September 2000 Highlight

Armenia Bulgaria Czech Republic Hungary

Kazakhstan Lithuania Russia Slovakia

Ukraine United States Cross-Cutting Activities Planned Activities

Ukraine

Ukrainian nuclear industry agrees to implement event analysis, reporting, and lessons learned processes

During a late-August meeting held at the Crimea Institute of Science and Engineering (Crimea Center), representatives from the five nuclear power plants in Ukraine, EnergoAtom, Ukrainian subcontractors, Novator-Kyiv, and the Crimea Center reviewed progress on pilot implementation of event analysis procedures and database at Zaporizhzhya NPP. A U.S. participant from Pacific Northwest National Laboratory also attended the meeting. Participants agreed on actions to fully implement event analysis, reporting, and lessons learned (EARLL) processes at all the nuclear plants in Ukraine. The knowledge gained from effective root-cause determinations and reporting of lessons learned from minor problems helps prevent the escalation of minor problems into serious accidents. Implementation of the EARLL processes and database at all nuclear plants in Ukraine will facilitate sharing of information among the plants. During the meeting, the EnergoAtom representative reviewed the project history and led a discussion of future work, and the representative from Zaporizhzhya NPP summarized the pilot work that had been undertaken at that plant. Representatives from Novator-Kyiv demonstrated the capabilities of the pilot EARLL database, and Crimea Center representatives summarized the results obtained from use of the pilot procedures to analyze a Zaporizhzhya Unit 2 turbine trip event. The U.S. team representative provided perspective on the use of EARLL processes in the United States. (Dennis Meyers, DOE, 301-903-1418; Lief Erickson, PNNL, 509-372-4097)

Rivne completes work plans and project guidelines for hazards analysis

On September 1, Ukrainian specialists from the Safety Analysis Laboratory of the International Chornobyl Center (SAL/ICC) completed work plans and project guidelines for the data collection and screening activities that will support analyses of both "internal" hazards (e.g., fires, internal floods) and "external" hazards (e.g., earthquakes, external floods) for the in-depth safety assessment (ISA) project at Rivne NPP.

The completed work plans and project guidelines provide the basis for the data collection and screening phase of the Rivne ISA internal hazards and external hazards activities. Rivne plant staff will be trained by specialists from SAL/ICC to participate in these activities. (Walter Pasedag, DOE, 301-903-3628; Charles Dickerman, ANL, 630-252-4622)

International committee reviews safety assessment methodology for Khmelnytskyy

On September 6 and 7, an international peer review committee convened at the Office of Data Systems and Solutions in Prague to review a methodology developed for performing the in-depth safety assessment (ISA) at Khmelnytskyy NPP. The review committee, which included representatives from Brookhaven National Laboratory (the meeting coordinator), Engineering Technologies and Development (Ukraine), Fortum Engineering (Finland), Gesellschaft fuer Anlagen- und Reaktorsicherheit mbH (Germany), and SCIENTECH (United Kingdom), agreed with the basic project concept of using analysis elements from a similar "lead-plant" to reduce the effort required for developing the Khmelnytskyy-specific ISA. The committee provided comments to guide implementation of the concept. (Walter Pasedag, DOE, 301-903-3628; Charles Dickerman, ANL, 630-252-4622)