The specialists from the Armenian NPP have studied the best practices of Smolensk Plant in the field of engineering support of operation. On 8-12 October, they visited the Plant as part of the World Association of Nuclear Operators (WANO) program to share experience.

“We turned to the WANO Moscow Centre with a request to organize an exchange visit to see how the operation engineering support at one of the Russian NPPs is functioning. They recommended us to visit Smolensk Plant, because, according to them, its engineering support was at a high level”, the Head of the Nuclear Safety and Reliability Department of the Armenian NPP Oleg Grigoryan noted. “After visiting Smolensk NPP, we were convinced that this is the truth. Smolensk nuclear workers have a lot of useful experience that we would like to implement at our plant.”

As the Deputy Chief Engineer of Smolensk NPP Oleg Kuzhaniyazov emphasized, the engineering support has a significant impact on the units’ safety, so the Plant pays a lot of attention to its improvement. “Operation engineering support is a very broad area. It includes test control, technical diagnostics, safety impact analysis of the equipment operation modes, elimination of deviations from limits and conditional normal operation, reactor core management, modernization, temporary modifications and many other aspects important for NPP operation”, he added. “We regularly have the WANO technical support missions to increase the level of engineering support for operation at our enterprise.”

The Armenian Plant representatives studied Smolensk NPP practices in managing temporary modifications, controlling configurations, monitoring the power units’ operation, applying probabilistic safety analysis, and managing changes in the organizational and functional management structure of engineering and technical support for operations. They visited the existing power unit: the turbine and reactor units, the main control unit (MCU), and also a full-scale MCU simulator, where the operational personnel undergo trainings.

According to Ashot Ordubekyan, the Deputy Chief Engineer for Operation of the Armenian NPP, Russia and Armenia are closely cooperating to develop the peaceful atom. “The Armenian NPP is the only nuclear power plant in the Caucasus. We operate the power unit No 2, which provides about 40% of the electric energy consumed in Armenia”, he says. “At the moment our Plant works with the support of Russia to extend the existing power unit’s life by 10 years - until 2026. Within the framework of this project we have large amount of work that among other things must include the system of the Plant’s engineering support. We saw a lot of things at Smolensk NPP, and I think that this information will be useful for forming the optimal engineering support group at our enterprise.”

In particular, among the positive practices, the foreign colleagues noted the automated information system ESOMS operating at Smolensk Plant, which allows managing all the necessary operational documentation in electronic form, as well as implementing the principles of managing temporary modifications. According to the WANO program participants at Smolensk NPP, it has become a mutual exchange of experience.

“The seminar was successful and it will undoubtedly benefit both plants and will ultimately contribute to the improvement of the safety at our energy facilities, which is our common task”, said Oleg Kuzhaniyazov, the Deputy Chief Engineer of Smolensk NPP.

In his turn, Oleg Grigoryan, the Head of the Nuclear Safety and Reliability Department of the Armenian NPP, stressed the need to maintain constant contact within the atomic community. “Nuclear power industry is developing, new methods and approaches are being introduced at NPPs. The more often such an experience exchange takes place, the better”, he said. “This will only benefit the industry in our countries.”