Project Background

Conformity Assessment (CA) in general is a management process assuring that products, quality management systems and personnel meet the established requirements.

According to the best world safety practice, operators of Nuclear Power Plants (NPPs) must be assured that any products (raw materials, equipment, etc.) used at the NPP will withstand all situations assumed by plant design. It has to be thus verified that each product to be used at the NPP conforms to established quality requirements. To ensure this, specific CA processes have to be established at the NPP operator.

The basic requirements on products to be used at NPPs are contained in specific regulations issued at the level of national regulatory bodies. The nuclear industry further develops norms and standards to satisfy the requirements of national regulations; the detailed technical documents for product designing, construction and operation are developed at the level of individual power plants.

The nuclear CA processes may include testing of product conformity at the manufacturer’s plant, adequate on-site testing, ageing monitoring, etc. In the Conformity Assessment system, the NPP operator must deploy competent staff and involve adequate testing laboratories. CA processes must be appropriately organized and performed.

The Conformity Assessment System for Products (CASP) to be used at Ukrainian NPPs has been transformed. The existing CASP of the Ukrainian Nuclear Operator - NNEGC “Energoatom” has been based on the principles established in former Soviet Union. The ongoing legislative transformation foresees gradual abolishment of the State certification for products to be used at NPPs and transfer of the responsibility for CA to the nuclear industry. The NNEGC “Energoatom” therefore has to perform the control of both design and manufacturing of the equipment by itself including development and performance of relevant CASP standards and procedures.

Project Aims

The project has been aimed at assistance to NNEGC “Energoatom" in establishing fundaments of a comprehensive CASP using the best international experience and practices. In particular, it was supposed to evaluate implementation of recommendations following from the previous TACIS Project on CASP (U2.03/97), review the existing CASP in Ukraine in view of best international practices and provide recommendations to the Beneficiary on CASP methodologies, tools and qualifications needed, develop basic CASP procedures and database, train the Beneficiary personnel in CASP and its applications and disseminate the project results over the Ukrainian nuclear industry. The pilot plant of the project has been Rovno NPP.

Project Results

The project has been implemented from July 20, 2009 to July 20, 2011. The Consultant was represented by the consortium of IT Slavutich (Ukraine), CA&R Engineering GmbH (Germany) and DSR GmbH (Germany). The subcontractor to the consortium was the T�V S�d (Germany).

According to the ToR, the project work had to be implemented in the following tasks:

• Review and adaptation of international methodologies
  - Review of the current CA Ukrainian and best European practices
  - Identification and description of the capabilities to be transferred
• Development of specific CASP documents and instruments
  - Creation of the CASP information database taking into account the existing databases (UDBR, suppliers)-
  - Development of specific CASP documents, dedicated to the reference NPP
• Transfer of training capabilities
  - Training of the target groups
  - Elaboration of recommendations regarding the NNEGC “Energoatom” training system within CASP
• Final communication actions and dissemination of results

Within the first task, the Consultant reviewed the status of implementation of recommendations of the U2.03/97 TACIS project (Support for Conformity Assessment Process of Nuclear Equipment), concluding that very few of them have been implemented at NNEGC Energoatom. Based on analysis of the current Ukrainian and best international practices in conformity assessment, he proposed a concept of conformity assessment system, identified eligible testing laboratories and defined 4 target groups for personnel training.

Within the second task, the Consultant developed a specific CASP database application that utilized data of Ukrainian National Reliability Database (UBDN) and Energoatom database of verified suppliers. Further, the Consultant developed 16 specific CASP procedures according to groups of equipment as defined in ToR.

Within the third task, the Consultant provided training of the 4 target groups at several sites and companies in Germany, Ukraine and at Energoatom headquarter office.

The target group 1 was trained at Biblis and Gundremmingen NPPs in Germany. This training was focused on the CASP at European nuclear power plants. The group of 19 participants involved personnel from all Ukrainian NPPs and headquarters of the NNEGC Energoatom and Regulatory Body involved in CA.

The target group 2 of 19 participants similar as the group 1 was trained at two companies in Germany – Caveron and KSB. This training activity was focused on tests (factory acceptance tests and on-site acceptance tests). The training of both groups took 1 week each and was delivered by the subcontractor, the T�V S�d.

The target group 3 training was delivered in three stages on various sites: at RNPP Training Centre, CC SSPA Impulse and on RNPP DOVK (Directorate on the Entry Control Organization) site. This training included practical and theoretical training and involved a mixed team of instructors. The duration of training was 15 working days and 23 specialists were trained in total.

The target group 4, consisting of 14 high- and middle-level managers of NNEGC “Energoatom” and NPP, was trained in SE NNEGC “Energoatom” Directorate.
In addition, the Consultant has provided also a specific training on the PCA database for the database administrators and users. Finally, the Consultant proposed a programme of further Energoatom personnel training in CASP within the existing Energoatom training system.

The project results have been disseminated at the final meeting held on 15 July 2011 at Beneficiary office in Kiev.

Conclusions

Formally, the project has been implemented in accordance with the ToR requirements and the major part of the work has been performed. However, the quality of the deliverables (technical documents, CA system analyses, recommendations and methodologies, training materials, etc.) was not satisfactory and the EC had to require improvements several times. The low quality of deliverables cast also certain doubts about adequacy of the related work. Moreover, the project was suspended for several months due to Consultant’s non-compliance with basic EC rules for project implementation for which the Consultant received penalties. The project deliverables have then been prepared and submitted under close supervision of the responsible EC services. Although the quality of deliverables was gradually enhanced to a basically acceptable level, not all EC requests for improvements to quality were fully satisfied. Considering all circumstances, however, the project outcomes were finally approved by the EC and the project was duly completed.

As the TACIS projects implemented in Ukraine so far have covered all applicable issues of the CASP and the Beneficiary expressed his full satisfaction with the project results, no further EC-funded project on the conformity assessment in nuclear industry will be implemented in Ukraine in the future.