An International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) team of experts said Russia’s Novovoronezh Nuclear Power Plant has improved safety in recent years by, for example, using innovative techniques to reduce its impact on the environment. The team also proposed further improvements such as completing work to bring the plant’s various quality arrangements into a single integrated management system.
The Operational Safety Review Team (OSART) today concluded a 19-day mission to assess operational safety at Unit 5 of the Novovoronezh NPP in the Russian Federation, one of the plant’s three operating reactors.
OSART missions aim to improve operational safety by objectively assessing safety performance using the IAEA’s Safety Standards and proposing recommendations for improvement where appropriate.
The Novovoronezh NPP’s first unit started operating in 1964, and since then four other units have operated at the site. Units 1 and 2 are being decommissioned, while Units 3, 4 and 5 are operating. Unit 5 is the first 1000 MW VVER (pressurized water) reactor to enter operation in Russia. Two additional units are under construction, the first of which will start operating in the next few months.
“We found that Novovoronezh Nuclear Power Plant has implemented many safety enhancements in recent years, and has plans for further improvements. The plant has a professional and committed workforce and good support from the corporate headquarters. It is clear that operational safety is a key priority at this NPP. We noted several good practices that could be adopted by other plants to improve safety, another important part of every OSART mission,” said Team Leader Peter Tarren. ?“We also identified some areas where further improvements would be beneficial.”
The 15-member OSART team comprised experts and observers from 13 countries and two IAEA staff members.
The review, which began on 9 November, covered the areas of leadership and management for safety; training and qualification; operations; maintenance; technical support; operating experience; radiation protection; chemistry as well as accident management.
The good practices identified by the OSART team that will be shared with the nuclear industry globally include:
- The plant uses advanced chemistry techniques to significantly enhance removal of radioactive elements from water discharged from the site.
- The plant uses advanced analysis of the primary coolant to estimate the likely age of any of fuel assembly in the core that develops a minor defect during power operation to enable swifter replacement of damaged fuel.
- The plant’s full scope simulator is able to model normal, abnormal and severe accident conditions, and has been developed in a way that improves training and communications for staff operating equipment on the site as well as from the main control room.
The mission made a number of proposals to improve operational safety at the plant, including:
- The plant’s quality, environment and health and safety requirements should be integrated into a single coherent management system.
- The plant’s ability to respond rapidly to changes in chemistry conditions should be improved, for example by removing the reliance on manual sampling and updating the automatic sampling system.
- A more rigorous and questioning approach to dose control practices should be adopted to reduce the overall radiation dose.
The team provided a draft of the report to the plant’s management. The plant management and the Russian safety authority will have an opportunity to make factual comments on the draft, which will be reviewed by the IAEA. The final report will be submitted to the Government of the Russian Federation in about three months.
Novovoronezh NPP management expressed a determination to address all the areas identified for improvement and requested the IAEA to schedule a follow-up mission in approximately 18 months’ time.
BACKGROUND: General information about OSART missions can be found on the IAEA Website. An OSART mission is designed as a review of programmes and activities essential to operational safety. It is not a regulatory inspection, nor is it a design review or a substitute for an exhaustive assessment of the plant’s overall safety status. This was the 186th mission of the OSART programme, which began in 1982. The Russian Federation aims to host an OSART mission every other year.