Administrator

NRSC delegation comprising of the heads of neutronics analysis and nuclear fuel, thermal-hydraulics analysis and risk assessment groups, visited Regulatory Authority of the Republic of Belarus for an experience and knowledge shearing meeting from 29 to 31 July 2015. The purpose of the visit was to hold a training course on deterministic and probabilistic methods of safety assessment for nuclear installations for relevant specialists of BNRRA, Technical support organization of BNRA (Sosny Institute) and operating organization as well as for technical staff of Belarusian NPP involved in the safety analysis. The training program covered in particular, essentials of safety assessment, legislative and normative bases, national and international best practices, computational codes applied, requirements to the computational codes as well as practical examples of safety assessment and independent review for regulatory authorities were discussed and illustrated. NRSC experts addressed questions and concerns of the training course participants as well as provided them with practical recommendations and suggestions on further enhancement and strengthening of the national capabilities in the area of safety assessment. It has been agreed to continue cooperation between BNRRA and ANRA/NRSC in the area of independent review and systematic competence building and other areas of mutual interest. [smartslider3 slider=11]

NRSC delegation participated in the workshop on development of computational tools for nuclear materials management held from 20 to 21 June 2015 in Almaty, Kazakhstan. NRSC presented and demonstrated its own development – NUCMAT software that allows performing the nuclear material accounting both at the state and at the facility/LOF levels as well as generating the accounting records (GL, PI) and reports (IRC, PIL, MBR). Questions, suggestions and concerns addressed to NRSC delegation followed the presentation of NUCMAT. Besides, on June 22, 2015 NRSC delegation visited the Nuclear Physics Institute in Almaty to discuss and establish scientific cooperation to investigate accident tolerant fuel properties. NRSC delegation visited the experimental facilities of the Nuclear Physics Institute, namely, research nuclear reactor, critical stand, material science laboratory and plasma coating laboratory and familiarized with the capabilities and experience of the staff in relation to investigation of fuel rod cladding materials. The decision has been made to develop joint proposals for common research projects. [smartslider3 slider=10]

The meeting was devoted to developing and applying PSA based methods for complementary assessment of NPPs’ robustness against the impact of extreme events. The problematic issues raised during the previous technical meeting in 2014 were thoroughly discussed. Mainly following type of issues were covered: uncertainty in the phenomena of severe accidents and hazards, combination of extreme hazards, multi-unit effects, screening methodology and others. For each of the issue the status and problematic aspects were discussed. During the discussions the experience and knowledge of experts as well as materials of 2014 technical meeting have been used. As a result of the meeting a list of recommendations with possible problem solutions and/or request for additional investigations was developed for IAEA. The draft report developed during the meeting was presented to IAEA nuclear safety assessment section and NSAT (nuclear safety action team) representatives. During the closing briefing it was decided to present developed report for international community review and later develop it up to the level of IAEA publication (TECDOC or Safety Report). [smartslider3 slider=9]