods, weather-based consequences and possible superposition. Additionally the following assumptions have to be considered: event independent postulated common failures or systematic faults, station blackout larger than 2 hours, long-term failure of the auxiliary cooling water supply; aggravating boundary conditions for the performance of emergency measures (non-availability of power supply), hydrogen generation and detonation hazard, restricted personnel availability, non-accessibility due to high radiation levels, impeded technical support from outside. (orig.)

Development and validation of a taxonomy of adverse handover events in hospital settings

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Andersen, Henning Boje; Siemsen, Inger Margrete D.; Petersen, Lene Funck

2015-01-01

Patient Safety Database, 200 events) and 47 interviews with staff conducted at a large hospital in the Capital Region (232 events). The most prevalent causes of adverse events are inadequate competence (30 %), inadequate infrastructure (22 %) and busy ward (18 %). Inter-rater reliability (kappa) was 0.......76 and 0.87 for reports and interviews, respectively. Communication in clinical contexts has been widely recognized as giving rise to potentially hazardous events, and handover situations are particularly prone to failures of communication or unclear allocation of responsibility. The taxonomy provides...... a tool for analyzing adverse handover events to identify frequent causes among reported handover failures. In turn, this provides a basis for selecting safety measures including handover protocols and training programmes....

Post-licensure safety monitoring of quadrivalent human papillomavirus vaccine in the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS), 2009-2015.

Science.gov (United States)

Arana, Jorge E; Harrington, Theresa; Cano, Maria; Lewis, Paige; Mba-Jonas, Adamma; Rongxia, Li; Stewart, Brock; Markowitz, Lauri E; Shimabukuro, Tom T

2018-03-20

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved quadrivalent human papillomavirus vaccine (4vHPV) for use in females and males aged 9-26 years, since 2006 and 2009 respectively. We characterized reports to the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS), a US spontaneous reporting system, in females and males who received 4vHPV vaccination. We searched VAERS for US reports of adverse events (AEs) following 4vHPV from January 2009 through December 2015. Signs and symptoms were coded using Medical Dictionary for Regulatory Activities (MedDRA). We calculated reporting rates and conducted empirical Bayesian data mining to identify disproportional reports. Clinicians reviewed available information, including medical records, and reports of selected pre-specified conditions. VAERS received 19,760 reports following 4vHPV; 60.2% in females, 17.2% in males, and in 22.6% sex was missing. Overall, 94.2% of reports were non-serious; dizziness, syncope and injection site reactions were commonly reported in both males and females. Headache, fatigue and nausea were commonly reported serious AEs. More than 60 million 4vHPV doses were distributed during the study period. Crude AE reporting rates were 327 reports per million 4vHPV doses distributed for all reports, and 19 per million for serious reports. Among 29 verified reports of death, there was no pattern of clustering of deaths by diagnosis, co-morbidities, age, or interval from vaccination to death. No new or unexpected safety concerns or reporting patterns of 4vHPV with clinically important AEs were detected. Safety profile of 4vHPV is consistent with data from pre-licensure trials and postmarketing safety data. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

Event-by-event simulation of single-neutron experiments to test uncertainty relations

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Raedt, H De; Michielsen, K

2014-01-01

Results from a discrete-event simulation of a recent single-neutron experiment that tests Ozawa's generalization of Heisenberg's uncertainty relation are presented. The event-based simulation algorithm reproduces the results of the quantum theoretical description of the experiment but does not require the knowledge of the solution of a wave equation, nor does it rely on detailed concepts of quantum theory. In particular, the data from these non-quantum simulations satisfy uncertainty relations derived in the context of quantum theory. (paper)

77 FR 42176 - Safety Zones; Annual Fireworks Events in the Captain of the Port Detroit Zone

Science.gov (United States)

2012-07-18

... fireworks launch site located at position 41-34'-18.10'' N, 082-51'-18.70'' W (NAD 83). This zone will be... at position 41-34'-18.10'' N, 082- 51'-18.70'' W (NAD 83). (ii) Expected date. This safety zone will...-AA00 Safety Zones; Annual Fireworks Events in the Captain of the Port Detroit Zone AGENCY: Coast Guard...

Safety and immunotoxicity assessment of immunomodulatory monoclonal antibodies

Science.gov (United States)

Morton, Laura Dill; Spindeldreher, Sebastian; Kiessling, Andrea; Allenspach, Roy; Hey, Adam; Muller, Patrick Y; Frings, Werner; Sims, Jennifer

2010-01-01

Most therapeutic monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) licensed for human use or in clinical development are indicated for treatment of patients with cancer and inflammatory/autoimmune disease and as such, are designed to directly interact with the immune system. A major hurdle for the development and early clinical investigation of many of these immunomodulatory mAbs is their inherent risk for adverse immune-mediated drug reactions in humans such as infusion reactions, cytokine storms, immunosuppression and autoimmunity. A thorough understanding of the immunopharmacology of a mAb in humans and animals is required to both anticipate the clinical risk of adverse immunotoxicological events and to select a safe starting dose for first-in-human (FIH) clinical studies. This review summarizes the most common adverse immunotoxicological events occurring in humans with immunomodulatory mAbs and outlines non-clinical strategies to define their immunopharmacology and assess their immunotoxic potential, as well as reduce the risk of immunotoxicity through rational mAb design. Tests to assess the relative risk of mAb candidates for cytokine release syndrome, innate immune system (dendritic cell) activation and immunogenicity in humans are also described. The importance of selecting a relevant and sensitive toxicity species for human safety assessment in which the immunopharmacology of the mAb is similar to that expected in humans is highlighted, as is the importance of understanding the limitations of the species selected for human safety assessment and supplementation of in vivo safety assessment with appropriate in vitro human assays. A tiered approach to assess effects on immune status, immune function and risk of infection and cancer, governed by the mechanism of action and structural features of the mAb, is described. Finally, the use of immunopharmacology and immunotoxicity data in determining a minimum anticipated biologic effect Level (MABEL) and in the selection of safe human

76 FR 37646 - Safety Zone; Northern California Annual Fireworks Events, Fourth of July Fireworks, Lake Tahoe, CA

Science.gov (United States)

2011-06-28

... Zone; Northern California Annual Fireworks Events, Fourth of July Fireworks, Lake Tahoe, CA AGENCY... annual safety zone for the Fourth of July Fireworks, Lake Tahoe, California, located off Incline Village...,000 foot safety zone for the annual Fourth of July Fireworks Display in 33 CFR 165.1191 on July 4...

Qualification of FPGA-Based Safety-Related PRM System

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Miyazaki, Tadashi; Oda, Naotaka; Goto, Yasushi; Hayashi, Toshifumi

2011-01-01

Toshiba has developed Non-rewritable (NRW) Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA)-based safety-related Instrumentation and Control (I and C) system. Considering application to safety-related systems, nonvolatile and non-rewritable FPGA which is impossible to be changed after once manufactured has been adopted in Toshiba FPGA-based system. FPGA is a device which consists only of basic logic circuits, and FPGA performs defined processing which is configured by connecting the basic logic circuit inside the FPGA. FPGA-based system solves issues existing both in the conventional systems operated by analog circuits (analog-based system) and the systems operated by central processing unit (CPU-based system). The advantages of applying FPGA are to keep the long-life supply of products, improving testability (verification), and to reduce the drift which may occur in analog-based system. The system which Toshiba developed this time is Power Range Neutron Monitor (PRM). Toshiba is planning to expand application of FPGA-based technology by adopting this development process to the other safety-related systems such as RPS from now on. Toshiba developed a special design process for NRW-FPGA-based safety-related I and C systems. The design process resolves issues for many years regarding testability of the digital system for nuclear safety application. Thus, Toshiba NRW-FPGA-based safety-related I and C systems has much advantage to be a would standard of the digital systems for nuclear safety application. (author)

Looking for a Location: Dissociated Effects of Event-Related Plausibility and Verb-Argument Information on Predictive Processing in Aphasia.

Science.gov (United States)

Hayes, Rebecca A; Dickey, Michael Walsh; Warren, Tessa

2016-12-01

This study examined the influence of verb-argument information and event-related plausibility on prediction of upcoming event locations in people with aphasia, as well as older and younger, neurotypical adults. It investigated how these types of information interact during anticipatory processing and how the ability to take advantage of the different types of information is affected by aphasia. This study used a modified visual-world task to examine eye movements and offline photo selection. Twelve adults with aphasia (aged 54-82 years) as well as 44 young adults (aged 18-31 years) and 18 older adults (aged 50-71 years) participated. Neurotypical adults used verb argument status and plausibility information to guide both eye gaze (a measure of anticipatory processing) and image selection (a measure of ultimate interpretation). Argument status did not affect the behavior of people with aphasia in either measure. There was only limited evidence of interaction between these 2 factors in eye gaze data. Both event-related plausibility and verb-based argument status contributed to anticipatory processing of upcoming event locations among younger and older neurotypical adults. However, event-related likelihood had a much larger role in the performance of people with aphasia than did verb-based knowledge regarding argument structure.

Looking for a Location: Dissociated Effects of Event-Related Plausibility and Verb–Argument Information on Predictive Processing in Aphasia

Science.gov (United States)

Dickey, Michael Walsh; Warren, Tessa

2016-01-01

Purpose This study examined the influence of verb–argument information and event-related plausibility on prediction of upcoming event locations in people with aphasia, as well as older and younger, neurotypical adults. It investigated how these types of information interact during anticipatory processing and how the ability to take advantage of the different types of information is affected by aphasia. Method This study used a modified visual-world task to examine eye movements and offline photo selection. Twelve adults with aphasia (aged 54–82 years) as well as 44 young adults (aged 18–31 years) and 18 older adults (aged 50–71 years) participated. Results Neurotypical adults used verb argument status and plausibility information to guide both eye gaze (a measure of anticipatory processing) and image selection (a measure of ultimate interpretation). Argument status did not affect the behavior of people with aphasia in either measure. There was only limited evidence of interaction between these 2 factors in eye gaze data. Conclusions Both event-related plausibility and verb-based argument status contributed to anticipatory processing of upcoming event locations among younger and older neurotypical adults. However, event-related likelihood had a much larger role in the performance of people with aphasia than did verb-based knowledge regarding argument structure. PMID:27997951

Method for selection of optimal road safety composite index with examples from DEA and TOPSIS method.

Science.gov (United States)

Rosić, Miroslav; Pešić, Dalibor; Kukić, Dragoslav; Antić, Boris; Božović, Milan

2017-01-01

Concept of composite road safety index is a popular and relatively new concept among road safety experts around the world. As there is a constant need for comparison among different units (countries, municipalities, roads, etc.) there is need to choose an adequate method which will make comparison fair to all compared units. Usually comparisons using one specific indicator (parameter which describes safety or unsafety) can end up with totally different ranking of compared units which is quite complicated for decision maker to determine "real best performers". Need for composite road safety index is becoming dominant since road safety presents a complex system where more and more indicators are constantly being developed to describe it. Among wide variety of models and developed composite indexes, a decision maker can come to even bigger dilemma than choosing one adequate risk measure. As DEA and TOPSIS are well-known mathematical models and have recently been increasingly used for risk evaluation in road safety, we used efficiencies (composite indexes) obtained by different models, based on DEA and TOPSIS, to present PROMETHEE-RS model for selection of optimal method for composite index. Method for selection of optimal composite index is based on three parameters (average correlation, average rank variation and average cluster variation) inserted into a PROMETHEE MCDM method in order to choose the optimal one. The model is tested by comparing 27 police departments in Serbia. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Multifragmentation of a very heavy nuclear system (I): selection of single-source events

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Frankland, J.D.; Bacri, Ch.O.; Borderie, B. [Paris-11 Univ., Inst. de Physique Nucleaire, 91 - Orsay (France)] [and others

2000-07-01

A sample of 'single-source' events, compatible with the multifragmentation of very heavy fused systems, are isolated among well-measured {sup 155}Gd + {sup nat}U 36 A.MeV reactions by examining the evolution of the kinematics of fragments with Z {>=} 5 as a function of the dissipated energy and loss of memory of the entrance channel. Single-source events are found to be the result of very central collisions. Such central collisions may also lead to multiple fragment emission due to the decay of excited projectile- and target-like nuclei and so-called 'neck' emission, and for this reason the isolation of single-source events is very difficult. Event-selection criteria based on centrality of collisions, or on the isotropy of the emitted fragments in each event, are found to be inefficient to separate the two mechanisms, unless they take into account the redistribution of fragments' kinetic energies into directions perpendicular to the beam axis. The selected events are good candidates to look for bulk effects in the multifragmentation process. (authors)

Multifragmentation of a very heavy nuclear system (I): selection of single-source events

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Frankland, J.D.; Bacri, Ch.O.; Borderie, B.; Rivet, M.F.; Squalli, M.; Auger, G.; Bellaize, N.; Bocage, F.; Bougault, R.; Brou, R.; Buchet, Ph.; Chbihi, A.; Colin, J.; Cussol, D.; Dayras, R.; Demeyer, A.; Dore, D.; Durand, D.; Galichet, E.; Genouin-Duhamel, E.; Gerlic, E.; Guinet, D.; Lautesse, Ph.; Laville, J.L.; Lecolley, J.F.; Legrain, R.; Le Neindre, N.; Lopez, O.; Louvel, M.; Maskay, A.M.; Nalpas, L.; Nguyen, A.D.; Parlog, M.; Peter, J.; Plagnol, E.; Rosato, E.; Saint-Laurent, F.; Salou, S.; Steckmeyer, J.C.; Stern, M.; Tabacaru, G.; Tamain, B.; Tirel, O.; Tassan-Got, L.; Vient, E.; Volant, C.; Wieleczko, J.P.

2001-01-01

A sample of 'single-source' events, compatible with the multifragmentation of very heavy fused systems, are isolated among well-measured 155 Gd+ nat U 36 A MeV reactions by examining the evolution of the kinematics of fragments with Z≥5 as a function of the dissipated energy and loss of memory of the entrance channel. Single-source events are found to be the result of very central collisions. Such central collisions may also lead to multiple fragment emission due to the decay of excited projectile- and target-like nuclei and so-called 'neck' emission, and for this reason the isolation of single-source events is very difficult. Event-selection criteria based on centrality of collisions, or on the isotropy of the emitted fragments in each event, are found to be inefficient to separate the two mechanisms, unless they take into account the redistribution of fragments' kinetic energies into directions perpendicular to the beam axis. The selected events are good candidates to look for bulk effects in the multifragmentation process

The selection of low-risk design guidelines for energetic events

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Fergusson, Donald; Marchaterre, John; Graham, John

1982-01-01

This paper recommends the establishment of specific design guidelines for protection against potential, but low probability, energetic events. These guidelines recognize the plant protective features incorporated to prevents such events, as well as the inherent capability of the plant to accommodate a certain level of energy release. Further, their application is recommended within the context of necessary standardized and agreed upon acceptance criteria which are less restrictive than ASME code requirements. The paper provides the background upon which the selection of the design is made, including the characterization of energetic events dependent on various core-design parameters, and including the necessity of a low-risk design balanced between prevention of accidents and the mitigation of consequences

Non-selective beta-blockers decrease thrombotic events in patients with heart failure

NARCIS (Netherlands)

De Peuter, Olav R.; Souverein, Patrick C.; Klungel, Olaf H.; Lip, Gregory Y.; Buller, Harry R.; De Boer, Anthonius; Kamphuisen, Pieter W.

2010-01-01

Background: Beta-blockers are often prescribed to patients with heart failure (HF) without distinctions between types of beta-blockers. The 2002 COMET study showed superiority of carvedilol (a non-selective beta-blocker) over metoprolol (selective beta-blocker) on mortality and cardiovascular events

76 FR 37649 - Safety Zone; Northern California Annual Fireworks Events, Independence Day Fireworks

Science.gov (United States)

2011-06-28

... Zone; Northern California Annual Fireworks Events, Independence Day Fireworks AGENCY: Coast Guard, DHS... Independence Day Fireworks (Kings Beach 4th of July Fireworks) safety zone. This action is necessary to control... Fireworks in 33 CFR 165.1191 on July 3, 2011, from 7 a.m. through 10 p.m. The fireworks launch site is...

The risk of a safety-critical event associated with mobile device use in specific driving contexts.

Science.gov (United States)

Fitch, Gregory M; Hanowski, Richard J; Guo, Feng

2015-01-01

We explored drivers' mobile device use and its associated risk of a safety-critical event (SCE) in specific driving contexts. Our premise was that the SCE risk associated with mobile device use increases when the driving task becomes demanding. Data from naturalistic driving studies involving commercial motor vehicle drivers and light vehicle drivers were partitioned into subsets representative of specific driving contexts. The subsets were generated using data set attributes that included level of service and relation to junction. These attributes were selected based on exogenous factors known to alter driving task demands. The subsets were analyzed using a case-cohort approach, which was selected to complement previous investigations of mobile device SCE risk using naturalistic driving data. Both commercial motor vehicle and light vehicle drivers varied as to how much they conversed on a mobile device but did not vary their engagement in visual-manual subtasks. Furthermore, commercial motor vehicle drivers conversed less frequently as the driving task demands increased, whereas light vehicle drivers did not. The risk of an SCE associated with mobile device use was dependent on the subtask performed and the driving context. Only visual-manual subtasks were associated with an increased SCE risk, whereas conversing was associated with a decreased risk in some driving contexts. Drivers' engagement in mobile device subtasks varies by driving context. The SCE risk associated with mobile device use is dependent on the types of subtasks performed and the driving context. The findings of this exploratory study can be applied to the design of driver-vehicle interfaces that mitigate distraction by preventing visual-manual subtasks while driving.

Work Placements as Learning Environments for Patient Safety: Finnish and British Preregistration Nursing Students' Important Learning Events

Science.gov (United States)

Tella, Susanna; Smith, Nancy-Jane; Partanen, Pirjo; Turunen, Hannele

2016-01-01

Learning to ensure patient safety in complex health care environments is an internationally recognised concern. This article explores and compares Finnish (n = 22) and British (n = 32) pre-registration nursing students' important learning events about patient safety from their work placements in health care organisations. Written descriptions were…

Safety Analysis for Enlargement of Allowance Band of Main Steam Safety Valve Opening Setpoint of Wolsong Unit 1

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Kim, Sungmin [Korea Hydro and Nuclear Power Co., Ltd., Daejeon (Korea, Republic of); Kim, Jonghyun; Cho, Cheonhwey [Atomic Creative Technology Co., Ltd., Daejeon (Korea, Republic of)

2013-05-15

The target events were selected to be the two most secondary system pressurization events - Loss of Class IV Power (LOCL4) and Loss of Condenser Vacuum (LOCV). In the actual analysis, an uncertainty of 1% was added to be conservative, so an allowance band of ±4% was used. A safety analysis was performed with CATHENA code to evaluate the safety of increasing the opening setpoint allowance band of MSSVs in WSNPP-1 The analysis results for both LOCL4 and LOCV confirm that the enlarged allowance would bring no harm to the safety of the plant from the viewpoint of fuel integrity and pressure boundary integrity. Therefore, the new allowance band of MSSVs will be incorporated into the Technical Specifications of WSNPP-1.

The evaluation of research reactor TRIGA MARK II safety

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Jordan, R.; Kozuh, M.; Mavko, B.

1994-01-01

In the paper the Probabilistic Safety Analysis (PSA) of a research reactor is described. Five different initiating events were selected and analyzed with the use of event trees. Seven reactor systems were modeled with fault trees. Three groups of radiation releases were introduced - Success, Reactor-Hall, Environment - and their frequencies were estimated. The importance factors of initiating events, human errors and basic events were calculated regarding the consequence groups. (author)

First wall and blanket module safety enhancement by material selection and design decision

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Merrill, B.J.

1980-01-01

A thermal/mechanical study has been performed which illustrates the behavior of a fusion reactor first wall and blanket module during a loss of coolant flow event. The relative safety advantages of various material and design options were determined. A generalized first wall-blanket concept was developed to provide the flexibility to vary the structural material (stainless steel vs titanium), coolant (helium vs water), and breeder material (liquid lithium vs solid lithium aluminate). In addition, independent vs common first wall-blanket cooling and coupled adjacent module cooling design options were included in the study. The comparative analyses were performed using a modified thermal analysis code to handle phase change problems

Safety approach to the selection of design criteria for the CRBRP reactor refueling system

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Meisl, C.J.; Berg, G.E.; Sharkey, N.F.

1979-01-01

The selection of safety design criteria for Liquid Metal Fast Breeder Reactor (LMFBR) refueling systems required the extrapolation of regulations and guidelines intended for Light Water Reactor refueling systems and was encumbered by the lack of benefit from a commercially licensed predecessor other than Fermi. The overall approach and underlying logic are described for developing safety design criteria for the reactor refueling system (RRS) of the Clinch River Breeder Reactor Plant (CRBRP). The complete selection process used to establish the criteria is presented, from the definition of safety functions to the finalization of safety design criteria in the appropriate documents. The process steps are illustrated by examples

Understanding the NSAID related risk of vascular events

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Vonkeman, Harald Erwin; Brouwers, Jacobus R.B.J.; van de Laar, Mart A F J

2006-01-01

Concern is growing about an increased risk of thrombotic events (including myocardial infarction and stroke) during the use of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), in particular the so called selective cyclo-oxygenase-2 (COX 2) inhibitors. Although clinical trials give conflicting results

Detecting adverse events in surgery: comparing events detected by the Veterans Health Administration Surgical Quality Improvement Program and the Patient Safety Indicators.

Science.gov (United States)

Mull, Hillary J; Borzecki, Ann M; Loveland, Susan; Hickson, Kathleen; Chen, Qi; MacDonald, Sally; Shin, Marlena H; Cevasco, Marisa; Itani, Kamal M F; Rosen, Amy K

2014-04-01

The Patient Safety Indicators (PSIs) use administrative data to screen for select adverse events (AEs). In this study, VA Surgical Quality Improvement Program (VASQIP) chart review data were used as the gold standard to measure the criterion validity of 5 surgical PSIs. Independent chart review was also used to determine reasons for PSI errors. The sensitivity, specificity, and positive predictive value of PSI software version 4.1a were calculated among Veterans Health Administration hospitalizations (2003-2007) reviewed by VASQIP (n = 268,771). Nurses re-reviewed a sample of hospitalizations for which PSI and VASQIP AE detection disagreed. Sensitivities ranged from 31% to 68%, specificities from 99.1% to 99.8%, and positive predictive values from 31% to 72%. Reviewers found that coding errors accounted for some PSI-VASQIP disagreement; some disagreement was also the result of differences in AE definitions. These results suggest that the PSIs have moderate criterion validity; however, some surgical PSIs detect different AEs than VASQIP. Future research should explore using both methods to evaluate surgical quality. Published by Elsevier Inc.

A proposed safety assurance method and its application to the fusion experimental reactor

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Okazaki, T.; Seki, Y.; Inabe, T.; Aoki, I.

1995-01-01

Importance categorization and hazard identification methods have been proposed for a fusion experimental reactor. A parameter, the system index, is introduced in the categorization method. The relative importance of systems with safety functions can be classified by the largeness of the system index and whether or not the system acts as a boundary for radioactive materials. This categorization can be used as the basic principle in determining structure design assessment, seismic design criteria etc. For the hazard identification the system time energy matrix is proposed, where the time and spatial distributions of hazard energies are used. This approach is formulated more systematically than an ad-hoc identification of hazard events and it is useful to select design basis events which are employed in the assessment of safety designs. (orig.)

Safety in transports of civil radioactive substances on the French territory. Lessons learned by the IRSN from the analysis of significant events declared in 2012 and 2013. Safety of transports of civil radioactive substances in France

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

2016-11-01

After a presentation of some general elements regarding transports of radioactive substances in France, this report proposes a synthetic overview of the main lessons learned by the IRSN from the analysis of transport-related events in 2012 and 2013. Then, the body of this report presents the context of transports of radioactive substances: legal framework, main safety elements, nature and flows of these transports in France, transports per activity sector. It proposes a global analysis of significant events, with a comparison with previous years. The four main significant events are described. Some transverse issues are finally addressed: return on experience on crisis management in relationship with transport events, IRSN study on the behaviour of packagings during long duration fire

Safety assessment of multi-unit NPP sites subject to external events

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Samaddar, Sujit; Hibino, Kenta; Coman, Ovidiu

2014-01-01

This paper presents a framework for conducting a probabilistic safety assessment of multi-unit sites against external events. The treatment of multiple hazard on a unit, interaction between units, implementation of severe accident measures, human reliability, environmental conditions, metric of risk for both reactor and non-reactor sources, integration of risk and responses and many such important factors need to be addressed within the context of this framework. The framework facilitates the establishment of a comprehensive methodology that can be applied internationally to the peer review of safety assessment of multi-unit sites under the impact of multiple external hazards. In summary, it can be said that the site safety assessment for a multi-unit site will be quite complex and need to start with individual unit risk assessments, these need to be combined considering the interactions between units and their responses, and the fragilities of the installations established considering the combined demands from all interactions. Using newly established risk metric the risk can then be integrated for the overall site. Fig. 2 shows schematically such a proposal. Much work has to done and the IAEA has established a working group that is systematically establishing the structure and process to incorporate the many issues that are a part of a multi-unit site safety assessment. (authors)

National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health

Science.gov (United States)

... Submit Search The CDC The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) Note: Javascript is disabled or is not ... and Events NIOSH Contact Information Related Federal Agencies Occupational Safety and Health Administration Mine Safety and Health Administration Follow NIOSH ...

Surveillance of adverse effects following vaccination and safety of immunization programs.

Science.gov (United States)

Waldman, Eliseu Alves; Luhm, Karin Regina; Monteiro, Sandra Aparecida Moreira Gomes; Freitas, Fabiana Ramos Martin de

2011-02-01

The aim of the review was to analyze conceptual and operational aspects of systems for surveillance of adverse events following immunization. Articles available in electronic format were included, published between 1985 and 2009, selected from the PubMed/Medline databases using the key words "adverse events following vaccine surveillance", "post-marketing surveillance", "safety vaccine" and "Phase IV clinical trials". Articles focusing on specific adverse events were excluded. The major aspects underlying the Public Health importance of adverse events following vaccination, the instruments aimed at ensuring vaccine safety, and the purpose, attributes, types, data interpretation issues, limitations, and further challenges in adverse events following immunization were describe, as well as strategies to improve sensitivity. The review was concluded by discussing the challenges to be faced in coming years with respect to ensuring the safety and reliability of vaccination programs.

Procedure proposed for performance of a probabilistic safety analysis for the event of ''Air plane crash''

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hoffmann, H.H.

1998-01-01

A procedures guide for a probabilistic safety analysis for the external event 'Air plane crash' has been prepared. The method is based on analysis done within the framework of PSA for German NPPs as well as on international documents. Both crashes of military air planes and commercial air planes contribute to the plant risk. For the determination of the plant related crash rate the air traffic will be divided into 3 different categories of air traffic: - The landing and takeoff phase, - the airlane traffic and waiting loop traffic, - the free air traffic, and the air planes into different types and weight classes. (orig./GL) [de