July 2000 Highlight

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Kazakhstan Lithuania Russia Slovakia

Ukraine United States Cross-Cutting Activities Planned Activities

Russia

Dr. James Turner, Director of the Office of International Nuclear Safety and Cooperation in the U.S. Department of Energy, traveled to Moscow and Leningrad NPP July 23 through 28. The visit provided an opportunity for Dr. Turner to meet with key nuclear power organizations in Moscow. In addition, Dr. Turner was able to support the activities of a concurrent visit to Moscow and Leningrad NPP by the Secretary of Energy’s Advisory Board (SEAB), which was reviewing DOE safety activities in Russia.

Meetings were held at the Russian International Nuclear Safety Center, which supports research related to nuclear safety; Gosatomnadzor, the nuclear regulatory agency in Russia; the Kurchatov Institute, a scientific center involved in nuclear plant design and research; Rosenergoatom, a business sector of MinAtom, responsible for all nuclear power plant operations in Russia except at Leningrad; the Russian Institute for Nuclear Power Plant Operations (VNIIAES); and MinAtom, the major agency with oversight of nuclear-related activities in Russia; and at Leningrad NPP. (Rich Reister, DOE, 301-903-0234; Bob Moffitt, PNNL, 509-372-4108)

A progress meeting on the Smolensk safe-shutdown analysis project was held July 17 through 20 at the offices of Engineering Planning and Management Inc. (EPM) in Boston, Massachusetts. Analysts from VNIIAES, Atomenergoprojekt, and Rosenergoatom, as well as technical specialists from EPM and Brookhaven and Pacific Northwest national laboratories, participated. They reviewed reports covering the probabilistic portion of the analysis and the recommendations for fire safety upgrades to correct identified deficiencies.

Reviewing progress on the Smolensk safe-shutdown study were (left to right) Andrew Minister, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory; Robert Kalantari, EPM; Rich Denning, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory; Ali Azarm, Brookhaven National Laboratory; Vladimir Morozov, Atomenergoprojekt; Yulia Rumyantseva, Rosenergoatom; Mike Archdeacon, Bechtel National; and Guerman Soldatov, VNIIAES.

The Russian working group indicated a need for fire frequency information to complete the probabilistic analysis portion of the overall study. The U.S. team will supply the Russian group with information on the frequency of fires in U.S. operating nuclear reactors to provide a basis for estimating fire frequencies for Smolensk NPP.

The project team is planning a workshop to present the results of the Smolensk safe-shutdown analysis and to discuss the fire safety of other operating nuclear reactors in Russia. That workshop will be held in Moscow in October 2000. (Grigory Trosman, DOE, 301-903-3581; Andrew Minister, PNNL, 509-376-4938)

The steering and technical committees for the in-depth safety assessment under way at Leningrad NPP met at the offices of ES-Konsult (Stockholm, Sweden) and Leningrad NPP (Sosnovy Bor, Russia) during the week of July 17. Project technical members meet regularly to assess and address project production and technical issues. Meeting participants included representatives from ES-Konsult, Leningrad NPP, and Pacific Northwest National Laboratory. Key meeting topics included development of a safety concept production plan and near-term tasks related to the development of EOIs.

The safety concept chapter is a critical element in producing the overall in-depth safety assessment. It summarizes a significant portion of the assessment’s technical material marking the end of the technical production of nine deterministic, probabilistic, engineering, and institutional studies. Pacific Northwest National Laboratory coordinated the development of a production plan for the safety concept reports. The plan, approved by a signed protocol, involved participation of representatives from Sweden, Finland, Great Britain, Russia, and the United States. Coordinating activities took place at meetings at both ES-Konsult and the in-depth safety assessment bureau office for Leningrad NPP.

In meetings with Leningrad NPP’s training department, participants considered the use of reference materials developed for the in-depth safety assessment for future training activities. The training department is interested in using the assessment’s deterministic analysis to benchmark the performance of its recently competed simulator system description reports as training reference material. Training department representatives agreed to review the scope of the safety assessment database to ensure parity with the system nomenclature and boundaries. Leningrad’s deputy chief engineer will involve the training department in future in-depth safety assessment production meetings. (Walter Pasedag, DOE, 301-903-3628; Sam McKay, PNNL, 509-372-4059)