ON SITE ACTIVITIES UKR. SOUTH NPP PHASE2

The On Site Technical Assistance to South Ukraine NPP was financed by a series of contracts, namely: the first contract ref. WW.94.06/02.01/BO03, signed the 20th of June 1995, and its Addendum N1, "TACIS 95 On-Site Assistance Ukraine: SU NPP Phase II" ref. 95-0789-01, signed the 15th of October 1996 and also the Addendum no 2, ref. 95-0789-02, signed 20th June 97.

The first Contract, covered the period between the 20th of June 1995 to the 20th of June 1997, including the Operational Assistance of the contract activities, and the Specific Subprojects follow-up. To cover from June 1997 until December 1998, an Addendum was issued also including new Operational Assistance Activities and Specific Subprojects.

The objective of this OSA project was to provide assistance to the plant in the following areas:

• Safe plant Operation
• Specific project follow-up
• Development of technical documents
• Licensing activities
• Interfaces with the Procurement Agent
• Implementation of the Quality Assurance Programme

Achievements (With reference to the TORs)
The main project results are discussed in the following with reference to the above mentioned tasks.
Plant Operation: the following activities were coordinated, with special care to the links with the EC projects:

• General safety management tasks: it was provided through a permanent presence at SU NPP of the TACIS Team, co-ordinating all the projects implementation and the interfaces among all the involved organisations, like End User, Beneficiary, Nuclear Regulatory Authority, suppliers, subcontractors and local companies.
• Organisation of missions of Ukrainian experts in Western Countries: Experts missions were organised for Ukrainian staff in the fields of Maintenance (U1.02/94 F), Updating Plant Quality Assurance Programme (U1.02/95), Chemistry Management project (U1.02 1 95 A), and Radiological and Environmental management of Cooling Reservoir. This last mission was a visit to the Almaraz NPP where the modelling of coolant reservoir, the Almaraz NPP Environmental Radiological Surveillance Plan and the Emergency Direction Centre of the Spanish Nuclear Safety Council in Madrid were visited or discussed.
• Updating the plant Quality Assurance programme.
• Job experience interchange: The contract included the provision of exchange of experience on management, operational standards and procedural practices between the EU Utility and SUNPP, for the following areas:
  • Functional and Calibration Test of Instrumentation Channels.
  • Erosion-Corrosion Inspection Programmes and Methods.
  • Electrical Apparatus Surveillance Tests (Electrical Equipment Diagnosis)
  • Welders Qualification Programme. This activity was related to the project Monitoring of Primary Circuit Welding Process (U1.02/94E). The Orbital Welding equipment was delivered by the supplier Polisoude and GEMCO and a team of SU NPP specialists was trained for its usage at Polisoude facilities in Nantes (France). In addition, a team of SU NPP specialists as well as a group of GANU inspectors (Ukrainian State Inspectorate organisation) received training for ASME code welding requirements at the EU Utility facilities in Spain
  • Assist to NPP Morpholine Treatment
• Development of Procedures for the Plant Documentation Management System
• Assist the NPP on the Morpholine Treatment (Test)
• Develop a Qualification Programme for Welders

Support to TACIS project implementation and follow-up at the site: It covered the follow-up of the projects under TACIS 93/94 and 95 Programmes and the set-up of the projects proposed in the TACIS 96. The specific projects under TACIS 93/94 were:

• U1.02/92A In service inspection of Reactor Vessel: Includes Radiation Embrittlement Surveillance Programme and Ultrasonic Inspection Procedures.
• U1.02/92B Steam Generator Water Level and Feed Water Control System;
• U1.02/92C Automatic Control of Primary Circuit Piping Welds;
• U1.02/94D Erosion-Corrosion Inspection Programme Equipment;
• U1.02/94E Monitoring of Primary Circuit Welding Process;
• U1.02/94F Electrical Equipment Diagnosis;

The specific projects under TACIS 95 were:

• U1.02/94H Modernisation of Manipulator SK-187
• U1.02/94J Maintenance
• U1.02/95A Chemistry Control Improvement;
• U1.02/95B Reactor Coolant Pump Vibration Monitoring System;
• U1.02/95C Plant Documentation Management System;
• U1.02/95D Refurbishment of Pressurizer Safety Valves.

The following subprojects were considered within the TACIS 95 General On-Site Assistance activities, but they were treated in this document as specific subprojects:

• U1.02/95 Updating NPP Quality Assurance Programme;
• U1.02/95 Assist to NPP Morpholine Treatment;
• U1.02/95 Updating of Plant Chemistry Management.

Development of technical documents: All the necessary documentation for the tendering process and licensing activities of the above listed subprojects was developed, including:

• Specific Technical Terms of Reference (ST -TOR).
• Procurement Technical Specifications.
• Technical report and financial report for the tender evaluation of the projects.
• All the specified reports (inception, progress and completion) considered as deliverables in the contractual requirements.

All the Procurement Technical Specifications for TACIS 93/94 and TACIS 95 Programmes were endorsed by the End User and Beneficiary, and were sent to the Procurement Agent for the tender processes.

In addition, the Procurement Technical Specifications were prepared with the participation of representatives of the Ukrainian Nuclear Regulatory Authority.

Licensing activities: All the necessary licensing activities for the subprojects implementation were performed. Special reference must be given to the licensing process for the Steam Generator Water Level and Feed Water Control System project, for which a licensing meeting took place in April 1997. The conclusions of this meeting set a standard for all the following projects in the same area.
Procurement agent: All the activities necessary to support the Procurement Agent were carried out, including: tender dossier preparation, tender evaluation, contract preparation, tender process, and equipment supply and control until warranty period finalization.

QA activities: The Q.A. Programme requested by the Contract was developed through a
Q.A. Plan of activities including the following procedures:

• Quality Assurance Manual for the On-site Assistance to SU NPP Manual
• Organisation Manual for the On-site Assistance to SU NPP Manual
• Activities Planning and Control Procedure
• Project Definition, Edition and Review of Technical Specification Procedure
• Reporting Activities Procedure
• Documentation Management in On-Site Offices for TACIS project Procedure
• Subcontractors Notification Activities Procedure

Some QA Audits were carried out to the following subcontracting companies:

• TRACTEBEL
• INITEC
• DATOST

Spare parts reception, inspection and acceptation at SU NPP Site was also completed.

Comments

(Quality of the results, Lesson learned, Recommendations for follow-up)

The project met the objectives stated in the TORs: full support was provided to the plant managers and to the implementation of the TACIS projects at the site.

It was noted during the operational assistance that the presence of SUNPP staff at the Contractor facilities gave a better and more complete transfer of the western technology for its implementation in SUNPP. In addition, the practice of involvement of NRA resident NPP inspector and State resident inspector at the early steps of project activities (ST -TOR and Procurement Technical Terms of Reference preparation), together with Ukrainian and TACIS experts should contribute to the improvement of the licensing process, facilitating the presentation of the Procurement Technical Specifications to the NRA for their acceptance.

The licensing process was sometimes the cause of some projects delay, due to the fact that the licensing process was not well defined at that time.

Further Information

Further information on the project results could be sought from the beneficiary organizations.

The Project Final report is available at the JRC-IE archive.