Technical/Upgrading Activities
Recent technical upgrades and international contacts have included providing a plant analyzer; supplying a backup diesel generator, a seismic evaluation, and a thermal imaging system; providing studies of control room human factors and techniques of risk-based maintenance; and assessing the Kozloduy training programs and emergency operatings procedures.
Plant Analyzer Upgrade
The Kozloduy plant staff have been working with staff of Brookhaven National Laboratory in developing an analyzer deck for Kozloduy Unit 6. Kozloduy staff have analyzed several off-normal events related to the development of emergency operating instructions.
Backup Diesel Generator
A 1000-kW backup diesel generator was delivered to the Kozloduy reactor plant. This generator provides an additional backup power source to operate key reactor safety systems if an emergency should make both the offsite and existing emergency onsite power systems unavailable. Besides delivery and assembly of the generator, training in use of the generator has been given to Kozloduy staff.
Seismic Evaluation
A seismic evaluation is nearly complete of the cable shelves in the shield buildings that surrounds the reactor containment structures at Kozloduy reactor Units 5 and 6. It is important to verify the structural integrity of those buildings to ensure that they would not collapse or damage surrounding equipment or disrupt power supplies during a seismic event. The scope of this project is to determine the existing seismic capacity of the shield buildings and prepare design packages to upgrade them to full seismic capacity.
Thermal Imaging System
Contracting is under way to provide Kozloduy with the Nuclear Maintenance Activities Center proprietary thermal imaging system, which is a camera that displays the infrared spectrum. with a computer system that analyzes what the camera "sees." Plant personnel will use the imagining system to identify and trace "hot spots" that could indicate a potential fire hazard. A full training program associated with this equipment will also be provided.
Risk-Based Maintenance
A computer code was developed to interface with an existing computerized database developed as part of Kozloduy's probabilistic safety assessment (PSA). The purpose of this tool is to provide plant engineers and management with information related to the root causes of equipment failures by focusing on those components, systems, and structures that are most critical to risk.
Emergency Operating Procedures
Staff from the Kozloduy plant have been participating in EOI development through assistance provided by the U.S. Department of Energy, INPO, and U.S. utilities. The aim is to transfer the U.S. methodology for using symptom-based EOIs. The effort is organized through four working groups, one for each type of reactor (
VVER-440/230
,
VVER-440/213
,
VVER-1000
, and
RBMK
), so that working groups can focus together on similar reactors.
