Scientific and Technical Council

Scheduled meeting of Scientific and Technical Council of SEC NRS was held

The issues considered

1. Regulatory provision of safety of engineering structures in respect to buildings and building structures of nuclear facilities.
2. Individual plan of postgraduate student Alexander Vasilishin.

On the first issue

Having heard and discussed the presentation made by Sergey S. Nefedov, Head of Building Structure Reliability Division, and after speaking in debates,

STC has noted that

the engineering structures of buildings and building structures of nuclear facilities fall within the requirements of regulations and rules adopted in the sphere of atomic energy use along with the requirements provided by general engineering regulatory documentation.

Regulatory documentation applied in the field of general engineering includes documentation of different types and levels, covering the following: set of rules (construction rules and regulations - SNiP) and standards as well as regulations provided by self-regulated organizations in the field of construction. Federal law No. 190-FZ “Town-planning Code of the Russian Federation” and Federal law No. 384-FZ “Technical Regulation on Safety of Buildings and Building Structures” are the framework for the development of regulatory documentation in the field of general engineering.

In correspondence with the Federal law No. 384-FZ (part 1 of Article 6), the list of national standards and set of rules is being introduced (parts of such standards and set of rules), and in the result of application of which on a mandatory basis the compliance with requirements of the mentioned Federal law is assured. Regulatory documentation included into this List are considered as obligatory for application in the course of construction, including construction of a nuclear facility. The effective revision of the mentioned list was approved by the Resolution of the Government of the Russian Federation No. 1521 (dated from December 26, 2016). This List includes two national standards and 74 sets of rules. Other regulatory documents concerned with the construction are considered as documents for voluntary application. The special place is taken by regulatory documents of self-regulated organizations in the field of construction considered as obligatory for planning and surveying organizations as well as for construction organizations, which are the members of these self-regulated organizations.

Despite the availability of a large spectrum of documents prepared in-detail, general engineering regulatory documentation does not cover all objectives of regulation in the course of design, construction and operation of building structures of nuclear facilities. This is due to distinguishing characteristics of engineering structures of a nuclear facility.

Distinguishing characteristics of engineering structures related with nuclear facilities if compared with engineering structures applied in general engineering practice, are as follows:

• specific functions (biological protection, localizing of accidents’ products, separation of the functional areas of a nuclear facility),
• specific loads and impacts (radiological impacts, accidental influences, extreme external impacts),
• higher requirements regarding reliability.

The mentioned distinguishing characteristics are related with the specifics of a nuclear facility considered as a source of ionizing radiation. Accounting of the characteristics in question in respect to building structures of a nuclear facility requires the development of special-purpose regulatory documents such as federal regulations and rules in the sphere of the use of atomic energy.

The most pressing task is regulation of distinguishing characteristics of engineering structures related with nuclear power plants.

Recently there are no regulatory documentation of Rostechnadzor to establish requirements to engineering structures of nuclear power plants from the point of view of nuclear and radiation safety ensuring. In that connection and following the coordination with the 5th Department of Rostechnadzor, it is decided to complete the Plan on regulatory documentation development with the draft of federal regulations and rules “Requirements to Engineering Structures of Buildings and Building Structures of Nuclear Power Plants”.

Nowadays PiN AE-5.6. “Standards for Structural Design of Nuclear Power Plants with Different Types of Reactors” are used as the source for requirements to the engineering structures of nuclear power plants in the course of safety review preparation. This document was developed by The Ministry of Atomic Energy (Minatomenergo of the USSR) in 1986. At the present moment this document is out-of-date.

The List P-01-01-13 includes regulatory document “Designing Standards for Reinforced Structures of Safety Localizing Systems of Nuclear Power Plants” (PNAE G-10-007-89). This regulatory document establishes specific requirements to designing of engineering structures of containment of localizing safety systems of nuclear power plants. This document includes several important provisions to regulate nuclear and radiation safety; but, unfortunately, this document is out-of-date too. It was approved before introduction of modern rules for arrangement of localizing safety systems of nuclear power plants NP-010-98, “Rules of Design and Operation of NPP Confinement Safety Systems”; PNAE G-10-007-89 does not reflect several provisions provided by the federal regulations and rules. It does not reflect basic solutions concerned with modern construction of localizing safety systems containment in the form double-wall vessels.

The purpose of drafting of the federal regulations and rules “Requirements to Engineering Structures of Buildings and Building Structures of Nuclear Power Plants” is to take into consideration the modern requirements to regulatory framework on nuclear and radiation safety ensuring along with present-day advancements in science and technology and specifics of existent layout arrangements and construction solutions regarding the engineering structures of buildings and building structures of nuclear power plants.

The second draft revision of the federal regulations and rules “Requirements to Engineering Structures of Buildings and Building Structures of Nuclear Power Plants” is prepared.

In the correspondence with its Technical Specification, this draft version of the federal regulations and rules includes requirements to engineering structures of a nuclear power plant aiming to ensure nuclear and radiation safety of a nuclear power plant covering not only the stage of designing, but other stages of the life-cycle of a nuclear power plant, in particular:

• general requirements to engineering structures of a nuclear power plant;
• requirements to classification and categorization;
• requirements to building materials and products;
• requirements to layout arrangements and designing solutions in respect to buildings and building structures which are important to a nuclear power plant safety ensuring;
• requirements to demonstration of strength, stability and leaktightness in respect to the essential building structures of a nuclear power plant;
• requirements to engineering structures at stages on construction and operation of a nuclear power plant.

The requirements provided by the Federal laws of the Russian Federation, general engineering regulatory documentation as well as regulations and rules adopted in the sphere of the use of atomic energy applicable to engineering structures of a nuclear power plant were taken into consideration in the course of this draft federal regulations and rules development.

In addition to this, the following was taken into consideration in the course of this draft federal regulations and rules development:

• good experience gained from the effective regulatory documentation application;
• drafts of designing standards in respect to engineering structures of a nuclear power plant, which were developed by “Atomenergoproekt”, JSC, under the framework of VVER-TOI project;
• experience gained from nuclear power plants’ safety review.

Following the purpose to harmonize draft regulations and rules with regulatory framework provided by international organizations in the sphere of the use of atomic energy, the following was taken into consideration:

• the IAEA standards provisions;
• European requirements to light-water reactors (EUR).

STC has decided to

1. take into account the information about the development of draft revision of the federal regulations and rules “Requirements to Engineering Structures of Buildings and Building Structures of Nuclear Power Plants”.
2. To consider the development of the federal regulations and rules “Requirements to Engineering Structures of Buildings and Building Structures of Nuclear Power Plants” as the most pressing objective of nuclear power plants safety regulation.
3. To recommend and to approve the title of the document (the federal regulations and rules level, under development) as “Requirements to Engineering Structures of Buildings and Building Structures of Nuclear Power Plants” .

On the second issue

Having heard the presentation made by postgraduate student Alexander L. Vasilishin, his Scientific tutor Mr. Sergey V. Tsvetkov (Ph.D. in Engineering Sciences) and after speaking in debates),

STC has noted that

Postgraduate student of the year 2015 has presented the Individual Plan for study during the year 2016. The Individual Plan included training and research work on dissertation topic.

In respect to the second issue, STC has decided that

1. the Individual Plan of postgraduate student is recommended for approval.
2. Scientific tutor Mr. Sergey V. Tsvetkov , Ph.D, is recommended to examine in detail the following aspects with Alexander Vasilishin:
   • academic novelty of the dissertation work;
   • planned scientific activity.

STC Chairman: Аlexander Khamaza;
Scientific Secretary: Valery Plekhanov.