April - June 2002 Contents Highlight

Armenia Bulgaria Czech Republic Hungary

Kazakhstan Lithuania Russia Slovakia

Ukraine United States Cross-Cutting Activities Planned Activities

Russia

A PNNL project manager traveled to Moscow, Russia to meet with representatives of the Nuclear Safety Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences (IBREA) on planning for the August 2002 emergency tabletop exercise at Bilibino NPP. Discussions with Russian technical specialists focused on securing agreement on exercise objectives and organizational responsibilities for the planning and conduct of the exercise. (Susan Senner, PNNL, 509-372-6015; Vincent McClelland, DOE, 202-586-8045)

EOI Project

A technical specialist from PNNL attended an Emergency Operating Instructions (EOI) project meeting at Leningrad NPP in Sosnovy Bor, Russia. Other participants included representatives from Leningrad NPP’s operations and training departments and PNNL. The primary objective of the meeting was to discuss and disposition the labor cost for the initial PNNL/Leningrad NPP EOI task orders. A scope of labor compatible with initial PNNL estimates was agreed upon. Leningrad NPP will provide a revised cost proposal for the task orders by the middle of May 2002.

In June the PNNL technical specialist again met with representatives of Leningrad NPP on the topic of their EOI project. The meetings were held at the ES-Konsult offices in Stockholm, Sweden. Participants included representatives from the Leningrad NPP’s operations, PSA, and training departments, Lithuanian EOI experts, and SERCO ASSURANCE. The meeting’s primary objectives were to discuss ISA EOI input and coordinate near term project activities. All agreed that ISA EOI insight, which defines accident management during design and beyond design basis events, remains the single largest contributor to Leningrad’s safety improvement program. The primary ISA input sources were identified, a point of contact to coordinate the transfer of information between the ISA and EOI projects was nominated, and near-term activities were identified which support the drafting of an initial set of risk informed EOIs by the end of August. The EOI project remains on schedule supporting a completion date of August 2003. (Sam McKay, PNNL, 509-372-4059)

A PNNL representative participated in a Leningrad NPP Unit 1 ISA project technical committee (TC) meeting. This meeting was held at the Finnish Center for Radiation and Nuclear Safety (STUK) offices in Helsinki, Finland. Participants included representatives from Russia, Finland, Sweden, Great Britain, and the United States. At the request of the ISA project steering committee chairman, the TC is to meet prior to each steering committee meeting to assess project status and develop a steering committee meeting agenda. A proposed steering committee meeting agenda was drafted. The primary topics for steering committee consideration are; 1) disposition of the primary circuit safety case, 2) disposition of the accident localization system (ALS) compartment integrity issue, and 3) the funding basis for remaining project tasks.

A second Leningrad NPP ISA project meeting was held in June in St. Petersberg. The PNNL specialist again traveled to participate in the meeting along with representatives from Leningrad NPP’s Operational Safety Assessment Bureau, and the Kurchatov Institute. The meeting’s primary objective was to define the scope of DSA support required for the next phase of ISA development and EOI justification. It was agreed the next phase of deterministic analysis should include detailed analysis to validate selected initiating events which involve reconstructed front line systems and verification of PSA success criteria. (Sam McKay, PNNL, 509-372-4059)

May 21 through 23, 2002 a PNNL specialist participated in the Leningrad NPP Unit 1 ISA technical steering committee meetings. Participants included government and technical representatives from Finland, Great Britain, Sweden, Russia, and the United States. The technical committee's (TC) primary objectives were to assess project production funding, and finalize the steering committee's (SC) meeting agenda. The SC's primary objectives were to review the project's status and disposition on financial and technical issues impacting the completion of the project.

In addition to the ISA meetings, selected steering committee members participated in an IAEA sponsored RBMK primary circuit integrity (PCI) meeting conducted at the Vienna International Center. Key meeting objectives, participants, and conclusions include:

The Deputy Direct of INSP traveled to Moscow, Russia to meet with experts at Rosenergoatom (REA) and Russian nuclear power plants (NPP) to discuss the status of several projects. The projects discussed were: piping integrity, VVER EOIs, Novovoronezh Configuration management, Control Circuit Testing, and the Kalinin and Volgodonsk simulators. In general the projects are proceeding according to plans with minor exceptions. (Robert Moffitt, PNNL, 509-372-4108)

On April 26 – 27, 2002 PNNL representatives traveled to Tomsk, Russia to review draft information leading to a Technical and Price Proposal (TPP) for safety upgrades for the ADE Plutonium production reactors at Seversk and Zheleznogorsk. The U.S. team met with the Siberian Chemical Combine (SCC), the Mining and Chemical Combine (MCC), the Experimental Design Bureau of Machine Building (OKBM), and the Kurchatov Institute (KI). The TPP was reasonably well defined and documented. Comments were provided to the performing organizations and action items assigned to facilitate the development of ‘contract quality’ price information.

The U.S. team returned to Russia on June 12, 2002 to review updates to the TPP information produced by the SCC and MCC. A related purpose was to initiate discussions with Gosatomnadzor (GAN) leading to a regulatory compliance contract with GAN on ADE safety upgrades. The meeting with GAN was held in Moscow on June 14. Discussions centered on the status of contracting efforts with the MCC and SCC and documentation describing the technical work scope was left with GAN. GAN will review the technical work scope in preparation for receiving a draft Request of Proposal from PNNL.

The team then traveled to Tomsk, Russia to resolve remaining technical questions with the SCC, MCC, and OKBM. The PNNL contracting officer reviewed the cost/price information and found it to be quite satisfactory. Near-term contracting candidates are: improvements to the Emergency Core Cooling System, Emergency Electrical Power Supply System, and the Control Rod Reliability by stack stabilization. (Ronald Omberg, PNNL, 509-375-6697; Julian Hill, PNNL, 703-413-7801)

A project coordinator for the Kola nuclear power plant (NPP) In-Depth Safety Assessment Project (ISA) from ANL met with staff members of Kola NPP to discuss progress on the Unit 2 probabilistic risk assessment (PRA). This project is being jointly funded by DOE and by the Swedish International Project (SiP). At the time of the meeting, all project tasks were complete except the sensitivity analysis and the final report. The final report, in English, was completed by June 2002 and delivered to GAN. (Philip Pizzica, ANL, 630-252-4847)