A methodology for the prioritization of operating experience in nuclear power plants

The processing of operating experience at nuclear power plants is critically important to safe and reliable operations because it represents the process by which important external information is incorporated into the organization. Nuclear power plants typically receive between 800 and 1000 pieces of operating experience every year, of which 70–80 meet the criteria for a more extensive review. This paper deals with the prioritization of these items. Specifically, a prioritization methodology utilizing multiattribute utility theory has been developed. What sets this methodology apart from other techniques employing multiattribute methods is its emphasis on deliberations to achieve consensus among objectives and preferences among those objectives. Along with an explanation of this methodology, the results of its application to the prioritization of operating experience at a nuclear power plant are presented. Lastly, the results of a workshop that was held at MIT are presented. The workshop demonstrated the feasibility of the prioritization methodology and the validity of the case study results.     

Optimization Model for Selecting Temporary Hospital Locations During COVID-19 Pandemic

The two main approaches that countries are using to ease the strain on healthcare infrastructure is building temporary hospitals that are specialized in treating COVID-19 patients and promoting preventive measures. As such, the selection of the optimal location for a temporary hospital and the calculation of the prioritization of preventive measures are two of the most critical decisions during the pandemic, especially in densely populated areas where the risk of transmission of the virus is highest. If the location selection process or the prioritization of measures is poor, healthcare workers and patients can be harmed, and unnecessary costs may come into play. In this study, a decision support framework using a fuzzy analytic hierarchy process (FAHP) and a weighted aggregated sum product assessment model are proposed for selecting the location of a temporary hospital, and a FAHP model is proposed for calculating the prioritization of preventive measures against COVID-19. A case study is performed for Ho Chi Minh City using the proposed decision-making framework. The contribution of this work is to propose a multiple criteria decision-making model in a fuzzy environment for ranking potential locations for building temporary hospitals during the COVID-19 pandemic. The results of the study can be used to assist decision-makers, such as government authorities and infectious disease experts, in dealing with the current pandemic as well as other diseases in the future. With the entire world facing the global pandemic of COVID-19, many scientists have applied research achievements in practice to help decision-makers make accurate decisions to prevent the pandemic. As the number of cases increases exponentially, it is crucial that government authorities and infectious disease experts make optimal decisions while considering multiple quantitative and qualitative criteria. As such, the proposed approach can also be applied to support complex decision-making processes in a fuzzy environment in different countries.     

Strategic Project Management to Use the Grand Challenge Scholars Program to Address Urban Infrastructure

Throughout the world, infrastructure to support cities is critical to support sustainable and responsible economic development. This can include new infrastructure projects in the case of growing areas. It can also include the renewal and upgrading of existing infrastructure in areas that have been inhabited and already developed. Infrastructure includes roads, bridges and transportation systems; power grids and energy service; internet and telecommunications; and water and sewer services. This development can be part of a system of systems, in which government, industries, and universities can contribute knowledge, skills, and abilities. This paper will investigate the strategic project management taken by one university to provide an academic experience that will prepare engineering students to address several of the Grand Engineering Challenges of the 21st Century, as identified by the US National Academy of Engineering. The challenges relating to energy, water, information, and urban infrastructure can be approached using the functions of teaching, research, and service. By approaching the challenges strategically, resources of faculty time, student effort and laboratory facilities can be leveraged to achieve greater results. This case study will describe the efforts and results to date and identify opportunities for future growth.     

Population behavioral scenarios influencing radiological disaster preparedness and planning

Considerable attention is focused on plans for sheltering or evacuating the population of the US national capital region in response to a regional emergency such as a terrorist attack or natural disaster. Such planning engages multiple disciplines spanning infrastructure engineering, emergency management, health care, mass communication, water and food supply, logistics, and others. Knowledge of population behaviors should influence the many dimensions of protection, prevention, response, and recovery. Of particular interest are the behaviors and needs of the resident and non-resident populations in the aftermath of a regional disaster, including those at home, at work, and traveling. The authors deployed a 30-min telephone survey to 2700 residents of the region to gain knowledge of their intended behaviors in the event of a variety of potential dirty bomb attacks. The survey provides a unique foundation for the current paper. The paper will identify and model the assumptions of population behaviors that most affect agency priorities for emergency planning including regional sheltering and evacuation following a radiological disaster such as a dirty bomb. The technical approach assessed several planning initiatives across performance criteria derived from strategic plans and applied combinations of behavioral assumptions to vary the relative importance of each criterion. The results reveal the behavioral scenarios that are most significant to the prioritization of planning initiatives and identify the highest and lowest priority initiatives across the criteria used.     

Interdisciplinary information input and output of a nano-technology project

The input and output information of a national project of Japan for nano-technology will be analysed. In 1996 Japanese government stipulated a guideline to evaluate national technology projects on economic criteria as well as technological ones. In addition to the criteria intrinsic to economy but extrinsic to technology and unfriendly to technologists, however, another view more intrinsic to technology may be useful as well. This study will attempt to complement the governmentally stipulated evaluation method with a bibliometric one. Considering the interdisciplinary approach as a merit of national projects, this study will analyse how interdisciplinary information was used as input and was published as output by the project. Focussing on the publication behaviours of the project, information flow from technology to science or a development pattern of science pulled by technology will be discussed. Finally, the matching of the evaluation criteria to technology development and the friendliness of evaluation methods to technologists will be discussed. This revised version was published online in August 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Linking environmental assessment and rapid urbanization in Kampala City

Linking environmental assessment (EA) and infrastructure development projects as a result of rapid urbanization reveals serious environmental problems in Kampala City, Uganda. Of the many infrastructure development projects implemented to meet the growing demands of rural–urban influx, few are subjected to EA as part of the project approval process. This paper investigates the environmental impacts of infrastructure development projects that are implemented and seeks to understand the nature of these impacts. The study results suggest that ecological infrastructure is as vital as physical infrastructure for the functioning of the economy – a path that can meet both long-term economic and environmental imperatives. A mechanism for integrating EA into planning and development processes is proposed and the need to look into environmental fiscal reform (EFR), compliance with environmental legislation, integrated urban development policy, and strategic environmental assessment among others is examined.     

Sustainable Program Quality Management of International Infrastructure Construction

Management of the program quality for international infrastructure construction projects is complicated. Sustainability of these programs is the key for them to succeed in their lifecycles. This paper investigated current program quality management and compared it with the results of recent surveys of KGMP. A method for the sustainable program quality management of the international infrastructure construction management is proposed and demonstrated by research projects. The cycle of accountability, predictability, balance ability, and policy was proposed. The findings from the KGMP’s survey and this research show that the trend of the sustainable program quality management of the international infrastructure construction is transferring from agility to alacrity in the balancing of the metrics among economy, ecology, culture, and politics.     

Planning method of infrastructure project in China

Since 1949, governments at all levels in China directly invested, constructed and operated infrastructure, which resulted in poor construction performance, low operation efficiency, and heavy fiscal burden. From 1994, the Chinese government opened the market of foreign investment in infrastructure projects. Since 2001, domestic private companies have been encouraged to invest and operate infrastructure projects, too. However, many privately financed infrastructure projects still encountered difficulty due to excessive or inadequate government obligation, so the proper obligation division between government and private company becomes key issue in infrastructure project planning. The author proposes a proper project planning method which is applicable to all kinds of infrastructure projects with various fund origins. The project planning method includes a comprehensive planning framework and a six-step planning process. In particular, the financial indicator, i.e., self-reimbursement ratio is introduced for the proper division of financial obligation between government and project company.     

院士风采

汪德熙 1913．09．27～2006．08．08 核化学化工专家。江苏灌云人。1935年毕业于清华大学化学系。1946年获美国麻省理工学院博士学位。中国原子能科学研究院教授，中国核工业总公司科技委高级顾问及研究生部名誉主任。早期从事高分子化学研究。50年代研制不饱和聚酯玻璃钢。     

Scenario-informed multiple criteria analysis for prioritizing investments in electricity capacity expansion

Planning the expansion and energy security of electricity capacity for a national electricity utility is a complex task in almost any economy. Planning is usually an iterative activity and can involve the use of large scale planning optimization systems accompanied by assessment of uncertain scenarios emerging from economic, technological, environmental, and regulatory developments. This paper applies a multiple criteria decision analysis to prioritize investment portfolios in capacity expansion and energy security while principally studying the robustness of the prioritization to multiple uncertain and emergent scenarios. The scenarios are identified through interaction with decision makers and stakeholders. The approach finds which scenarios most affect the prioritization of the portfolios and which portfolios have the greatest upside and downside potential across scenarios. The approach fosters innovation in the use of robust and efficient technologies, renewable energy sources, and cleaner energy fuels. A demonstration is provided for assessing the performance of technology portfolios constructed from investments in nine electricity generation technologies in Mexico.     

Identification of critical locations across multiple infrastructures for terrorist actions

This paper presents a possible approach to ranking geographic regions that can influence multiple infrastructures. Once ranked, decision makers can determine whether these regions are critical locations based on their susceptibility to terrorist acts. We identify these locations by calculating a value for a geographic region that represents the combined values to the decision makers of all the infrastructures crossing through that region. These values, as well as the size of the geographic region, are conditional on an assumed destructive threat of a given size. In our case study, the threat is assumed to be minor, e.g., a bomb that can affect objects within 7 m of it.This approach first requires an assessment of the users of the system. During this assessment, each user is assigned a performance index (PI) based on the disutility of the loss of each infrastructure's resource via multi-attribute utility theory (MAUT). A Monte Carlo network analysis is then performed to develop importance measures (IM) for the elements of each infrastructure for their ability to service each user. We combine the IMs with the user PIs to a value that we call valued worth (VW) for each infrastructure's elements independently. Then we use spatial analysis techniques within a geographic information system (GIS) to combine the VWs of each infrastructure's elements in a geographic area, conditional on the threat, into a total value we call geographic valued worth (GVW). The GVW is displayed graphically in the GIS system in a color scheme that shows the numerical ranking of these geographic areas. The map and rankings are then submitted to the decision makers to better allocate anti-terrorism resources.A case study of this methodology is performed on the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) campus. The results of the study show how the methodology can bring attention to areas that are important when several infrastructures are considered, but may be ignored when infrastructures are analyzed individually.     

张弗天车成卫靳达申

概要介绍了金属材料学科1996年立项的面上项目的总结情况，在详细分析基金成果各种指标的基础上，对能体现基础研究特点的成果进行了排序和初步分析，并从管理角度评述了一些有特色的总结，还指出在结题报告中应该注意的一些问题，论述了定期评述结题项目的意义，以及建立成果评价规范的重要性。希望通过制度化、规范化的结题管理，奖优征劣，促进基金事业的健康发展。     

MITOM: a new unfolding code based on a spectra model method applied to neutron spectrometry

The MITOM code was developed at UAB (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona) for unfolding neutron spectrometric measurements with a Bonner spheres system (BSS). One of the main characteristics of this code is that an initial parameterisation of the neutron energy components (thermal, intermediate and fast) is needed. This code uses the Monte Carlo method and the Bayesian theorem to obtain a set of solutions achieving different criteria and conditions between calculated and measured count rates. The final solution is an average of the acceptable solutions. The MITOM code was tested for ISO sources and a good agreement was observed between the reference values and the unfolded ones for global magnitudes. The code was applied recently to characterise both thermal SIGMA and CANEL/T400 sources of the IRSN facilities. The results of these applications were very satisfactory as well.     

New center of diversity

MEMS @ MIT is a newly created center that is intended to bring together a diverse group of microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Fig. 1

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Fig. 1. MIT’s Killian Court, designed by architect William Welles Bosworth, showing the Great Dome under which runs the famous ‘Infinite Corridor’.

and to provide an industrial interface to organizations that seek to interact with the center.The MIT MEMS research program has been in existence for more than 20 years and has seen a steady growth in the number of researchers and faculty. Today, there are more than 20 faculty doing MEMS research at MIT, with approximately 120 students and staff who come from seven different academic departments. The annual contract research volume of this group is well in excess of $12 million. In creating this center, the faculty are recognizing the substantial value that arises from the coordination of activities, as well as the benefits of focused interactions with organizations that seek to commercialize the research.     

Critical Success Factors for New Product Development in Biotechnology Companies

The development of new products has become increasingly critical for the competitiveness of companies, due to increased diversity and variety of products, the reduction of product life cycles, and, primarily, globalization of markets. Thus, the identification and prioritization of critical success factors for developing new products is important, particularly for the high degree of risk and uncertainty involved. The main objective of this article is the identification and prioritization of critical success factors in new product development projects in biotechnology companies in the state of Minas Gerais, Brazil. The research method used was a survey questionnaire, which was sent to a sample of 31 biotechnology companies in Minas Gerais state. The principal findings of this research are that interpersonal skills/relationships of the project leader and technical skills are the most critical factors for successful new product development in this industry. The implications for the biotechnology industry in general, as well as for those responsible for managing new product development, are discussed.     

Chemical facility vulnerability assessment project

Sandia National Laboratories, under the direction of the Office of Science and Technology, National Institute of Justice, conducted the chemical facility vulnerability assessment (CFVA) project. The primary objective of this project was to develop, test and validate a vulnerability assessment methodology (VAM) for determining the security of chemical facilities against terrorist or criminal attacks (VAM-CF). The project also included a report to the Department of Justice for Congress that in addition to describing the VAM-CF also addressed general observations related to security practices, threats and risks at chemical facilities and chemical transport.In the development of the VAM-CF Sandia leveraged the experience gained from the use and development of VAs in other areas and the input from the chemical industry and Federal agencies. The VAM-CF is a systematic, risk-based approach where risk is a function of the severity of consequences of an undesired event, the attack potential, and the likelihood of adversary success in causing the undesired event. For the purpose of the VAM-CF analyses Risk is a function of S, L(A), and L(AS), where S is the severity of consequence of an event, L(A) is the attack potential and L(AS) likelihood of adversary success in causing a catastrophic event. The VAM-CF consists of 13 basic steps. It involves an initial screening step, which helps to identify and prioritize facilities for further analysis. This step is similar to the prioritization approach developed by the American Chemistry Council (ACC). Other steps help to determine the components of the risk equation and ultimately the risk. The VAM-CF process involves identifying the hazardous chemicals and processes at a chemical facility. It helps chemical facilities to focus their attention on the most critical areas. The VAM-CF is not a quantitative analysis but, rather, compares relative security risks. If the risks are deemed too high, recommendations are developed for measures to reduce the risk. This paper will briefly discuss the CFVA project and VAM-CF process.     

Development of superconducting and cryogenic technology in the Institute for Technical Physics (ITP) of the Research Center Karlsruhe

Since the early 1970s the Institute for Technical Physics of the Research Center Karlsruhe has been involved in the development of superconductivity for research and industrial applications. A broad program with a focus on the superconducting magnet technology was established to include large magnets for nuclear fusion, high-field magnets for nuclear magnetic resonance spectrometers, ore separation and energy storage magnets. Research and development work was performed in collaborative projects with other national as well as international institutions and industry. The success of these projects has been supported by a broad foundation of engineering science in superconductor development, electrical and cryogenic engineering. Several well known test facilities like TOSKA, STAR, HOMER, MTA along with well equipped laboratories for conductor development, materials at cryogenic temperatures, cryogenic high-voltage engineering have made substantial contributions to in-house, national and international projects. A strong cryogenic infrastructure with two refrigerators and sophisticated cooling circuits from about 4.5 K down to 1.8 K assure the reliable operation of these large facilities. Last but not least, cryogenic research, including vacuum pumps for International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor, improvements in thermal insulation, cryogenic instrumentation and small on board refrigerators has supported progress in this field. High-temperature superconductivity projects for low AC loss conductors, a 70 kA current lead and a fault current limiter are currently in progress.     

Model calibration: A hierarchical Bayesian approach

Many geotechnical engineering models are empirical and calibrated based on data gathered from various sites/projects, using optimisation algorithms with criteria like least squared errors or minimising the coefficient of variation of method bias with the constraint of mean bias equal to unity. This paper discusses the use of hierarchical Bayesian regression models for the same purpose. A database of axial capacity of piles in predominantly clay sites and a CPT-based design model, compiled and developed as part of a Joint Industry Project (JIP) led by the Norwegian Geotechnical Institute (NGI), is used for demonstration. The analyses focus on two related areas that the traditional approaches overlook: (i) quantification of uncertainty in the estimated parameters of the model, and (ii) modelling site-dependency of the model parameters (i.e., between-group variation). The former is important in the context of reliability-based design and contributes to establishing confidence in estimated reliability indices, particularly when only limited data are available. The latter expands our understanding regarding the domain of applicability of a model; that is, if a model is broadly applicable or highly site-dependent. The benefits of the proposed Bayesian approach are highlighted with a prediction exercise where the calibrated models are used in conjunction with limited site or project-specific data.     

R&D project selection and scheduling with a filtered beam search approach

Models developed for selecting an optimal portfolio of R&D projects from among a pool of available projects do not generally include project scheduling as part of the selection criteria. Typically after a portfolio of projects is selected according to various selection criteria, they are subsequently scheduled. If it is not possible to schedule the selected projects through various research facilities and/or stages given the available resources, projects may be replaced with others requiring less time, or resources may be increased, which can result in a suboptimal portfolio. In this paper, project scheduling is included in the selection process, with a heuristic filtered beam search approach. Projects are selected on the basis of traditional selection criteria such as expected profits, as well as the makespan of the portfolio. The heuristic search procedure is demonstrated by an in-depth example and computational experimentation.