Background

The aim of the On-Site Assistance at the ZNPP is to transfer an operational safety culture and to support the implementation of nuclear safety improvement projects.

In the framework of the "Tacis Nuclear Safety Programme", Energoatom and Zaporozhye NPP decided to improve the safety of the treatment of the radioactive waste generated at ZNPP.

The existing radioactive waste treatment facilities had the following deficiencies:

- Design shortcomings of the facilities, leading to additional contact of the personnel with radioactive substances
- Low level of automation
- Continual decrease of the treatment efficiency due to wear of the equipment

For this reason, new radwaste treatment facilities needed to be specified and procured. These new facilities, which replace or complement the existing equipment, comprise:

- Incinerator Facility, with associated equipment
- Supercompacting facility, with associated equipment
- Fragmentation facility, with associated equipment

The purpose of this contract was to prepare all the technical requirements and the documentation required prior to the launch of the tender procedure for the procurement of the above equipment.

Objectives

The wider objective of this project is to improve the operational safety of the radwaste treatment installations at Zaporozhye NPP. Accordingly, the objectives of the project are to:

- Improve the efficiency of the radwaste treatment processes
- Reduce, by incineration, the radwaste volumes accumulated in the storage facilities of ZNPP
- Minimize the amount of the radwaste resulting from the radwaste treatment processes
- Obtain end products compliant with the recommended criteria for the safe, temporary storage at the NPP site
- Ensure the fulfilment of the international safety requirements for the implementation of the ALARA principles in the course of the radwaste handling

Project Results

The results / achievements of the project were as follows:

- Preparation of Technical Requirements and their definition
- Development of the Technical Specifications and their endorsement by the appropriate authorities
- Development of project specific licensing plan
- Development of the co-financing plan (the overall project included a large scope of work under the responsibility of the End User, including the construction / refurbishment of associated buildings. The Tacis funded part had to be closely integrated into the overall programme of the End User)
- Development of the Tender Dossier and obtaining the necessary approval

In general the implementation of the PPP phase for the Radwaste Treatment Complex for Zaporozhye NPP was successfully performed for the benefit of the NPP.

The SCU and ZNPP expert team worked very effectively and demonstrated the necessary flexibility to adjust/adopt the approach and detailed work programme to the necessities revealed during the contract/project execution.

The EC project management contributed in an effective way to ensure the necessary decisions were taken with Energoatom and ZNPP for the benefit of the project results.

The Consultant, Energoatom and ZNPP involved the regulatory side (SNRCU supported by Riskaudit under Tacis financing) from the very start of the project. This contributed significantly to the timely achievement of project interim and final results. This can be used as an example of good practice for other large scale projects.

The contract also included the assistance of the Consultant in the execution of the tender procedure, including participation in tender evaluation. The tender procedure for the incinerator and supercompactor facilities was launched in September 2007, but the procedure failed due to formal and technical reasons. Some modifications were required to the tender technical documentation and the tender procedure was re-launched, but these activities were performed in the framework of a new contract for On-Site Assistance to Zaporozhe NPP (see U1.03/06). For information on the related equipment supply projects see:

- U1.03/06A1: Incineration Facility & Supercompacting Facility
- U1.03/06A3: Fragmentation Facility