U1.04/02 On-site assistance continuation and bridging for Khmelnitsky Nuclear Power Plant (AP ref. 7.2.1.2)

This project dealt with TACIS OSA (On-Site Assistance) at Khmelnitsky NPP.
The TACIS nuclear programme was dedicated to the enhancement of the safety of NPPs in CIS (Commonwealth of Independent states) countries. The execution of this TACIS nuclear programme was based, among others, on the creation of close partnership between a NPP from the CIS and a nuclear Utility from EU (“On-Site-Assistance”).

The program of this U1.04/02 project was the continuation of OSA (On-Site Assistance) at Khmelnitsky NPP.
OSA is performed through activity of the permanent team in direct connection with Ukrainian counterparts. Overall objectives consisted in:

Introduction and consolidation of a high level of safety culture at all appropriate levels (soft OSA),
Effective upgrading activities relevant to nuclear safety related projects, with equipment supply (hard OSA).
Specific objectives of OSA at Khmelnitsky NPP were:

Operational coordination during preparation of specific projects activities,
Preparation of QA (Quality Assurance) files for the follow-up of these activities,
Soft OSA:
twinning programme with Western NPPs,
preparation of a full set of alarm sheets,
revision and updating of some normal operating procedures,
recommendations for improving safety during outages,
trainings: outage management, project management, QA.
Hard OSA:
U1.04/99: writing of TS for this new PIP and implementation of tendering and contracting processes,
U1.04/93A: follow-up of awarded contract,
U1.04/97C: implementation of tendering and contracting processes,
U1.04/97B: follow-up of the awarded contract.

Soft OSA:

Twinning programme: during 2 seminars, Consortium Iberdrola/Sogin presented experience from Western NPPs in the following fields: operating activities, maintenance planning and implementation, implementation of safety culture policy and QA, use of information systems. These two seminars were held in Spain in March 2005 (Iberdrola headquarters, Cofrentes and Almaraz NPPs) and April 2005 (Iberdrola headquarters, Cofrentes and Trillo NPPs).
Alarm sheets: activities already performed in the frame of previous OSA contracts were analysed, and a schedule for new activities was agreed with Khmelnitsky NPP. The 55 alarm sheets of the panel HY20 (safety channel I) were planned to be refurbished. For that, Terms of Reference were written by Iberdrola/Sogin in collaboration with Khmelnitsky NPP. After a call for tenders, Ukrainian engineering company Techenergo was contracted, and issued these 55 alarm sheets, which were checked by Iberdrola/sogin and Khmelnitsky NPP in April 2005. New alarm sheets were also successfully tested on the full scope simulator.
Normal operating procedures: activities already performed in the frame of previous OSA contracts were analysed, and a schedule for new activities was agreed with Khmelnitsky NPP. Terms of reference for updating of plant start-up procedure were issued in collaboration with Khmelnitsky NPP, and local contractor Techenergo was selected. The local contractor issued a first version of plant start-up procedure, which was commented by Khmelnitsky NPP and Iberdrola/Sogin. The procedure was validated on the full-scope simulator and was approved by Khmelnitsky NPP.
Outage optimisation: Iberdrola/Sogin sent a questionnaire to Khmelnitsky NPP in order to get input for outage activities assessment, and additional documentation from Khmelnitsky NPP was requested. Khmelnitsky NPP returned filled questionnaire and part of required documentation. Then, Iberdrola/Sogin issued a number of comments in a document. Besides this questionnaire, Iberdrola/Sogin contracted a local company for implementing a software dealing with “single day task assignment” in outage optimisation. The new software was delivered in April 2005, and this contract will be completed once all Khmelnitsky NPP data will be transferred to the new software and testing activities will be successfully completed.
Training courses:
A course dealing with outage management and outage optimisation was performed at Khmelnitsky NPP in March 2005.
A course dealing with project management was performed at Khmelnitsky NPP in December 2004.
A course dealing with QA was performed at Khmelnitsky NPP in April 2005.
Hard OSA:

U1.04/99 “upgrading of electrical equipment of reactor control protection system and neutron flux monitoring equipment”: revision 2 of technical specification (TS) was sent by Khmelnitsky NPP to Iberdrola/Sogin and EC in May 2004. It took into account SNRCU comments from revision 1. A new revision 3 was issued in February 2005, taking into account JRC comments to revision 2. A meeting for discussing TS rev 3 was organised at JRC Petten in March 2005. JRC issued comments to TS rev 3 in April 2005. At the end of service contract U1.04/02, TS was still not approved yet.
U1.04/93A “treatment of backlog of radioactive waste water”: a kick-off meeting was held at Khmelnitsky NPP in April 2004 with selected Italian contractor Ansaldo. Then, Ansaldo proposed a number of technical modifications following Khmelnitsky NPP request. As no additional budget was available from EC for extension of the scope of supply, an agreement was reached between Ansaldo and Khmelnitsky NPP in order to share extra costs. Updated version of detailed technical specification (TS) was submitted to Khmelnitsky NPP by Ansaldo in January 2005. SNRCU (Ukrainian NRA) requested some clarification in March 2005. A new version of TS was issued in May 2005. Manufacturing was in progress when this U1.04/02 service contract ended.
U1.04/97C “retrofitting of reactor vessel SK187 surveillance system”: TS and tender dossier prepared by the previous OSA utility was analysed by Iberdrola/Sogin, and was found not suitable with an open tender, as scope of supply had to be reduced in order to fit with available budget. EC found a budget extension, so that scope of supply could be maintained. At the end of this service contract U1.04/02 in April 2005, call for tender was scheduled soon.
U1.04/97B “development and implementation of equipment and techniques of eddy current inspection of threaded holes of main primary equipment flanges”: contract had been signed by the supplier Babcock Mitsui in May 2003. As initial delivery schedule did not appear realistic from the beginning, its revision was agreed in January 2004. Specimens were sent to Khmelnitsky NPP in October 2004, but some of them were found not compliant with TS and standards requirements. The non-compliant ones were sent back to Ukrainian subcontractor NDEF, who was in charge of their manufacturing. Adapted and compliant specimens were sent to Babcock Mitsui in March 2005. As supplier claims additional expenses to be paid, the project is in a standstill, and will not be completed before 2006.
Further information
Further information on the project results could be sought from Energoatom and Khmelnitsky NPP.

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