April 2000 Highlights

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Ukraine United States Cross-Cutting Activities Planned Activities

Highlights

South Ukraine Unit 2 (middle) came on-line in the early 1980s, along with Unit 1 (left). Unit 3 (right) began operation in 1989. All three units are VVER-1000 reactors.

Full-scope simulator completed for South Ukraine

During April, U.S. and Russian technical specialists finished all work associated with the construction and installation of a full-scope simulator at South Ukraine nuclear power plant (NPP). The state-of-the-art simulator will be used to train control room operators for South Ukraine's Unit 3, a VVER-1000 reactor.

Full-scope simulators have proven their worth to the nuclear industry as a very effective tool for preparing reactor operators to respond appropriately to actual emergency situations. A full-scope simulator provides hands-on training by replicating the control room of a nuclear power plant. A computer links an instructor station with a full-size physical replica of the control panels. As reactor operators manipulate controls, the simulator responds by displaying the changes in conditions that would occur in the plant. The instructor can select the initial state of the plant, introduce malfunctions and failures, freeze the exercise, and enable retrospective viewing.

A test operator from South Ukraine NPP checks through the final site acceptance test procedure for the Unit 3 full-scope simulator.

Completion of the site acceptance testing at the plant in late April represents the culmination of a jointly funded Ukrainian-U.S. project that began in July 1995. Through the U.S. Department of Energy's cooperative program to improve the safety of Soviet-designed reactors, the United States purchased the computer hardware, software, input/output system, power supplies, and control panels. The U.S. team also completed the system software development and testing initiated by South Ukraine NPP.

Project participants have scheduled the simulator's official turnover to the plant for early June (see Planned Activities). (John Yoder, DOE, 301-903-5650; Joe Cleary, PNNL, 509-372-4094)

Key participants in the Kola Unit 4 simulator project gather for the official turnover at the plant in April. Pictured in front of the new simulator are, left to right, Joe Cleary, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory; John Yoder, U.S. Department of Energy; Oleg Sharbarkin, interpreter; Yuri Filimonstev, VNIIAES; Gennady Alekseev, Rosenergoatom; Andrei Zlokazov, VNIIAES/GET; Leonid Kumkov, Kola NPP; Viktor Petrushin, Rosenergoatom; Yulia Rumiantseva, Rosenergoatom; A. A. Afanaziev, GET; and Sergey Netchaev, M. A. Kvasov, and V. P. Pirog, Kola NPP.

Priest's blessing highlights Kola simulator turnover activities

In meetings held April 11 through 13, the U.S. team officially turned over a state-of-the-art full-scope simulator to Kola NPP. Completed in March 2000 (see March Activity Report), the simulator will be used in training operating staff for the VVER-440/213 reactor of Kola Unit 4.

Participating in the turnover activities were officials and technical specialists from Rosenergoatom, the All-Russian Institute for Nuclear Power Plant Operations (VNIIAES), and General Energy Technologies (GET). GET is the Moscow-based joint venture between VNIIAES and U.S. simulator contractor GSE Power Systems, Inc., of Columbia, Maryland. Representative Kola NPP managers and team members from the U.S. Department of Energy and Pacific Northwest National Laboratory also took part.

Kola Unit 4 simulator receives traditional Russian Orthodox blessing during turnover.

At the invitation of plant management, a local priest formally blessed the simulator, highlighting the turnover.

During the meetings, training staff from Kola NPP demonstrated the instructional program they had developed to incorporate the full-scope simulator into the plant's overall program for training reactor operators. (John Yoder, DOE, 301-903-5650; Joe Cleary, PNNL, 509-372-4094)