U1.02/01 OSA - On-Site Assistance to South Ukraine NPP

The South Ukraine Nuclear Power Plant site has three VVER- 1000 units in operation. A fourth unit was moth-balled in the early 80's half way through civil construction. The site is located 350 km south of KIEV on the banks of the South Bug river. The construction of the first unit began in April 1976 and the unit synchronized to the grid in December 1982. The second and the third unit were commissioned in January 1982 and September 1989 respectively.

Under the TACIS programme a number of projects have been implemented by EU companies to assist the implementation of plant safety upgrading. The current project, which was a continuation of the bridging contract (see contract 70609), was intended to provide assistance in a number of technical and management tasks related to the implementation of on-going safety improvement projects.

The main objectives of the U1.02/01 project were:

• Improvement of operational safety of the NPP.
• Co-ordination of the implementation of on-going safety related projects.
• Assistance to the EC and to the Plant for the contracts preparation.

The Contract included the General Project Management and two major types of project:

• The Soft On-Site Projects, which focus on the exchange of operational experience, transfer of know-how and particular training programmes. The goal of the Soft On-Site Projects was to improve the safety culture of the Plant at all levels. The task of the Consultant consisted in the implementation of the programme accepted by the Ukrainian organisations and targeted to predefined subjects.
• The Hard On-Site Projects concerned the implementation of Specific Projects aimed at improving the intrinsic safety of the installation. This also included the continuation and the finalization of several projects financed under previous TACIS budgets that started before signature of the Contract, in the framework of TACIS 94 till 97 programmes, including the implementation of the 3 years PIP programme. In this area, the support of the Consultant consisted in contracts management, technical advice and co-ordination works.

Soft On-Site Activities

Human Factors

Objectives:

• Improvement of the operational safety culture in SUNPP.
• Transfer of knowledge on the Analysis of human behaviour in case of human errors.
• Interpretation of the results and lessons learned from human errors analysis.
• (PSA / REX) Probabilistic Safety Assessment/Return of EXperience

Outputs:

• Developing analysis of human behaviour in case of human errors.
• Building with the SUNPP group a system for events collection, analysis and for feedback dissemination according to the model in use in Tihange NPP but adapted to the Ukrainian organization.
• Training of HF Analysts selected from the local work group.
• Defining an information transfer system between REX and PSA.
• Exploiting information issued from the simulators training centre.

Severe Accidents (SAMG)

Objectives:

• Development of a methodology defining the approach for writing a strategy for SAMG applicable to SUNPP.

Outputs:

• Definition of the technical contents and the kind of co-operation that should be necessary in order to develop a plant-specific analysis of appropriate guidance for the SUNPP case. (Phase 1: this work was completed during bridging Contract – 70609).
• Exchange of technical information: the consultant specified what kind of information should be helpful to advance with the chosen methodology.
• Finalization of the technical information data collection in order to detail the proposal and the methodology. (Phase 2: Performed in the frame of the present Contract).
• Development of a Severe Accident Management (SAM) Strategy document for units 1 and 2 of South Ukraine NPP (VVER 1000 MWe, type 302 for unit 1 and type 338 for unit 2 – small series). (Phase 3: Performed during the present Contract).
• Training of Plant staff: (Phase 3: To be started during the present Contract). The output of the programme will be well-trained plant staff capable of using a set of validated guidelines.

Training in Chemistry Activities

Objectives:

• This project, directly connected to the PIP Project, was an additional and specific training proposed to the chemistry department of the Plant in order to improve the knowledge on the equipment to be provided. The subjects and the programmes of the training were decided according to the needs of the Plant and during the PIP implementation (see below).
  • Implementation of chemistry training,
  • Implementation of operation related training. Subjects were defined according to the needs of the Plant or motivated by a need coming from use of new equipment provided in the frame of TACIS Programme, particularly the PIP project (see below).

Outputs:

• Training given by Consultant experts coming from operation.
• Exchange and sharing of experience between European and Ukrainian NPP operators.

Hard On-Site Activities

The Plant Improvement Project (PIP)

The project included 2 separate parts (a third part had been cancelled by the EC during the bridging contract (see contract 70609):

• U1.02/01A Part 1: Boron Concentration Control Monitoring System (on-line measurement of boron concentration during all modes of operation). The proposed modernization included the installation of six fully redundant neutron absorption boron-meters in the primary sides of Units 1 and 2.
• U1.02/01A Part 2: Automatic Chemistry Control Diagnosis Expert System: Data acquisition and processing system. The proposed modernization included the installation in the primary and secondary sides (Units 1, 2 and 3) of chemistry monitoring equipment and of expert systems. The system was aimed at improving the chemistry of the Units and facilitates the diagnostics to the operators when a deviation from the chemistry specification occurs.

Details of the implementation of these projects can be found under the related contracts (see contracts 32253 and 90127).

Co-ordination and implementation of TACIS 94 till 97 Specific Supply Projects

The Hard On-Site Projects concerned the implementation of Specific Projects aimed at improving the intrinsic safety of the installation. This included the finalization of several projects financed under previous TACIS budgets that started before signature of the Contract. In this area, the support of the Consultant consisted in contracts management (Provisional and Final Acceptance management), technical advice and co-ordination works. The work to be performed was the follow-up of the finalisation of these equipment supply projects, which were started under previous OSA contracts, up to the final acceptance.

In this area, the following projects had been launched under previous OSA contracts by another EU OSA Consultant and had to be finalized by the Consortium of the present contract:

• U1.02/94J: Maintenance and spare parts management system;
• U1.02/97C: Spare parts for imported safety equipment (6KV breakers);
• U1.02/97B: Modernization of tele-manipulator system SK187 (Reactor vessel inspection system);
• U1.02/95A: Equipment for chemistry control improvement (On-line secondary circuit monitoring system);
• U1.02/03A: Equipment for fire protection improvement;
• U1.02/03B: Replacement of thermal insulation of primary circuit.

The project was completed in accordance with the Terms of Reference and the Final project report, dated 17 November 2008, was issued and submitted to the Beneficiary organization and to the EC.
All hard OSA projects were completed or the equipment was installed, operational and in the warranty period at the end of the present contract.