Guard Vessels Research Articles

Distinction between law enforcement activity and military activity in article 298(1)(b) of UNCLOS: Commentary on recent international decisions

The war between Russia and Ukraine has brought the previously dormant military activity exception back into the spotlight. Yet, considering the sensitivity of military actions and the multifaceted functions performed by warships and coast guard vessels in practice, one may question whether a viable standard for distinguishing between law enforcement activity and military activity is possible at all. Therefore, instead of focusing on the intricacies of legal doctrines, it might be helpful to look at the issue from the perspective of the role of international judicial bodies in dealing with disputes with wide political ramifications. While it is always possible for courts and tribunals to identify legal issues arising from a broader political context, it must be recognized that piecemeal judicial solution is a poor substitute for political dispute settlement mechanisms. The harsh truth remains that, in a decentralized legal system dominated by the will of states, judicial restraint is perhaps the only way forward for international adjudication.

Wastewater Surveillance of US Coast Guard Installations and Seagoing Military Vessels to Mitigate the Risk of COVID-19 Outbreaks, March 2021-August 2022.

Military training centers and seagoing vessels are often environments at high risk for the spread of COVID-19 and other contagious diseases, because military trainees and personnel arrive after traveling from many parts of the country and live in congregate settings. We examined whether levels of SARS-CoV-2 genetic material in wastewater correlated with SARS-CoV-2 infections among military personnel living in communal barracks and vessels at US Coast Guard training centers in the United States. The Coast Guard developed and established 3 laboratories with wastewater testing capability at Coast Guard training centers from March 2021 through August 2022. We analyzed wastewater from barracks housing trainees and from 4 Coast Guard vessels for the presence of SARS-CoV-2 genes N and E and quantified the results relative to levels of a fecal indicator virus, pepper mild mottle virus. We compared quantified data with the timing of medically diagnosed COVID-19 infection among (1) military personnel who had presented with symptoms or had been discovered through contact tracing and had medical tests and (2) military personnel who had been discovered through routine surveillance by positive SARS-CoV-2 antigen or polymerase chain reaction test results. Levels of viral genes in wastewater at Coast Guard locations were best correlated with diagnosed COVID-19 cases when wastewater testing was performed twice weekly with passive samplers deployed for the entire week; such testing detected ≥1 COVID-19 case 69.8% of the time and ≥3 cases 88.3% of the time. Wastewater assessment in vessels did not continue because of logistical constraints. Wastewater testing is an effective tool for measuring the presence and patterns of SARS-CoV-2 infections among military populations. Success with wastewater testing for SARS-CoV-2 infections suggests that other diseases may be assessed with similar approaches.

The Effect of a Web-Based Occupational Noise-Induced Hearing Loss Prevention Program on Hearing Protection Device Behavior Among Thai Navy Officers: A Quasi-Experimental Study

Navy officers working on the coastal guard vessels risk hearing loss due to repeated exposure to high noise levels from ship engines. Therefore, proper use of hearing protection devices is important. In this study, a web-based hearing loss prevention program was developed to promote the behavior of the use of hearing protection devices among Thai navy officers working on coastal guard vessels. In total, 152 navy personnel were recruited based on selection criteria and randomly assigned to the experimental (n = 76) and control groups (n = 76). The participants in the experimental group received the hearing loss prevention program via a website over four weeks. After completing the program, hearing protection device behavior was evaluated by a self-report questionnaire immediately after and at eight weeks follow-up. The results showed significantly increasing scores of the use of hearing protection devices behavior within the experimental group, both immediately and eight weeks after the program completion. However, there were no significant differences in the scores when comparing between groups, even though the scores of the experimental group were better than those in the control group. The restrictions could be explained by some emerging events during the implementation period, including the COVID-19 pandemic followed by a massive oil spill incident at sea. These put an extra workload on the study participants. Most importantly, there was a problem with the network connection that might have affected the continuation of participant attention to the program. Although this study found no effective results of the developed program due to some limitations, nurses can adopt this protective intervention to reduce the risk of occupational noise-induced hearing loss among Navy officers. Therefore, a recommendation for further study is to develop an intervention program that considers both the working context of the coastal vessels and appropriate participation methods that require more challenging efforts.

Law and (Dis)order in the South China Sea: Analyzing Maritime Law-Enforcement Activities in 2010–22

executive summary: This article assesses the role of maritime law-enforcement (MLE) vessels in an apparent trend of heightened competition in the South China Sea and identifies patterns in the maritime policing by MLE vessels of the disputing South China Sea claimants during unplanned encounters at sea. main argumentThe South China Sea disputes, involving six political entities—China, Taiwan, Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei, and the Philippines—have been a political flashpoint in Southeast Asia since the 1970s. The emergence and growing prominence of civilian MLE vessels (conventionally known as marine police or coast guard vessels) suggests that disputants are taking new measures to assert their claims without overtly militarizing them. Maritime policing has increased in frequency and intensity in the past decade. Yet, when considering four factors—the use of forcible measures, physical damage, human injuries/casualties, and diplomatic protests—an analysis of publicly reported naval incidents in the South China Sea between 2010 and 2022 suggests that conflict escalation primarily happens at sea between the crews. Such incidents, which range from single-day events to months-long confrontations, have, in the worst cases, resulted in intense diplomatic standoffs lasting longer than two months. In general, however, disputants have refrained from taking hostile political or legal actions against harassment at sea. policy implications• Given that reducing misunderstanding and mitigating the risks of physical confrontations is of benefit to all the South China Sea disputants, ongoing talks for a code of conduct for the sea should include a proper legal framework for MLE operations. This framework—to be separate from the existing Code for Unplanned Encounters at Sea, which only applies to naval vessels—should stipulate the threat and/or use of force at sea by MLE vessels because coast guard enforcement duties may require different levels of force. • Disputants should re-establish and refocus talks to address joint fisheries and marine resource management in disputed waters. They would also benefit from reinforcing the regional hotline for maritime emergencies and setting up a crisis management hotline at the coast guard level. • Regional MLE agencies should increase communications both onshore and offshore and hold joint exercises and exchanges that would increase mutual understanding and trust, which would subsequently help prevent unexpected consequences.

System Variables Design of Safety Analysis for Fast Reactors

This research aims to examine the risk in the technology design of fast breeder reactors while the development depends on safety considerations. The project explored the variables, which could affect positively the expected average fuel burn-up, breeding ratio, and decay heat removal. That is accomplished using features such as guard vessels and elevated pipe routing to prevent the cracked state of both core components and fuel cladding interface conditions. So, the cracked region of fuel was detected by thermal-hydraulic analysis. We used ZrFeCr alloys to estimating of the rise in fuel cladding and coolant that can be incorporated in the design ZrFeCr alloys to uniform corrosion in temperature and 10.3 Mpa pressure. Fast creep of the reactor vessel during the coolant heat-up transient is another issue to be considered corrosion resistance of structural material can be achieved by controlling oxygen content in steel alloy. In this trend, S4337 S5140 steels are wide and can be used in future fossil power plants because of their excellent high-temperature strength.

Lawships or warships? Coast guards as agents of (in)stability in the Pacific and South and East China Sea

Do coast guards generally promote good governance in the maritime domain, and are they a means of preventing conflict escalation? Sam Bateman argued that the use of ‘white hulled’ coast guard vessels was fundamentally less provocative than deploying gray-painted warships in contested waters. Thus, the use of ‘lawships’ instead of ‘warships’ could serve to de-escalate tensions. He also saw them as better able to pursue ends of oceans governance than naval vessels, for a range of reasons including the need for specialization. Nonetheless, there has been increasing concern that some coast guards are becoming a tool of ‘gray zone’ tactics: efforts to alter the strategic status quo short of armed conflict. China is often portrayed as using the China Coast Guard in such a manner. By contrast, the Australian Pacific Patrol Boats program – which gifts coast guard patrol assets to partner States – is often portrayed as an unqualified good. This paper examines both case studies in light of the Bateman thesis to conclude that the China Coast Guard may be more of a tool for de-escalation, or at least containment of tensions, than is commonly conceded and that the most obvious benefits of the Australian Pacific Patrol Boats program may have a strategic dimension.

Status of Indonesia's sovereign rights in the north natuna sea conflict area consequences of China's nine-dash line claim

The existence of sovereign rights in the North Natuna Sea has begun to be disturbed since China's claim of traditional fishing rights was strengthened by the nine-dash line claim. This claim includes the North Natuna Sea area into China's territorial sea, which makes this area a conflict area. The problem in this research is the existence of traditional fishing ground rights in UNCLOS III 1982 and the impact of the nine-dash line claim on Indonesia's sovereign rights in the conflict area of ??the North Natuna Sea. This study uses a normative legal research method with a statutory and conceptual approach. The results of the study explained that the 1982 UNCLOS III did not regulate traditional fishing ground, and the impact of the nine-dash line claim is very significant, as can be seen from the activities of Chinese fishers in the North Natuna Sea, which are supported by Chinese coast guard vessels, which have disrupted Indonesia's enjoyment of its sovereign rights. Thus, it can be concluded that the traditional fishing ground rights with the nine-dash line claim are not based on international law but are only based on China's unilateral claims and create conflicts that impact Indonesia.

SOVEREIGN IMMUNITY OF NON-COMMERCIAL GOVERNMENT VESSELS AND DUE REGARD: CHINA COAST GUARD IN THE NATUNAS

Coastal states possess sovereign rights and jurisdiction within their Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ), including the exercise of enforcement jurisdiction against foreign vessels conducting violations within the EEZ. However, certain ships are granted sovereign immunity and thus are not subject to coastal state’s jurisdiction. The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) only stipulated that injuries to the coastal state caused by activities conducted by a sovereign immune vessel will engage that vessel’s flag state responsibility. Indonesia had witnessed numerous violations within its EEZ, especially in waters around Natuna Islands. These violations are conducted by Chinese fishing vessels, which were escorted by China Coast Guard (CCG) vessels. Consequently violations by Chinese vessels would hamper Indonesia’s exercise of enforcement jurisdiction against Chinese fishermen caught committing illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing (IUUF), thus violating Indonesia’s sovereign rights and jurisdiction. This article discusses to what extent sovereign immunity applies to non-commercial government vessels, and whether they can be subjected to coastal state jurisdiction, should they hamper the exercise of coastal state’s enforcement jurisdiction within its EEZ. The article applies normative legal research by utilizing applicable regulations, theories, and existing practices. Sovereign immune vessels are required to pay due regard to other states, including coastal state. Activities constituting ‘abuse of rights’ jeopardizing coastal state’s exercise of enforcement jurisdiction will result in their flag state responsibility being invoked by the coastal state. This article recommends peaceful settlement of dispute through bilateral means, or multilateral means in the spirit of the 2002 Declaration of Conduct by pursuing a regional fisheries agreement.

Italy’s New Migration Control Policy: Stemming the Flow of Migrants From Libya Without Regard for Their Human Rights

During 2017, the Italian Government adopted a series of controversial measures in order to stem the increasing flow of migrants from Libya, with the full backing of the European Union. The Memorandum of Understanding between Italy and the Libyan Government of National Accord of 2 February 2017 provided the legal basis for most of them. In actual fact, those measures rapidly led to a significant reduction in the number of migrants arriving in Italy, while increasing that of migrants intercepted at sea by the Libyan Coast Guard and transferred to the detention centres managed by the Libyan Department for Combatting Illegal Immigration. As a result, the already inhuman conditions of detention therein further worsened. This article investigates whether and to what extent Italy can be held responsible under international law for human rights violations against migrants on Libyan soil and, at the hands of the Libyan Coast Guard, at sea. It is submitted that, owing to the active support to the Libyan Coast Guard and the adoption of a code of conduct restricting NGOs’ search and rescue activities, Italy is complicit in violations of the prohibition of torture and ill-treatment against migrants intercepted at sea and forcibly returned to Libya. It is also stressed that Italy would be responsible for directly violating the prohibition on torture and ill-treatment enshrined in Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights, if it were ascertained that Italian military personnel exercise de facto control over Libyan Coast Guard vessels transporting migrants back to Libyan territory. In the light of this, the author highlights the urgent need for the Italian Government to rethink its migration control policy, amending the said Memorandum of Understanding and modifying the aforementioned measures so as to prioritise the protection of migrants’ fundamental human rights.

Autonomous Calibration of Non-Contact Power Monitors

Non-contact power monitors use electromagnetic field sensors to measure voltage and current in multiphase power lines without any ohmic contact or geometric isolation of the conductors. The complex field geometry requires these sensors to be calibrated before use. Existing work has focused on manual calibration procedures requiring a service interruption, additional loads, or other intrusive techniques. This paper introduces an autonomous calibration technique that can be used to bootstrap additional non-contact power monitors from an existing power monitor located elsewhere in the distribution network. This provides the flexibility to “zoom-in” with downstream monitors or “zoom-out” with upstream monitors and efficiently target the loads of interest. Laboratory benchmarks and installations on the U.S. Coast Guard and Naval vessels show that autonomous calibration is accurate and robust with non-contact monitors reading within 1% of commercial power meters.

The Ortelius Incident in the Hinlopen Strait—A Case Study on How Satellite-Based AIS Can Support Search and Rescue Operations in Remote Waters

In this paper, Automatic Identification System (AIS) data collected from space is used to demonstrate how the data can support search and rescue (SAR) operations in remote waters. The data was recorded by the Norwegian polar orbiting satellite AISSat-1. This is a case study discussing the Ortelius incident in Svalbard in early June 2016. The tourist vessel flying the flag of Cyprus experienced engine failure in a remote part of the Arctic Archipelago. The passengers and crew were not harmed. There were no Norwegian Coast Guard vessels in the vicinity. The Governor of Svalbard had to deploy her vessel Polarsyssel to assist the Ortelius. The paper shows that satellite-based AIS enables SAR coordination centers to swiftly determine the identity and precise location of vessels in the vicinity of the troubled ship. This knowledge makes it easier to coordinate SAR operations.

Japan’s Coast Guard and Maritime Self-Defense Force in the East China Sea: Can a Black-and-White System Adapt to a Gray-Zone Reality?

Japan’s Coast Guard and Maritime Self-Defense Force in the East China Sea:Can a Black-and-White System Adapt to a Gray-Zone Reality? Céline Pajon (bio) KEYWORDS JAPAN, MARITIME SECURITY, COAST GUARD, EAST CHINA SEA [End Page 111] EXECUTIVE SUMMARY This essay examines the need for growing coordination between the Japan Coast Guard (JCG) and the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force (JMSDF) to better cope with gray-zone situations. MAIN ARGUMENT Coping with gray-zone situations is particularly challenging for Japan because its security posture is based on a binary system that complicates coordination between civilian and military agencies. In Japan, gray-zone situations generally refer to the challenges raised by China’s maritime activities around the disputed Senkaku Islands, creating situations that are neither peacetime nor wartime contingencies. Dealing with such situations requires careful and close management of law-enforcement contingencies that might escalate into military conflicts. Japan’s unique security system has so far prevented the adoption of a legal framework to regulate the coordination between the civilian JCG, which is primarily responsible for securing national waters, and the military JMSDF, which intervenes if a situation worsens. Despite some progress, legal and technical issues still prevent optimal cooperation between the two agencies, thus undermining Japan’s ability to respond to current challenges in the East China Sea. POLICY IMPLICATIONS • Because Japan has a binary security system that strictly divides civilian and military corps and activities, the country will struggle to adapt its institutions to China’s “salami slicing” strategy. • Ensuring a well-integrated response to gray-zone situations would ideally require a legal framework defining more precisely these situations and articulating the respective roles of the JMSDF and JCG. If such a framework is not possible, other steps should be taken, such as expanding technical interoperability between the JMSDF and JCG; developing a common, integrated maritime domain awareness; and increasing training and exercises on more realistic scenarios. • To improve its current security posture, Japan must implement a “whole of government” approach that ensures optimal coordination between civilian and military agencies rather than revising Article 9 of the constitution. [End Page 112] On August 6, 2016, an armada of 230 Chinese fishing boats, accompanied by 7 China Coast Guard (CCG) vessels, was spotted near Japanese waters around the Senkaku Islands in the East China Sea.1 This could have been the starting point of a nightmare scenario for Japan in which the disputed islands are taken by armed Chinese fishermen backed by big CCG ships and eventually military vessels, leaving no chance for the Japan Coast Guard (JCG) to adequately reply. The Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force (JMSDF) would then need to step in, with the risk of the situation escalating into a military conflict. Coping with “gray zone” situations, such as the above scenario, has been Japan’s core security challenge in recent years. Defined in the National Defense Program Guidelines of December 2013 as “neither pure peacetime nor contingencies over territory, sovereignty and maritime economic interests,” gray-zone situations mainly refer to the challenges raised by China’s “reactive assertiveness” around the disputed Senkaku Islands (known as the Diaoyu Islands in Chinese).2 Beijing is challenging Japan’s sovereign control by regularly sending vessels from law-enforcement agencies into its territorial waters and contiguous zone.3 Civilian or paramilitary forces are therefore used to change facts on the ground while pushing the targeted country to eventually take the initiative of using force to stop these activities. These incursions, which do not amount to an armed attack, are blurring the line between crime and defense, between law enforcement and military activities. Gray-zone situations have been identified by Tokyo since 2010 and have informed the transformation of Japan’s defense posture.4 Japan is organizing a “dynamic joint defense force” and redeploying troops onto the Ryukyu Islands, located in the southwest of the archipelago, closer to the [End Page 113] Senkaku Islands.5 Importantly, official documents call for more cooperation and coordination between the JMSDF, on the one hand, and the JCG and police forces, on the other.6 Indeed, the JCG is the primary agency responsible for patrolling and safeguarding Japanese waters: it...

Determining the Distribution of Coast Guard Vessels

A typical coast guard has complex responsibilities, subject to its multiple missions in maritime jurisdiction regions. These maritime jurisdiction regions can be partitioned into responsibility areas, and each type of coast guard vessel has a set of attributes for each responsibility area. The distribution of coast guard assets deployed in their respective areas of responsibility should be linked to the types of events occurring in these areas. The objective of this study is to determine the appropriate distribution of coast guard assets in various maritime zones; we do this by evaluating models that assign coast guard surface vessel types to missions in these maritime zones. We use the analytic network process model to compare various vessel types and determine the task-type weights for each vessel type. Weighted goal programming allows us to combine data, including the weights we derive from the use of other decision-aid tools. Our objective is to determine the best compromise solution for distributing coast guard assets into four main responsibility zones. The Turkish Coast Guard implemented the model in 2014, and decided to use it once a year prior to executing the main process in which it allocates coast guard assets.

Maritime Security in the Region: SCS and ECS as Key Arenas for Converging Political Interests

This article examines the situations in the South China Sea (SCS) and East China Sea (ECS) and the reasons for recent political and strategic attention. As background it reviews the history of maritime activities in Asia where there was no real maritime Great Power with continuity. It then discusses the latest situations in the ECS around the Senkaku Islands, where China's Coast Guard vessels and fishing boats have made occasional incursions into Japanese waters, and the relatively-less understood Scarborough Shoal and the Pratas Islands in the SCS that have strategic significance in a future powerbalance in the SCS. The article then notes the US rebalance to Asia and the interpretation of the principle of Freedom of Navigation. It continues with the strategic and diplomatic measures and operational and tactical measures that Japan should take. It concludes noting that Japan and the US must prepare a wide range of measures in advance to regain and maintain maritime security and stability.

Retrofittable Machine Condition and Structural Excitation Monitoring From the Terminal Box

Retrofittable self-powered sensors for machine condition monitoring ease the burden of installation and decision-making for maintenance and acoustic performance assessment. Terminal box magnetic power harvesting sensors are nonintrusive. They require no special wiring and can simultaneously observe and correlate important variables for machine diagnostics, including vibration and speed. These correlated data can be used to detect and differentiate imbalances from failing structural mounts, among other possibilities. New hardware and algorithms are presented for enabling in situ vibration monitoring, with demonstrations on data sets from US Coast Guard vessels. A specific algorithmic focus of this paper is estimation of a machine's contribution to structure-borne noise and vibration, an important consideration for ship acoustic signature.

SLIMM-Scalable LIquid Metal cooled small Modular Reactor: Preliminary design and performance analyses

This paper presents a preliminary design of the Scalable LIquid Metal cooled small Modular (SLIMM) reactor for generating 10–100 MWth. It has an estimated operation life of ∼5.8 full-power year (FPY) at 100 MWth and ∼33.3 FPY at 20 MWth and would be fabricated and sealed in the factory, installed below ground, to avoid direct impact by missiles or aircraft, and mounted onto seismic oscillation bearings to resist earthquakes. In-vessel natural circulation of liquid sodium cools the reactor during nominal operation and after shutdown, with the aid of in-vessel Na/Na heat exchanger (HEX) and a tall chimney, while limiting the sodium exit temperature from the core to ≤ 820 K. The design takes advantage of the high heavy metal ratio, high melting point and high thermal conductivity of the UN fuel, and uses HT-9 stainless steel for the UN fuel rods cladding, the core structure, and the reactor primary and guard vessels. The HT-9 is a strong and high corrosion resistant alloy that is compatible with UN and liquid Na at the SLIMM reactor operating temperatures. The active core is comprised of 36 hexagonal assemblies with scalloped-walls BeO shrouds. Each assembly is loaded with 37 UN fuel rods. The core has a negative temperature reactivity feedback, a hard-fast neuron energy spectrum, and independent reactor emergency shutdown (ESD) and control (RC) systems. In the unlikely event of a malfunction of the in-vessel Na/Na HEX, the large sodium mass in the reactor vessel would effectively store heat, until natural circulation of ambient air on the outer surface of the guard vessel can safely remove the decay heat generated in the reactor core. Variable conductance liquid-metal (LM) heat pipes, along the primary vessel wall, transport thermal energy to thermoelectric modules to generate 10 s of kWe of auxiliary power for maintaining the plant's vital functions during nominal reactor operation and in case of a total loss of conventional onsite and offsite powers.

Noise and exposure of personnel aboard vessels in the Royal Norwegian Navy.

Despite awareness of noise aboard vessels at sea, few studies have reported measured noise levels aboard ships. This study aimed to describe the noise levels aboard vessels in the Royal Norwegian Navy (RNoN), and to assess the noise exposure of personnel aboard RNoN vessels. In 2012/2013 noise measurements were conducted aboard 14 RNoN vessels from four different vessel classes (frigates, coastal corvettes, mine vessels, and coast guard vessels) which were included in this study. Mean and median A-weighted noise levels (L p,A) in decibel (dB(A)) were calculated for different locations in each vessel class. The noise exposure of RNoN personnel was assessed by dosimeter measurements, and with a task-based (TB) strategy. The TB strategy used means of area measured noise levels in locations and the personnel's mean reported time spent in the respective locations to estimate the exposure. Area measurements of noise during sailing with typical operating modes, showed that for all vessel classes the noise levels were high in engine rooms with median L p,A ranging from 86.4 to 105.3 dB(A). In all the other locations the vessel class with the highest noise levels (coastal corvettes) had a median L p,A ranging from 71.7 to 95.0 dB(A), while the vessel class with the lowest noise levels (coast guard vessels) had a median L p,A ranging from 41.5 to 57.8 dB(A). For all vessel classes the engineers and electricians had amongst the highest 24-hour noise exposure (L p,A,24h), both before and after adjusting for estimated use of hearing protective devices (L p,A,24h > 67.3 dB(A)). The vessel class with the highest personnel exposure levels (coastal corvettes) had L p,A,24h ranging from 76.6 to 79.3 dB(A). The vessel class with the lowest personnel exposure levels (coast guard vessels) had an L p,A,24h ranging from 47.4 to 67.3 dB(A). In general, the dosimeter measurements gave higher exposure levels than those estimated with the TB strategy. All vessel classes, except the coast guard vessels, had noise levels exceeding the RNoN standard's recommended maximum noise levels. The area measured noise levels and the personnel's exposure estimates indicate that navy personnel aboard RNoN vessels are at risk of acquiring adverse health effects from exposure to noise, and that a program to reduce the noise levels should be implemented.

A Search and Rescue Training Simulator for the China Coast Guard Vessels

The China Coast Guard vessels assume the search and rescue mission in Chinas coastal waters. Simulator training is an effective means to improve search and rescue efficiency. Through the analysis of the actual search and rescue process, a search and rescue training simulator is designed for the China Coast Guard vessels. The system structure, the search model, and the SART hardware simulation technology are introduced in the paper.

Dispatch Troops Without a Just Cause: Fish Islands Dispute and Taiwan's Netizenss Sentiments Toward Japan and China

Fish islands dispute has caused tensions among China, Japan and Taiwan for decades. Though Taiwanese government keeps a low profile on the dispute, the issue has flared up online discussion among Taiwan’s netizens. Many consider Taiwanese people more pro-Japan than other countries in East Asia, as elder generation living on the island shares nostalgia toward Japan, and as its younger generation charmed by Japanese manga and anime, let alone Taiwan being the top donor to Japan’s 311 earthquake. In this vein, Taiwanese people should accommodate well with Japan. However, Fish islands dispute may tell another story.The act of Japanese government to nationalize Fish islands this year (2012) has provoked anger among its neighbor countries. It has mentioned in ancient Chinese wisdom by Sun Zi in The Art of War: “A just cause premises dispatching troops.” However, to nationalize Fish islands and even dispatch coast guard vessels to protect the islands are deemed lack of the very just cause by Japan’s neighbor countries, especially China. Are Taiwanese people in favor of Japan’s stance on Fish islands dispute due to the attachment for Japan or the other way round?This paper applies text mining technique and sentiment analysis to the digital data of Taiwan’s largest Bulletin Board System Station – PTT established by college students and extracts postings concerning Fish islands dispute in the past four years (2009-2012). By this bottom-up approach, we aim to examine Taiwan’s netizens’ emotion toward the two hegemonies – i.e., Japan and China and to see whether the strong attachment to Japan has any impact on netizens’ opinions on the dispute.

CFD modeling and thermal-hydraulic analysis for the passive decay heat removal of a sodium-cooled fast reactor

In this study, a pool-typed design similar to sodium-cooled fast reactor (SFR) of the fourth generation reactors has been modeled using CFD simulations to investigate the characteristics of a passive mechanism of Shutdown Heat Removal System (SHRS). The main aim is to refine the reactor pool design in terms of temperature safety margin of the sodium pool. Thus, an appropriate protection mechanism is maintained in order to ensure the safety and integrity of the reactor system during a shutdown mode without using any active heat removal system. The impacts on the pool temperature are evaluated based on the following considerations: (1) the aspect ratio of pool diameter to depth, (2) the values of thermal emissivity of the surface materials of reactor and guard vessels, and (3) innerpool liner and core periphery structures. The computational results show that an optimal pool design in geometry can reduce the maximum pool temperature down to ∼551 °C which is substantially lower than ∼627 °C as calculated for the reference case. It is also concluded that the passive Reactor Air Cooling System (RACS) is effective in removing decay heat after shutdown. Furthermore, thermal radiation from the surface of the reactor vessel is found to be important; and thus, the selection of the vessel surface materials with a high emissivity would be a crucial factor for consideration in safety design. This study provides future researchers with a guideline on designing safety measures for the fourth generation of the fast reactors with no particular reference to any specific manufacturer.