Technical/Upgrading Activities
Symptom-Based Emergency Operating Instructions
U.S. experts are involved in drafting and reviewing the symptom-based emergency operating instructions (EOIs) for Units 1 and 2 at Rivne. Rivne is one of the two pilot plants for implementing EOIs for
VVER-440/213
s (the other is Kola). The Rivne plant has committed few resources to the project, and, as of July 1996, Rivne staff were donating their free time to EOI development. By August 1996, 19 of the 33 EOIs had drafted.
Analysis work is needed to support continued EOI development. U.S. representatives have recommended that the Rivne plant work with KFKI (Hungary), NRI-Rez (Czech Republic), and/or VUJE (Slovakia) to do the required analysis. Work is scheduled for completion in March 1998.
Control Room Simulator
Discussions continue between U.S. representatives, S3 Technologies, Goscomatom, and the Rivne plant about building a full-scope simulator for the
VVER-1000
Unit 3. Contractors will provide computer hardware, operating system software, input/output system, power supplies, and control room panels.
In July 1996, the Rivne plant ordered the simulator control room panels from KHEMZ, a Ukrainian firm in the city of Kharkov. The firm's facilities have been inspected and approved by staff of S3 Technologies. However, S3 Technologies will provide design support because KHEMZ has no experience building such control panel mockups. The mockups are modifications of actual panels, using a custom I/O system for computer interfacing.
Work is scheduled for completion in June 1999.
Fuel Cycle Safety
Ontario International will use some of the money in Canada's nuclear safety assistance package to Ukraine to adapt Ontario Hydro's dry storage canister to accommodate VVER spent fuel assemblies from the Rivne plant. The canisters will be manufactured in Ukraine.
Generating Equipment Upgrade
In 1994, the German government gave Ukraine an electric generator for the Rivne plant's VVER-440 units. Under the European Union's TACIS program, Rivne receives about 1.6-million ECU ($2.03 million) of equipment from German companies: equipment for vibration monitoring of coolant pumps, steam generator manipulators and fire protection improvements. As part of the TACIS aid, the French company Intercontrole is supplying eddy-current inspection equipment for Rivne's steam generators.
Safety Analysis
In addition, Germany's GRS and the Ministry of Environment and Nuclear Safety have launched a program that will include a safety analysis of all three reactors at the Rivne plant and a complete evaluation of each unit's operating records. Also under TACIS, Germany's GRS, France's IPSN and EdF are instructing Rivne personnel in the methodology for deterministic and probabilistic safety analysis.
