OPERATIONAL SAFETY ENHANCEMENT OF SOVIET-DESIGNED NUCLEAR REACTORS VIA DEVELOPMENT OF NUCLEAR POWER PLANT SIMULATORS AND TRANSFER OF RELATED TECHNOLOGY

摘要

As part of its work to improve the safety of Soviet-designed nuclear power plants (NPPs), the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) is developing and providing simulators for many of the Russian and Ukrainian plants. Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) and Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL) manage and provide technical oversight of the simulator projects for DOE. The work also includes a simulator technology transfer process to simulator design organizations in Russia and Ukraine. Training programs, installation of new simulators, and enhancements to existing simulators are viewed as providing a relatively fast and cost-effective technology transfer that will result in measurable improvement in the safety culture and operation of NPPs. A review of the simulator projects, project status, and accomplishments is provided in this paper.