Plenary Talk

Plenary Talk #1

Wednesday, December 4, 2024 09:00-09:40

Safety Considerations on Future I&C Systems

Yun Goo Kim, Ph.D.

Nuclear Safety officer
International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)

Educational Background

Dr. Yun Goo Kim received his Ph.D. in Nuclear and Quantum Engineering from the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST). His doctoral thesis focused on the software verification and validation (V&V) of computerized procedure systems in nuclear power plants (NPP). He also holds a master’s degree and a bachelor’s degree in Nuclear Engineering from Kyung Hee University, where his master's thesis investigated the corrosion of Zircaloy fuel cladding.

Relevant Experience:

Dr. Yun Goo Kim is a nuclear safety officer at the IAEA. He has been active in the area of design and licensing of nuclear power plants, especially in digital I&C, advanced control room, and human factors engineering, for over 20 years. He has been involved in the development and licensing of advanced reactors such as APR1400, APR+, and iSMR.

• He led many projects on radiation monitoring systems for plants and the environment while working at Samchang, an equipment supplier, in 1998.

• In 2007, he started working at KHNP(Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power) for the design and HF verification of the APR1400 digital control room. From 2012, he led I&C and HFE field licensing for APR1400 design certification from US-NRC for over six years. He managed every I&C and HFE licensing issue with KEPCO-ENC(Korea Electric Power Corp. - Engineering and Construction company) and international consultants. He was also involved in the approval of the EUR(European Utility Requirements) of APR1400 and the SDA(Standard Design Approval) of APR+.

• From 2017, he was a project manager for the research project titled “Development of AI(Artificial Intelligence)-based operator support system for NPP,” which was funded by about 15 million dollars from the Korean government. He managed the entire project with experts from KHNP, KAERI(Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute), universities, and manufacturing companies. The result of this research is the basis of autonomous operation in advanced reactors such as SMR.

Plenary Talk #2

Wednesday, December 4, 2024 09:40-10:20

Advanced Reactor Technology Development at the Idaho National Laboratory

Youssef Adel Ballout, Ph.D.

Division Director,
Reactor Systems Design & Analysis
Idaho National Laboratory (INL)

Dr. Youssef Ballout is the Division Director of INL’s Reactor Systems Design & Analysis. He Joined INL in December 2018 as the manager of the Fuel Design and Development Department.

Prior to INL he was the President of Elysium Industries Limited where he was engaged in leading the design and development of a molten chloride salt fast reactor. He also spent twenty-six years at the Naval Nuclear Laboratory (NNL)/Knolls Atomic Power Laboratory where he worked on nuclear reactor design, reactor materials, reactor thermal hydraulics, and rector structural performance.

During his career at NNL Dr. Ballout also managed the Space Structural Materials group in collaboration with NASA supporting the design and analysis of the reactor for nuclear propulsion in outer-space to explore the icy moons of Jupiter as part of the (Jupiter Icy Moon Orbiter-JIMO) project Prometheus.

Over his career he worked on reactor design and reactor performance first as an experimentalist, then in modeling and simulation and often both at the same time. In addition to his technical contributions, Dr. Ballout spent many years in engineering and organizational leadership.

Early in his career Dr. Ballout was a professor of engineering at the Virginia Military Institute (VMI) where he taught engineering materials, design, and programming. He Began his university education in Limoges, France, and ultimately received three (B.S, M.S and PhD) engineering degrees from Wichita State University, Kansas.