Search results for: civil liability for nuclear damages rules

Authors: Aliya Idrissova

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Civil service (public administration) is an important social institution of society properties. Civil service institution had a significant impact on modernization processes in Kazakhstan through ensuring the functioning of all the subsystems of social life. This article is an attempt to analyses the reforms of public service institution in Kazakhstan and to assess its influence on modernization processes.

Keywords: civil service, Kazakhstan, modernization, a national model of civil service, civil service reforms, bureaucracy

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Authors: Taehyun Kim, Hyunjoo Park, Taehyun Kim

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Public deliberation committee on Shin-Gori Nuclear Reactors No. 5 & 6 in South Korea recently suggested policy recommendation in July 2017 including complementary measures for resumption of construction: 1) nuclear power generation reduction, 2) expansion of investment to increase proportion of renewable energy, 3) repositories of spent nuclear fuel. Even when constructing eco-friendly renewable energy facilities such as solar and wind power plants, local residents are opposed to construction of these facilities due to environmental pollution and health impacts. In order to transform eco-friendly energy, it is necessary to convert nuclear energy into renewable energy and to take measures to increase the acceptance of residents through the participation of citizens. Therefore, this study aims to compare the factors of local acceptance of renewable energy facilities and spent nuclear fuel repositories through literature review and in-depth interview. The results show that environmental and economic concerns, risk perceptions, sociality, demographic characteristics and subjective recognition types affect the local acceptance for spent nuclear fuel repository. The factors of local acceptance for renewable energy facilities are partially coincide with those for spent nuclear fuel repository. The results of this study will contribute to improving residents' acceptance and reducing conflicts when determining the location of facilities in the future.

Keywords: local acceptance, renewable energy facility, spent nuclear fuel repository, interview

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Authors: Kais Manai

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The main part of this work focuses on the study of pion/muon separation at low energy using a nuclear Emulsion Cloud Chamber (ECC) made of lead and nuclear emulsion films. The work consists of two parts: particle reconstruction algorithm and a Neural Network that assigns to each reconstructed particle the probability to be a muon or a pion. The pion/muon separation algorithm has been optimized by using a detailed Monte Carlo simulation of the ECC and tested on real data. The algorithm allows to achieve a 60% muon identification efficiency with a pion misidentification smaller than 3%.

Keywords: nuclear emulsion, particle identification, tracking, neural network

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Authors: Matt Vellkorn, Mara Sarinski

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The field of advanced diagnostics is a very rapidly changing one. A new technology that has not been fully used yet are resistotrons. A resistotron is a physical device thatis used to detect the presence of low energy alpha particles. It has been used for many years in nuclear physics as an alpha particle detector. Since they are used in nuclear physics, they have to be accurate. They have to be able to differentiate between alpha particles and other types of radiation. The resistotrons are primarily used for safety. They are used in areas where people or animals can get exposed to radiation. A typical example is in the treatment of nuclear waste. As it is with any nuclear physics instrument, a resistotron has to be very accurate and reliable. In the past, the instrument was very expensive because they were made out of copper. Today, they are made out of brass. The main difference is that brass is much less expensive than copper.

Keywords: biosensors, resistotrons, biophysics, diagnostics

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Authors: Elysa V. Largo, Lormaine Anne A. Branzuela, Julie Marisol D. Pagalilauan, Neil C. Concibido, Monet Concepcion M. Detras

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The energy demand in the country is increasing; thus, nuclear energy is recently mandated to add to the energy mix. The Philippines has the Bataan Nuclear Power Plant (BNPP), which can be a source of nuclear energy; however, it has not been operated since the completion of its construction. Thus, evaluating the safety of BNPP is vital. This study explored the possible deviations that may occur in the operation of a nuclear power plant with a pressurized water reactor, which is similar to BNPP, through a virtual process hazard analysis (PHA) using the hazard and operability (HAZOP) technique. Temperature, pressure, and flow were used as parameters. A total of 86 causes of various deviations were identified, wherein the primary system and line from reactor coolant pump to reactor vessel are the most critical system and node, respectively. A total of 348 scenarios were determined. The critical events are radioactive leaks due to nuclear meltdown and sump overflow that could lead to multiple worker fatalities, one or more public fatalities, and environmental remediation. There were existing safeguards identified; however, further recommendations were provided to have additional and supplemental barriers to reduce the risk.

Keywords: PSM, PHA, HAZOP, nuclear power plant

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Authors: Agim Kukelii, Gevorg Sargsyan

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This study, focusing on the base regional area (county level), estimates the effect of natural disaster damages on aggregate personal income, aggregate wages, wages per worker, aggregate employment, and aggregate income transfer. The study further estimates the dynamics of personal income, employment, and wages under natural disaster shocks. Southeast Texas, located at the center of Golf Coast, is hit by meteorological and hydrological caused natural disasters yearly. On average, there are more than four natural disasters per year that cane an estimated damage average of 2.2% of real personal income. The study uses the panel data method to estimate the average effect of natural disasters on the area’s economy (personal income, wages, employment, and income transfer). It also uses Panel Vector Autoregressive (PVAR) model to study the dynamics of macroeconomic variables under natural disaster shocks. The study finds that the average effect of natural disasters is positive for personal income and income transfer and is negative for wages and employment. The PVAR and the impulse response function estimates reveal that natural disaster shocks cause a decrease in personal income, employment, and wages. However, the economy’s variables bounce back after three years. The novelty of this study rests on several aspects. First, this is the first study to investigate the effects of natural disasters on macroeconomic variables at a regional level. Second, the study uses direct measures of natural disaster damages. Third, the study estimates that the time that the local economy takes to absorb the natural disaster damages shocks is three years. This is a relatively good reaction to the local economy, therefore, adding to the “resiliency” hypothesis. The study has several implications for policymakers, businesses, and households. First, this study serves to increase the awareness of local stakeholders that natural disaster damages do worsen, macroeconomic variables, such as personal income, employment, and wages beyond the immediate damages to residential and commercial properties, physical infrastructure, and discomfort in daily lives. Second, the study estimates that these effects linger on the economy on average for three years, which would require policymakers to factor in the time area need to be on focus.

Keywords: natural disaster damages, macroeconomics effects, PVAR, panel data

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Authors: Matheus Pessoa, Matthias Kraume

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Scale-Down rules in process engineering help us to improve and develop Industrial scale parameters into lab scale. Several scale-down rules available in the literature like Impeller Power Number, Agitation device Power Input, Substrate Tip Speed, Reynolds Number and Cavern Development were investigated in order to stipulate the rotational speed to operate an 11 L working volume lab-scale bioreactor within industrial process parameters. Herein, xanthan gum was used as a fluid with a representative viscosity of a hypothetical biogas plant, with H/D = 1 and central agitation, fermentation broth using sewage sludge and sugar beet pulp as substrate. The results showed that the cavern development strategy was the best method for establishing a rotational speed for the bioreactor operation, while the other rules presented values out of reality for this article proposes.

Keywords: anaerobic digestion, cavern development, scale down rules, xanthan gum

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Authors: A. Orlov, V. Rachkov

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The future of Nuclear Energetics is seen in fast reactors with inherent safety working in the closed nuclear fuel cycle. The concept of inherent safety, which lies in deterministic elimination of the most severe accidents due to inherent properties of the reactor rather than through building up engineered barriers, is a cornerstone of success in ensuring safety and economic efficiency of future Nuclear Energetics. The focus of this paper is one of the key elements of inherent safety - the lead coolant of a nuclear reactor. Advantages of lead coolant for reactor application, influence on safety are reviewed. BREST-OD-300 fast reactor, currently being developed in Russia withing the “Proryv” Project utilizes lead coolant and a special set of measures and devices, called technology of lead coolant that ensures safe operation in a wide range of temperatures. Here these technological elements are reviewed, and current progress in their development is discussed.

Keywords: BREST-OD-300. , fast reactor, inherent safety, lead coolant

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Authors: Nur Azha Putra Abdul Azim, Denise Cheong, S. Nivedita

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Currently, there are no nuclear power reactors among the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) member states (AMS) but there are seven operational nuclear research reactors, and Indonesia is about to construct the region’s first experimental power reactor by the end of the decade. If successful, the experimental power reactor will lay the foundation for the country’s and region’s first nuclear power plant. Despite projecting confidence during the period of nuclear power renaissance in the region in the last decade, none of the AMS has committed to a political decision on the use of nuclear energy and this is largely due to the Fukushima nuclear power accident in 2011. Of the ten AMS, Vietnam, Indonesia and Malaysia have demonstrated the most progress in developing nuclear energy based on the nuclear power infrastructure development assessments made by the International Atomic Energy Agency. Of these three states, Vietnam came closest to building its first nuclear power plant but decided to delay construction further due to safety and security concerns. Meanwhile, Vietnam along with Indonesia and Malaysia continue with their nuclear power infrastructure development and the remaining SEA states, with the exception of Brunei and Singapore, continue to build their expertise and capacity for nuclear power energy. At the current rate of progress, Indonesia is expected to make a national decision on the use of nuclear power by 2023 while Malaysia, the Philippines, and Thailand have included the use of nuclear power in their mid to long-term power development plans. Vietnam remains open to nuclear power but has not placed a timeline. The medium to short-term power development projection in the region suggests that the use of nuclear energy in the region is a matter of 'when' rather than 'if'. In lieu of the prospects for nuclear energy in Southeast Asia (SEA), this presentation will review the literature on ASEAN radiological emergency and preparedness response (EPR) plans and examine ASEAN’s disaster management and emergency framework. Through a combination of institutional mapping and stakeholder analysis methods, which we examine in the context of the international EPR, and nuclear safety and security regimes, we will identify the issues and challenges in developing a regional radiological EPR framework in the SEA. We will conclude with the observation that ASEAN faces serious structural, institutional and governance challenges due to the AMS inherent political structures and history of interstate conflicts, and propose that ASEAN should either enlarge the existing scope of its disaster management and response framework or that its radiological EPR framework should exist as a separate entity.

Keywords: nuclear power, nuclear accident, ASEAN, Southeast Asia

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Authors: Jandot Aurélia

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As the nuclear power is a sensitive field leading to controversy, the quality of the communication about it is important. Between 1965 and 1981, in France, this one had gradually changed. This change is studied here in the main French news magazine L’Express, in connection with several parameters. As this represents a huge number of copies and occurrences, thus a considerable amount of information; this paper is focused on the main articles as well as the main “mental images”. These ones are important, as their aim is to direct the thought of the readers, and as they have led the public awareness to evolve. Over this 17 years, two trends are in confrontation: The first one is promoting the perception of the nuclear power, while the second one is discrediting it. These trends are organized in two axes: the evolution of engineering, and the risks. In both cases, the changes in the language allow discerning the deepest intentions of the magazine editing, over a period when the nuclear technology, to there a laboratory object accompanied with mystery and secret, has become a social issue seemingly open to all.

Keywords: French news magazine, mental images, nuclear power, public awareness

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Authors: Dorota Habrat

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In Polish law, the idea of the introduction of corporate responsibility for crimes is becoming more popular and creates a lot of questions. The need to introduce into the Polish legal system liability of corporate (collective entities) has resulted, among others, from the Polish Republic's international commitments, in particular related to membership in the European Union. The Act of 28 October 2002 on the liability of collective entities for acts prohibited under penalty is one of the example of adaptation of Polish law to Community law. Introduction to Polish law a criminal nature liability of corporations (legal persons) has resulted in a lot of controversy and lack of acceptance from both the scientific community as well as the judiciary. The responsibility of collective entities under the Act has a criminal nature. The main question concerns the ability of the collective entity to be brought to guilt under criminal law sense. Polish criminal law knows only the responsibility of individual persons. So far, guilt as a personal feature of action, based on the ability of the offender to feel in his psyche, could be considered only in relation to the individual person, while the said Act destroyed this conviction. Guilt of collective entity must be proven under at least one of the three possible forms: the guilt in the selection or supervision and so called organizational guilt. The next question is how the principle of proportionality in relation to criminal measures in response of collective entities should be considered. It should be remembered that the legal subjectivity of collective entities, including their rights and freedoms, is an emanation of the rights and freedoms of individual persons which create collective entities and through these entities implement their rights and freedoms. The adopted Act largely reflects the international legal regulations but also contains the unknown and original legislative solutions.

Keywords: criminal corporate responsibility, Polish criminal law, legislative solutions, Act of 28 October 2002

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Authors: Ali Murat Guler

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A variety of experiments have been developed over the past decades, aiming at the detection of Weakly Interactive Massive Particles (WIMPs) via their scattering in an instrumented medium. The sensitivity of these experiments has improved with a tremendous speed, thanks to a constant development of detectors and analysis methods. Detectors capable of reconstructing the direction of the nuclear recoil induced by the WIMP scattering are opening a new frontier to possibly extend Dark Matter searches beyond the neutrino background. Measurement of WIMP’s direction will allow us to detect the galactic origin of dark matter and, therefore to have a clear signal-background separation. The NEWSdm experiment, based on nuclear emulsions, is intended to measure the direction of WIMP-induced nuclear coils with a solid-state detector, thus with high sensitivity. We discuss the discovery potential of a directional experiment based on the use of a solid target made of newly developed nuclear emulsions and novel read-out systems achieving nanometric resolution. We also report results of a technical test conducted in Gran Sasso.

Keywords: dark matter, direct detection, nuclear emulsion, WIMPS

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Authors: Rihab Idoudi, Karim Saheb Ettabaa, Basel Solaiman, Kamel Hamrouni

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Medical association rules induction is used to discover useful correlations between pertinent concepts from large medical databases. Nevertheless, ARs algorithms produce huge amount of delivered rules and do not guarantee the usefulness and interestingness of the generated knowledge. To overcome this drawback, we propose an ontology based interestingness measure for ARs ranking. According to domain expert, the goal of the use of ARs is to discover implicit relationships between items of different categories such as ‘clinical features and disorders’, ‘clinical features and radiological observations’, etc. That’s to say, the itemsets which are composed of ‘similar’ items are uninteresting. Therefore, the dissimilarity between the rule’s items can be used to judge the interestingness of association rules; the more different are the items, the more interesting the rule is. In this paper, we design a distinct approach for ranking semantically interesting association rules involving the use of an ontology knowledge mining approach. The basic idea is to organize the ontology’s concepts into a hierarchical structure of conceptual clusters of targeted subjects, where each cluster encapsulates ‘similar’ concepts suggesting a specific category of the domain knowledge. The interestingness of association rules is, then, defined as the dissimilarity between corresponding clusters. That is to say, the further are the clusters of the items in the AR, the more interesting the rule is. We apply the method in our domain of interest – mammographic domain- using an existing mammographic ontology called Mammo with the goal of deriving interesting rules from past experiences, to discover implicit relationships between concepts modeling the domain.

Keywords: association rule, conceptual clusters, interestingness measures, ontology knowledge mining, ranking

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Authors: Sung Ho Ahn, Jintae Hong, Chang Young Joung, Tae Ho Yang, Sung Ho Heo, Seo Yun Jang

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The performances of nuclear fuels and materials are qualified at an irradiation system in research reactors operating under the commercial nuclear power plant conditions. Fuel centerline temperature, coolant temperature, neutron flux, deformations of fuel stack and swelling are important parameters needed to analyze the nuclear fuel performances. The dimensional stability of nuclear fuels is a key parameter measuring the fuel densification and swelling. In this study, the fuel stack elongation is measured using a LVDT. A mockup LVDT instrumented fuel rod is developed. The performances of mockup LVDT instrumented fuel rod is evaluated by experiments.

Keywords: axial deformation, elongation measurement, in-pile instrumentation, LVDT

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Authors: Nnodi Chinweikpe Akelachi, Adebayo Oladini Kachollom Ifeoma

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Insecurity and the possession of nuclear weapons for non-peaceful purposes constitute a major threat to global peace and security, and this undermines the capacity for sustainable development. In Nigeria, the threat of terrorism is a challenge to national stability. For over a decade, Nigeria has been faced with insecurity ranging from Boko-Haram terrorist groups, kidnapping and banditry. The threat exhibited by this non-state actor poses a huge challenge to nuclear and radiological high risks facilities in Nigeria. This challenge has resulted in the regulatory authority and International stakeholders formulating policies for a good mitigation strategy. This strategy is enshrined in formulated laws, regulations and guides like the repealed Nuclear Safety and Radiation Protection Act 19 of 1995 (Nuclear safety, Physical Security and Safeguards Bill), the Nigerian Physical Protection of Nuclear Material and Nuclear Facilities, and Nigerian Nuclear Safeguards Regulations of 2021. All this will help Nigeria’s effort to meet its national nuclear security and safeguards obligations. To further enhance the implementation of nuclear security and safeguards system, Nigeria has signed the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) in 1970, the Comprehensive Safeguards Agreement (INFCIRC/358) in 1988, Additional Protocol in 2007 as well as the Convention on Physical Protection of Nuclear Material and its amendment in 2005. In view of the evolving threats by non-state actors in Nigeria, physical protection security upgrades are being implemented in nuclear and all high-risk radiological facilities through the support of the United States Department of Energy (US-DOE). Also, the IAEA has helped strengthen nuclear security and safeguard systems through the provision of technical assistance and capacity development. Efforts are being made to address some of the challenges identified in the cause of implementing the measures for effective nuclear security and safeguards systems in Nigeria. However, there are eminent challenges in the implementation of the measures within the security and systems in Nigeria. These challenges need to be addressed for an effective security and safeguard regime in Nigeria. This paper seeks to address the challenges encountered in implementing the regulatory and stakeholder measures for effective security and safeguards regime in Nigeria, amongst others.

Keywords: nuclear regulatory body, nuclear facilities and activities, international stakeholders, security and safeguards measures

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Authors: Halil Koch

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In this article, besides the current tourism potential of Kyrgyzstan, the factors that may affect the tourism potential of Kyrgyzstan were discussed. Kyrgyzstan is a unique country that can offer quite different alternatives for tourism with its unique nature, lakes, mountains, history, and rich culture. Despite having so many alternatives, today, Kyrgyzstan cannot use this unique wealth as it should. This article tried to deal with matters that can increase the tourism potential of Kyrgyzstan. In addition, the contribution of ethical rules to the tourism potential of Kyrgyzstan was discussed. A detailed literature review was carried out on the tourism industry and tourism potential of Kyrgyzstan. After the literature review, a survey was conducted with the businesses and employees of touristic businesses in the Issyk Kul region of Kyrgyzstan in order to determine the factors that might improve the tourism potential and the effect of ethical rules on the tourism of Kyrgyzstan. 100 people participated in the survey. According to the results of the survey, the participants of the survey think that the culture, touristic richness, and unique nature of Kyrgyzstan are not promoted effectively. Participants think that Kyrgyzstan's tourism capacity will increase with the effective implementation of ethical rules as well as the effective promotion of Kyrgyzstan's cultural and natural wealth. According to the results of the survey, participants think that the tourism sector in Kyrgyzstan will develop rapidly if the ethical rules are followed as much as possible from the first moment that the tourists who come to the country set foot in the country. Participants predict that ethical rules have a tremendous impact on Kyrgyzstan tourism. It has been revealed that there is no systematic approach to ethical rules.

Keywords: tourism, ethics, growth, economy

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Authors: P. Tanuska, A. Elias, P. Vazan, B. Zahradnikova

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This article describes the information system for measuring and evaluating the dose rate in the environment of nuclear power plants Mochovce and Bohunice in Slovakia. The article presents the results achieved in the implementation of the EU project–Research of monitoring and evaluation of non-standard conditions in the area of nuclear power plants. The objectives included improving the system of acquisition, measuring and evaluating data with mobile and autonomous units applying new knowledge from research. The article provides basic and specific features of the system and compared to the previous version of the system, also new functions.

Keywords: information system, dose rate, mobile devices, nuclear power plant

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Authors: Olivia Rybak-Karkosz

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Art forgery is a serious problem present in the art market in every country despite its scale and experience. In the Polish art market, this problem has existed since its beginnings. The market expansion in recent years attracted new buyers, which led to growing prices of polish art. And that attracted deceitful sellers who supply the market with forgeries. Moreover, there are many new types of buyers, many of whom are art non-specialists. But even the most experienced collectors must be cautious when purchasing a piece of art. In this paper, the author would like to discuss legal acts in Polish law that criminalize the forgery of a piece of art and compare them with similar regulations from four European countries - the Italian Republic, Kingdom of the Netherlands, French Republic, and the Federal Republic of Germany. The author wants to verify if any solutions could inspire Polish legislators to implement them in domestic law to help reduce this crime and improve the criminal procedure of art forgery. The paper contains a concluding statement to implement a similar solution used in one of the presented countries.

Keywords: art forgery, comparative law, criminal law, criminal liability, protection of works of art

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Authors: Keshav Raj Dhakal, Jit Bahadur Rokaya Chhetri

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The Micro Hydro (MH) is one of the successful technology in Rural Nepal. Out of 75 district, 59 districts have installed 1287 MH projects with a total capacity of 24 Mega Watt (MW). Now, the challenge is how to sustain them. Dolakha is a prominent district for sustainable endues of power to sustain the MH projects. A total of 37 MH projects have been constructed with producing 886 Kilo Watt (KW) of energy in the district. This study traces out the impact of earthquake in MH sector in Dolakha district. It shows that 59 % of projects have been affected by devastating earthquake in April and May, 2015 where 29 % are completely damaged. Most of the damages are in civil structures like Penstock, forebay, power house, Canal, Intake. Transmission and distribution line have been partially damaged. This paper analysis failure of the civil structural component of MH projects and its financial consequence to the community. This study recommends that a disaster impact assessment is essential before construction of MH projects.

Keywords: micro hydro, earthquake, structural failure, financial consequence

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Authors: Naresh Kumar Verma

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Nuclear energy being adapted as a renewable energy source and its production by developing countries has turned into a major strategic concern and politics by the developed world. The West seem to be the sole proprietor of such energy source and any country opting for such energy production either face significant hurdles or geopolitical challenges in developing such energy source. History of West Asia is full of interference by external powers which has been integral in the incessant conflict in the region. Whether it was the creation of Israel, the Gulf war of 1991, or the invasion of Iraq in 2003, and more recently the Iranian nuclear conundrum, the soil of West Asia has always been a witness to the play of extra regional powers game. Iran, being a theocratic state has been facing such threats and challenges, regarding its intentions and its capability in such energy production. The paper will try to assess the following issues: -Politics of Renewable Energy Generation. -Geographical and strategic significance of Iran’s nuclear programme. -Challenges in the path of Iran developing nuclear energy as a RE source. -The interests of the regional and extra-regional actors in challenging Iranian Nuclear Programme.

Keywords: developing countries, geopolitics, Iran, nuclear energy, renewable energy

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Authors: Bahareh Arghand, Seyed Abbas Poorhashemi, Ramin Roshandel

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Nowadays, Economic growth and the increasing use of fossil fuel have caused major damages to environment. Therefore, international law has tried to codify the rules and regulations and identify legal principles to decrease conflict of interests between energy law and environmental law. The open relationship between energy consumption and the law of nature has been ignored for years, because the focus of energy law has been on an affordable price of a reliable supply of energy; while the focus of environmental law was on protection of the nature. In fact, the legal and overall policies of energy are based on Sic Omnes and inter part for governments whereas environmental law is based on common interests and Erga Omnes. The relationship between energy law, environmental law and economic aspects is multilateral, complex and important. Moreover, they influence each other. There are similarities in the triangle of energy, environment and economic aspects and in some cases there are conflict of interest but their conflicts are in goals not in practice and their legal jurisdiction is in international law. The development of national and international rules and regulations relevant to energy-environment has been done by separate sectors, whereas sustainable development principle, especially in the economic sector, requires environmental considerations. It is an important turning point to integrate and decrease conflict of interest among energy law, environmental law and economic aspects. The present study examines existing legal principles on energy and the environment and identifies the similarities and conflicts based on the descriptive-analytic study. The purpose of investigating these legal principles is to integrate and decrease conflict of interest between energy law and environmental law.

Keywords: energy law, environmental law, erga omnes, sustainable development

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Authors: Mina Youssef Makram Ibrahim

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Engineering identity contributes to the professional and academic sustainability of female engineers. Recognizability is an important factor that shapes an engineer's identity. People who are deprived of real recognition often fail to create a positive identity. This study draws on Hornet’s recognition theory to identify factors that influence female civil engineers' sense of recognition. Over the past decade, a survey was created and distributed to 330 graduate students in the Department of Civil, Civil and Environmental Engineering at Iowa State University. Survey items include demographics, perceptions of a civil engineer's identity, and factors that influence recognition of a civil engineer's identity, such as B. Opinions about society and family. Descriptive analysis of survey responses revealed that perceptions of civil engineering varied significantly. The definitions of civil engineering provided by participants included the terms structure, design and infrastructure. Almost half of the participants said the main reason for studying Civil Engineering was their interest in the subject, and the majority said they were proud to be a civil engineer. Many study participants reported that their parents viewed them as civil engineers. Institutional and operational treatment was also found to have a significant impact on the recognition of women civil engineers. Almost half of the participants reported feeling isolated or ignored at work because of their gender. This research highlights the importance of recognition in developing the identity of women engineers.

Keywords: civil service, hiring, merit, policing civil engineering, construction, surveying, mapping, pile civil service, Kazakhstan, modernization, a national model of civil service, civil service reforms, bureaucracy civil engineering, gender, identity, recognition

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Authors: Saad M. Darwish

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Recently, software quality issues have come to be seen as important subject as we see an enormous growth of agencies involved in software industries. However,these agencies cannot guarantee the quality of their products, thus leaving users in uncertainties. Software certification is the extension of quality by means that quality needs to be measured prior to certification granting process. This research participates in solving the problem of software assessment by proposing a model for assessment and certification of software product that uses a fuzzy inference engine to integrate both of process–driven and application-driven quality assurance strategies. The key idea of the on hand model is to improve the compactness and the interpretability of the model’s fuzzy rules via employing an ant colony optimization algorithm (ACO), which tries to find good rules description by dint of compound rules initially expressed with traditional single rules. The model has been tested by case study and the results have demonstrated feasibility and practicability of the model in a real environment.

Keywords: optimization technique, quality assurance, software certification model, software assessment

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Authors: Jennifer Wright

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The recent rise of powerful terrorist groups such as ISIS and Al-Qaeda brings up concerns about nuclear terrorism as well as a focus on nuclear security, specifically the physical security of nuclear weapons and fissile material storage sites in countries where powerful nonstate actors are present. Particularly because these non-state actors, who lack their own sovereign territory, cannot be ‘deterred’ in the traditional sense. In light of the current threat environment, it’s necessary to now rethink these strategies in the 21st century – a multipolar world with the presence of powerful non-state actors. As a country in the spotlight for its low ranking on the Nuclear Threat Initiative’s (NTI) Nuclear Security Index, Pakistan is a relevant example to explore the question of whether the presence of non-state actors poses a real risk to nuclear security today. It’s necessary to take a look at their nuclear security policies to determine if they’re robust enough to deal with political instability and violence in the country. After carrying out interviews with experts in May 2017 in Islamabad on nuclear security and nuclear terrorism, this paper aims to highlight findings by providing a Pakistan-centric view on the subject and give experts there a chance to counter criticism. Western media would have us fearful of nuclear security mechanisms in Pakistan after reports that areas such as cybersecurity and accounting and control of materials are weak, as well as sensitive nuclear material being transported in unmarked, unguarded vehicles. Also reported are cases where terrorist groups carried out targeted attacks against Pakistani military bases or secure sites where nuclear material is stored. One specific question asked of each interviewee in Islamabad was Do you feel the threat of nuclear terrorism calls into question the reliance on deterrence? Their responses will be elaborated on in the longer paper, but overall they demonstrate views that deterrence still serves a purpose for state-to-state security strategy, but not for a state in countering nonstate threats. If nuclear security is lax enough for these non-state actors to get their hands on either an intact nuclear weapon or enough military-grade fissile material to build a nuclear weapon, then what would stop them from launching a nuclear attack? As deterrence is a state-centric strategy, it doesn’t work to deter non-state actors from carrying out an attack on another state, as they lack their own territory, and as such, are not fearful of a reprisal attack. Deterrence will need to be addressed, and its relevance analyzed to determine its utility in the current security environment. The aim of this research is to demonstrate the real risk of nuclear terrorism by pointing to weaknesses in global nuclear security, particularly in Pakistan. The research also aims to provoke thought on the weaknesses of deterrence as a whole. Original thinking is needed as we attempt to adequately respond to the 21st century’s current threat environment.

Keywords: deterrence, non-proliferation, nuclear security, nuclear terrorism

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Authors: Truong Nguyen Luan Vu, Le Hieu Giang, Le Linh

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The fractional–order proportional integral (FOPI) controller tuning rules based on the fractional calculus for the cascade control system are systematically proposed in this paper. Accordingly, the ideal controller is obtained by using internal model control (IMC) approach for both the inner and outer loops, which gives the desired closed-loop responses. On the basis of the fractional calculus, the analytical tuning rules of FOPI controller for the inner loop can be established in the frequency domain. Besides, the outer loop is tuned by using any integer PI/PID controller tuning rules in the literature. The simulation study is considered for the stable process model and the results demonstrate the simplicity, flexibility, and effectiveness of the proposed method for the cascade control system in compared with the other methods.

Keywords: Bode’s ideal transfer function, fractional calculus, fractional–order proportional integral (FOPI) controller, cascade control system

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Authors: Saad M. Darwish

Abstract:

Recently, software quality issues have come to be seen as important subject as we see an enormous growth of agencies involved in software industries. However, these agencies cannot guarantee the quality of their products, thus leaving users in uncertainties. Software certification is the extension of quality by means that quality needs to be measured prior to certification granting process. This research participates in solving the problem of software assessment by proposing a model for assessment and certification of software product that uses a fuzzy inference engine to integrate both of process–driven and application-driven quality assurance strategies. The key idea of the on hand model is to improve the compactness and the interpretability of the model’s fuzzy rules via employing an ant colony optimization algorithm (ACO), which tries to find good rules description by dint of compound rules initially expressed with traditional single rules. The model has been tested by case study and the results have demonstrated feasibility and practicability of the model in a real environment.

Keywords: software quality, quality assurance, software certification model, software assessment

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Authors: Tamanna Goyal, Divya Bansal, Sanjeev Sofat

Abstract:

In world-threatening terrorist attacks, where early detection, distinction, and prediction are effective diagnosis techniques and for functionally accurate and precise analysis of terrorism data, there are so many data mining & statistical approaches to assure accuracy. The computational extraction of derived patterns is a non-trivial task which comprises specific domain discovery by means of sophisticated algorithm design and analysis. This paper proposes an approach for similarity extraction by obtaining the useful attributes from the available datasets of terrorist attacks and then applying feature selection technique based on the statistical impurity measures followed by clustering techniques on the basis of similarity measures. On the basis of degree of participation of attributes in the rules, the associative dependencies between the attacks are analyzed. Consequently, to compute the similarity among the discovered rules, we applied a weighted similarity measure. Finally, the rules are grouped by applying using hierarchical clustering. We have applied it to an open source dataset to determine the usability and efficiency of our technique, and a literature search is also accomplished to support the efficiency and accuracy of our results.

Keywords: association rules, clustering, similarity measure, statistical approaches

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Authors: Gerard R. Lekhema, Willie A Cronje, Ian Korir

Abstract:

The objective of this research work is to investigate the use of a micro-grid system to improve the reliability and availability of emergency electrical power in a nuclear facility. The nuclear facility is a safety-critical application that requires reliable electrical power for safe startup, operation and normal or emergency shutdown conditions. The majority of the nuclear facilities around the world utilize diesel generators as emergency power supply during loss of offsite power events. This study proposes the micro-grid system with distributed energy sources and energy storage systems for use as emergency power supply. The systems analyzed include renewable energy sources, decay heat recovery system and large scale energy storage system. The configuration of the micro-grid system is realized with guidelines of nuclear safety standards and requirements. The investigation results presented include performance analysis of the micro-grid system in terms of reliability and availability.

Keywords: emergency power supply, micro-grid, nuclear facility, renewable energy sources

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Authors: Anant Deogaonkar, Archana Nanoty

Abstract:

The term civil service plays a vital role in functioning of any government. In today’s modern era of globalization civil services essentially contribute for the success of the good governance system. The civil service in India refers to the body of government officials employed in civil occupations that are neither political nor judicial. The Indian Civil Services were created to foster the idea of unity in diversity with the expectation of giving continuity and change in administration independent of the political scenario and turmoil affecting the country. The civil service is an integral part of administration and the structures of administration to determine the way civil service functions. The concept of good governance necessarily precludes the effective human resource management ensuring the root level reach of the good governance. The serious matter of concern is the element of change. The civil service in general has maintained status quo instead of sweeping changes in social and economic scenario. One may disagree for this but it is a fact on the street that the Indian civil service was not able to deliver up to the expectations of the people and was lacking on the service front. The effective management of human resources at civil service needs to be prioritized and will form a key factor in successful delivery of the desired results may be in minimum duration. This paper focuses on the various ways of effective management of human resources in civil services. It also highlights the importance of improvement in human resource management in civil services with the detailed discussion of positives and negatives if any of the human resource management in civil services.

Keywords: civil services, human resources management, India, governance

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Authors: Gholamreza Farrokhi, Behzad Sani

Abstract:

The goals of sustainable agricultural are development, improved nutrition, and food security. Sustainable agriculture must be developed that will meet today’s needs for food and other products, as well as preserving the vital natural resource base that will allow future generations to meet their needs. Sustainable development requires international cooperation and the effective use of technology. Access to sustainable sources of food will remain a preeminent challenge in the decades to come. Based upon current practice and consumption, agricultural production will have to increase by about 70% by 2050 to meet demand. Nuclear techniques are used in developing countries to increase production sustainably by breeding improved crops, enhancing livestock reproduction and nutrition, as well as controlling animal and plant pests and diseases. Post-harvest losses can be reduced and safety increased with nuclear technology. Soil can be evaluated with nuclear techniques to conserve and improve soil productivity and water management.

Keywords: food safety, food security, nuclear techniques, sustainable agriculture, sustainable future

Procedia PDF Downloads 327