March 2001 Contents Highlight

Armenia Bulgaria Czech Republic Hungary

Kazakhstan Lithuania Russia Slovakia

Ukraine United States Cross-Cutting Activities Planned Activities

Ukraine

CRTO training under development for Rivne, South Ukraine, and Zaporizhzhya

A two-week working session was held in Kyiv beginning in mid-March to continue the transfer of the Control Room Turbine Operator (CRTO) training program to participating Ukrainian nuclear power plants. Participants included training specialists from the U.S. firm Sonalysts Inc., the Ukrainian Engineering and Technical Center for the Training of Nuclear Industry Personnel (ETC), and trainers from Khmelnytskyy, Rivne, South Ukraine, and Zaporizhzhya nuclear plants.

The specialists from Sonalysts, ETC, and Khmelnytskyy helped the trainers from Rivne, South Ukraine, and Zaporizhzhya develop an understanding of existing CRTO pilot program materials and identify material for plant-specific modifications using the Systematic Approach to Training methodology. (John Yoder, DOE, 301-903-5650; Don Draper, PNNL, 509-372-4079)

EARLL progress discussed

In late March, a technical specialist from PNNL met with representatives of Energoatom and Novator-Kyiv to discuss progress on the 2001 activities for Event Analysis, Reporting, and Lessons Learned (EARLL). Specialists from the Crimea Center, who participated in the discussions by telephone, reported that the root cause analysis pilot investigations for the Zaporizhzhya nuclear power plant had been completed recently.

The PNNL specialist also met with representatives of the Nuclear Power Plant Operational Support Institute (NPP-OSI) and Energoatom to discuss cooperation on a potential future activity to develop a formal operating experience program that would include sharing of lessons learned from events at Ukrainian nuclear plants. He suggested that the first step might be a visit by NPP-OSI, Energoatom, and Crimea Center staff to learn about the event analysis department functions at the Institute of Nuclear Power Operations and World Association of Nuclear Operators (WANO) in Atlanta, Georgia. NPP-OSI has initiated discussions with authorities in Moscow to learn about the event analysis functions of the WANO office in Moscow.
(Walt Pasedag, NNSA, 301-903-3628; Lief Erickson, PNNL, 509-372-4097)

VVER-1000 design basis documentation management discussed at IAEA meeting

A PNNL technical specialist traveled to Prague in late March to participate in the kick-off meeting for a regional project sponsored by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to develop methodology for documentation of the design bases for VVER-1000 reactors. The project, originally proposed with the Temelin nuclear power plant as the pilot facility, has evolved into a project to support all V-320 series VVER-1000 reactors. The Nuclear Research Institute-Rez (NRI-Rez) held the meeting at their facilities near Prague. Ukrainian participants from Energoatom, NPP-OSI, and the Khmelnytskyy and Rivne nuclear plants also participated. Energoatom’s design basis documentation management project leader, the Zaporizhzhya plant chief engineer, and the director of Joint Stock Enterprise Ltd. Energoatom Engineering Service (EIS)-Energodar also represented Ukraine.

The workshop included presentations of organization viewpoints by representatives of REA (Russia), Novovoronezh nuclear plant (Russia), Atomenergoproekt-Moscow, Zaporizhzhya nuclear plant (Ukraine), Kozloduy nuclear plant (Bulgaria), Temelin nuclear plant (Czech Republic), and Energoproect-Praha (Czech Republic). Technical advisors from the Nuclear Protection and Safety Institute (France) and GRS (Germany) provided regulatory viewpoints, and representatives of Scientech and Westinghouse-Europe described potential approaches.

All four countries (Ukraine, Bulgaria, Russia, and Czech Republic) agreed that design basis documentation was necessary. The representatives from Ukraine, Bulgaria, and the Czech Republic expressed the importance of design basis information that is controlled by Gidropress (Russia), Kurchatov Institute, and Atomenergoproekt-Moscow. All participants agreed that design basis documentation was a critical part of plant information that must be controlled in a configuration management system.

The proposed IAEA project organization includes NRI-Rez, as the project manager; a senior advisory committee comprising utility and representatives from nuclear plants in all four countries; a technical advisory group of personnel from the United States, Germany, and France; and a representative of Atomenergoproekt-Moscow. The next activity will be to agree on the project scope and definitions. (Walt Pasedag, NNSA, 301-903-3628; Lief Erickson, PNNL, 509-372-4097)