Thesis (M. Phil.)--University of Hong Kong, 1996. / Includes bibliographical references (leaf 164-168).

No description available.

"Final report for research project sponsored by Northeast Utilities Service Company, Public Service Electric and Gas Company, Yankee Atomic Electric Company under the M.I.T. Energy Laboratory Electric Utility Program."

Thesis (doctoral)--Helsinki University of Technology, 1999. / Includes bibliographical references. Also available on the World Wide Web.

Thesis (M. Soc. Sc.)--University of Hong Kong, 1987.

Thesis (M.Soc.Sc.)--University of Hong Kong, 1987. / Also available in print.

No description available.

This dissertation explores the extent to which organizational and institutional factors continue to influence the economic and safety performance of nuclear power plants. Although the importance of non-technological factors during the developmental period of nuclear power has been recognized after the fact, most contemporary research fails to recognize the continued importance of organizational and institutional factors for ongoing nuclear power plant operations. Moreover, a second generation of advanced nuclear reactors is now imminent but technological advances will not suffice to prevent many of the mistakes of this first era of nuclear power. The lessons learned from our experience with the current generation of nuclear power plants must include more than technological improvements. As yet a systematic investigation of the impact of organizational and institutional factors on nuclear power plant performance has not been conducted. This dissertation progresses us much further toward accomplishing this task, although much additional research is still needed.

A suboptimal controller has been developed for a Boiling Water Reactor Nuclear Power Plant, using the DARE P Continuous Simulation Language, which was developed in the Electrical Engineering Department at the University of Arizona. A set of 48 nonlinear first-order differential equations and a large number of algebraic equations has been linearized about the equilibrium state. Using partitioning, the linearized equations were transformed into a block triangular form. The concept of optimal control and a square performance index reflecting the desired plant behavior have been applied on the slow subsystem to develop a suboptimal controller. The obtained feedback law is shown by simulation to be able to compensate for a variety of plant disturbances. A large variety of responses can be obtained by changing the weighting matrices. The control is basically a regulator approach to speed up response during load demand changes. Several simulations are included to demonstrate the control performance. The variables to be controlled have mainly been the average neutron density and the average coolant temperature. Simplifications have been suggested, thus obtaining considerable savings in the computations and ease in design.

Interactions between societal, natural, and infrastructure systems can be beneficial or harmful to society. Society benefits from natural systems by being provided with the basic necessities of life (air, water, and food). However, events such as stratospheric ozone depletion demonstrate that society ultimately can be harmed by societal impacts on natural systems. Domain knowledge is developed from observation of natural, societal, and infrastructure systems. Domain knowledge is contained within scientific knowledge and engineering knowledge. Scientific knowledge is gained through structured observation and rigorous analysis of natural and societal systems. Engineering knowledge is partially developed from scientific knowledge and is used to manipulate natural and societal systems. Technology is the application of engineering knowledge. In the past two centuries scientific and engineering knowledge have produced technologies that affect the interaction between societal and natural systems. Although scientists and engineers are in positions to advise on policies to address problems involving societal/natural system interactions, their contributions are not always fully utilized. This research examines feedback mechanisms that describe societal, natural, and infrastructure system interaction to develop an improved understanding of the dynamic interactions between society, natural systems, infrastructure systems, scientific and engineering knowledge, technology, and public policy. These interactions are investing through and opposing case study analysis performed using computer simulation modeling. The stratospheric ozone depletion study represents a case in which domain experts successfully influenced public policy. The U.S. civilian nuclear power study represents a case in which domain experts were less successful in influencing public policy. The system dynamics methodology is used to construct these two highly integrated models of societal-natural system interaction. Individual model sectors, based on existing theory, describe natural/infrastructure systems, knowledge and technology development, societal risk perception, and public policy. The work reveals that the influence of scientists and engineers in the public policy is due in part to their ability to shift dominance between causal feedback mechanisms that seek to minimize societal risk from natural systems and feedback mechanisms that seek to minimize the economic risk of increased regulations. The ability to alter feedback mechanism dominance is not solely dependent upon scientists and engineers ability to develop knowledge but to a larger extent depends on their ability to interact with policy makers and society when describing issues involving natural and infrastructure systems.