U1.05/07A Completion of the National Maintenance and Management Training Center for NNEGC Energoatom Personnel at Zaporozhye NPP

In the framework of the TACIS 2007 Programme, the European Commission agreed with NAEK-Energoatom and Zaporozhe Nuclear Power Plant (ZNPP) on the improving the nuclear safety of Ukrainian NPP's by implementing the project of “Completion of the National Maintenance and Management Training Centre for SE NNEGC “Energoatom” Personnel at Zaporozhye NPP, Ukraine (U1.05/07A).
The key element of the Programme is the establishment of the National Training Centre for maintenance personnel, which will allow NPP personnel to have practical training in all areas of NPP maintenance.
Management training is another important component of the NPP training system. It is common knowledge that competency of managers effects not only the business activity of an organisation, but also its culture. Competency of junior level managers is a significant element for ensuring high standards of Safety Culture.

Enhance the safety of Ukrainian NPPs through further improvement of the training system for maintenance and management personnel of SE NNEGC Energoatom
The objective of the project is to establish a state-of-the-art national centre for training of SE NNEGC “Energoatom” maintenance and management personnel on the basis of Zaporozhye NPP Training Centre to ensure:

• Sustainable improvement in safety culture and improvement of the overall safety management capabilities of NPP personnel at all levels
• Sustainable and continuous improvement in the capability of SE NNEGC “Energoatom” high level, junior and middle level management.
• Sustainable and continuous improvement in maintenance activities with regard to NPP plant and equipment, through:
• improvement of the quality assessment system of the maintenance personnel training
• improvement in the quality of maintenance works;
• reduction of the period of exposure of NPP staff to ionising radiation, in accordance with the ALARA principle, due to training for complex maintenance operations in realistic simulated conditions prior to execution in radiation hazardous areas;
• promote the adaptation of maintenance tools following the needs emerging from the training feedback and the feedback from plant managers

The project U1.05/07 has been launched in 2009 and is divided into three parts.
U1.05/07A (Part A): includes review and study of best international practices in maintenance and management training, training needs analysis for maintenance and management personnel, development and delivery of training programmes and materials, development of technical specifications for technical training tools of general and special assignment, training of trainers and implementation of pilot training courses.
U1.05/07B (Part B): Supply of general assignment technical training tools for arrangement of areas for the pre-simulator training and specialized classrooms as specified in U1.05/07A (general assignment tools are standard equipment for pre-simulator training that may be ordered from catalogues, including: projectors, computers, office devices, furniture, standard tools, instruments, etc.)
U1.05/07C (Part C): Supply of special assignment technical training tools as specified in U1.05/07A (special assignment tools are full scope and local simulators of process equipment prepared for practical training which have to be made according to special requirements)
The present project summary covered the Part A - Completion of the National Maintenance and Management Training Center for NNEGC Energoatom Personnel at Zaporozhye NPP. The specific objectives of the project are:

• to review international best practice and experience gained at Nuclear Power Plants and Training Centres, related to the development and improvement of personnel training, training programmes, training sessions, technical training tools and training materials for maintenance and management personnel of NPPs;
• to identify the training needs for both maintenance personnel and management personnel of Nuclear Power Plants of NNEGC Energoatom, and to develop a schedule of training objectives, technical training tools, training programmes and training materials (documentation, multimedia training modules) required to meet the identified needs;
• to develop technical specifications for the identified technical training tools, training programmes and training materials for a selected number of training laboratories of the Training Centre;
• to train selected End User experts in the development of technical specifications and tender dossiers;
• to develop a selected number of the identified training programmes and training materials (documentation, multimedia training modules, computer based training courses);
• to ensure the introduction of feedback of operating and maintenance experience (damages, failures etc.) into maintenance and management training
• to ensure the involvement of maintenance personnel in the development and continuous improvement of training programmes and materials
• to provide training to the instructors of the Training Centre (Train the Trainer training courses)
• to conduct pilot courses of management and maintenance personnel
• to develop and provide methodologies for development of training programmes and materials
• to train selected End-user personnel in development of training programmes and materials

The project implementation was divided into 8 tasks:

Task 1 Project Management, technical guidance and reporting
Task 2 Review and adaption of international practices
Task 3 Training needs for maintenance personnel
Task 4 Training needs for management personnel
Task 5 Development and delivery of training programmes and materials
Task 6 Training for instructors and pilot courses
Task 7 Tendering and Contracting of Lots B and C (formerly identified as Lot 2 and Lot 3
respectively)
Task 8 Final Reporting

The project has elaborated two tender dossiers for procurement of technical means for training office equipment, industrial and office furniture and training mock-ups for maintenance workers training. Amongst these mock-ups are a reactor pressure vessel with upper block and control rod drivers and a refuelling machine. The mock-ups are suitable not only for training but also for testing of equipment and tools. In close cooperation with the End User experts, the Consultant has elaborated five training programs for maintenance workers training. From these programs nine training modules (themes) were selected to develop training materials and to conduct pilot training courses.
The nine pilot training courses were as follow:

“Maintenance, adjustment and hydraulic testing of electrical flat-body wedge gate valve”
“Control and power supply system for reactor control and protection system. Failure recovery, replacement of modules, blocks of reactor protection system equipment”
“Maintenance, adjustment and testing of driving stem MPS- 1000”
“Sealing of plug of moving block relative to the RCPS drive case”
“Ultrasonic inspection of welded joints. Identification of type of defects in root part of welds”
“Measurement of dielectric loss tangent and capacity of primary insulation of piece of electrical equipment”
“Sealing/ unsealing of RPV head sealing flanges (instrumentation nozzles for thermal control) on the upper block of reactor WWER-1000 (B-320)”
“Sealing/ unsealing of RPV head sealing flanges (instrumentation nozzles for power control) on the upper block of reactor WWER-1000 (B-320)”
“Removal/ installation of the RPV head (upper block)”
Training was supported by computer based training means (so called multimedia modules). Guided by the idea of on-the-job-training, pilot training sessions were prepared and conducted with End User’s trainers. For each individual training module, site walk downs, safety inspections and training dry runs were performed. Results and feedback on each pilot course were summarized in nine reports which provide recommendations for improvement of the training modules.
The Development Needs Analysis (DNA) delivered the respective instruments and tools for development of management training. The most significant of them are a role model for all managers at Energoatom and a competence model based on seven competencies and four degrees of their level of competence – strategic, master, advanced and basic. A tool for assessment of managers` efficiency was developed and presented during several workshops with senior and middle-level managers, which had included human resources, training, operational and financial departments of Energoatom. In combination with the results of the training needs analysis (TNA) a comprehensive and future oriented catalogue of training modules was developed.
Four training programs on general management themes were elaborated. In addition to the terms of reference the Consultant included the executive level of managers, what had required additional efforts to develop a suitable approach. Tools and methodology of the DNA and findings and conclusions of the TNA led to a training catalogue. From this catalogue ten training themes were selected for development of training materials, including e-learning, and conduct of pilot training. Finally 10 training modules for executive and middle-level managers were elaborated, including two training courses dedicated to safety culture for executives and middle-level managers.
For the training of senior level manager guest speakers were contracted. They represented a wide range of expertise. Amongst them are former executives and senior managers from ČEZ of Czech Republic, ENEL of Slovakia, AREVA headquarter and AREVA University, business trainers from recognized Ukrainian business schools, a former politician from Lithuania, and senior managers from a Ukrainian bank and Western European companies. This approach allowed Energoatom executives to network and to exchange opinion with successful personalities from private and governmental owned business.
In the area of maintenance related management training a separate TNA was performed and a document containing recommendations and contributions to the existing training programs for maintenance manager was delivered. Materials for six training modules, three of them dedicated to soft skills development and work with staff, and three of them dealing with special scientific and methodological knowledge about maintenance quality improvement and optimization were elaborated; six pilot training courses were successfully and with big attention of maintenance experts were conducted.
The training modules and courses were as follow:

Module «DM.M – Decision Making and Implementation Planning»
Module “AD.M – Assessment of Degradations of Plant Equipment and Systems and of Plant Conditions”
Module “BR.M. Pre-Job and Post-Job Briefings”
Module “MO.M – Maintenance and Optimization Strategies”,
Module “FM.M - Foreign Material Exclusion (FME)”
Module “LT.M Life Time Control and Management of NPP Components”
Module “Sa.M. Creates the safety environment”
Module “Sa.S. Creates the safety culture”
Module "Pl.M. Plans a process and promotes decisions”
Module “Pl.S. Plans and forms a strategy”
Module “Le.M. Manages teams”
Module “Co.M. Satisfies client’s needs”
Module “Co.S. Builds partnership with stakeholders”
Module “Ef.S. Efficient strategist”
Module “CM.M. Creates Conditions for Changes”
Module “CM.S. Create an Environment for Change”
All reports on pilot training for managers and maintenance workers do include recommendations about development and training of trainers. The desired by Energoatom’s safety culture behaviour of the employees is mainly driven by the behaviour of trainers. Trainers are the key persons in development of soft skills and safety culture. A strong recommendation was given to Energoatom to form the necessary critical amount of advanced trainers, recognizing these facts.
Training for trainers and training experts was conducted within a cycle of six training modules and a finalizing assessment session of trainees – future training experts and trainers - was held. Finally the results of the instructor training resulted in the following:
• 0 training program owner,
• 2 training module owners for middle level manager training,
• 6 training theme owners,
• 3 business case owners (developers of cases and exercises).
This is less than originally was expected. However the Consultant believes that the Academy of Managers of the Nuclear Industry, which was established in September 2014, will continue the process of sustainable development of the training and management system and contribute to the safety and prosperity of the country.
Beside a set of quality procedures describing the systematic approach to training and additional to the terms of reference, 'Recommendations on enhancing the concept for the national managers training centre of NNEGC Energoatom' were developed.

General Achievements

Basic achievements of the project are the detailed methodologies of executing the DNA and the TNA. The role model, a classification system for managers against business processes they are involved in and their level of required competency, has the potential of solving several interconnected issues: definition of competencies necessary for the role (job position) in the business process, manager assessment, allocation of critical posts, managing incentives, training and developing needs, etc.
The competence model describes the type and the levels of competencies necessary for the posts. It defines behaviour, knowledge, skills and values of managers necessary for current and future tasks. The current model describes 7 competencies and 4 levels of competency. For all roles (job positions) a set of requirement ensuring required quality and efficiency in job performance was developed.
Based on the models above, a development matrix was defined. The matrix is the basis for individual assessment of managers. The respective tool – the Individual Development Plan for Managers - was drafted and documented. The combination of all of these tools allows for individual development of manager considering their intention (motivation) and the need of the company.
Energoatom had approved in 2009 a Concept for the National Managers Training Centre of SE NNEGC Energoatom. Based on the DNA the Consultant provided recommendations on this document providing herewith the basis for the formation of the Academy of Managers suggested in December 2011.
The development of training programs and training materials for maintenance workers by the Consultant was influenced by the work and the report on DNA. Some of the results such as the concept of the competencies and the behaviour indicators were implemented into the respective training programs. Both training programs and training materials for maintenance workers considered integrated soft skills and team training.
On the other hand, work on traing for maintenance workers helped to define some of the training objectives for training of maintenance managers and to support building the bridge between managers and workers within one corporate culture
The soft skills and behaviour of workers are triggered by the example demonstrated by managers. Walk-the-talk principle and transparency of everybody’s obligations and rights are mandatory to be lived. This simple and proven fact was heavily discussed during the elaboration of training programs for maintenance workers, as some TC trainers did not understand or underestimated the proposal to integrate the soft skills training into the maintenance training. The understanding, that the key to safety improvement in maintenance is the integrated training of technology (`drills`) and soft skills was discussed during the whole process of developing training programs for workers leading to substantial delays with their completion. Big efforts are still necessary to form and to foster the ambitious changes in safety culture.