Dec/Jan/Feb 2000/2001 Contents Highlight

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Ukraine United States Cross-Cutting Activities Planned Activities

Russia

Simulator instructor training completed at Kola
In early December, a two-week workshop was held at Kola nuclear plant to complete the transfer of the Simulator Instructor Training Course to trainers at that facility. U.S. trainers from Sonalysts Inc. and Human Performance Analysis Corp. facilitated the workshop, which focused on pilot implementation of the course. Participants from the Russian Institute for Nuclear Power Plant Operations (VNIIAES) and Kola and Novovoronezh nuclear plants led the pilot program presentation and various topical presentations, and the project manager from Pacific Northwest National Laboratory provided feedback based on his observations of the activities. Six students, all instructors from the multifunction simulator-training group at Kola, received the training.

The Simulator Instructor Training Course, originally developed for use in Ukraine, is being transferred to the Russian organizations to further facilitate the use and understanding of simulators for training-related activities. (John Yoder, DOE, 301-903-5650; Al Ankrum, PNNL, 509-372-4095)

Smolensk safe shutdown analysis report reviewed
Specialists from Brookhaven National Laboratory and Pacific Northwest National Laboratory met in early December in Moscow with the Russian working group that is performing the Smolensk Unit 3 Safe Shutdown Analysis Project. The Russian working group performing the analysis consists of specialists from Russian subcontractor General Energy Technologies (GET). The primary purpose of the meeting was to review and discuss the Russian task report “Development of the Probabilistic Model for the Analysis of the Fire Impact upon the Safe Shutdown of Unit 3.” The report describes the probability of reactor core damage due to a fire in rooms identified by deterministic analysis to have vulnerabilities and identifies several rooms where fire could cause damage to electrical cables and/or equipment, thus increasing the probability of core damage. The U.S. specialists reviewed the report and provided comments. The final report will be submitted in March 2001. (Grigory Trosman, NNSA, 301-903-3581; Andy Minister, PNNL, 509-376-4938)

Fire protection workshop well attended
A workshop on “Methods of Fire Hazards Analysis of Russian Nuclear Power Plants” was held at VNIIAES in early December. Sixty-seven participants from 5 countries and representing 24 nuclear power plants attended the workshop. The participants represented technical specialists, regulators, nuclear power plant fire protection staff, design institutes, and the Russian State Fire Protection Department.

Nineteen presentations were made at the workshop including the results of the Smolensk Safe Shutdown Analysis and the status of the Zaporizhzhya Safe Shutdown Analysis. Following are brief summaries of some of the presentations.

• The head of the State Fire Protection Department presented his organization’s perspective on fire protection and suppression at nuclear power plants. There were 26 fires between 1995 and 1999, and there had been 2 fires in 2000 up to the time of the workshop.

• The Leningrad nuclear plant has used the U.S. National Nuclear Security Administration Core Protection Evaluation Methodology (RCPEM) to develop a safe shutdown analysis for fire-caused events at Unit 3. The methodology has not been applied in its entirety.

• A probabilistic analysis of fire events has been completed at Ignalina nuclear plant, and fire protection upgrades have been made to fire barriers and to the structural steel in the turbine hall. Ignalina plans to use RCPEM to perform a safe shutdown analysis. Swiss companies will be supporting that activity.

• A specialist from the All-Russian Institute of Fire Protection (VNIIPO) made a presentation on the best approach to performing fire hazards analyses. VNIIPO agrees with the U.S. approach of using a combined deterministic and probabilistic analysis approach to the studies. They believe the methodology needs to be modified to include requirements from several Russian normative documents.

• Kola nuclear plant used the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) methodology for fire hazards analysis of VVER reactors for an analysis of Kola Unit 4. They developed a database to analyze the interaction between rooms. They also have developed a cable database and are in the process of entering the cables into the database. In the past 2 years, they have spent approximately 50 million rubles installing fire protection upgrades at all of the units, and they plan to spend about the same amount in the next 3 years on additional fire protection upgrades.

• At Balakova, a limited scope fire hazards analysis has been performed, and at Novovoronezh, a fire probabilistic safety assessment is being performed on Unit 5. At Kalinin Unit 2, a deterministic and probabilistic fire analysis is planned for 2001.

(Grigory Trosman, NNSA, 301-903-3581; Andy Minister, PNNL, 509-376-4938)

Normative documents workshop held in Moscow
Representatives of VNIIAES; the Novovoronezh Training Center; Balakovo, Kursk, and Novovoronezh nuclear power plants; and Pacific Northwest National Laboratory met in Moscow in December to participate in the second Normative Document Workshop. These organizations were the major participants in the first workshop, which was held in September 2000. The purpose of the second workshop was to review the draft documents created as a result of the first workshop. The documents describe the Russian simulator standards and the use of training aids in training programs. Participants presented their views on the content and purpose of the documents and made suggestions for revisions.

The documents were revised by mid-January 2001, and a short 2-day review session with VNIIAES and the training organizations was conducted to make additional revision suggestions prior to submitting the documents to the regulator, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, and remaining training organizations. A final workshop in March 2001 will incorporate the recommended changes and result in the final version of the documents, with the intent of getting regulator approval. (John Yoder, DOE, 301-903-5650; Ken Erickson, PNNL, 509-372-4063)

Full-scope simulator project initiated at Rostov
In mid-December, representatives from Rosenergoatom, VNIIAES, GET, Rostov nuclear power plant, the U.S. National Nuclear Security Administration, and Pacific Northwest National Laboratory met to discuss the new Rostov simulator project.

The purpose of the meeting was to initiate implementation of the joint project. A memorandum of understanding detailing initial roles and responsibilities as well as a Joint Project Work Plan (JPWP) were developed and signed by the participants. Minatom and the National Nuclear Security Administration approved the JPWP on January 31, 2001. The outcome of this project will be a full-scope simulator for the newly commissioned Rostov nuclear plant. (John Yoder, DOE, 301-903-5650; Jeff Ace, PNNL, 509-375-2640)