The delegation of SEC NRS participated in the IX-th International Scientific and Technical Conference “Safety Assurance of NPP with VVER” (ISTC-2015)

The Conference (ISTC-2015) was held in the period of May 19-22, 2015 in ОКB “GIDROPRESS”. The Conference was attended by Russian and foreign specialists from design engineering organizations, machine-building plants, scientific and research institutes and nuclear power plants.

Within the Plenary session of the first day of the Conference, Alexander Khamaza, Director of SEC NRS, spoke out with a report on the topic: “Experience in Safety Review of Design Solutions of the State-of-the-Art VVER-Type NPPs”.

“Nuclear power plants just as any other complex technologies are subject to evolution. A regulatory body faces the necessity to respond to the challenges arising in this regard, namely: the necessity to protect the public interests through regulation of nuclear and radiation safety of evolving nuclear plants in conditions of updating visions on their safety”, - Alexander Khamaza noted.

The report discloses the experience of SEC NRS considered to be the organization of technical and scientific support to Rostechnadzor in the field of safety review regarding new designs of VVER-type nuclear power plants.

Lessons learnt from the review of new design solutions are presented by the example of AES-2006. The report arrives at a conclusion that in the course of the safety review the attention should be reasonably focused on those design solutions, which lack adequate referent plants. In this respect, the special attention should be paid to those new design solutions, which according to the existing evaluations (for instance those made on the basis of PSA) are of considerable significance to NPP safety in the whole (to the values of severe accident probability, probability of the utmost emergency release), to provision of integrity of physical barriers and protection measures in their regard.

The report demonstrates that elimination by a Licensee of deficiencies noted in the expert conclusions for new plant units leads to improvement of design solutions, to more thorough elaboration of safety cases, as well as to better understanding of issues related to provision of nuclear plants safety. While being an auxiliary result of safety review of new design solutions, recommendations on revision of the existing or development of new regulatory documents are of significant importance.

SEC NRS experts were involved in the work of the Conference’s sections:

• Mikhail Lankin made presentation on the topic: “Consideration of the Knowledge-Based Actions and the Rules-Based Actions in the Frames of Accident Management Guidelines Development” (Section 4: “Issues of Operation, Monitoring and Control, Diagnostics, Modernization and Lifetime Extension of NPPs under Operation”).
• Sergey Sinegribov addressed the theme: “Verification of the Serpent Software for Assessment of Nuclear Safety Status of Nuclear Facilities” (Section 1: “Development and Verification of Computer Codes for Safety Substantiation”).
• Pavel Borodkin gave several presentations: “Approaches on Accounting and Control of Fast Neutron Fluence on VVER-Type Reactors Vessels and the Testing Results of the Procedure on Fluence Calculated Determination”; “Calculation and Experimental Monitoring of Neutron Fields Characteristics in Respect to VVER-Type Vessels with Taking into Account the Regulatory Documentation Requirements” (Section 4: “Issues of Operation, Monitoring and Control, Diagnostics, Modernization and Lifetime Extension of NPPs under Operation”).

The SEC NRS topic related booth was functioning within the whole period of the Conference.

The specialists of the Centre presented as follows:

• information about SEC NRS considered as the technical and scientific support organization (TSO) for Rostechnadzor;
• concept for enhancement of the safety regulation framework and standardization in the field of nuclear energy use;
• “Nuclear and Radiation Safety” periodical;
• “RIS-M” information system.