The preliminary visit of the World Association of Nuclear Operators (WANO) experts to the Beloyarsk NPP, which took place on November 25-27, 2019, became the first step on the way to the corporate partnership verification, which is to be conducted at the Rosenergoatom Joint-Stock Company in 2020 by the international nuclear association.
The experts walked through the 4th power block with a unique BN-800 reactor, conducted interviews with the Beloyarsk NPP management – the director, his deputies, the chief engineer and his deputies. The team paid special attention to a number of corporate aspects, such as leadership, management, internal supervision and monitoring, independent corporate supervision, support and efficiency, human resources management, communication.
Bogdan Zronek (Czech Republic), a WANO expert, stressed: ‘We have identified that the Beloyarsk NPP is in good condition. The personnel knows their responsibilities and does quality work. The collaboration between the Rosenergoatom Joint-Stock Company and the Beloyarsk NPP is effective. There is a number of programs, including a leadership development initiative. I believe this is very important: working with people, speaking with them, being interested in their opinion to have strong insights and set priorities that further safe and reliable plant operation’.
Following the outcomes of the preliminary visits, the experts will come up with their recommendations to the Rosenergoatom Joint-Stock Company on which areas they should pay attention to during the upcoming corporate verification. The latter will be conducted in a more thorough way at the Company’s headquarters and a number of other nuclear power plants in Russia.
The WANO partnership verification plays an important role in fostering the safety of nuclear power plants. The Association promotes active exchange of operational experience to achieve the best possible safety and reliability standards with regard to operating NPPs all over the world. Under the auspices of the WANO, all nuclear operators communicate with each other and exchange information, make use of lessons learned and study their colleagues’ best practices. These verifications are also a strong motivation to promote the safety culture among the NPP staff and to advance the processes aimed at continuous NPP power blocks operational safety improvement.