January/February 2000 - Highlight

Armenia - Bulgaria - Czech Republic - Hungary

- Kazakhstan - Lithuania - Russia - Slovakia

- Ukraine - United States - Cross-Cutting Activities - Planned Activities

Planned Activities

* March 2 — Vilnius, Lithuania
Management and Operational Safety. The Lithuanian Nuclear Safety Advisory Committee will meet to review activities and ongoing safety improvement work at Ignalina NPP. The U.S. representative on this committee, Future Resources Associates, will travel to Lithuania to participate in this regular meeting. This committee, comprising members from Lithuania, Russia, Ukraine, Japan, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Sweden, and Finland, advises Ignalina management and Lithuania government officials on safety matters at the plant. (Dennis Meyers, DOE, 301-903-1418; Lief Erickson, PNNL, 509-372-4097)

* March 13-16 — Kyiv, Ukraine
Plant Safety Assessment. Drawing on their experience as the contractor for quality assurance and peer review for U.S.-supported safety assessments at Kola and Novovoronezh NPPs, specialists from the Russian Academy of Sciences (IBRAE) will present a one-day seminar on peer review and quality assurance for scientists from Engineering Technologies and Developments and Gesellschaft fur Anlagen und Reaktorsicherheit mbH. The seminar will transfer training and technology needed to perform independent peer reviews of the in-depth safety assessments under way at nuclear power plant sites in Ukraine. A specialist from Brookhaven National Laboratory also will participate in the seminar. (Walter Pasedag, DOE, 301-903-3628; Christian Kot, ANL, 630-252-6151; Ted Ginsberg, BNL, 516-344-2620)

* March 17 — Zaporizhzhya NPP, Ukraine
Engineering and Technology. The U.S.-provided safety parameter display system for Zaporizhzhya Unit 3 will undergo site acceptance tests at the plant. (Richard Reister, DOE, 301-903-0234; Rich Denning, PNNL, 614-424-7412; Frank Panisko, PNNL, 509-372-4472)

* March 20-24 — Armenia NPP, Armenia
Engineering and Technology. Representatives from the U.S. Department of Energy, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, and Burns & Roe Enterprises, Inc., will hold discussions with plant staff on completion of major projects already under way. New activities also will be discussed. (Dennis Meyers, DOE, 301-903-1418; Rich Denning, PNNL, 614-424-7412

* March 20-31 — Zaporizhzhya NPP, Ukraine
Simulators/Training. Training specialists from the Engineering and Technical Center for the Training of Nuclear Industry Personnel and Khmelnytskyy and Zaporizhzhya NPPs will present the expanded simulator instructor training course. Nuclear power plant simulator instructors will be the students in this course. U.S. team members from Sonalysts and Human Performance Analysis Corporation will review and comment on the presentation. (John Yoder, DOE, 301-903-5650; Joe Cleary, PNNL, 509-372-4094)

* March 23 — Slavutych, Ukraine
Chornobyl Initiatives. Ukrainian and U.S. representatives will participate in the official opening of the International Radioecology Laboratory. The Laboratory, a part of the International Chornobyl Center, was created to facilitate and expand international research on the environmental effects of the 1986 Chornobyl accident. Top-level managers from the U.S. Department of Energy, University of Georgia (USA), and the Savannah River Ecology Laboratory are expected to participate in the opening, as are Ukrainian officials from the Ministries of Energy and Emergency Situations, Chornobyl NPP, and the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine. (Riaz Awan, DOE, 301-903-2687; Michele Dash, PNNL, 202-586-3550)

* March 28 — Rivne NPP, Ukraine
Engineering and Technology. Site acceptance tests will be conducted for the Rivne Unit 3 safety parameter display system. (Richard Reister, DOE, 301-903-0234; Rich Denning, PNNL, 614-424-7412; Frank Panisko, PNNL, 509-372-4472)

* March 30 — Slavutych, Ukraine
Chornobyl Initiatives. The Council of Members, International Chornobyl Center, will meet to discuss strategic planning and organizational and project development. Members, who comprise senior officials from Ukraine, the United States, the United Kingdom, Japan, France, and Germany, are anticipated participants. (Riaz Awan, DOE, 301-903-2687; Michele Dash, PNNL, 202-586-3550)

* March 27- 31 (tentative) - Rivne NPP, Ukraine
Management and Operational Safety. Ukrainian specialists will conduct an audit of nuclear fuel management and handling at Rivne NPP. The material collected for and during this audit will provide a framework and field data from which a functional area performance guide for fuel management can be developed for use at all nuclear power plants in Ukraine. (Dennis Meyers, DOE, 301-903-1418; Lief Erickson, PNNL, 509-372-4097)

* Late March-early April — Armenia NPP, Armenia
Engineering and Technology. The U.S.-provided safety parameter display system will undergo site acceptance testing at Armenia NPP. Plant technical staff and representatives of U.S. contractors Science Applications International Corporation, Data Systems & Solutions, and Burns & Roe Enterprises, Inc., will participate in the testing. (Richard Reister, DOE, 301-903-0234; Rich Denning, PNNL, 614-424-7412; Frank Panisko, PNNL, 509-372-4472)

* April 3-7 — Zaporizhzhya NPP, Ukraine
Simulators and Training. Zaporizhzhya NPP will host a training course on the validation and verification of simulators at nuclear power plants. Technical specialists from the Balakovo Training Center, VNIIAES, and Brookhaven National Laboratory will present the course. Three representatives each from the training centers at Rivne, South Ukraine, and Zaporizhzhya NPPs are expected to participate, as are staff of the Engineering and Technical Center for the Training of Nuclear Industry Personnel and the Ukraine State Nuclear Regulatory Administration. (John Yoder, DOE, 301-903-5650; Joe Cleary, PNNL, 509-372-4079, Peter Kohut, BNL, 631-344-4982)

* April 10-13 — Boston, Massachusetts, USA
Engineering and Technology. Specialists from Engineering Planning and Management Inc. (EPM) will host a progress meeting on the safe-shutdown analysis under way at Zaporizhzhya NPP. Participants will include analysts from Kyiv Energoprojekt as well as technical specialists from EPM and Brookhaven and Pacific Northwest national laboratories. Participants will review comments on two reports documenting specific analysis tasks. They also will discuss the start of the deterministic and probabilistic analysis tasks. (Grigory Trosman, DOE, 301-903-3581; Andrew Minister, PNNL, 509-376-4938)

* May 22-27 (tentative) — Kyiv and South Ukraine NPP, Ukraine
Management and Operational Safety. U.S. specialists will work with Ukrainian team members to prepare a plan for auditing radiation safety management at South Ukraine NPP. Representatives of South Ukraine NPP, Energoatom, the Nuclear Power Plant Operational Support Institute, SCIENTECH, Inc., and Pacific Northwest National Laboratory will participate. The South Ukraine audit plan and resulting audit are intended to provide a framework and field data from which a functional area performance guide can be developed for use at all nuclear power plants in Ukraine. (Dennis Meyers, DOE, 301-903-1418; Lief Erickson, PNNL, 509-372-4097)

* April 25 — South Ukraine NPP, Ukraine
Engineering and Technology. Site acceptance testing will be conducted for the Rivne Unit 2 safety parameter display system. (Richard Reister, DOE, 301-903-0234; Rich Denning, PNNL, 614-424-7412; Frank Panisko, PNNL, 509-372-4472)

* May 27-June 4 — Scholkino, Ukraine
Management and Operational Safety. Specialists from Ukraine's Crimea Scientific and Engineering Center and Zaporizhzhya NPP will present a training seminar on the application of procedures for event analysis and reporting. Additional Zaporizhzhya NPP personnel will participate as trainees. The seminar seeks to provide a plant-wide understanding of procedures and improved practices for nuclear power plant event analysis and reporting to Energoatom. (Dennis Meyers, DOE, 301-903-1418; Lief Erickson, PNNL, 509-372-4079)