Dec/Jan/Feb 2000/2001 Contents Highlight

Armenia Bulgaria Czech Republic Hungary

Kazakhstan Lithuania Russia Slovakia

Ukraine United States Cross-Cutting Activities Planned Activities

Ukraine

Quality assurance audit conducted at Khmelnytskyy
In early December 2000, specialists from the Khmelnytskyy nuclear power plant, Energoatom, and Nuclear Power Plant Operational Support Institute (NPP-OSI) conducted a comprehensive quality assurance audit at Khmelnytskyy. The purpose of the audit was to identify gaps that might exist between the Ukrainian requirements and guidance for managing plant operations and actual practices at Khmelnytskyy and to recommend improvements in any areas identified as being deficient. (Dennis Meyers, NNSA, 301-903-1418; Lief Erickson, PNNL, 509-372-4097)

Design document system management project for VVER-1000 reactors approved
A specialist from Pacific Northwest National Laboratory attended the second meeting of the Management Committee for Design Document System Management (DDSM) for nuclear plants with VVER-1000 reactors (also referred to as the Safety Analysis Documentation or Design Basis Document Project). At this meeting, held in Kyiv on December 11, 2000, the Committee commented on and approved a project plan and a draft memorandum of understanding for the project. All Ukrainian VVER sites, except South Ukraine, were represented, as were Energoatom, Kharkiv Energoproject, and NPP-OSI. The meeting protocol was signed on December 12, confirming acceptance of the project plan and the draft memorandum of understanding.

In a subsequent meeting held in late January, representatives of Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Energoatom, and NPP-OSI met to discuss processes for selecting the Ukrainian subcontractors that will be involved in the DDSM project. A tentative schedule was discussed that would call for proposals to be due in time for a bid evaluation meeting at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory in early April. (Walt Pasedag, NNSA, 301-903-3628; Lief Erickson, PNNL, 509-372-4097)

Acceptance testing completed for eighth Ukrainian VVER-1000 safety parameter display system
Site acceptance testing for the South Ukraine Unit 3 safety parameter display system (SPDS) was completed successfully on December 20, 2000. This system was the eighth to be turned over to Ukraine. Previously, SPDSs were turned over to reactor operators at Khmelnytskyy Unit 1; Zaporizhzhya Units 2, 3, and 5; Rivne Unit 3, and South Ukraine Units 1 and 2. The ninth SPDS was installed at Zaporizhzhya Unit 4 in late December and will undergo site acceptance testing following the unit restart in February. The remaining 2 systems will be installed at Zaporizhzhya Units 1 and 6 this summer. The hardware has been shipped to Ukraine where the systems will be assembled and tested by Westron Company prior to installation.

Each SPDS monitors the critical safety functions at the nuclear plant and displays the key safety parameters used in off-normal events. The systems include workstation-type, person-machine interfaces and computer-driven displays of key plant parameters. System functions include centralized and real-time presentations in the reactor control room and other key locations at the reactor site of critical safety functions such as subcriticality, core cooling, and integrity of primary coolant circuit including the reactor vessel, secondary heat removal, and containment building integrity. Westinghouse Electric Company, under the direction of Burns & Roe, is the supplier of all 11 systems.
(Rich Reister, NNSA, 301-903-0224; Rich Denning, PNNL, 614-424-7412)

Control room turbine operator training material modified for extended use
For 2 weeks in late January, training specialists from the Engineering Technical Center (ETC), Khmelnytskyy nuclear plant, Sonalysts Inc. and Pacific Northwest National Laboratory met in Kyiv with training and technical specialists from Rivne, South Ukraine, and Zaporizhzhya nuclear plants. This working meeting was convened to review and modify previously developed Control Room Turbine Operator (CRTO) training material for implementation at Rivne, South Ukraine, and Zaporizhzhya.

The specialists from ETC, Khmelnytskyy, and Sonalysts Inc. worked with the technical and training specialists from Rivne, South Ukraine, and Zaporizhzhya to help them understand the existing CRTO training material and assisted in identifying material that needed to be modified using the Systematic Approach to Training methodology. The specialist from Pacific Northwest National Laboratory facilitated discussions related to ongoing training technology transfer activities. (John Yoder, DOE, 301-903-5650; Don Draper, PNNL, 509-372-4079)

Ukraine INSC web site now on-line
In late January, specialists from Argonne National Laboratory met with representatives of Kyiv State University (KSU) to help establish a Ukrainian International Nuclear Safety Center (INSC) web site. This partner web site complements the existing network of INSC web sites established at Argonne (1995); the Russian INSC in Moscow (1996); the Lithuanian Energy Institute in Kaunas, Lithuania (1998); and at the National Technology and Science Center in Almaty, Kazakhstan (2000). Personnel from the university’s Nuclear Technology and Cybernetics departments worked on the prototype web site, and to improve performance of the web site, KSU relocated computers to a building in downtown Kyiv next to the main Internet exchange node at Ukrtelcom. The specialists from Argonne provided guidance concerning the prototype web site development, hardware acquisition priorities, and networking alternatives to improve network speed and reliability. The web site, which is publicly available at http://www.insc.gov.ua , provides information on nuclear safety issues for Ukraine and technical information on Ukrainian nuclear plants. (Walt Pasedag, NNSA, 301-903-3628; Igor Bodnar, ANL, 630-252-8336)

ISA activities at Ukrainian nuclear plants reviewed
In early February, specialists from the U.S. National Nuclear Security Administration, Argonne National Laboratory, and Pacific Northwest National Laboratory traveled to Kyiv to meet with representatives of Energoatom, Ukrainian nuclear power plants, technical support organizations, and the regulator to discuss the status of emergency operating instruction (EOI) development and the tasks remaining to implement the EOIs and to participate in a meeting of the In-Depth Safety Analysis (ISA) Steering Committee.

During the EOI meeting, one of the specialists from Pacific Northwest National Laboratory made a presentation describing the tasks needed to develop and implement symptom-based EOIs. A specialist from Scientech gave a presentation describing how the analysis required to technically validate the EOIs will be conducted as an integral part of the ISA activities. Representatives from Zaporizhzhya and Rivne, the nuclear plants piloting this activity, provided brief status reports of their EOI development activities. In summary, both plants have drafted a complete set of EOIs and are now ready to support the EOI analysis activities.

During the ISA Steering Committee Meeting, representatives from each of the participating nuclear plants provided brief overviews of the status of their activities. Much of the discussion focused on the schedule for completing the activities and reviews required in order to obtain long-term operating licenses for the plants. The U.S. participant from the National Nuclear Security Administration acknowledged the need to expedite the schedule as much as possible while not compromising the required quality of the activities. Means for expediting the schedule by streamlining the peer and regulatory reviews and improving the timeliness of contracting processes were discussed and will be addressed further at the next meeting, which is tentatively scheduled for mid-March. (Walt Pasedag, NNSA, 301-903-3628; Mark Petri, ANL, 630-252-3719)

Ukrainian nuclear personnel trained in audit procedures
In February, specialists from Pacific Northwest National Laboratory; Southern California Edison; TXU Electric; Portland General Electric; R. Babione Enterprises, LLC; and the Slovenian Krsko plant traveled to Yuzhnoukrainsk, Ukraine, to conduct a workshop on auditing suppliers of safety-related equipment and services to nuclear power plants. The specialists are all active participants in the Nuclear Utility Procurement Issues Committee that coordinates vendor audits and evaluations for their members. The workshop was attended by 35 staff members from South Ukraine nuclear plant, 4 from Zaporizhzhya, 2 from Rivne, 1 from Khmelnytskyy, 3 from Energoatom, and 1 each from NPP-OSI and the Ukraine State Center for Quality. A representative from British Energy attended the workshop and made a short presentation supporting the principles conveyed by the other experts. (Walt Pasedag, NNSA, 301-903-3628; Lief Erickson, PNNL, 509-372-4097)