On August 7-8, the 28th Council of Experts on Operating Experience of Ukrainian NPPs was held at the RNPP Training Center. The event was attended by designated representatives of JSC “NNEGC “Energoatom” and its branches: Rivne, Khmelnytskyi, South Ukraine, Zaporizhzhia NPPs, and SS "Scientific &Technical Center". Representatives of the State Scientific and Technical Center for Nuclear and Radiation Safety also took an active part in the discussions.

The meeting of the expert council on the effective use of operating plant experience was held online and offline. RNPP was represented by employees of the Personnel Development Department, In-house Control and Fire Safety Service, Reliability, Lifetime and Life Extension Service, and Training Center.

According to Oleksandr Oshurko, Deputy Head of the Training Center, the work of the Council of Experts on Operating Experience is aimed at the safety, reliability, and efficiency upgrade of nuclear power plant operation.

“The Council used to meet twice a year at different sites of Ukrainian NPPs, but the russian aggression has made adjustments. Meetings are now held more often in video format. This somewhat limits live communication, but does not prevent us from considering new ideas and formulating new goals to reduce the number of significant events at NPPs,” Oleksandr Oshurko noted.

In 2024, one of the main regulatory documents for NPPs, the General Safety Regulations for NPPs, was introduced, which obliges to start making several changes to industry documents to improve and effectively use operating experience. The meeting discussed issues related to the investigation of operational events, the development of a Unified information system for operating experience, the creation of a new system of indicators, and preparation for self-assessment of the compliance of the industry system of operating experience with the IAEA and WANO standards. These issues are urgent for the Company and are under the control of the State Nuclear Regulatory Inspectorate of Ukraine.

Particular attention was paid to the exchange of positive experiences and discussion of the application of best operating practices between the Company's NPPs by creating visualized reporting based on a Unified information system for operating experience that can be used by operating experience specialists both at NPPs and in the Company. This will allow for more optimal, efficient, and timely adoption of experience and informing NPP and Company management on the status of individual components of the operational experience process.

According to Hanna Treushchenko, representative of RNPP Reliability, Lifetime and Life Extension Service, during such meetings, experts discuss the most urgent issues on improving the system of using operating plant experience, unify the approach to reducing the number of events of all levels, and human errors: “During the Council of Experts, the issue of improving the monitoring of personnel performance was considered to combine the requirements of two documents, namely the Regulation on HR Management and the Regulation on the Application of Basic Principles and Tools for Error Prevention.”

The systematic analysis of operating experience allows identifying areas of concern that require proper attention and timely response and provides information to Rivne NPP operating units to maintain the appropriate level of operational safety.