R1.03/02A Kalinin PIP - Supply of new KTZ for units 1&2 (AP ref. 7.1.1.1)

As part of the "Tacis Nuclear Safety Program" – the Contracting Authority (Rosenergoatom) and the End User (Kalinin NPP) intended to increase the nuclear safety of the Units 1 and 2 by replacing the existing, obsolete УКТЗ-М system with a new, highly reliable protection system.

The equipment used in the УКТЗ-М system was designed more than 30 years ago, and manufactured at the Sredazelectroapparat factory (Russia, Tashkent). At the Kalinin NPP – the УКТЗ-М system of Unit 1 and 2 were put into operation respectively in May 1984 and in December 1986.
The following reasons justified the need to replace the УКТЗ-М system:

• The equipment was obsolete. The devices of the УКТЗ- М exceeded their service life of 6 years;
• The equipment was no longer manufactured nor the spare parts supply were guaranteed;
• The reliability of the hardware was significantly low;
• The operation costs were high;
• The maintenance and repair of the equipment was not convenient;
• There were no diagnostic and monitoring tools to assess the state and readiness of the functional modules and the input/ output circuits.

Therefore the outdated УКТЗ-М system had to be replaced by a new system, which implemented the same protection, recording and signaling functions, and was in accordance with the latest Russian norms and regulations regarding the reliability and safety of NPPs.

The replacement and modernization of the obsolete hardware was approved on the 28th of November 1995 by the CEO of Rosenergoatom (the government owned power utility).

The Complex of Technological Protections was intended for replacement of obsolete УКТЗ-М system, with keeping of all functions of technologic protections and main technical solutions in terms of mounting and location of cabinets.

УКТЗ-М was intended to initiate the actions of safety systems or of systems of normal operations, in case of the conditions that resulted in violation of normal operation mode of reactor plant or turbine and turbine-driven feedwater pumps.

More specifically, the modernization should allow to:

• reduce the problems related to the obsolescence of the УКТЗ-М system;
• ensure a service life in accordance with the lifetime of the unit;
• monitor the hardware of the new КТЗ system during normal operation and to signal the failure of components;
• register and archive events and states in real time;
• display the state of the different protection systems and to signal the apparition of any discordance between or actuation of protection systems;
• facilitate the verification of the readiness of the different protection systems before the start-up of a unit;
• facilitate the determination of the cause of malfunctions in protection systems (from its inputs up to its outputs) by the introduction of a diagnostic tool;
• improve the execution and documenting of periodic tests of protection systems (from its inputs up to the actuators) by the introduction of a guided periodic testing tool;
• render the system less complex in order to reduce the risk of wrong manipulations by the maintenance personnel and to reduce the maintenance and operation costs;
• transfer binary signals to the “information and calculation system” CIS about the actuation of protections and about the state of the different hardware components;
• record the state changes of significant (binary) parameters – mainly inputs and outputs. This chronological registration should allow post-accidental or -incidental analyses by providing the information about the state of these parameters respectively before and after the occurrence of accidents or incidents.

УКТЗ-М equipment provided:

• Realization of algorithm of appropriate technological protection in case of appearance of physic conditions specified in the project during operation of NPP unit equipment;
• Control action for actuating devices and all types of information signals accompanying this action;
• Transmitting to MCR of information about actuations of technologic protection and its reason, and also УКТЗ-М condition;
• Generation of information for adjacent systems;
• Providing of authorized access to УКТЗ-М equipment;
• Continuous automatic diagnostic and monitoring of УКТЗ-М ;
• Providing to operative personnel of information (including archived) about technological protections, УКТЗ-М system and its equipment, information about actuations of technological protections;
• Registration and documentation of events.

УКТЗ-М equipment, as included in the Call for tender, was divided in two sets:

1. Set 1. The RCS protection system of unit 1 and 2, each comprising 3 redundant channels or sub-systems and the corresponding auxiliary systems;
2. Set 2. The protection system of the turbine and the turbine-driven feedwater pumps of unit 1 and the corresponding auxiliary system (the part dedicated to the turbine protection included the turbine load reduction and the stop valves actuation)

УКТЗ-М performed control functions of protections of RCS, turbine stop, turbine stop valves, reduction of turbine load, and protection of turbine-feedwater valves.
 

Scope of supply included engineering tools workstation based on personal computer.
The supplier subcontracted the following Russian companies:

• ОАО 'Elektromekhanika', for manufacture of КТЗ protection subsystems
• ZАО INESS, for examination of the УКТЗ-М equipment, start-up and adjustment of equipment.

The supplier provided the following services for End User: Data gathering and analysis on the obsolete УКТЗ-М; Equipment design; Development of documentation; Equipment manufacture; Factory acceptance test; Support during licensing and certification; Delivery; Personnel training; Equipment start-up and adjusting; Participation in Site acceptance test; Warranty; Quality assurance; Reporting.

The final version of the Technical Specification was Rev. 06, dated 31 March 2004, and the final version of the Evaluation Criteria was Rev. 04, issued on the same date.
Publication of tender file occurred on May 3, 2004.
4 bids were received before August 9, and the opening session took place on August 17, 2004 at EC AIDCO premises in Brussels. The evaluation started on August 18, and it was concluded on September 2, 2004 with a proposal for awarding the contract to a Russian company, Diakont.

According to budget availability, the EC services were taken into account the proposal of the evaluation committee to extented the scope of supply to a set 3 for Unit 2, similar to the set 2 (dedicated to the protection system of turbine & turbine driven pumps of Unit 1), in order to allow the replacement of this protection system in Unit 2 also – as originally planned but not included in the tender published.

Contract was signed respectively by the Beneficiary on December 21, 2004 and by the supplier on December 30, 2004.
Kick-off meeting was organized at KNPP on January 25-26, 2005 with the participation of all stakeholders. Many project meetings were organized between 2005 and 2006, to close following-up the project.

A preliminary Session of Acceptance Tests was organized in Penza on March 14-15, 2006. The official FAT, with participation of the Acceptance Commission, including representative of the Certification Organization took place in Penza from April 3 till April 6, 2006 for RCS protection sub-system 1 of Unit 2.
A second FAT occurred in Penza for RCS protection sub-system 1 of Unit 1 in July 2006.
The following tests were performed during the FAT:

• Dielectric tests,
• The complete verification of the operation of the system;
• Verification of the good transmission/reception of all signals and of the correct processing of those signals (e.g.: updating of event lists, generation of alarms),
• Verification of hardware conformity of the Supply with the specifications and their amendments,
• Checking of the redundancy and performance of the Supply versus the specifications and the relevant standards.

Verification of the conformity of the documentation.
Equipment was delivered to KNPP in August 2006. However, due to delays in starting the licensing procedure, installation had to be delayed and eventually it was necessary to repeat the factory Acceptance Tests.

Factory Acceptance Tests, delivery, installation and Provisional Acceptance of the 3 sub-systems of the RCS protection system of Units 1 and 2 and of the Turbine & Turbine-driven Feedwater Pumps protection systems of Units 1 and 2 were performed sequentially. The dates of the main events are given in the attached table.

All systems were successfully installed, tested and commissioned between July 2007 and October 2009. Provisional Acceptance Certificates were signed, each one marking the start of the two year warranty period for each system.

The licensing process was the End User’s responsibility. The supplier supported the End User in the demonstration of the compliance of the characteristics of the equipment with Russian codes and standards.
The certification process of any safety relevant equipment is the End User’s responsibility. The supplier gave the End User all the characteristics, data and documents needed for the certification.
Training of Kalinin NPP personnel was carried out by the Supplier at Kalinin premises, according to a special program that consisted of three parts, for three personnel groups: assembly personnel, operation and maintenance personnel training.

The supplier guaranteed to maintain an after sales service for the End User with all means necessary to maintain the readiness of the system during the service life.
Warranty acted during 2 years after date of Provisional Acceptance of each delivery stage.
Equipment lifetime till mid-life repair was 12 years. Fixed lifetime till retirement was 30 years (lifetime calculated from moment of equipment acceptance at the site).