IAEA safety mission sees strengthened operational safety at Russian Leningrad NPP

Leningrad region, May 31 - Neftegaz.RU. An International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) team of experts said the operator of Leningrad Nuclear Power Plant has strengthened operational safety in response to the findings of an IAEA review in 2017. The team also encouraged the operator to pursue continuous improvement.

The Operational Safety Review Team (OSART) concluded a 5-day follow-up mission to Unit 4 of Leningrad NPP. The 3-member team comprised 1 expert from South Africa and 2 officials from the IAEA.

“Notable efforts and actions were taken to address the findings of the 2017 mission, indicating a strong commitment to continuously improving safety by the plant management,” said team leader Fuming Jiang, a Senior Nuclear Safety Officer at the IAEA. “We encourage the plant management to continue this momentum to take the performance to the next level.”

The team observed improvements in the following areas in response to findings from the 2017 mission: сontrol of movable items in some sensitive areas in the plant; improvement in the use of human performance tools; improvement of the plant chemistry surveillance and control programme.

“We have systematically applied the OSART methodology since 2014 and, together with the insights and advice provided by the 2017 mission, it has proven to be very beneficial to our efforts to continuously strengthenoperational safety performance,” said Vladimir Pereguda, Station Director of Leningrad NPP.

Connected to the grid in 1981, Unit 4 is one of 4 light water-cooled graphite-moderated reactors (RBMK-1000) located at the site 100 km west of St Petersburg. The plant operator is Rosenergoatom.