Enhancing the capabilities of national nuclear institutions in China to ensure safe nulear power programmes (CH3.01/10)

The European Union, together with its Chinese partners, has implemented a 3-year joint project aimed at strengthening the technical infrastructure and professional capability in the partner organisations in order to ensure an appropriate consideration of nuclear and radiation safety in the framework of the implementation of the Chinese nuclear power programme, in accordance with international standards and best practices adopted in the EU. Within the framework of this project, implemented in cooperation with China Atomic Energy Authority (CAEA), extensive knowledge transfer took place on methods, knowhow, standards and best practices in a number of areas associated with construction, operation and decommissioning of nuclear installations. Other Chinese organizations involved in this project as target groups were Research Institute of Nuclear Power Operations (RINPO), Institute for Standardisation of Nuclear Industry (ISNI), China Institute of Atomic Energy (CIAE), Nuclear Technical Support Centre of China Atomic Energy Authority (CAEA/NTSC) and China Nuclear Power Engineering (CNPE).

The overall objectives of the project were to strengthen the technical infrastructure and professional capability in the partner organisations. More specifically, the areas where target groups needed to develop additional capacities were:

• Qualification of non-destructive testing (NDT) technologies, development of NDT procedures and technical specifications for the procedures qualification and for associated tests pieces
• Improvement and harmonisation of the standards, including the review of draft national standards for equipment qualification (EQ) and safety classification of digital instrumentation and control (I&C) in NPPs
• Safety assessment of a Heavy Water Research Reactor (HWRR) decommissioning plan
• Safety assessment of decontamination and decommissioning technology for liquid waste storage ponds
• Safety and environmental protection of uranium mining and milling facilities
• Probabilistic safety assessment (PSA) for internal fires: review of draft national requirements concerning the methodology to be used for PSA for internal fires - Assistance to draft national fire protection standard and fire protection surveillance programme for the NPPs.

The key management meetings held in Beijing during the execution of the project included the Inception Meeting (June 2014) and a number of Steering Committee Meetings (May 2015, September 2016 and April 2017).The main results of the project were presented to a broader audience of participants from Chinese organizations in the Dissemination Workshop held on 26 April 2017. The execution of the project resulted in the development of 30 technical documents, including among others:

• A review of ultrasonic inspection procedures;
• A draft technical specification for the qualification of ultrasonic inspection procedure of austenitic stainless steel pipe welds;
• A review of the national standard for Equipment Qualification
• A review of the existing national standard for safety classification of digital I&C, including recommendations for further improvement;
• A draft basic assessment of the safety of the Heavy Water Research Reactor decommissioning plan of the China Institute for Atomic Energy;
• Methodology to assess the safety of uranium mining and milling facilities.

Furthermore, the project held 7 workshops and 5 technical visits of Chinese specialists to the EU. More than 220 Chinese experts participated in the workshops. A site visit to the NDT laboratory, reports in the area of radioactive waste management and decommissioning) were especially appreciated by the Chinese end-users. The partner end-user organisations expressed their satisfaction with the quality of the inputs and the qualifications of the Contractor’s experts involved in the project. The consultant concluded that the effective cooperation and personal contacts established in the project formed a good basis for continued cooperation with EU projects and a number of suggestions for such cooperation were identified:

• NDT qualification of reactor pressure vessel inspections
• Methodology of operational in-service inspections of primary pressure boundary
• Safety assessment of uranium mining and milling facilities
• External hazards PSA, mainly on external flooding and extreme wind
• Applications of PSA for in service inspections, on-line maintenance and other areas
• Development of databases related to fire safety
• Verification and validation of EOPs, including the issues of human machine interface.