The Main Results of Ageing Management State Analysis of Ukrainian NPPs

Abstract

The issues of ageing management (AM) are regarded as ones of the most important factors for safety ensurance of nuclear installations at the design and longterm operation stages. For Ukrainian NPPs units, the design lifetime (30 years) has either expired, or is at the ending stage. The Energy Strategy of Ukraine until 2035 “Safety, Energy Efficiency, Competitiveness” underlines the Long Term Operation (LTO) based on periodic safety review as one of the high priority areas of nuclear energy development. Thus, the analysis of ageing management issue is paid respective attention in Ukraine and abroad. Ageing management became a subject of first thematic peer review organized by European Commission based on Western European Nuclear Regulatory Authorities (WENRA) proposal. European Union countries took place in this peer review and Ukraine has joined this process as well. Based on the results of topical peer review each country has developed a National report on ageing management. This article is dedicated to main analysis results of ageing management issues at Ukrainian NPPs covering the components such as reactor vessel, containment, electric cables and embedded piping.Based on the results of independent verifications carried out by Western experts in the framework of international projects, the level of Ukrainian existing regulatory framework is in compliance with the level of the IAEA and WENRA documents and safety recommendations in the part of ageing management requirements. In addition, ageing management has a system basis. The areas of further activities on improvement of the regulatory framework taking into account the best practices and and experience, development of regulatory documents for research nuclear reactors, improvement of activities on assessment of the technical state and lifetime extension of reactor vessel along with the extension of the representative data based on the results of surveillanve specimens testing, conducting international peer reviews with the participation of the IAEA SALTO mission have been defined.